Neighbors Press For Action On Dumping

The city can fine you for not shoveling your sidewalk or for dumping bulk trash outside your property. But until now, there has been little it can do to enforce those fines.

That’s about to change, now that the city has finally found a qualified person willing to volunteer time to adjudicate appeals to fines.

Neighborhood groups have been waiting for that change and pushing for help in tackling illegal dumping and other public-space violations.

The East Rock Community Management Team voted at its monthly meeting this week at mActivity gym on Niccoll Street to formally support a letter that the Downtown-Wooster Square Community Management Team (DWSCMT) recently sent to the Board of Alders regarding the issue of public space violations and fines. The letter requests that the alders hold a hearing on how the city might better enforce city ordinances related to public space requirements, like snow and leaf removal and bulk trash pick-up. It also requests that alders look into how other municipalities handle this issue.

“The DWS Livable Cities Initiative Specialist leaves violators of such ordinances notes, hoping they will comply with the law,” reads the letter, which was sent to the alders on May 18 and is signed by all eight members of DWSCMT’s executive board. ​“But [she] has no enforcement power. Her efforts therefore have limited impact.”

Click here to read the full letter.

During Monday night’s meeting in East Rock, Ward 7 alder candidate and DWSCMT member Abby Roth explained that this lack of enforcement power not only means that people are violating city laws because of an absence of a meaningful deterrent. It also means that the city is losing out on money at a time when the city budget is looking pretty dire.

“If [our LCI neighborhood specialist] fines someone and that person contests the fine, there’s no process for someone to have a hearing over it,” Roth said. ​“So, for any of these public space violations, the city’s losing money. It’s a $250 fine for a lot of these things, and at a recent public budget hearing the public works department said that they see these violations all the time and there’s nothing they can really do to collect this money.”

The problem, LCI Specialist Linda Davis-Cannon said, is that the city has since last spring had no one responsible for hearing appeals on public space violations.

“That’s really the missing piece: the hearing officer,” she told the room. ​“You need someone who’s going to enforce the fines.” Then, if the fine recipients want to contest the charge, she said, ​“they can go to the hearing officers, who say yay or nay.”

“People do get fined,” she continued, in response to a question about whether the problem involves a lack of enforcement or the inability to enforce a fine. ​“And some people are willing to just pay. And some people get fined and don’t care about paying, or they don’t have the money and can’t afford it. A hearing officer would help enforce those fines by presiding over appeals.”

The position in question is formally ​“citation officer, hearing officer for anti-blight and residential licensing.” It is a volunteer position. A former LCI official, Gary Hogan, held that position, then resigned it last spring, according to LCI Deputy Director Rafael Ramos. It wasn’t easy finding a replacement, for two reasons: The job doesn’t pay. And it requires someone with a background in housing code enforcement.

Ramos said he city finally found that person in Cynthia Texiera. The mayor formally appointed Texiera to the position a few months ago, and it was heard by the Board of Alders (which doesn’t need to vote on the appointment).

Texiera is a retired state employee who handled code enforcement disputes as a housing court mediator, Ramos said. ​“She’s a real hands-on person.” She just started in the position. Hearings take place every month or two, Ramos said. LCI’s putting together the first three to five cases to be heard at the first session.

Root Causes

Before the East Rock team voted on whether or not to reach out to the alders in support of the DWSCMT letter, East Rock resident Sarah Ofosu raised a concern about the bigger picture behind public space violations, independent of the city’s ability to enforce fines.

“Are we thinking about what is causing people to leave trash out there in the first place?” she asked. She said that when she was moving from her old apartment, she had to drive to an office that was open only between 12 and 4 p.m. to fill out a form and pay $50 in order to get the appropriate bulk trash pick-up to come to her place.

“I’m thinking of a lot of people in our communities who can’t afford to go and take that time during the work day, and get a form, and pay for bulk pick-up,” she said.

Smith-Cannon said that she agrees that not everyone has the time and $50 and a truck. The team decided to invite a representative from the Department of Public Works (DPW) to its next meeting to discuss how best to amend the current bulk pick-up set up so that it is not as cumbersome or potentially exclusive.

Nevertheless, the team unanimously supported the notion that the city should investigate some better way to enforce these fines, and subsequently voted to support the DWSCMT letter.

DPW Director Jeff Pescosolido estimated that his department issues over 1,000 citations and warnings a year for dumping violations. The return of the hearing officer will certainly help address the problem, he said Thursday. His department has one full-time inspector devoted to public space concerns.He reported that his department is considering an internal reorganization that would beef up that staff.