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BJ 011 d <br />BOOK ' <br />WHEREAS, the Florida Legislature has delegated to the <br />Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services ("HRS") the <br />responsibility for the state public health system to promote, <br />protect, and improve the health of all people in the state; <br />and <br />WHEREAS, HRS, in cooperation with Indian River County, <br />through the HRS -County Public Health Unit is responsible for <br />carrying out the mission of public health in Indian River <br />County by focusing attention on identifying, assessing, and <br />controlling the spread of communicable diseases and <br />monitoring and regulating those factors in the environment <br />which may impair the public's health; and <br />WHEREAS, the -Indian River County Board of County <br />Commissioners acknowledges that there is a perceived effort <br />to remove environmental health programs from the <br />responsibility of the HRS -Indian River County Public Health <br />Unit and to transfer said responsibility to an assortment of <br />other less accessible and less responsive state agencies; and <br />WHEREAS, the Indian River County Board of County <br />Commissioners supports the concept of government closer <br />to the people and opposes such a transfer as these programs <br />are vital to the protection and safety of the health and <br />citizens of Indian River County; and <br />WHEREAS, all 67 counties in the state have available <br />trained environmental health staff located in an accessible <br />county public health unit, and no other state agency that <br />would be considered in the transfer of environmental health <br />functions is known to have a local office or local presence <br />in each county; and <br />WHEREAS, in 1991, the Legislature revised Chapter 381, <br />Florida Statutes, to state that the HRS -County Public Health <br />Unit's environmental health programs are a major part of <br />fulfilling the state's public health mission and define the <br />environmental health programs to include, but not to be <br />limited to, the following: <br />30 <br />