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(a) There shall be in the department an independent office of chief medical examiner, the head of which shall be the chief medical examiner, who shall be appointed by the mayor from the classified civil service and be a doctor of medicine and a skilled pathologist and microscopist. The mayor may remove the chief medical examiner upon filing in the office of the commissioner of citywide administrative services and serving upon the chief medical examiner his or her reasons therefor and allowing such officer an opportunity of making a public explanation.
(b) The commissioner with respect to the office of chief medical examiner shall exercise the powers and duties set forth in paragraph one of subdivision a of section five hundred fifty-five of this chapter, but shall not interfere with the performance by the chief medical examiner or his or her office of the powers and duties prescribed by the provisions of this section or any other law.
(c) The chief medical examiner may appoint and remove such deputy chief medical examiners, medical examiners, medical investigators, lay medical investigators, scientific experts and other officers and employees as may be provided for in the budget. The deputy chief medical examiners and medical examiners shall possess the same basic qualifications as the chief medical examiner. The medical investigators shall be physicians duly licensed to practice medicine in the state of New York and shall possess such additional qualifications as may be required by the department of citywide administrative services.
(d) The office shall be kept open every day in the year, including Sundays and legal holidays, with a clerk in attendance at all times during the day and night.
(e) The chief medical examiner or his or her designee shall have power to require the attendance and take testimony under oath of such persons as he or she may deem necessary and to require the production of books, accounts, papers and other evidence relative to any matter within the jurisdiction of the office.
(f) (1) The chief medical examiner shall have such powers and duties as may be provided by law in respect to bodies of person dying from criminal violence, by accident, by suicide, suddenly when in apparent health, when unattended by a physician, in a correctional facility or in any suspicious or unusual manner or where an application is made pursuant to law for a permit to cremate a body of a person.
(2) The chief medical examiner shall perform the functions of the city mortuary and related functions, including the removal, transportation and disposal of unclaimed or unidentified human remains and the remains of those individuals who have died outside of a medical institution.
(3) The chief medical examiner may, to the extent permitted by law, provide forensic and related testing and analysis, and ancillary services, in furtherance of investigations concerning persons both alive and deceased, including but not limited to: performing autopsies; performing deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) testing and other forms of genetic testing and analysis; obtaining samples and exemplars; performing pathology, histology and toxicology testing and analysis; and determining the cause or manner of injuries and/or death.
(4) Notwithstanding any inconsistent provision of this section and in addition to any other powers and duties, the chief medical examiner may engage in health research in conjunction with the department consistent with paragraph two of subdivision d of section five hundred fifty six of this chapter.
(g) The chief medical examiner shall keep full and complete records in such form as may be provided by law. The chief medical examiner shall promptly deliver to the appropriate district attorney copies of all records relating to every death as to which there is, in the judgment of the medical examiner in charge, any indication of criminality. Such records shall not be open to public inspection.
Editor's note: For related unconsolidated provisions, see Administrative Code Appendix A at L.L. 1996/059.
(a) The health code which is in force in the city on the date on which this chapter takes effect and all existing provisions of law fixing penalties for violation of the code and all regulations of the board of health on file with the city clerk on the date when this chapter takes effect shall continue to be binding and in force except as amended or repealed from time to time. Such code shall have the force and effect of law.
(b) The board of health from time to time may add to and alter, amend or repeal any part of the health code, and may therein publish additional provisions for security of life and health in the city and confer additional powers on the department not inconsistent with the constitution, laws of this state or this charter, and may provide for the enforcement of the health code or any orders made by the commissioner or the board of health, by such fines, penalties, forfeitures and imprisonment as may be prescribed therein or otherwise by law.
(c) The board of health may embrace in the health code all matters and subjects to which the power and authority of the department extends. The board of health shall prescribe in the health code the persons who shall be required to keep a registry of birth, fetal deaths, and deaths occurring in the city and file certifications thereof with the department and the form and manner in which such registry shall be kept and certificates filed, and, it shall provide for the recording of births which have not been recorded in accordance with law, for the change or alteration of any birth, fetal death or death certificate upon proof satisfactory, to the commissioner, for the examination and issuance of transcripts of such certificates and for fees to be charged therefor.
(d) The board of health shall prescribe in the health code that the parent with legal custody or legal guardian of any child receiving day care services as authorized in such code shall have unlimited and on demand access to such child or ward. The department of health and mental hygiene shall make unannounced visits of such day care services if such board receives a complaint that, if true, would indicate that children in such services are not receiving adequate or appropriate care. Such board shall also prescribe in such code that during the period for which day care services are authorized upon any premises, the department shall whenever possible make at least one unannounced visit of every such premises annually.
(e) Any violation of the health code shall be treated and punished as a misdemeanor. The board of health or an administrative tribunal established by the board of health to enforce the provisions of the health code shall have the power to enforce its final decisions and orders imposing pecuniary penalties as if they were money judgments, without court proceedings, in the manner described herein. After four months from the issuance of such a final decision and order by such board or tribunal a copy of such decision and order shall be filed in the office of the clerk of any county within the city. In the event that the decision and order were issued as a result of the respondent being in default, a notice of default shall be mailed to such respondent at least seven days before such filing, and a copy of such notice and a receipt of mailing thereof shall be filed with the copy of such decision and order. Upon such filing, such county clerk shall enter and docket such decision and order, in the same manner and with the same effect as a money judgment. Upon such entry and docketing, such decision and order may be enforced as provided in article fifty-two of the civil practice law and rules. Such board or tribunal shall not enter any final decision or order pursuant to the provisions of this subdivision unless the notice of violation shall have been served in the same manner as is prescribed for service of process by article three of the civil practice law and rules or article three of the business corporation law. Such board or tribunal may apply to a court of competent jurisdiction for enforcement of any other decision, order or subpoena issued by such board or tribunal. Nothing herein contained shall be construed to limit or abridge the board's or the department's right to pursue any other remedy prescribed by law. Pecuniary penalties for violations of the health code may be recovered in a civil action before any court in the city having jurisdiction of civil actions.
(f) No amendment or addition to the health code or repeal of any provision thereof adopted by the board of health subsequent to the effective date of this chapter shall become valid and effective until a copy of such amendment, addition or repeal is duly certified by the person serving as secretary of the board.
(g) The board of health may add, amend and repeal regulations in regard to any matter contained in the health code, and such regulations shall have the same force and effect as a provision of the health code.
(h) No action shall abate, or right of action already accrued be abolished, by reason of the expiration, repeal or amendment of any provision of the health code or regulations in regard thereto.
The commissioner, with the concurrence of the board of health, may adopt a seal which may be used for the authentication of the orders and proceedings of the board and of the department and in commissioning the officers and agents of the department and otherwise as may be provided for by the commissioner or in the health code.
The board of health, during the prevalence of an epidemic or in the presence of great and imminent peril to the public health and when in the board's judgment it is necessary to do so, may take possession of any buildings in the city for temporary hospitals and shall pay a just compensation for any private property so taken. Such temporary hospitals shall be under the control of the commissioner.
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