May county commissioners directly assume the duties of local boards of health?

Under present law, counties with populations exceeding 425,000 may abolish any or all of their local human services boards (including the board of health) and permit the board of county commissioners to exercise the powers and duties of the abolished boards. The law that permits this applies to boards that are either (1) appointed by the commissioners, or (2) acting under the commissioners’ authority.[1] This clearly includes traditional county boards of health and county consolidated human services boards.  It may also include a board in a single-county public health authority, as such boards are appointed by the commissioners.

A board of county commissioners in a county that meets the population threshold would not be able to abolish a district health department or a multi-county public health authority, because the commissioners appoint only a subset of those boards’ members, the agencies represent multiple counties, and they operate pursuant to their own legal authority (rather than the county’s). The board of county commissioners could, however, withdraw its county from a multi-county arrangement.

If a board of county commissioners abolishes its local board of health, the county commissioners would acquire new powers and duties, which are described in question 5.