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UNC ,nI SCHOOL OF GOVERNMENT ^ 017 Coates' Canons NC Local Government Law http://canons.sog.unc.edu Coates' Canons Blog: You've Consolidated. Do You Know Who Your Local Health Director Is? By Jill Moore Article: http://canons.sog.unc.edu/?p=7603 This entry was posted on March 25, 2014 and is filed under Agency Administration, Public Health In the summer of 2012, the General Assembly enacted a law that authorized boards of county commissioners in North Carolina to consolidate county human services departments and boards. In the months since, twenty counties have taken actions under G.S. 153A-77. The exact actions have varied from place to place, but the most common action has been to create a consolidated human services agency (CHSA) combining the former county departments of health and social services, and sometimes other human services departments or functions as well. There are presently 17 CHSAs in North Carolina that include both public health and social services, as this map shows. North Carolina law requires counties to assure that public health services are available to their residents, a duty that is satisfied by the creation of a CHSA that includes public health. State law also creates the position of local health director, requires the person in that position to meet minimum education and experience requirements, and assigns quite a few powers and duties to that person. Traditional county health departments and multi -county district health departments are headed by a local health director who meets the statutory qualifications for the position and carries out the statutory powers and duties. However, a CHSA is led by a consolidated human services director—a position that is also created by statute but has its own powers and duties and is not subject to the education and experience requirements for a local health director. When a county creates a CHSA that includes public health, what becomes of the local health director? That is actually a multi -part question that is not entirely answered by law. What happens to the position of local health director is one thing, but what happens to the powers and duties of a local health director is another. Local health directors In a traditional health department, the local health director is appointed by the board of health and is responsible for administering the department and exercising powers and duties prescribed by law. The minimum education and experience requirements for a local health director are set out in G.S. 130A-40. In general, the local health director must have education and experience in medicine, public health, or public administration related to health. The powers and duties of a local health director come from multiple sources of law. The main statute is G.S. 130A-41, which charges the local health director with administering local public health programs, enforcing state public health laws and local public health rules, investigating disease outbreaks, ordering isolation or quarantine when authorized by law, abating public health nuisances and imminent hazards, employing and dismissing health department employees, advising local officials of public health conditions, and more. While extensive, this list is not exhaustive. Other powers and duties appear elsewhere in the statutes, many in Chapter 130A but quite a few elsewhere. For example, a local health director: • Serves as the local vital records registrar (G.S. 130A-94) • Is responsible for organizing countywide rabies vaccination clinics at least annually (G.S. 130A-187) • Oversees environmental health programs in which the local health department has duties specified in statutes, such as on-site wastewater permitting (G.S. 130A-335) • Approves the local jail medical plan (G.S. 153A-225) • Is one of several local officials responsible for supervising the relocation of graves (G.S. 65-106) • Ensures that certain defendants referred by the district attorney are tested for sexually transmitted infections and that the victim and specified others are notified of the results (G.S. 15A-615) This is not a complete list of duties under state law, and the local health director also has duties arising from contracts or Copyright © 2009 to present School of Government at the University of North Carolina. All rights reserved. Page