A NECSEMA Transparency Project
Public records obtained under G.L. c. 66, § 10
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The substantive documents in the Department of Public Health’s production, in the order the events occurred: what each one is, what it says, and a link to the file. The complete production is in the document library on the main the Department of Public Health page.
This production is the funding and procurement layer beneath the municipal record: state contracts, grant awards, vendor applications, reporting templates and expenditure reports. It was narrowed by agreement to state fiscal year 2024 and six named procurements. Page references below point into the binders as produced.
Nothing is characterized or interpreted. Where a document is ambiguous, it is quoted and left ambiguous.
The scope of this work is to build capacity within municipalities to implement policy, systems, and environmental change to promote healthier communities.
Valued at $840,000 including renewals, about $105,000 a year: one year with six annual renewal options ending June 30, 2024. The award notice states the Massachusetts Health Officers Association won the work and that “[n]o other vendors submitted proposals.” It also provides that “[o]rganizations working with the Massachusetts Tobacco Cessation and Prevention Program (MTCP) cannot accept tobacco industry contributions.”
MAHB’s Policy and Law Program has developed significant experience in assessing local public health activity and developing and implementing successful strategies that institutionalize science-based public health policy goals, including but not limited to enacting local public health laws, bylaws and ordinances.
The application describes the organization’s method through a worked example in Brockton, and says it “collaborates closely with the Mass. Municipal Assoc., the Mass. Health Officers Association, and the Public Health Advocacy Institute.” Its account of the Brockton approach: “They were very pleased to hear this; and when she asked if they might be interested in re-visiting Brockton’s tobacco sales regulations which were enacted in 1994, they stated yes.”
The other three were chosen in order to close gaps in funded communities around Boston and because these are towns in which large changes in tobacco regulations are possible and have higher rates of minorities who are targeted by tobacco companies.
The collaborative is Arlington, Belmont, Brookline as lead, Norwood, Randolph, Stoughton and Watertown; the application explains how three were selected. Of one: “Randolph in particular is in need of expanded tobacco regulations as they only have MLSA 21.”
The new grant would allow the collaborative to continue to advocate for all municipalities in the region to adopt all the newer regulations so that there are no gaps that allow underage youth to more easily purchase nicotine products.
Melrose leads a coalition of Malden, Medford, Wakefield and Winchester. The city’s health director “communicates with MA Health Officers Association (MHOA) tobacco staff funded by the tobacco program, at monthly MHOA meetings,” the application states. This is the program whose staff appear in most other productions here.
Currently, all of the participating and proposed communities (Ashland, Bedford, Concord, Holliston, Hopkinton, Hudson, Marlborough, Medway, Millis, Natick, Norfolk, Southborough, Sudbury, Wayland, and Westborough…) have strong leadership and Boards of Health that traditionally act, through adopting stringent regulations, to protect the health and wellness of their communities.
The district covering Ashland and Hopkinton, whose program manager appears in both towns’ productions. The budget gives a tobacco control manager at 1.0 full-time equivalent starting at $67,000, administrative support at $20 an hour and $32,500 for “over 400 hours dedicated to enforcement in 16 towns.”
A new Tobacco Product Sales Permit shall not be issued to any new applicant for a retail location within ____________ feet [For example Five Hundred (500), One Thousand (1,000), Two Thousand (2,000)] of an existing retailer with a valid Tobacco Product Sales Permit
Seventeen pages of template regulation with bracketed drafting options — the only model policy document the Department produced against the request item seeking birth-date-policy deliverables. The words “born” and “generation” do not appear in it. One operative definition names “the Town of Bourne” where a bracketed placeholder should be.
This line item covers malpractice insurance for Chris Banthin, a licensed attorney in MA. While Chris Banthin is careful to clarify that he is functioning in an educational capacity under this engagement, the scope of services necessitates insurance coverage for claims of malpractice.
The program total is $150,000: a program manager at 0.55 full-time equivalent, named in the narrative as Chris Banthin, at $78,194; $27,250 for a university co-op researcher on retailer clustering; $2,000 of travel for “in-person meetings with Massachusetts Boards of Health, other municipal officials, and other policy stakeholders”; $2,950 of malpractice insurance; and $22,881 as eighteen percent overhead. The Institute appears in the Amherst, Ashland, Belchertown, Dover, Easthampton, Manchester-by-the-Sea, Melrose, Newton and Somerville productions.
The contract will be in effect through 06/30/2025 with options for renewal in accordance with RFR# 190128 - Municipal Board of Health Tobacco and Public Health Policy Programs through 06/30/2028.
Marked “Funding Decrease” against a contract maximum of $542,544.56. The revised budget cuts the director line from $65,385 to $62,230.90 and zeroes an inspector line, youth buyer stipends, travel and program supplies. The federal source is a substance abuse prevention and treatment block grant.
Number of presentations of model regulation and tobacco industry tactics given to municipal decision-makers to build support for local policy change during the reporting period
The quarterly metrics include presentations to municipal decision-makers, “[n]umber of municipalities where work has been done to draft new regulations/ordinances that include model regulation language,” and “[n]umber of municipalities for which policy has been changed/created,” with counts of retailer density and cigar pricing policies passed. The same headings appear on the grant reporting forms in the Somerville and Melrose productions.
One appropriation totals $2,812,725.75. Named amounts include the Public Health Advocacy Institute $150,000; Health Resources in Action $280,132.90; the Massachusetts Municipal Association $100,800; the Massachusetts Association of Health Boards $225,000; the Massachusetts Health Officers Association $113,735; and among municipalities Leominster $152,078.72, Salem $71,500, the Boston Public Health Commission $70,000, Andover $67,847.78, Framingham $62,500, Barnstable County $61,000, Melrose $45,000 and Burlington $24,000. A second appropriation totals $898,058.17.
Enclosed please find the Final installment of records responsive to your request… DPH now considers this public records request closed.
The narrowing: request received March 25, 2026; cost estimate April 8; date range reduced April 13 to October 2023 through September 2024; a meeting April 28; written narrowing May 11 to state fiscal year 2024 and six named procurements. Redactions are asserted over personal contact information. The Department also stated during the narrowing that it “does not maintain contracts or subcontracts with the individual contractors identified in the prior submission.” The production holds blank reporting templates and guidance, no completed progress reports and no performance evaluations by grantees.