Gianni, Forbes Absent at Health Board Meeting

Five days after the Board of Health , President Mariano Gianni and Vice President Thomas Forbes were absent at Wednesday night's board of health meeting at the .

Gianni had become the face of the board of health lawsuit after the board granted him permission to seek legal action at a February meeting, which led to the March lawsuit, alleging Petillo and the council had broken state laws. Forbes had repeatedly declined to comment on the suit.

Board member Joell Servoss, who had called the lawsuit "foolish," also didn't attend the meeting.

Gianni and Forbes incumbents Marie Galate and Richard Bunce on the Republican primary ticket for a pair of council seats. Galate and Bunce each were sworn in Wednesday as board of health alternates.

Board member Michael Francis, who's also on the borough council, said the board of health needed to communicate better with the council and the soon-to-be-formed health advisory committee.

"I think it's important that people have a good positive dialogue and if people have differences or if someone needs to understand something, I think that's extremely important," he said. "This board needs to make sure the dialogue is kept open as we move forward."

Francis also said that despite recent turmoil between the board of health and the council, residents still receive the services that were available before Hopatcong shared its health department with Sussex County in 2009.

"We still have the flu clinic," Francis said. "We had a rabies clinic last Saturday. It went really, really, really well.

He later added, "At the end of the day, all of our [health] services have been expanded and have been maintained and everyone who says differently has been mistaken."

The board of health also accepted the resignation of Yvonne Syto, who recently became one of the first members selected to the health advisory committee, Petillo said Friday.

The committee will advise the council on health matters and focus on community health outreach, but won't have the ability to pass laws like the board of health, which will become council-run at the end of the year when Gianni and Forbes said they wouldn't seek to renew their expiring terms.