Clark County public health director details services, funding and staffing; council presses on medical examiner fees and opioid response

Dr. Alan Melnick, Clark County public health director and health officer, gave the County Council a brief overview of the health department’s organization, programs and funding during a council work session.

Melnick said the department has about 156 full‑time equivalent (FTE) staff across 36 program areas and a public health fund budget “about $23,000,000 a year.” He described four divisions — community health (which includes medical examiner functions in Clark County’s structure), investigation and response, administrative services, and environmental public health — and said the department provides both mandated services required by state law and additional foundational public health services funded in part by the state’s FPHS (foundational public health services) program.

The overview highlighted which services are mandated and which are funded through FPHS or other sources. “There’s overlap between foundational public health services and mandated services,” Melnick said, adding that mandated examples include food safety, on‑site septic permitting and communicable disease control. He noted that state FPHS funding has increased in recent years but does not…