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Elk County solicitor Tom Wagner, who helped draft the ordinance, told the St. Marys City Council last week that the purpose of the ordinance is to protect the community if a pandemic, such as the flu of 1918, by giving the board of health in St. Marys more powers and responsibilities.
The ordinance gives the board the authority to "enter upon any premises within the city as a body or by committee, or by its agent or employee, to investigate any reasonable suspicion of the existence of an infectious or contagious disease."
The ordinance would also give the board the power to "issue orders for the abatement of any condition creating a risk of the spread of any infectious or contagious disease; order the isolation or quarantine of any person or animal, subject to the provision of any regulations issued by the Pennsylvania Department of Health, for the purpose of preventing or controlling any infectious or contagious disease; institute any criminal or civil proceeding for the enforcement of any order issued by the health board or by the health officer or any regulation issued by the health board; issue orders limiting or prohibiting public gatherings and events for the purpose of preventing or controlling the spread of infectious or contagious diseases."
Wagner said the community of Kane had a population similar in size to St. Marys in 1918 when the Spanish flu entered the country.
Kane put a moratorium on public gatherings, schools were closed, religious services were canceled etc. About 516 people in Kane caught the flu and between 20 and 50 people died from it.
In St. Marys at that time, officials waited three weeks before schools were closed and public gatherings stopped; 1,500 people caught the flu and 117 died.
If there was a pandemic today, the city could not expect support from the federal or state government because neither is equipped to respond to a pandemic flu; it would have to be addressed at the local level. Wagner said he doesn't feel the swine flu is an epidemic, but no one knows what will happen if a variation takes place with the virus that causes it.
The board of health would be able to more effectively deal with the situation if given the additional power.
I 3 percent of the people in St. Marys need to be hospitalized because of the flu, that would be about 425 people for a town with 100 hospital beds, he said.
Mayor Sally Geyer questioned the ordinance, which says the board of health members could knock on doors and enter homes.
Wagner said everyone still has constitutional rights, so the board would need to have reasonable cause and need to get a search warrant. It would be similar to the code enforcement officer entering private property.
"I don't think if it is approved it will lead to a witch hunt, but it will give the Board of Health the chance to gather research so we can be a 'Kane' and not a 'St. Marys'," Wagner said.
Councilman Dick Dornisch said he finds the whole document "extremely problematic."
Dornisch said there have been several different flus since 1918 and each one was described as terrible, but none was more mortal than the other. St. Marys was more urban than Kane in 1918 despite the population similarities, he said.
Dornisch said "2012," the flu and all of these tactics just set people up to give up their rights by dangling this alarmist stuff in front of them.
"I'm not prepared to surrender absolute legal rights," he said.
The language in the ordinance is similar to what is already in place in the city and is taken from Pennsylvania law.
There are various municipalities codes, but Home Rule Charter communities, like St. Marys, do not fall under them. St. Marys doesn't fall under the Third Class City Code, he said.
Councilman Sean Gabler said he believes the H1N1 has been blown out of proportion. Every year, thousands of people die from the flu. The ordinance gives the Board of Health the maximum authority allowed under the Constitution;l it can not go beyond that, Gabler said.
Dornisch said there are already safety nets in place, such as the hospital restricting visitors or schools closing. He said another secret service doesn't need to be in place.
"It's oppressive in its language and redundant in its aims," Dornisch said.
The council approved the ordinance for publication, 6-1, with Dornisch voting against it.
