[0:00] okay uh welcome to the special meeting
of the Board of
[0:05] Health November 28th
20123 M Mars roll call please first the
[0:12] statement of the open public meetings
act in accordance with the requirements
[0:15] of New Jersey open public meetings act
and notice of the special meeting was
[0:18] filed in the office of the Township
Clerk clst it on the bulletin board in
[0:22] the municipal building and on the
township website a mailed to all persons
[0:25] requesting notice in accordance with
Township policy 48 hours notice of this
[0:29] meeting was also trans submitted via fax
or email to Suburban Trends and Daily
[0:32] Record newspapers notice of this meeting
included a statement that the purpose of
[0:36] this meeting is to review the Panic
Township Health Department annual report
[0:40] and that no formal action will be taken
all right thank you so much a roll call
[0:45] please Mr Dy president Mrs Lawrence
Lynch here Mr herd is absent Mrs Russell
[0:52] here mayor Cole here items uh next on
the agenda is items for discussion and
[0:58] I'm going to turn it over to
our health officer yes thank you very
[1:02] much um in the packets you guys received
uh we have um uh the summary of all the
[1:09] activity that we've had for the course
of
[1:12] 2023 and um uh as in previous years
we've completed all the mandated
[1:17] requirements uh we've gone above and
beyond anything that's an elevated
[1:21] public health risk we do well above uh
what's required at a minimum standard um
[1:27] and so we're going to continue that uh
tradition it's an important policy that
[1:31] we have in place and that we're going to
keep moving forward with that uh in
[1:34] section one I provided a summary here to
give you a little bit of a a supplement
[1:40] to this vast report that's got a lot of
numbers and shows all the activity we
[1:45] did throughout the course of the year
but the summary is something I'd like
[1:49] you to just take a look at uh section
one of the summary um deals with all the
[1:53] mandated activities that are required
all the things that we accomplish
[1:56] throughout the year uh that are uh
mandated uh section two of the summary
[2:03] uh pretty much uh talks about um the uh
Disease Control emergency response that
[2:09] we've been engaged in that we were
always engaged in but but uh in the
[2:13] summer U you know it's a little each
season has its own challenges we're
[2:17] moving into a winter season which
primarily is respiratory illnesses um Co
[2:23] is still there uh but it's it's it's
become all these VAR subvariants of
[2:29] covid which are offshoots of Omron are
are very much like the uh Corona viruses
[2:35] that we've had for a hundred years uh
the seriousness of it is is greatly
[2:40] reduced uh hospitalizations are way down
uh so the concern with Co is the concern
[2:46] that you have with Corona viruses uh
it's a little more severe especially
[2:50] with people who have underlying
conditions or of age uh so they have to
[2:55] take some more precautions than than
what we experien with the common cold
[2:58] which most of the other Corona virus
isn't a concern uh but um uh we also are
[3:04] looking at RSV flu and uh right now it's
been fairly mild The Season's kicked off
[3:11] slowly which is which is nice so
hopefully we'll have a less than average
[3:15] uh impact this winter um the next
section three
[3:23] um uh again that's that's the uh
emerging threats that we really just
[3:28] talked about um um and uh what we do for
Disease Control which was really in the
[3:35] other section but Disease Control we do
all kinds of things with Audits and
[3:40] health education our inspections and
we're out there to really reduce the
[3:44] instances of disease the prevalence of
disease in the community and that's
[3:48] always being done at a high level the
staff the health department staff's
[3:52] still performing has always performed at
a high level I'm really lucky to have a
[3:56] staff that's dedicated they're
credentialed and we' we've really done a
[4:01] lot of good work the last 3 years but
but I'm excited about what's coming and
[4:05] now that we have the scourge of the
covid pandemic behind us we can start
[4:09] directing to a little more proactive
activities to to help the community
[4:14] further um the last part of this summary
I just want to bring to your attention
[4:20] some additional achievements that we've
had that's nice yes yes that's a that's
[4:26] a great one um the first one is we
expand the Public Health Region we took
[4:30] on town of botin and uh it's enabled us
to actually increase our capacity uh to
[4:37] serve all six communities better with
with more resources by bringing them in
[4:43] um and at the same time it's enabled us
to reduce cost which is really not
[4:48] something you're hearing these days with
the uh inflation rates and everything
[4:52] that we're seeing that not only did we
keep that at Bay we actually reduced
[4:56] cost substantially to all six
municipalities so that was really a Cod
[5:00] bringing and expanding the region uh the
second part is the award that we
[5:05] received the grant funds uh was able to
acquire an award of over
[5:11] $625,000 I
was very excited by that um and uh we
[5:17] worked uh we wanted to apply these to
projects and purchases that aren't only
[5:23] for public health infrastructure but
