Board of Health, Department of Public Health, City of Philadelphia

From the Home Rule Charter: §3-901. BoardofHealth. The Board of Health shall be composed of the Health Commissioner, who shall be president thereof, and seven appointed members. Three members shall be physicians, one of them having a degree of Doctor or Master of Public Health and one member shall be a dentist having a degree of Doctor or Master of Public Health. §5-301. Board of Health. The Board of Health shall: (a) Within one year after the effective date of this charter, prepare, with the aid of the Law Department, and submit to the Council for its consideration a comprehensive Health Code which shall embrace all matters to which the powers and duties of the Department of Public Health shall extend and which shall have as it purpose the preservation and promotion of the health of the people of the City; (b) Make reasonable regulations, not contrary to any statute or ordinance, for the preservation and promotion of the health of the people of the City. Such regulations shall be the regulations of the Department of Public Health. ANNOTATION Sources: No specific source. Purposes: 1. The function of promulgating health regulations which are to be the regulations of the Department of Public Health, is vested in a Board of Health. These regulations will also concern and affect many of the residents of the City. A Board representative of persons professionally concerned with health matters and interested lay persons will bring to the content of health regulations a sounder and better rounded subject matter. 2. The Board of Health is given the particular duty of preparing for submission to the Council a comprehensive health code. Codification of ordinances pertaining to health conforms with better public health administration and practice. Codification will make possible more effective control of health hazards. 3. The power of the Board to make regulations is, under existing case law, an administrative function. The Board cannot, therefore, legislate. That remains a function of the Council.