Board of Health

CITY OF SALEM BOARD OF HEALTH MEETING MINUTES June 12, 2018 MEMBERS PRESENT: Paul Kirby, Chair, Kerry Murphy, Geraldine Yuhas EXCUSED: Dr. Jeremy Schiller OTHERS PRESENT: Larry Ramdin, Health Agent, Suzanne Darmody, Public Health Nurse, Maureen Davis, Clerk of the Board, Beth Gerard, City Council Liaison, Sharon Byrne-Kishida – MA DEP TOPIC DISCUSSION/ACTION 1. Call to Order 7:08pm 2. Approval of Minutes G. Yuhas motioned to add Beth Gerard to “Others Present” in the (May 8, 2018) minutes. K. Murphy 2nd. All in favor. Motion passed. G. Yuhas motioned to approve the amended minutes. K. Murphy 2nd. All in favor. Motion passed. 3. Chairperson Communications P. Kirby distributed the MA Medical Society policy on Protecting Public Health from Natural Gas Infrastructure in MA, along with a copy of the sign-on letter to Governor Baker, both of which were provided to him by Patricia Gozemba of the Salem Alliance For the Environment (SAFE). L. Ramdin said we need to know what the health risks are of gases being released to surrounding residents. To recap, we agreed it would be good for the state to research the health risks of additional natural gas infrastructure. We will put review of the sign-on letter as an agenda item for next month’s meeting. 4. Monthly Reports-Updates a. Public Health It’s camp season. Nurse’s Report P. Kirby asked what classifies a program as a camp. S. Darmody said Education-based and city-run camps are exempt. If a program runs three days or less it can be considered a clinic instead of a camp. Sail Salem is now registered as a camp. K. Murphy asked how the Salem State camps are doing this year. S. Darmody said they are doing well so far. Salem State attended the 2018 summer camp operator training and received information about the updated regulations. All camp inspections will be done in the next few weeks. P. Kirby asked if the LVO YMCA resolved the issue they had with a diabetic child last summer (2017). L. Ramdin said there was no RN and state law requires an RN to administer the medication. S. Darmody announced that she is expecting her first child. Copy available at the BOH office. b. Health Agent’s The department’s budget included a contracted position for $50,000.00. Report The line requested for an additional inspector was $53,000.00. The only other addition the department has received was last year when part-time inspector Janet Mancini’s hours were increased from 9 to 19 hours. L. Ramdin said morale is affected by the decision not to hire another full- time, in-house inspector. He cannot supervise a contractor as he could supervise a department inspector. Also, contractors cannot use our office space. He is concerned that inspections will be dollar-driven, not quality- driven as they are now. The contracted inspections will be checklist inspections. Section 8 comes to us for a Certificate of Fitness to be in compliance. We have added an extra day for inspections during the week to try to keep up. P. Kirby said he is sorry the Board didn’t have more pull regarding his salary increase. L. Ramdin repeated that he was only asking for equity. Resources are allocated according to the value placed on the department. We have not been given the resources. K. Murphy said it is really disappointing. P. Kirby reassured L. Ramdin that the Board holds him in great esteem. L. Ramdin had to intervene with a problem with Life Alive and the property manager of the space they are renting. The issue is being taken care of. There was a sewer leak on Intervale Road. He did a dye test and the entire road turned green. A pipe layer will fix the problem. As of now, Air BnBs are on an honor system. The city is looking into regulating them would like to limit rental days to 90 days per year. We will put renters who are renting as Air BnBs into the regulation to require permission from the landlord. K. Murphy inquired when the Church Street brewery will be opening. L. Ramdin said the plan was approved. G. Yuhas said they will only have food outside because there is no seating inside. L. Ramdin reminded members he will be in California at the NEHA conference from June 23-29th. He will also be taking some time off in July and August. Copy available at the BOH office. c. Administrative No comments/questions. Report Copy available at the BOH office. d. City Council B. Gerard apologized for not putting polystyrene on the Council agenda. Liaison Updates