actually could be broadly applied across
[5:28] all Town operations
so I want to thank Mr Brewer who helped
[5:31] me coordinate with the other department
heads to identify projects that are for
[5:36] public health but also used broadly by
all the other departments and uh and we
[5:42] identified some fantastic uh projects
apped to yeah so it's it's across the
[5:49] board that's been a great thing and then
we've also entered into a contract with
[5:53] Atlantic Health uh to augment our health
education services and uh they assigned
[5:58] a fantastic ftic professional uh to us
we've been working together all year
[6:03] she's really a
dynamic uh person who's who's uh excited
[6:08] about what she does we've gotten a lot
of U we've put together some nice
[6:12] programs that are allowing us to do some
Outreach in the community we've actually
[6:15] uh reached out to hurl Village and some
of the other senior clubs uh not only
[6:21] here in panic but all all six towns
we're looking at um augmenting the
[6:27] school systems health courses because
they're not really touching on some of
[6:32] the things kids are dealing with now
postco um there's been a lot of mental
[6:37] health issues since Co there's been uh
substance abuse and addiction problems
[6:42] since Co um and uh we're working with
the superintendent of schools uh in in
[6:48] all six
municipalities I just had a meeting with
[6:52] Dr Portis about a month ago was very
productive he was very pleased uh to to
[6:58] work with us and we're looking to put
some programs together in the schools
[7:02] not only for the students but for the
parents about some of these emerging
[7:06] Public Health threats that people may
not be aware of and and it's really
[7:10] incumbent upon the health department to
bring these issues to the FL and and try
[7:15] to have some kind of a program to
address them and uh and so those are the
[7:20] additional achievements that we've had
this year looking forward to continuing
[7:25] this in in the future with more things
that we can uh do connect with the the
[7:31] community and uh that's pretty much it
in addition to the summary you've got
[7:36] volumes of paper with the like I said
the statistics and the numbers that you
[7:40] were provided um and um and that's
pretty much it with the routine report
[7:47] is it five or six towns that we now
we're at six towns so Bloomingdale for
[7:51] Park Kon Riverdale and town Bo which one
am I missing us oh
[7:56] us yeah so I would think that Chilton
would be
[8:00] should be I mean because five of the six
are in Chilton's Network area so it
[8:05] would definitely be wise for and the
rest are in marown yeah fore Park would
[8:10] probably go to marown hospital so and
one of in the health education services
[8:14] are based out of marown and they do work
here at of Chilton too so it connects
[8:18] all the towns to marown and Chilton both
works out great you're doing yeah it's
[8:24] Cassidy Doc is the health
educator she's been doing it for about 2
[8:30] 3 years very enthused and uh has some
great ideas brings a nice fresh uh A
[8:37] View to to what we're trying to
achieve when did we when did we say we
[8:43] brought botin on board how long have
they April April was the first month
[8:47] that we that's why their numbers are
lower CU they a full year yes and going
[8:52] into um next year we're as I said the uh
fees for all six municipalities have
[8:58] dropped
so they they were quite surprised when I
[9:01] gave the
numbers um and so before I if you have
[9:06] any other questions if not I'd like to
delve into the uh legislation I'm
[9:12] interested in discussing that that also
has to do with public health threats
[9:18] that are emerging um they were already
intensifying before covid but since Co
[9:23] it's gotten worse and so I went through
all the ordinances um to see if there's
[9:29] any legislative approaches in addition
to the programs we're trying to develop
[9:34] um if there's a legislative approach to
certain aspects of it and I came up with
[9:38] uh actually three small small but
important changes I like to make to some
[9:43] of the ordinances that we have um uh
there was a memo that I had sent to the
[9:48] board um and so if you want to take a
quick look at that I can uh show you uh
[9:54] on here what what I'm
suggesting in the first section here uh
[9:59] the changes I'm proposing are the three
there's three changes to the existing
[10:03] ordinances so the first is instituting
reinspection fees and reinspection fees
[10:09] really are an a way to um have an
administrative fine for to to
[10:15] establishments that have failed
inspection and have been downgraded to
[10:19] something less than
satisfactory when they're less all the
[10:23] all the establishments facilities and
institutions that we regulate the reason
[10:28] we regulate them is they they're not
operating in a compliant manner they're
[10:32] they're inherently dangerous to the
public so when they're downgraded from
[10:36] satisfactory to something less there's a
problem and so rather than do
[10:41] reinspection and and try to we educate
is a primary thing but but sometimes
[10:48] you're dealing with businesses who are
refusing to comply and with that the
[10:52] next option for us is to go to
court it's very time consuming not only
