(A) Establishment. The Mayor and City Council shall, at its regular meeting in May of each year, or as soon thereafter practicable, appoint one Health Officer, who shall be a physician if practicable, or if not, then some other person, and shall also appoint one Alderman from each ward, who, together with the Health Officer, shall constitute Board of Health.
(B) Taking office. The Health Officers shall, before entering upon the duties of his or her office, take the usual oath of office, and give a bond, with security to be approved by the Council, for the faithful performances of his or her duties, and shall receive such compensation as the City Council may determine.
(C) Emergencies. In cases of emergencies, the Health Officer, together with the Board, may employ a physician, whenever the Health Officer, appointed by the Mayor and Council, is not a physician.
(D) Special meetings. Special meetings may be called by the Health Officer whenever he or she may deem the same necessary.
(E) Secretary. The City Auditor shall be Secretary of the Board of Health.
(F) Supervision. The Board of Health shall exercise a general supervision over the health of the city, with full power to take all steps and use all measures necessary to promote the cleanliness and healthfulness thereof; to prevent the introduction into the city of malignant, contagious, or infectious diseases, and to remove or otherwise take care of persons attached by any such disease, and to adopt in reference to such person, such regulation, rules, or measures deemed advisable, and to establish rules for the government of the pest house or hospital; and the Health Officer shall exercise a general supervision over the sanitary condition of the city.
(G) Duties of Health Officer. He or she shall give the Mayor and City Council and the Board of Health all such professional advice and information as they may require in regard to the public health, and whenever he or she shall hear of the existence of any malignant, contagious, or pestilential disease he or she shall immediately investigate the same and adept necessary means to arrest its progress. It shall be the duty of the Health Officer to enforce all the laws of the state and ordinances of the city, and for the purpose of carrying out the foregoing requirements, he or she shall be permitted, at all times from the rising to the setting of the sun, to enter into any house, store, stable, or other buildings, and whatever may be necessary, to make a thorough examination of cellars, vaults, sinks, or drains, and to cause all dead animals or other nauseous or unwholesome things to buried, removed, or disposed of, as the Health Officer may direct.
(H) Notice how served. In order to carry out the provisions of division (G) above, it shall be the duty of the Health Officer to serve a written notice upon the owner, occupant, or agent of any lot, building, or premises in or upon which any nauseous, unwholesome, or offensive substance or matter may be found, or who may be the owner of, or cause of any such nuisance requiring him or her then to abate the same in such manner, as he or she shall prescribe, and such notice shall be served by the Chief of Police, Health Officer, or any other person, and if such agent, owner, or occupant shall neglect or refuse to comply with the requirements of such order within the time specified, he or she shall be subject to a penalty, and it shall be the duty of the Health Officer to proceed, at once, upon the expiration of the time specified in the notice.
(I) Meetings. A majority of the members of the Board of Health shall constitute a quorum to do business. The Board of Health shall meet at 7:00 p.m. each Wednesday proceeding the Council meetings of the months of May, August, November, and February at the City Auditor’s office, at which meeting the Health Officer shall preside.
(J) Reports. The Health Officer shall, at the end of each three months, and at the end of each month, if so required by the Board of Health, submit to the Board of Health a full report of all the doings of the Department during the time covered by such report. At the end of each official year, the Health Officer shall report to the Board of Health and City Council a full and concise statement of the doings of the Health Department (in a classified and tabular form), a financial report, and a full statement of the sanitary conditions of the city, together with such recommendations as he or she may consider important and necessary.
(K) Visitation of sick; infectious diseases. It shall be the further duty of the Health Officer to visit and examine all sick persons who shall be reported to him or her, and being sick with any infectious or pestilential disease, and cause all such infected persons to be removed to the pest house, city hospital, or some other safe and proper place and cause them to be provided with suitable nurses and medical attendance, at their own expense, if they are able to pay for the same, and if not, at the expense of the city.
