Palazzolo indicted:
The former executive director of the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District has been indicted by a Champaign County grand jury on seven felony counts stemming from his behavior while in office in 2006 and 2007.
State's Attorney Julia Rietz was attending a conference Friday and could not be reached for comment, but Champaign police detective Pat Kelly, who has investigated Vito Palazzolo for more than two years, said Rietz planned to make a statement Monday about the charges against Palazzolo, 53, who was fired in August 2007.
Ugh.
There are a number of frustrating things about this episode. The careers of several good CUPHD employees were ruined during Palazzolo's tenure because the Board would not listen when employees started complaining about Palazzolo. Palazzolo forced out the FBI agent's wife who was the business manager and brought some of his shenanigans to the Board's attention. Palazzolo either fired or forced out a number of other long-term employees and their appeals to the Board met with deaf ears. They hired this guy after he had been fired from his last job, a fact they could have found out with a simple google check. And then they kept him on the payroll, on "administrative leave" for four months after they were forced to pay attention to what was going on. One has to wonder whether the Board was simply careless, it being public funds and not their own they were wasting after all, whether Palazzolo had something on them, or was it just ordinary stupidity.
This topic may just bring us full circle back to the discussion of community boards and how board members are chosen. The C-U Public Health Board has 3 members. I assume a quorum is 2. Then 2 individuals can make decisions concerning this health district. Not one member of the present board has a public health or health background. Here is the url to read about the board members www.c-uphd.org/board-of-health.html
Pattsi Petrie
Always a problem
HO HUM..another overpaid public official misusing tax funds......not exactly news...
Patsi,
You obviously have no clue about the makeup of the CUPHD board. This board makeup is defined by state statute and includes the County Board Chair, Cunningham Township Supervisor and City of Champaign Township Supervisor. If you are going to try and be a county board member, you might indulge yourself in some homework before commenting.
To Anonymous @ 8:41 P--I am very well acquainted with the state statue that defines the makeup of a district public health board. This is the point of my posting. And the appointment of these individuals has absolutely nothing to do with the Champaign CB. The CB appoints to the Champaign County Board of Health. The state statue defines a board of only 3 individuals, none of whom have an public health educational background, at least in the case of this district and probably most throughout the state. This is a statue that needs a bit of attention, including an amendment as to the configuration of the board and number of board members along with professional backgrounds. A public health board makes decisions about a great deal of tax payer monies and health issues and does so with at most two individuals. Do you not think that this is important for consideration? Any suggestions as to how this ought to be adjusted to better serve the health interests of the community, considering how many public health services have been discontinued?
Pattsi Petrie
I used to work for a county health department. The majority of funds that come to any public health agency come from grants and contracts with the State and Federal agencies that have very specific guidelines that govern how the funds are used. The problem with the county board of health is that they think the funds are just a big pot of money that they can spend however they want. In other counties in Illinois the county boards steal county funds earmarked for public health services and put it in politically-connected services. A district health department has an advantage because they operate based upon the goals of public health, not politics. Champaign is lucky to have an independant health district. And no offense to the good people of Champaign County but do you really think your county board needs more services under their thumb?
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