Renewal of the Intermunicipal Agreement for Shared Health Department services among the City of Melrose, the Town of Wakefield and the Town Of Stoneham for three years.

Transcript (~4 min @ 1:09:09)

▶ 1:09:21 Great to be here. Thank you. All righty. Again, my name's Daniel Thompson. I'm the senior environmental health specialist in Health and Human Services. And well, now we're going to be talking about our Intermunicipal Agreement between Melrose, Wakefield, and Stoneham. So this agreement, I'm just going to say IMA for short. The IMA started back in January of 2023, and since then it's proven to be the most successful framework we've had for our health department and human services. One of the most difficult challenges that local boards of health have to face in Massachusetts is completing our statutory requirements set forth by the state and Massachusetts Department of Public Health. It's very challenging because there are so many things that we're responsible for.

▶ 1:10:16 And with this framework, using our Intermunicipal Agreement, we're able to fulfill every statutory requirement that we have, not only in Melrose, but also in Wakefield and in Stoneham. On top of that, we're also able to fulfill these requirements while also improving on our abilities to respond to environmental health needs, communicable disease prevention, community health trends, and other emerging public health challenges. The IMA has also proven to be the most fiscally responsible framework for our community. Shared public health services allow the communities to leverage grant funding and shared infrastructure more effectively, and this helps expand our overall capacity, which includes our ability to do health inspections, our nursing

▶ 1:11:02 services, our substance abuse prevention programming, data analysis, and all sorts of community wellness initiatives that we hold. In addition to the regulatory and fiscal benefits, our IMA has also strengthened our capacity to respond to shared challenges that we have in the community. Some of these challenges range from, again, substance abuse, chronic disease, mental health concerns, and other social determinants of health. So really renewing our Intermunicipal Agreement, it allows us to continue building on the strong framework that we already have set in place. It allows us to retain our very skilled staff, and it helps maintain the continuity that we have within our department. So tonight, I respectfully request support in renewing the agreement for another

▶ 1:11:59 three-year term so that Melrose may benefit, or continue to benefit from our regional model. Any questions from councilors on the committee? Any questions from non-voting council members? What is the role of the... Oh, Councilor Finocchiaro. Sorry. No, go. I was just going to say, as long as you feel like this works for the department, and it seems like it works for us and for Stoneham and Wakefield. I would love to continue this setup that we have here. So just make a motion to recommend. Second. Motion to recommend made by Councilor Finocchiaro, seconded by Councilor Vandiver. Upon discussion? No? Okay. Madam Clerk. Councilor Finocchiaro? Yes. Councilor Vandiver? Yes. President Freeman? Yes.