The Lake County Council interviewed two candidates — including one who has expressed opposition to vaccine and mask mandates — to fill the citizen appointment of the Lake County Health Board at its Tuesday meeting.
Dorian Patel, who has had a career in radiology, and Cynthia Hoess, who has been a physician for 30 years and currently works as a pediatrician for Methodist Hospitals, both said they would like to serve the board to ensure its transparency with the public.
“I am very interested in finding out how the health board operates, what they’re goals are,” Patel said. “We’re here to find out more about how the health board operates.”
The board wasn’t expecting to conduct interviews at the meeting as the opening had not been posted or advertised. But Hobart resident Barbara Koteles told the board she spoke with Lake County Commissioner Michael Repay who informed her about the citizen appointment to the health board. Koteles said she told Patel and Hoess about the opening.
When the council was considering $4.87 million in state funding for the health department last year, Patel and Koteles spoke out against it, expressing concern that the money would be used for vaccine and mask mandates.
Lake County Council President Christine Cid said three people sent in resumes or letters of interest for the position, but only Patel and Hoess attended Tuesday’s meeting. The council agreed to accept resumes for the position through June 28 and to conduct further interviews at its July 9 meeting.
The health board meets four times a year, Cid said, and when asked both women said they could be available for the meetings.
Koteles said she and others are curious who has oversight over the health board, who evaluates the board members and who checks the political backgrounds of each board member.
“Past performance is a predictor of future performance,” Koteles said. “We want to see how they operate and what they were doing.”
Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb advocated strongly for the Health First Indiana initiative, which was created in 2023 by the Indiana legislature through Senate Enrolled Act 4 to improve overall health of Hoosiers, a metric where the state consistently ranks among the worst in the nation.
As part of its spending plan, the Lake County Health Department plans to open a maternal and child health center in both the north and south sides of the county.
As a physician, Hoess said she’s worked in a tuberculosis clinic, an HIV clinic and in a clinic that provided home visits to asthmatic patients in Gary to help them with their medications so they can avoid hospitalization, among other things.
“There really isn’t much that I have not seen,” Hoess said. “I have a passion for what I do.”
Hoess said she’d like to see the health department work toward decreasing the number of patients with diabetes, hypertension and obesity, which have increased since the COVID-19 pandemic. The department should also find ways to support people with mental health issues, which have also increased since the pandemic, she said.
“I’m a team player. I’m active. I want the best health for everybody,” Hoess said. “I’m interested in being part of the Lake County Board of Health so that we can … get back and make up for time that we lost from COVID.”
The board must follow guidelines established by the CDC, Cid said, so she asked both candidates if they are aware of that. Patel said, “yes that was brought to our attention,” and Hoess said, “right.”
In her work, Hoess said she follows guidelines and best practices set by various government health departments.
“We pretty much have to follow it,” Hoess said.
Councilman Ted Bliski said he knows people were upset about the mask and vaccine mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused some people to become more involved in local politics.
Bilski said he wouldn’t want to appoint someone with a specific political agenda to the health board.
“I hope people aren’t taking this job to move forward a political agenda but for the public health of Lake County,” Bilski said.
