2006 Massachusetts Code - Section 27A. Appointment of health officer by two or more towns; duties; compensation;joint committee.

Section 27A. Two or more towns may, by vote of each, form a district for the purpose of employing therein a health officer and necessary assistants and clerks, all of whom shall be appointed and may be removed by a joint committee composed of the boards of health of said towns. Persons so employed shall perform such duties and receive such compensation as said joint committee shall determine and, in so far as their duties in a given town are concerned, shall be the employees of and responsible to the regularly constituted board of health of said town. Said joint committee shall annually elect a chairman and a secretary and shall determine the relative amount of service to be performed in each town of the district by persons employed hereunder. The treasurer of one of the towns of the district designated by the joint committee shall be treasurer of the district and shall give to the district a bond with a surety company authorized to transact business in the commonwealth as surety, for the faithful performance of his duties as treasurer of the district, in such sum and upon such conditions as the joint committee may require. Said joint committee, annually in the month of December, shall estimate the amount of money required to pay the costs and expenses of the district for the following year, shall fix and determine the proportion of such costs and expenses to be paid by the respective towns thereof during such year and shall certify the amount so determined for each such town to the assessors thereof who shall include the same in the tax levy of such year. Upon order of the board of health of each such town, the town treasurer thereof shall, from time to time, subject to the provisions of section fifty-two of chapter forty-one, pay to the district treasurer such sums not exceeding the amount certified by the joint committee as the town’s share of the costs and expenses of the district. The district treasurer shall disburse the money so received, upon warrants approved by the health officer. A member town of a regional health district formed pursuant to this section may withdraw by majority vote taken at the annual town meeting of such member town, and said vote to withdraw shall become effective on the last day of the next fiscal year. This section shall not apply in the county of Barnstable nor shall it authorize any city to join in forming such a district.