Surprise!

I went to tonight's meeting of the Board of Health and - surprise! - the board has absolutely no say in this administrative order to New Ventures.

It's strictly up to the mayor.

You know, I wondered about the wording of his letter to the City Council -

I am writing to inform you about my decision to have the Health Director move forward with an Administrative Order to close the Crow Lane Landfill.

I looked up the definition of "administrative order" and came up with this:

Enforceable order issued by a public authority (under the powers conferred to it by one or more statutes) to an individual or an organization to take certain corrective action, or to refrain from an activity.

The definition of a "public authority" is "National, state, or local government agency."

The definition of "local government agency" is "Body of people that sets and administers public policy, and exercises executive, political, and sovereign power through customs, institutions, and laws within a state."

(This is all from businessdictionary.com)

Of course the landfill neighbors present - Terry Berns, David Chatfield and Ron Klodenski - had a few things to say to the board.

The lowdown is this: the BOH can only intervene if someone or some other body appeals the administrative order (in court) after it's issued. Then and only then can it amend or rescind the order.