[10:57] for for us but for the business business
owners and uh it just becomes it
[11:02] sometimes ties up the court system and
so I've used this in other
[11:06] municipalities it works very well where
you can Institute a reinspection fee
[11:10] right on the spot if it's if it's
something that has to be downgraded
[11:14] because of their failure to operate in a
compliant manner um the fee would be uh
[11:21] equal to the amount they pay for their
license so whatever they pay for their
[11:26] license is what the fine would be and we
don't like to to find it's a
[11:29] reinspection fee but it is equal to the
whatever license fee they're paying that
[11:35] fee will continue until we can Elevate
them back to satisfactory status so we
[11:40] go back a second time and they're still
haven't become compliant they'll be
[11:45] given the fee again and again if they
fail to pay the fee then we'll issue a
[11:49] summons for fail to pay the fee and then
we can also issue summonses for the
[11:53] citations that they failed to correct
and so there's a it really intensifies
[11:58] our ability to do enforcement and get
them on board much more quickly every
[12:03] day they're operating at a compliance is
a day they're threatening the public so
[12:08] this abbreviates the process court dates
can sometimes be a month off uh this is
[12:13] something you can do immediately you get
good results very swiftly and once they
[12:17] get that understanding you don't have to
do it that often it's really they know
[12:21] it's there they know it's something you
can Levy and they they're they're just a
[12:25] lot more interested in what you have to
say when you walk in how does it work
[12:29] now if they have to be reinspected you
just go back at a particular back it's
[12:34] usually unannounced a lot of the times
we'll give it a like we'll say you have
[12:39] a week to correct these items so at some
point after a week we'll go back or two
[12:43] weeks depending on what it is and then
if U if they haven't done it we say okay
[12:48] we'll give you you know we'll give you
another few days but if not we'll give
[12:52] you summons and it's like a negotiation
all the time yeah so it's better just to
[12:55] have the faith this way you can go back
and say look I'm sorry but there is a
[12:59] reinspection fee because we had to
downgrade you to a conditionally
[13:03] satisfactory rating or an unsatisfactory
rating uh or if we had to close the
[13:08] place that that happens on occasion um
these additional fees and fines hit hit
[13:14] the hard so and I'm assuming that the
license fees vary greatly depending on
[13:18] the industry yes it depends on the type
of business we're regulating and so for
[13:24] instance for the reinspection fees we're
looking to do it for body art which is
[13:28] your tattoo and body piercing and
permanent Cosmetics we're also looking
[13:33] to do this with public recreational
bathing facilities so all all the pools
[13:37] and the complexes uh at gyms and things
like that and then all of your food
[13:42] establishments so this is what we want
to Institute for all these three
[13:47] categories can we just do three
categories isn't that like picking and
[13:51] choosing should we just do everything
through can you just three well these
[13:54] are the these are the main three that
that we that we actually expect that
[13:59] present the most threat to the public if
they're not in
[14:03] compliance um just so everyone knows
this will if
[14:08] we CH these changes do come they'll have
to come in front of us as a resolution
[14:13] and we'll have to approve them we're not
approving these are just on Tom's wish
[14:17] list that he wants to do yeah this is
right this
[14:19] is yeah for instance uh Mr usik and I
would have to go through the ordinances
[14:25] figure out where we're going to place
this I have some they're only to give
[14:30] you they're really it's a concept only
to give you the concept of what we're
[14:35] trying to achieve obvious people but we
would actually make this an ordinance
[14:38] and then we would we would just do when
we go into a place we're going to find
[14:41] them we would find them on the
spot um the other part of this we want
[14:47] to really uh go through the definitions
especially with mobile food vendors
[14:51] temporary retail food establishments and
farmers markets we had a farmers market
[14:56] here in town uh I don't think we have
one right right now but it could
[14:59] reemerge and there's a lot of confusion
of how you're going to license farmers
[15:03] markets and how they operate uh if you
treat it like a temporary retail food
[15:07] establishment every seven days they have
to come and get a new license but the
[15:11] farmers markets usually run from like
April till November so we want to have
[15:15] one license that covers the entire
period so we want something specific for
[15:19] farmers markets and we also want
something to to distinguish mobile food
[15:22] vendors for temporary retail food
establishments a little bit better
[15:26] because a lot of times the law is not
being equally applied and it's also
[15:30] creating a lot of confusion to the
business owners of what license type
[15:34] they want to get so we really want to um
sharpen up those uh definitions and that
[15:39] way everybody's treated equally does
that include the trucks that we have out
