BOARD OF HEALTH
MINUTES OF MEETING
JULY 14, 2009
Members Present: Paulette Puleo-Chairperson, Marc Salinas-Vice Chair, Barbara Poremba, Larisa Lucas, Noreen Casey, Gayle Sullivan.
Absent: Martin Fair
Others Present: David Greenbaum-Acting Health Agent, Tracy Giarla-Public Health Nurse, and Councillor Steven Pinto.~
Paulette Puleo called meeting to order at 7:00pm
1. Approval of Minutes
Minutes for June 9, 2009 were reviewed and corrected.~ Minutes for the Special Variance meeting held June17, 2009 were reviewed and corrected.
There being no further discussion or comments regarding this matter, Paulette Puleo motioned to approve the both minutes with corrections, second by Marc Salinas and approved (6-0)
2.~ Public Health Nurse’s Report
Tracey Giarla reviewed the report with the Board
3. New / Old Business
A. Site Plan for 142 Canal Street/Dan Dilullo presented plans for drive-thru.
Dan Dilullo described how the original plan was for a non-food drive-thru window and was approved by the Planning Board. Now the applicant is looking to have a food service drive thru window because a coffee shop is interested in leasing it. They have a traffic consultant on hand for the drive-thru window. A check list was given to the applicant by the planning department and they believe they are in compliance.
Questions regarding placement of dumpster and traffic flow were answered.
Paulette Puleo motioned to approve the plans as presented and if in the future there are changes to the plans, they would be required to come back before the Board of Health again. Second by Larissa Lucas and approved (6-0)
B. Transfer station application update
Paulette Puleo announced that North Side Carting granted the extension as requested by the BOH. The BOH Public Hearing for the Transfer Station Project will be held on September 15, 2009, which is agreeable to both parties per the City Solicitor, Beth Rennard. Paulette and David Greenbaum met with the Engineering Consultant David~Murphy, PE from Tighe and Bond to review his scope of work on this project. Mr. Murphy agreed to attend the BOH meeting tonight to explain his responsibility to the BOH.
David Murphy described his work experience with the public sector and private industries. He gave a brief over view of the jurisdictional authority that the Board of Health has in regards to the request for modification to the site assignment. Some of the regulations the applicant must follow are 310 CMR 16, govern of site, and 19, operational design. The applicant has submitted an environmental notification form to MEPA, stating that this is a minor site assignment modification. He described MEPA as an environmental clearing house. He stated; “There are 2 types of modifications, minor and major. My first initial read of the contract I can’t be certain whether it’s a minor or major modification”. David Murphy strongly suggested the Board send a letter to NSC requesting sufficient documentation
supporting their position on how this modification was deemed a Minor Modification to Site Assignment and not a Major Modification.
David Murphy also recommended that the Board members review the Mass Regulations 310 CMR 16 section 2.0.~ The Board will need a public hearing officer that meets these qualifications, for the public hearing. A traffic impact report has been done. The Board should be concerned about the noise related to the trucks going in and out of the building, traffic, air quality and odor control. David Murphy will re-review the plans and compose a list of questions and concerns that the Board of Health may want to ask.
C. Board members certification updates
Paulette Puleo announced the dates for the MAHB’s annual certification program for new BOH members and encouraged them to attend, for it provides Board members with the basic knowledge to perform their statutory duties. MAHB offers three tracks, however Paulette favors the Governance track for new members.
D. Tattoo subcommittee updates
Marc Salinas explained that in order for the subcommittee to meet, the meeting must be posted.~ Since the subcommittee has not done that they can not give any updates to the board because they met without posting the meeting.~ Mark will be contacting the subcommittee members between this meeting and the next board meeting to discuss micro-pigmentation.~ Open meeting laws do apply to subcommittees and if a quorum of the subcommittee can meet it does have to by posted.
E. Regionalization subcommittee updates
Gayle Sullivan stated the Mayor sent a letter out stating her recommendation to the Board of Health, one point being, putting together a small working group that doesn’t include just the Board of Health. In this working group representatives from the Department of Public Health, Salem Hospital and Salem Chamber of Commerce along with City, and Board of Health staffers should be included.
Gayle Sullivan said the mayor would be happy to come before the board to discuss who should be involved and why.
Barbara Poremba said that she remembered a letter written to the Board of Health by the Chamber of Commerce stating they were interested in regionalization.
Paulette Puleo stated she would like see Rich Viscay and Human Resources be involved with the working group before we start to reach out to the Chamber of Commerce and the North Shore Medical Center since they would have a better understanding of the finances and unions involved with regionalizing.
Gayle Sullivan said she thinks the first step would be to invite the mayor to come before the Board to discuss who we would like to see as part of the working group
Larisa Lucas said the Mayor has already come before the Board and that she might like to pull together a higher level committee. The Mayor is looking for opinions from the business community and medical community for a different prospective on regionalization.
