PHILADELPHIA HOME RULE CHARTER
CHAPTER 3 DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH AND ITS DEPARTMENTAL BOARDS
§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.