MAPC seeks board of health representation as North Suffolk public health collaborative updates IMA

Barry Keppert, director of public health at the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, told the Revere City Board of Health that the North Suffolk Public Health Collaborative is proposing changes to its intermunicipal agreement that would add a board of health member from each municipality to collaborative decision-making.

The change stems from state funding through the Public Health Excellence Fund, Keppert said, which will be used to support shared positions and to document compliance with state public health statutes and new credentialing requirements for certain public health work. "A board of health member from Chelsea, from Revere, from Winthrop will come together and help in that decision making across the collaborative," Keppert said.

The collaborative, formed in 2016 via an IMA among Revere, Chelsea and Winthrop, already supplies shared staff to member municipalities, Keppert said, including a regional public health nurse and an epidemiologist. Those shared positions help with communicable-disease response and vaccination efforts and were credited with helping the three communities access state and federal resources during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Under the proposed IMA revisions, a board-level representative would attend roughly quarterly meetings to review positions, budgets and investments funded through the state grant, Keppert said. He also noted a new state law setting standards for credentials for public health staff doing certain technical work; the collaborative expects to support those changes with training and investments.

Keppert said MAPC and Revere staff will follow up with the board as the IMA revisions move through each municipality for review and approval.

The board did not take formal action on the IMA at the meeting; Keppert said final decisions will return to each municipality for review and signature.