(L) Quarantine. In case of a pestilential or epidemic disease, or of suspected danger from any disease of this character, or in case the sanitary conditions of the city warrant it, it shall be the duty of the Health Officer to take such measures and do such acts for the preservation of the public health, as he or she may, in good faith, declare the public health and safety demand; and the Health Officer may take such measure, as he or she may deem necessary, to prevent the spreading of small pox by issuing an order requiring all persons in the city to be vaccinated within such time as he or she may prescribe, and all persons refusing or neglecting to obey such order shall be liable to a penalty; and said Health Officer shall always have on hand, so far as practicable, a sufficient quantity of Vaccine Virus, and he or she shall vaccinate and re-vaccinate all persons who shall apply to him or her for that purpose; and he or she shall give certificates of vaccination to children who have been vaccinated and may require such certificates for admission to public schools; and it shall be the duty of the Health Officer to provide for the vaccination of such persons as are unable to pay for the same.
(M) Disinfecting premises. The Health Officer shall have disinfected or closed to visitors, and prevent persons resorting thereto, while any person is sick with any pestilential or infectious disease. He or she may also, by an order in writing, direct any unwholesome matter, substance, dirt, or filth to be removed from any house or premises, and provide the time and mode of doing so, and take any other measure he or she may deem necessary and proper to prevent the spread of any infectious, pestilential, or epidemic diseases.
(N) Inspection of city. It shall be the duty of the Health Officer to make an inspection once every six months of every part of the city and its environs, and in all cases where he or she shall discover anything which will prove dangerous to the healthfulness of the city, and where there is no ordinance, competent to the correction of the evil, he or she shall immediately report the evil to the City Council, accompanied by his or her opinion of the necessity of extraordinary or peculiar action.
(O) Books and records. It shall be the duty of the Board of Health to provide the necessary books for keeping a record of said Health Department, including the proper registration of births and deaths, and such other statistical information necessary for the efficient working of said Department, and he or she shall also keep on hand all necessary blanks to be used by physicians and midwives, and furnish them with the same upon application.
(P) Births and deaths. Every physician or midwife who may professionally assist or advise at any birth shall make and keep a register of every such birth and therein enter the time, place, ward, and street of said birth, the sex of the child born, and the name and residence of the parents, so far as known; and every physician or professional advisor, who has attended any person at the last illness and death shall make and preserve a register of such death, stating the cause thereof, and specifying the date, hour, place, and street where the death occurred, and make a written statement, signed by him or her, to the Health Officer certifying that it is a true copy of the register; said statement to be made within five days after the birth and within 36 hours after the death of any person to whom such register may or shall relate.
(Q) Children in schools. No child, minor, or other person from any house where any person is sick with any of the infectious diseases or contagious diseases mentioned in this section shall attend any public, private, or sectarian school until the recovery or death of the sick person or persons, as the case may be, nor until provided with a permit in writing, signed by the attending physician, if any, and if not, then by the Health Officer. Which permit must be presented to the principal or teacher of said public or private school, before said child, minor, or person shall be allowed to remain in school, and it shall be the duty of all physicians, upon the discovery of any of the diseases hereinafter referred to, to instruct the parents or guardian of any child or minor, who may be residing at the infected premises, of the provisions of this section, and it shall be the duty of any principal or teacher of any school to report, at once, in writing to the Health Officer, any violation of the provisions of this division (Q).
(R) Justice of infection of premises. It shall be the duty of the Health Officer to cause a notice to be placed upon or near any house in which any person is infested or sick with any of the diseases mentioned in division (F) above, upon which shall be written or printed the name of such disease; and no person shall remove, deface, mutilate, or interfere in any way without permission from the Health Officer.
(S) Leave of the sick. No person or persons who have been sick with any of the contagious diseases mentioned in this section, and who have been isolated in any place or hospital by and under the directions of the Health Officer, within the jurisdiction of the city, shall be allowed to leave such place or hospital without permission of the Health Officer.
(Ord. 34, passed 6-18-1895) Penalty, see § 32.99