The Gary City finance committee considered revisions to the Gary Health Department’s 2025 budgets that would reallocate funds to purchase two trucks for health inspectors and remove a community health worker position from the local health maintenance budget, Health Department staff said at the May meeting.

The change is part of a revised local health maintenance budget and an amended partner services grant budget (an annual sexually transmitted infection program), an ordinance listed on the committee agenda said. Health Department presenter Collins Ellis told the committee the immunization budget had been eliminated in March and that the community health worker’s salary had previously come from that line.

Ellis described how the department is redistributing duties after the position was removed. "Well, she was when we have health fairs, she would be going out to the community and be able to provide the health fairs, setting up tables, educating," Ellis said. She added that medical assistants will absorb some outreach and setup tasks previously done by the community health worker.

Ellis told the committee the department plans to shift about $14,000 from contractual maintenance to machinery and equipment to increase that line from $76,000 to $90,000 to buy two trucks. "We have 4 health inspectors, but only 2 trucks. 2 more trucks. 2 more trucks," Ellis said when explaining the vehicle request. She said Vehicle Maintenance told her the vehicles are 2025 model 4x4s and that she would provide make and model details to the committee by email.

Committee members asked about hiring and layoffs after earlier staff reductions. Ellis said several positions that were laid off have not returned and that some available positions were not filled because applicants did not apply for them or chose not to stay. On hiring processes, Ellis told the committee applications go to Human Resources and that department controls referral of applicants to hiring managers.

On the partner services budget, Ellis said the state combined two separate budgets — partner services and linkage-to-care — into a single partner services budget. As a result, she said, the disease intervention specialist 3 position that had been on the linkage-to-care budget now appears on the combined partner services budget. She also said office supplies, travel and education, and property insurance line items increased because staff are out in the community for services and health fairs.

No formal vote was recorded during the meeting on the proposed line-item changes. Council members asked Ellis to revise the budget lines and return a corrected version; Ellis agreed to deliver the updated worksheet the next day and to email vehicle details. The ordinance on the committee agenda was listed as CPO 2025 36, "an ordinance approving the 2025–26 partner service grant budget and revisions to the 2025 local health maintenance budget for the City of Gary Health Department," sponsored on the agenda by Mayor Eddie D. Milton, City Controller M. Salida Green and the Gary Health Department.

Meeting records show the immunization budget had been eliminated earlier in March; Ellis said the community health worker position had been funded from that eliminated immunization budget and that the person is no longer employed by the department. Committee members pressed for clarification on which duties would be reassigned and how hiring and Human Resources referrals were handled; Ellis provided the committee’s requested follow-up: revised budget lines and truck specifications to be supplied to the committee staff.

Next steps: the Health Department will return a revised budget with the machinery-and-equipment and contractual-maintenance adjustments and will provide vehicle make/model details. The committee did not take final action on the ordinance at the meeting.