Walla Walla County commissioners ask health advisory board for clearer data and priorities on housing, care access and aging
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Summary
At a March 3 workshop, the Community Health Advisory Board outlined its role and recent work; commissioners said they want CHAB to deliver targeted, quarterly data tied to the Community Health Improvement Plan and to flag specific issues where commissioners can act. The board later entered closed session on collective bargaining.
Maeve McClellan, chair of the Community Health Advisory Board, told the Walla Walla County Board of Commissioners on March 3 that the meeting was intended as a “level-setting meeting, no action items,” to clarify how the advisory board and the county’s board of health should work together.
The advisory board chair outlined CHAB’s functions — policy advice, resource stewardship, partner engagement, continuous improvement and oversight — and described recent work on behavioral-health coordination, transportation to specialty care, vaccine access and opioid-settlement funding. “We wanted to kind of take a second look at how we're providing updates to you, how we can align with what you all see as the needs in the County and make the best use of the expertise that we have on the board,” McClellan said.
Why it matters: Commissioners serve as the county’s official board of health and rely on CHAB to bring community perspective, specialized expertise and actionable data that can guide budget, ordinances and policy. Commissioners asked CHAB to move beyond descriptive updates and provide focused, trackable information linked to the county’s Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP).
Commissioners’ priorities and requests
Commissioner Clayton and other commissioners said they had seen CHAB shift from a heavy behavioral-health focus toward a broader agenda and praised the board’s stabilization. At the same time, they pressed for clearer, decision-relevant items. “We need data,” Commissioner Kimball said, arguing that staff and CHAB should bring measurable findings — and suggested quarterly rather than monthly data that show progress or stall points.
Commissioner Clayton said CHAB had at times been underutilized and asked for “a clear defined plan for engagement between this org and the community health advisory board.” Commissioners asked CHAB to identify where they could provide advocacy (for example, seeking state funding) or give direction on local policy or budget priorities.
CHAB membership, gaps and local needs
McClellan described CHAB’s membership goal (9–21 appointed members representing clinical, public-health, business and community perspectives), named several health-system and clinical representatives and noted one open seat the advisory board hopes to fill with a “consumer” or community member. She flagged one gap in veterinary public-health expertise for the county’s agricultural context and encouraged the board to bring in subject-matter experts as needed.
Amy from the county health department summarized county-level indicators, saying Walla Walla County has a higher poverty rate and an older population than the state average — facts CHAB members tied to the county’s top needs: housing affordability and rental burden, access to health care (including specialty and behavioral health), substance-use prevalence and treatment access, and barriers such as transportation and broadband.
How CHAB can be used
Nancy, the county health director, said CHAB can function as “local eyes and ears” to interpret state guidance and advise how it applies in Walla Walla. She described CHAB as a forum that can host community input or run focused forums when the commissioners consider a policy that would benefit from public engagement. Commissioners agreed a liaison should help route potential topics to CHAB for vetting and asked staff to propose a process for triage and follow-up.
Formal actions and procedural notes
The board approved the meeting agenda by voice vote (motion passed 3–0) at the start of the session. After the CHAB workshop the board recessed briefly, then entered a closed session for collective bargaining negotiations pursuant to the statute cited in open session; the board returned to open session with no public details disclosed and adjourned (motion passed 3–0).
What’s next
Commissioners asked CHAB and health-department staff to provide more targeted, trackable updates tied to CHIP priorities (quarterly suggested), to recommend one or two priority projects for commissioner action, and to fill the current consumer seat on CHAB. The board scheduled no further CHAB action at this meeting.
(Reporting from the March 3, 2026 Walla Walla County Board of Commissioners meeting.)