Peoria County committee delegates food-safety fee-setting to Board of Health for three years

The Peoria County Health Committee voted unanimously to approve an amended Chapter 10 food-safety ordinance that delegates responsibility for setting fees to the Board of Health for a three-year period.

Member Blair proposed the amendment to add "for a period of 3 years provided the board of health conducts a third party fee study when required by statute," a change she said preserves the county board's ability to revisit fee-setting later. "We are adding for a period of 3 years provided the board of health conducts a third party fee study when required by statute," Member Blair said.

Monica, a health department staff member, told the committee the Board of Health reviewed the language at its April 20 meeting and recommended the changes. She framed the ordinance edits as clarifications to definitions, distinctions between commissaries and shared kitchens, and updates to renewal and licensing procedures intended to support food security and operational clarity.

Committee members asked whether third-party fee studies would be synchronized with the county-wide fee study to reduce costs; staff responded that county financial policy suggests a two-year cadence for fees and that practice has varied. "The board's policies say that fees should be looked at on a two-year basis," a county staff member explained, and staff said finance could help coordinate any joint study.

After voting on the amendment and then on the resolution as amended, the chair announced that the measure had passed unanimously. The committee did not record individual roll-call votes in the transcript; the chair gave the final result as unanimous approval.

The action now stands as a three-year delegation of fee-setting authority to the Board of Health, with the committee signaling it expects the board to follow statutory requirements for third-party studies where those apply.