Decision on tattoo parlors is delayed

Dozens of tattoo artists showed up loaded for bear at the El Paso County Board of Health meeting on Wednesday.

But the colorful crowd was disarmed when the board, faced with axing inspections of body art businesses because of budget cuts, agreed with almost everything they had to say.

Yes, it's bad public health policy. Yes, it's just asking for an outbreak of hepatitis. Yes, it will hurt the tattoo business if they lose credibility.

"It is not the choice of this board to suspend these regulations," said board Vice President Howard Brooks. "We don't want to do this. But we live in a county that is broke."

Yet instead of simply eliminating the regulations, the board decided to hold off on a decision for 60 days as it works with industry professionals to come up with an alternate solution.

Perhaps the industry can fund its own inspections. Perhaps a private contractor could be used.

Together they will explore what is legal, feasible and affordable.

The Health Department would save nearly $30,000 a year by cutting body art inspections, as it scrambles for money for the recent $507,000 budget cut imposed by the county.

With that cut, the county spends $5.35 for each citizen on public health, about onefourth the per-capita spending in cities such as Denver and Boulder, and about half the per-capita spending in Pueblo.

Board of Health members said they hope a proposed 1 percent county sales tax on the November ballot would help fund public health.

The resource crunch led Board of Health members to call their first joint meeting in several years with the El Paso County Board of County Commissioners on Wednesday, a few hours before the Board of Health faced the public to explain its proposals to cut inspections.

Much like the tattoo artists, the Board of Health members came in ready to fire but left with a new challenge: Find ways to get the job done with the money you've got.

"People assume that the restaurants they eat at are safe, that the tattoo parlors they go to have clean needles. These assumptions can't be made," Brooks said to commissioners. "We're not getting the job done and we're not meeting the law. Should we have a bake sale? Should we start selling used cars?"

Brooks said the health department is failing in its "moral responsibility" to protect citizens and save lives.

Kandi Buckland, acting director of the Department of Health and Environment, said food-related illnesses are up 30 percent this year over last, as restaurant inspectors fall further behind.

She reported to the boards that the Health Department receives $2.74 million in annual funding, spends $4.2 million on services (while quickly burning through reserve funds, leaving the community without funding to react in the face of a major health scare by 2009), and estimates the department needs $14.5 million to do its job effectively.

County commissioners seemed unimpressed.

"I'm not persuaded that this level of funding is required," said Commissioner Wayne Williams. "The easy answer is just to say, ‘Give us more money,' rather than coming up with innovative solutions."

Williams and others suggested they explore outsourcing costly services such as restaurant inspections to private contractors and eliminating duplication between branches of county government. The boards agreed on a joint effort to lobby to change state law to allow them to charge for the indirect costs of services as well as the direct costs, which would raise fees for users instead of all taxpayers.

"The reality today is we're not meeting the needs," Commissioner Amy Lathen said, "and we need to go forward thinking the revenue stream will not change."

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0226 or bill.reed@gazette.com