Board of Health

CITY OF SALEM BOARD OF HEALTH MEETING MINUTES Virtual Meeting held via Zoom and also Recorded by SATV July 14, 2020 MEMBERS PRESENT: Dr. Jeremy Schiller, Paul Kirby, Geraldine Yuhas, Datanis Elias, Sara Moore OTHERS PRESENT: David Greenbaum, Health Agent, Suzanne Darmody, Public Health Nurse, Maureen Davis, Clerk of the Board, Patti Morsillo, City Council Liaison ATTENDEES ADDRESSED: Alan Hanscom, SATV TOPIC DISCUSSION/ACTION J. Schiller read aloud that, pursuant to Governor Baker’s orders, there exists COVID-19 Emergency Open Meeting Law Guidance regarding the implementation of virtual public meetings. 1. Call to Order 7:04pm 2. Approval of Minutes S. Moore motioned to approve the minutes. P. Kirby 2 nd. All in favor. (June 9, 2020) Motion passed. 3. Updates on COVID-19 D. Greenbaum said case loads have been steady. His only concerns are in re-openings. Hopefully we can continue to move forward safely. We are planning for eventual hikes in the future. He wanted to give a shoutout to the school nurses who volunteered to help with contact tracings. They were a huge part of our team and were very helpful. J. Schiller asked if there were any updates on testing. D. Greenbaum said it looks like we will go with Fallon Ambulance if the need arises. P. Morsillo asked S. Darmody if she is seeing lower numbers of contacts. S. Darmody said because people are out and about, there are more contacts per case now. P. Morsillo asked if travelers are complying with quarantine guidelines. S. Darmody said travelers are not reporting to her so she really doesn’t know. However, she does get calls from people questioning what to do when they travel, which is good. S. Moore asked how compliance is going with the businesses. D. Greenbaum said the goal is not to get to the point of a cease and desist. All we can do is hope for the best. J. Schiller asked about funding for people missing work. D. Greenbaum said the CARES Act helps in those situations. He said we want to be able to say we did the right thing to try to stop the spread of the virus. Hopefully other communities do the same. S. Darmody reported that she is not getting too much pushback from contact tracings. P. Morsillo said the vote at Council for a request for a block party was too close for her comfort. She thinks we will get more pushback for block 1|Page  parties because the Governor said people can have gatherings of 100 people outside. D. Greenbaum said the Council did the right thing by voting the block party down. Public health should take precedence over a good time. Attendee Alan Hanscom asked who one complains to if an employer is opening without proper ventilation. D. Greenbaum said that is something he will have to address on an individual basis. J. Schiller asked if there is anything else the Board can do to be more helpful to Council on future events. What about Haunted Happenings? D. Greenbaum said everything is up in the air right now. We can’t stop people from coming to Salem, but we also should not be encouraging it. Haunted Happenings right now is to be determined. J. Schiller said it is like a double-edge sword. When we keep cases down, people get too comfortable. People are getting impatient. D. Greenbaum said going backwards in re-opening will be much more painful than where we are now. J. Schiller thanked D. Greenbaum and said he has been awesome with updates. P. Kirby asked if reusable bags are allowed now. D. Greenbaum said yes, the order has been rescinded, but some communities are choosing to enforce their plastic bag ban right away. He would like to ask the Board to wait until the end of summer to give businesses time to be ready. He thinks October 1st is reasonable. G. Yuhas said she doesn’t think businesses know and we should let them know. D. Greenbaum said he will let retailers know. G. Yuhas said the Recycle Committee worked so hard to get the ban passed. 4. Continued discussion on racial and J. Schiller said with regard to the task force the Mayor is developing, we health equity should let the her know that we feel that Board and Health Department members should be a part of it. It’s important that the Mayor knows we want to be involved. D. Greenbaum said he spoke with the Mayor who told him there is a steering committee and there will be subcommittees later and we will be more involved then. J. Schiller thanked S. Moore for bringing this subject up. It’s such a complex issue. S. Moore said she and Kerry Murphy are applying for a grant. It is a 3-year grant. The first year would be a comprehensive health needs assessment. Kerry Murphy did a report with collected data. D. Greenbaum will send Kerry’s report to the Board. He said we