De Pere Board of Health names Pamela Gantz vice chair, approves CART agreement and updates policies

The De Pere Board of Health appointed Pamela Gantz as vice chair and approved several administrative items at its May 11 meeting, including a formal agreement with the Village of Howard for Citizen Animal Response Team services and the department's 2026 policies and procedures.

Board members opened the meeting with routine roll call and recognitions before moving to appointments and action items. The board accepted the minutes of its Feb. 9 meeting by voice vote. During nominations for vice chair, multiple members put forward Pamela Gantz; the board approved her appointment by voice vote.

The board then considered a formal agreement with the Village of Howard to codify long-standing use of the CART team. Sarah, a health department staff member who presented the item for Director Crystal, said the CART team would be called for domestic-animal situations such as sick animals, feral-cat complaints and dog-on-dog attacks, noting, "They just really wanted to formalize the relationship' the agreement that we have, that PD has with them and that health has with them." Health and police have used CART for years, she said, and legal staff have reviewed the draft. The board moved, seconded and approved the agreement by voice vote. Sarah said the agreement will likely be placed on the next City Council agenda once CART returns its review.

The board also approved the health department's annual review of policies and procedures for 2026. Sarah told the board three policies were newly added this year: a consolidated communications policy (covering six communications-related items), a milk depot policy to govern that service, and a developmental-screenings policy and procedure to ensure continuity of services if staff are unavailable. A motion to approve the policies was made, seconded and passed by voice vote.

All formal approvals at the meeting were taken by voice vote; no roll-call tallies were recorded in the meeting transcript. The board recorded that the 2025 annual report had been approved earlier in the meeting and that staff would submit it to the state as required under Wisconsin statute and DHS administrative code.

Next steps: Sarah said she will forward the CART agreement to Council once the external partner finishes its review, and the policies and annual report will be filed or submitted per statutory requirements.