[15:43] here like on a Tuesday so they would be
they would actually be a temporary
[15:47] retail food even though it's a truck
because they're not on a route but
[15:51] that's where some of the confusion comes
in so we're going to we're going to make
[15:54] those definitions a little clearer and
then the last one that we'd like to do
[15:59] is right now we are training food
workers they get a very cursory course
[16:04] that we give to their employees which
makes us managers in their business in a
[16:11] sense because it's their responsibility
to train the food workers it's not our
[16:15] responsibility and with this vicious
turnover of food workers they're they
[16:19] come and go in two three months so by
the time you get to train them annually
[16:24] they're got they you may have had two or
three generations of food workers
[16:28] already none of whom were
trained and because they're not trained
[16:33] how many people were exposed to foods
that were not prepared properly so this
[16:38] uh this change would would remove that
from the ordinance we no longer have the
[16:43] Health Department training Frontline
food workers with a cursory kind of a
[16:47] course but the establishments would have
to actually have managers trained uh
[16:52] with this more extensive course it's
about a 16-hour training course and each
[16:57] shift will have to have have a food
protection manager there and they'll be
[17:01] responsible to on every shift have
somebody present when we do inspections
[17:06] they'll have to show us who that manager
is the credential the certificate who's
[17:11] on shift they'll have to show us their
license to make sure it's the person
[17:15] whose blackard is there and and that
will go a long way to make sure
[17:19] everybody's trained all the time on
every shift and so that's the other part
[17:23] that we'd like to to for you guys to
consider and again Bob and I will be
[17:27] going through all three of these changes
and ultimately sometime early next year
[17:32] uh the draft for your consideration will
be presented okay the last one and and
[17:40] importantly we'd like to propose new
legislation entirely in regards to uh
[17:45] electronic smoking device and
psychoactive substance establishments we
[17:49] want to actually create a new license
type yeah psychoactive sub that's
[17:53] interesting word it is I had to find I
had to find a very one that encompasses
[17:58] and that is a scientific term for any of
these
[18:02] things and the definition is in here
what psychoactive substances are I put
[18:06] it into the memo just to give you an
idea but basically um it these are drugs
[18:11] that alter your Consciousness and it
comes in all forms and so we'd like to
[18:16] put this I I have a draft there it's
about 15 pages it's taken about eight
[18:20] ordinances from across the states I
Cherry Picked the best parts out and
[18:24] then I wrote the blue that kind of pulls
it all together and all six town all the
[18:30] everything here is being presented to
all six towns by the way okay and so
[18:35] there's going to be Bob and um uh Fred
sro's office will be taking a look at it
[18:40] but I'm going to try to coordinate
multiple attorneys to kind of put some
[18:44] kind of a model code out for all six
towns we'd be ahead of the curve but
[18:49] it's important to do this because not
only your kids getting CBD which is
[18:53] actually cannabis because it's got more
THC in it than it's supposed to and
[18:58] people are buying Vapes with CBD but
really they're it's
[19:02] cannabis we have to so we have to
identify these places that are selling
[19:07] gummies that are really cannabis related
they're not they're not the legal form
[19:12] of CBD there's also stuff like ketamine
which is a cat tranquilizer called
[19:18] Special K that comes in liquid form that
gas station cell and Retail food
[19:23] establishments sell it's it's liquor
stores sell it uh and kids are getting
[19:29] their hands on it and most of these
businesses aren't observing the uh uh
[19:33] the the age restrictions and they're
also selling things that are flavored
[19:37] like candy uh cookies the packaging is
cartoon figures so these businesses are
[19:43] like predatory in a lot of ways to our
kids it's proliferating it's a real
[19:48] Hazard I don't even think parents know
what's going on out there because it's
[19:51] rapidly uh proliferating and it's taking
advantage of the mental state of our
[19:56] kids postco
the addiction issue postco and it's
[20:01] incumbent upon us to to try to counter
this so that's why i' I've put this
[20:05] legislation together and I'll be
proposing it with you know Bob's help uh
[20:10] I would say sometime in the spring we
should have it pounded out enough to to
[20:14] present it to you for consideration we
were just talking about the smoke shops
[20:17] and what sell Li we to be doing
that gone a long way from sniffing
[20:23] bottle
[20:27] glue Jee so anyway that concludes my uh
reports any other comments for the offic
[20:34] J yeah no very good job whatever you're
doing you're doing a great job keep it
[20:38] up yeah thank you thanks you for coming
out car do I have to adjourn this
[20:43] meeting can I get a motion to adjourn
the meeting I'll make that motion second
[20:47] I'll second all in favor I I thank you
Tom