City Code, ExplainedBetaPardon our dust while we build this out — expect some changes along the way.

This chapter creates the city's Board of Health and sets out its membership, officers, powers, and duties, including authority over infectious disease control and public health nuisances.

Who this affects

It affects residents most directly through the Board's powers to enter property, quarantine or treat people exposed to infectious or contagious disease, mark infected houses, and order the removal of nuisances; it also requires physicians practicing in the city to report certain contagious or infectious disease cases.

Key rules

• Council appoints a five-member Board of Health, none of whom may be Council members, and at least one of whom must be a physician of at least two years' standing in practice.
• Board members initially serve staggered terms of one through five years; after that, one member is appointed annually to a five-year term.
• The Board appoints a President (from among its members), a Secretary, and a Health Officer; the Health Officer has the powers and authority of a city policeman for executing the Board's orders.
• The Board's powers and duties are as provided in Article XXIII of the Third Class City Code and city ordinances.
• The Board operates under the supervision of the Director of Public Safety.
• Board members must take and subscribe the oath prescribed for city officers.
• Fees collected by the Board or its officers, and penalties recovered for violations of Board regulations, must be paid into the City Treasury monthly.
• The President and Secretary may administer oaths and affirmations in Board proceedings or investigations but may not charge a fee for doing so.
• The Board may make and enforce rules to prevent the spread of infectious or contagious disease, including regulating contact with infected places, arresting/separating/treating exposed persons, enforcing vaccination, marking infected houses or places, and regulating house drains, waste pipes, soil pipes, and cesspools.
• The Board may abate and remove nuisances it deems prejudicial to public health.
• With Council's consent, during a contagious or infectious disease outbreak, the Board may establish hospitals and appoint ward or district physicians and other sanitary agents, with salaries fixed by the Board before appointment.
• Physicians practicing in the city must report to the Board's Secretary the names and residences of patients under their care afflicted with a contagious or infectious disease, in the manner the Board directs.
• The Board, its committees, and the Health Officer and subordinates may enter any premises at any time where infectious or contagious disease or a health-detrimental nuisance is suspected, to examine and abate it.
• Written orders for nuisance removal, issued by the Board and attested by the Secretary, are executed by the Health Officer and subordinates.
• The Director of Public Safety must submit an annual budget estimate for the Board to Council before each fiscal year begins.
• The Board must submit a written annual report to Council each January, which Council publishes in its official journal.
• The Board must notify the State Department of Health at least annually of its organization, membership, reports, and publications, and provide sanitary information as requested.

Notable and archaic details

• The Health Officer is granted the powers and authority of a city policeman when executing the Board's orders.
• The chapter dates to a 1966 ordinance and still references the Third Class City Code and a State Department of Health reporting requirement.