She will put it on the agenda for the July 19th meeting. She can send it to committee, but there is nothing to vote on. P. Kirby would just like to let Kelsey Currier-Dougherty know what the  plan is. B. Gerard said as of now the plan is to bring the item to Council to move it to Public Health Safety and the Environment, which unfortunately has not met once this year. L. Ramdin said she could send it to OLLA as an alternative approach. B. Gerard said we could, but OLLA is so overvoted - everything is getting sent to OLLA because they are getting things done. L. Ramdin said if no action is taken by the Council the advocates should push the issue with the Chair of PHSE. B. Gerard said maybe they should push to make a polystyrene ban a Board of Health regulation. L. Ramdin said he doesn’t think issues in Council that don’t move should become a Board of Health issue just for the path of least resistance. Both the Board and B. Gerard agreed. P. Kirby worries about the financial impact on the school. Would add $27,000.00 to the budget. L. Ramdin said any changes would most likely be compostable, not recyclable, but moving from Styrofoam to paper will still be a better choice. Increasing weight on waste going out will drive up the disposal cost. The state is looking at making a regulation. He is waiting for DEP to put out guidelines. K. Murphy said Mass in Motion wrote a grant for composting in the schools, but it didn’t happen. She said Salem State has already eliminated the use of Styrofoam at the Dunkin Donuts on campus. L. Ramdin said we would move from Styrofoam to compressed paper board. Our waste is not going to a landfill, it is going to an incinerator. There will be less toxics released with paper than with Styrofoam and the ash will have less waste from paper. K. Murphy motioned to approve the reports. G. Yuhas 2nd. All in favor. Motion passed. G. Yuhas motioned to move item 6 out of order. K. Murphy 2nd. All in favor. Motion passed. 5. Regulation 7 - Solid Waste - P. Kirby expressed concern that the Board may not have the technical adoption of new regulation knowledge necessary to evaluate the new regulation. S. Byrne-Kishida said the regulation is based on Attleboro’s model and best practices. L. Ramdin said it was written by the City Solicitor who put in a severability clause because there was not one in the draft regulation. The regulation specifies trash cannot be stored out on the sidewalk. The new regulation has generalized a lot of specifics to allow for future growth. Fines for trash violations can be every day and can be up to $1,000.00 per day. Trash violations can be turned into a public nuisance case if behavior continues. The City Solicitor can take them to court and ask for injunctive relief so if they reoffend after that we won’t need to go back to  court because it will be considered contempt of court. L. Ramdin said he is suggesting we use a start date of January 1, 2019. Also, we refer to ourselves as the Health Department, but legally we are the Board of Health. We are employees of the Board of Health, so all references should say “Board of Health”, not “department”. Other specifics and changes to the regulation were reviewed and discussed, 11 in total. L. Ramdin reminded members that after adoption they will have 24 hours to change their minds. He will make the agreed upon edits with the City Solicitor. K. Murphy motioned that the Salem Board of Health adopts a new regulation 7 pursuant to authorization granted by M.G.L. c 111 s. 31 and 31B, 310 CMR 11.02 and 310 CMR 19.00 et seq. The regulation shall apply to all residents, institutions and businesses, existing and new, within the City of Salem. This regulation was adopted on June 12, 2018 and shall be effective January 1, 2019. G. Yuhas 2nd. All in favor. Motion passed. The Board thanked S. Byrne-Kishida for her presence, support and guidance. 6. New Business/Scheduling of G. Yuhas motioned not to have a meeting in August. K. Murphy 2nd. future agenda items All in favor. Motion passed. - Mayor - Patricia Gozemba, SAFE - Natural Gas Infrastructure & Sign-On - Continued discussion of polystyrene 7. MEETING ADJOURNED: G. Yuhas motioned to adjourn the meeting. K. Murphy 2nd. All in favor. Motion passed. 9:18pm Respectfully submitted, Maureen Davis Clerk of the Board Next regularly scheduled meeting is Tuesday, July 10, 2018 at 7:00pm At City Hall Annex, 98 Washington Street, 1st Floor, Salem, MA