The Los Alamos County Health Council approved minutes from its Dec. 5 regular meeting and the Dec. 6 meeting preparing the Comprehensive Health Plan by unanimous voice approval at its Jan. 1 meeting. Chair Lisa Hampton said the approvals were consistent with standard procedure even though no formal mover/second was recorded in the transcript.

Staff presented a county-required work-plan draft that documents top activities and accomplishments from 2024 and sets the council's 2025 priorities. Jessica Strong summarized 2024 highlights the council asked to appear in the plan: finalizing the Comprehensive Health Plan; completing a community health survey; holding trainings and presentations; Narcan distribution and opioid-overdose prevention work; and outreach at community events including vaccine clinics and summer concerts. "We pulled together about 15 members of the community" for a Winter Workshop to begin regional collaboration on homelessness and outreach, Strong said.

Council members emphasized the need to capture accomplishments and outreach in the work plan while acknowledging the difficulty of measuring some engagement metrics. "We can't really track the number of people that take a flyer," one member noted; staff said administrative client counts exist for Social Services work but are harder to tie to tabling and public-outreach outcomes.

Recruitment and staffing were prominent concerns. Members urged active recruitment to fill up to 15 seats on the council and noted Social Services will need additional staff or FTEs to implement CHP recommendations. The work plan will reflect these priorities and identify deliverables required by the Department of Health and the Alliance of Health Councils. Staff said the draft will be edited to include outreach venues (concerts, farmers market, library) and a media-outreach plan that includes monthly articles authored by council members.

Scheduling and procedural matters: The council discussed changing its meeting time to accommodate working members and proposed polling members before deciding. Members also debated forming a working group versus a formal subcommittee to advance the proposed facility concept, with staff advising that subcommittees must follow county public-notice rules and that working groups may limit the number of council members who can sit on them. The council asked staff to finalize the edited work plan and submit it to the county manager's office by the end of the month, then return in February with recommendations on committee structure and meeting time.

What comes next: Staff will correct wording in the draft work plan, add outreach and media accomplishments, and include the CHP action items and DOH deliverables. The council will pursue member recruitment and revisit the facility/working-group question and meeting time at the next meeting.