are shining a light on ethnic inequities in healthcare with COVID. J. Schiller suggested that the Board incorporate this topic into their monthly discussions to gain more perspective of the issues in the community related to this topic. D. Greenbaum said Peabody had a student working on the demographic data in the area and shared the information. He will send reports of demographics and we can try to break it down. We can look at what we can do to help people be healthier overall, starting with housing, etc. S. Moore said Salem State University’s civic engagement has done a great 2|Page  job getting young people to vote. We need to find a way to educate people and make them aware of the relationship to voting and helping people. P. Morsillo said voting will be more complicated for the City, too with early voting, etc. Pequot Highlands, Salem Heights, etc. are so far from downtown and voting. Transportation is an issue. J. Schiller asked if we still have a table at the Farmers’ Market. D. Greenbaum said with COVID we have not made it to the Farmers’ Market yet. 5. Chairperson Communications J. Schiller said he is getting several emails asking why COVID is worse than the flu. He directs them to the CDC website. 6. Discussion on signing of funeral D. Greenbaum asked if the Board approves of his signing funeral director director permits permits on the Board’s behalf. The process will be online at the end of August for next year’s renewals. P. Kirby moved to grant the Health Agent permission to sign funeral director permits on the Board’s behalf. D. Elias 2nd. All in favor. Motion passed. 7. Monthly Reports-Updates a. Public Health J. Schiller asked how camps are going. Nurse’s Report S. Darmody said four camps applied. The inspections went well. They were inspected and additionally checked for COVID-specific requirements. We were able to permit all four camps that applied. S. Darmody also gave a shoutout to our school nurses. She said she doesn’t know what we would have done without their help. In particular she would like to thank Natalie Pavia, the school nurse at Carlton Elementary School. She really took a leadership role and trained the others, etc. She did so much work and it is greatly appreciated. Copy available at the BOH office. b. Health Agent’s Report Report not available. J. Schiller asked if we are doing less inspections. D. Greenbaum said we are doing beach testing in addition to our usual inspections. Janet Mancini is out on furlough until the end of the month, but we respond to every complaint including See, Click, Fix. c. Administrative Report Copy available at the BOH office. d. Council Liaison Updates P. Morsillo reported that the vote on inclusionary zoning was defeated. Very disappointing. The Accessory Dwelling Unit vote is sitting and so will not make it through by the deadline on August 2nd. They are focusing on what people mean about affordable senior housing. Discussions on utilizing city-owned land to build affordable housing is getting lots of pushback. It has become so political. She feels affordable housing is an issue we need to work on, and it would be helpful if we could educate people about it. S. Moore suggested she can work with P. Morsillo to draft a strong letter and Board members can chip in. 3|Page  P. Kirby motioned to approve the reports submitted. S. Moore 2 nd. All in favor. Motion passed. 8. New Business/Scheduling of Future J. Schiller said we usually don’t meet in August, but given the current Agenda Items circumstance feels we should meet. All agreed. D. Greenbaum reported that we are participating in the Healing Communities Study which includes four states. It includes 16 communities in MA. They have settled on a candidate for the Community Coordinator position and will be notifying the candidate soon. The chosen candidate has a master’s degree in both social work and public health. If the candidate accepts, she should start in the next two weeks. D. Greenbaum informed the Board of his upcoming time off, but said he is always reachable. He reported that flyers about Naloxone distribution went out with the latest water bills. He said Household Hazardous Waste Day is tentatively scheduled for September 12th. The State said we are allowed to do it. We usually get 150-200 cars compared to 500 in past years, so it is much more manageable. G. Yuhas stated we certainly made the right choice in hiring D. Greenbaum as our Health Agent. MEETING ADJOURNED: P. Kirby moved to adjourn. G. Yuhas 2nd. All in favor. Motion passed. 8:24pm Respectfully submitted, Maureen Davis Clerk of the Board Next regularly scheduled meeting is Tuesday, August 11, 2020 at 7:00pm Virtual Meeting Via Zoom 4|Page