A proposed resolution by the Jefferson County Board of Health to declare racism a "public health crisis" was sent back for revisions after a county commissioner raised concerns about the wording of the resolution.

Members of the Board of Health started talking about the idea last month, which came after weeks of protests locally and nationwide over the police killing of George Floyd and the reckoning over systemic racism that has since followed.

The Boards of Health in both King and Pierce counties have approved resolutions that declare racism as a public health emergency, and at its mid-July meeting the Jefferson County Board of Health voted to form a subcommittee that would develop a resolution in response to racial equity issues.

At the board's meeting last week, members of the committee — Kate Dean, Kees Kolff, and Denis Stearns — presented a four-page draft resolution that noted the Board of Health is "committed to addressing racial equity and health disparities in all forms and at all levels, which are the individual, institutional and systemic levels, across the county."

The resolution also notes the board is committed to assessing and revising its policies, practices, and culture "with a racial injustice and equity lens," include the health code and the board's annual work plan.

In the resolution, the board also said it would participate in racial equity training and will be responsive to communities and residents impacted by racism, especially Black and Indigenous communities.

The resolution contains a quote from Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and includes a blunt assessment of the damage caused by racism.

"Racism has deep and harmful impacts that unfairly disadvantages Black, Indigenous and People of Color ('BIPOC') and unfairly advantages people who identify as White. Racism harms every person in our society and is a root cause of poverty and economic inequality," the resolution states.

The resolution also notes that decades of data show BIPOC communities have been acutely impacted by gun violence, higher rates of cardiovascular disease and diabetes, maternal and infant mortality, underweight babies and shorter, less healthy lives overall. BIPOC communities are less likely, however, to experience suicide, Alzheimer's disease, and drug- and alcohol-related conditions than their White counterparts.

Board members were largely supportive of the resolution.

Dean, who serves on the Board of Health as a county commissioner, said that Black Lives Matter of Jefferson County had reviewed the draft resolution.

"Black Lives Matters supports our efforts in this," Dean said.

"I think this is great; good work, all," added County Commissioner Greg Brotherton. "The tone of it, I think, is very appropriate. I think it's strong."

"It's very heartfelt and I think it really does say what our intent is," agreed Pamela Adams, vice-chair of the Board of Health and a Port Townsend city councilmember.

Board of Health Member David Sullivan, who is also a county commissioner, said he was supportive overall of the resolution but said he had issues with some of the word choices used in the document.

"Usurped" was one example, he said.

In the resolution, the word was used in the passage: "We acknowledge that in East Jefferson County we live on land usurped from indigenous peoples and that the ongoing presences of systemic, cultural, and personal racism in this country continue to distribute privilege and access inequitably."

"I would want to edit some of it before I vote on it," Sullivan said.

Kolff noted that much of the resolution — 70 percent or more — was copied from the one adopted in King County.

The board agreed to continue work on the resolution before it is brought back to a future health board meeting for a vote.