NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY

1975 SESSION

CHAPTER 396

HOUSE BILL 642

AN ACT TO REWRITE G.S. 130-14 AND TO AMEND G.S. 130-14.1 TO CLARIFY THE APPOINTMENT AND COMPOSITION OF DISTRICT HEALTH BOARDS.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

Section 1.  G.S. 130-14, as it appears in Volume 3B of the General Statutes, is hereby rewritten to read as follows:

"§ 130-14.  District health departments. — (a) Under rules and regulations established by the Commission for Health Services, district health departments including more than one county may be formed in lieu of county health departments upon agreement of the boards of county commissioners and local boards of health having jurisdiction over each of the counties involved. A county may, in accordance with the rules and regulations of the Commission for Health Services, join a district health department upon agreement of the board of commissioners of the county and the district board of health. A district health department shall be a public authority as defined in G.S. 159-7(b)(10).

(b)        The Department of Human Resources may request the health department of a county to become part of a district health department composed of several counties, if in the opinion of the department the public interest and the delivery of public health services to all the people of the new district would be enhanced thereby.

(c)        The policy-making body of a district health department shall be a district board of health composed of 15 members. The board of county commissioners of each county in the district shall appoint one county commissioner to the district board of health. The county commissioner members shall appoint the other members of the board, including at least one licensed physician, one licensed dentist, and one licensed pharmacist, so as to provide equitable district-wide representation. The composition of the board shall reasonably reflect the population makeup of the entire district. The members, except for the county commissioner members, shall serve terms of three years; provided, however, that two of the original members shall serve terms of one year, two of the original members shall serve terms of two years, and the remaining original members shall serve terms of three years. No member shall serve more than three consecutive three-year terms on the board to which he is appointed. County commissioners' terms of office as members of district boards of health shall be concurrent with their terms of office as county commissioners. When a county commissioner member of the board of health ceases to be a county commissioner for any reason, his appointment as a member of the board of health shall also cease, and the board of county commissioners of the county from which he was appointed, during their next meeting, shall appoint another commissioner to the board of health.

(d)        The district board of health shall elect its own chairman annually. The district health director shall act as secretary to the board. A majority of the members shall constitute a quorum.

(e)        Whenever a county shall join or withdraw from an existing district health department, the board of the district health department shall be dissolved and a new board shall be appointed as provided in subsection (c) above.

(f)         The terms of all members of district boards of health holding office on April 9, 1973, shall expire on the same date as they would have had the 1973 Session Laws, Chapter 143, not been passed. Upon expiration of these terms their successors shall be appointed to terms of three years.

(g)        Notwithstanding any provision of G.S. 130-14.1, no district health department shall be dissolved without prior written notification to the Department of Human Resources.

(h)        No funds otherwise available for any health department of a county shall be withheld or diminished because of failure or refusal of such county health department to join or remain in a district health department."

Sec. 2.  G.S. 130-14.1, as it appears in Volume 3B of the General Statutes, is hereby amended by deleting in the second, third, fourth and fifth lines of the last paragraph the words "except that if two or more counties of the original district continue to operate as a district health department, those ordinances and regulations adopted by the original district board of health shall continue in effect".

Sec. 3.  This act shall become effective upon ratification.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 26th day of May, 1975.