Paulette Puleo said I would suggest that the first step would be is to find out which community or communities are interested in participating before forming any type of committee.
Gayle Sullivan stated this is an effort to look at a broad spectrum of regionalization; how it works in other places and if it will work for us.
Barbara Poremba said the mayor suggested we hire an interim director
Paulette Puleo stated her understanding was that David was the interim director/acting health agent.
Barbara Poremba said the role of the interim would be to look into the possibility of regionalizing. We could entertain this request from the mayor and go forward in this direction because at some point there has to be an ending to this discussion of regionalization.
David Greenbaum said when Joanne Scott left and the topic of regionalization came up Janet Mancini did a lot of leg work to get information about regionalization. Didn’t the Board decide to hire a health agent?
Marc Salinas said because of the time elapsed to get this concept of regionalization in lue of a health agent at this point it has not benefitted the department or the city. The time it would take to put this working group together is not worth the expense that the city would have not having a health agent. I think at this point we would be far better off hiring a health agent whether or not it is with in our personal or outside of the office. If there’s a way we can regionalize and share serves after a health agent is hired then that’s the way we should go. Too much time will still elapse for this committee to gather information.
David Greenbaum said that the board should know that this coming November a staff member will be out on maternity leave. That only leaves 2 full time inspectors including myself to do what is mandated of us by the state, which will completely change the health agents roll because during that time it can not be an administrative position. I’m going to have to be out on the road doing food inspections and housing inspections so it does not fall on just 1 full time inspector.
Paulette Puleo reminded the Board of the public hearing being held in September regarding the transfer station project.
Barbara Poremba said the interim is the way to go. I think we should make an agreement that if in 6 months we are not making serious progress on this then the interim turns into a permanent spot. Than decide whether we hire that person or we hire someone else.
David Greenbaum asked what kind of candidate you think you would get with the possibility of not having a job in 6 months.
Noreen Casey said she does not think hiring an interim is a good idea.~ How are we going to advertise for this position? I think we need to go forward and hire a health agent. We can still talk about regionalizing. We can regionalize from below instead of from the Health Agents position. I think it’s very important for the city to have its own Health Agent.
Gayle Sullivan stated that this is a perfect time to take another look at what’s going to happen. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with hiring an interim.
Marc Salinas said he’s having a hard time being convinced that an interim health agent will work. If we use the money to hire an interim will we not have the money to hire a Health Agent? I think it be a disruption to the department to hire and interim for 6 months?
Paulette Puleo reminded the Board that David is the third BOH Department Head in 9 months.
Marc Salinas we need to decide if we are hiring a health agent or not. We need to make that decision as the board.~ I think it’s best to hire and regionalization can still be an option.
Larisa Lucas said we decided to hire a health agent a while back. What’s the status on the 3rd person we interviewed because the transfer station is her specialty? We have the money so maybe we should hire someone.
Marc Salinas asked why we are discussing something we already voted for.
Noreen Casey asked if Heidi is still interested.
Marc Salinas I’d be in favor of bring her back in for an interview
Larissa Lucas said she’d be in favor of Heidi meeting with Paulette and Marc Salinas and not to have her come in front of the whole Board.
Paulette Puleo suggested having a special meeting.
Larisa Lucas said she does not want to wait until the next meeting to move on this.
Marc Salinas suggested that the Board interview Heidi again.
Larissa Lucas added it would be nice to hire her soon and have her up to speed on the transfer station and asked if there were any other applicants that weren’t interviewed that we can bring in.
Marc Salinas said nothing is preventing us from calling other candidates.
Paulette Puleo stated she would be willing to call other runners up for an interview.
Marc Salinas suggested we have 2 other candidates to interview.
David Greenbaum asked if this meeting would be to hire a Health Agent.
Paulette Puleo responded that it would be to interview 3 candidates with the possibility of voting to hire a Health Agent.
Marc Salinas motioned to have a special meeting within 14 days to interview any applicants that are still interested in the Health Agent’s position, seconded by Larissa Lucas. Approved (4-2)
- Updates from Acting Health Agent
- announced that the Board of Health will continue to charge for a burial permit fee of $25.00 as per the Supreme Court case.
-an Open Air Café Dining fee was discussed and each Board member received a copy of the BOH fee schedule. David will review the Zoning Board fees, the BOH plan review fees and suggestion of a 2 fee schedule based on the number of seats in an establishment and will frame suggestions for the Board to review at a future meeting
- updated the Board regarding the baby raccoon incident.
-reported that J&J Variety has 4 tobacco violations. I would have to bring them in front of the Board in order to suspend permit for 7 days.
Larissa Lucas asked if we were going to update the language for the chicken coop regulation.
David Greenbaum replied that he has a copy of Lynn’s Board of Health regulation and he will contact Marc Salinas to help him with the language. He will have a draft for the board to review.
~
Paulette Puleo motioned to adjourn.
All in favor.
Minutes taken by;
Heather Lyons
Clerk of the Board
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