Health Inspectors Take To Phones; Housing Inspectors Still Hit The Streets

City lead paint inspectors and restaurant inspectors are still doing their public health work amidst the Covid-19 crisis — primarily over the phone, not in person.

The Livable City Initiative continues to send housing code inspectors out into the field, but primarily to vacant buildings and, if for occupied residences, only on emergency calls.

And the city’s Transportation, Traffic & Parking Department has cut back on parking tickets and stopped monitoring meters, even as it continues responding to SeeClickFix complaints and issuing right-of-way permits in collaboration with the building and public works departments.

City department heads gave those updates on how the novel coronavirus outbreak has affected the day-to-day operations of city government during testimony before the Board of Alders Finance Committee regarding Mayor Justin Elicker’s proposed $569.1 million general fund budget for Fiscal Year 2020 – 2021 (FY21).

The four-and-a-half-hour meeting took place online Tuesday night via the Zoom teleconferencing app, the virtual platform that many areas of municipal government have turned to in order to keep the gears of government grinding during a public health emergency that requires social distancing to stall the spread of the infectious respiratory disease and that led the mayor to indefinitely close City Hall to the public back on March 15.

Click here to watch a full video recording of Tuesday’s budget hearing.

The mayor’s state of emergency declaration from mid-March said that City Hall would be ​“curtailing all activities except critical functions until further notice.”

During Tuesday’s Finance Committee departmental workshop on next fiscal year’s proposed budget, department heads from the city’s Community Services Administration and Economic Development Administration offered a glimpse into what some of those ​“critical functions” are, and how their departments have continued to perform them during the crisis.

The Chief Administrative Office (CAO) department heads, including top officials in the police and fire departments, are slated to present their proposed budgets to the Finance Committee on Monday, April 13.

Health Director Maritza Bond (pictured) said that lead paint hazard inspections remain a priority for the department — but now, that work takes place primarily over the phone.

“Right now all of my inspectors are telecommuting and able to log in to Maven and make assessments and follow ups through phone calls and interviews as we get through this crisis,” she said.

Bond said the same is largely true for her department’s restaurant inspectors.

“Clearly we had to take everyone from the field to the protect the health of our employees,” she said. She said the department has set up robo-calls to go out to all licensed city food service establishments, alerting them as to the latest public health protocols during the state of emergency.

She said her department is also conducting ​“teleinspections” of restaurants, whereby inspectors call licensed establishments and ​“do their inspections virtually through interviews.”

“We’ve almost transitioned into a virtual inspectors world,” Bond said. ​“But it’s working. We want to make sure that individuals know that we’re there and responsive to those needs.”

What should residents do if they notice that a food service establishment is not following the social distance guidelines covered by the governor’s and the mayor’s reduced occupancy orders? asked East Rock Alder Anna Festa (pictured).

“They can call our hotline at 203 – 946-4949,” Bond said. Residents will also soon be able to upload those concerns via SeeClickFix.

Elderly Services Director Migdalia Castro said that her department is working on putting together a Covid-19 handbook for seniors while the city’s three senior centers remain closed during the crisis.

She said her department has also put together a contact list of seniors who used to attend city senior centers and have reached out tot hem, asking how they’re doing and what they need.

And she said her department has worked with the city’s food policy director to create a ​“mobile food pantry” that distributed 220 meals to seniors last Saturday and 37 on Monday.

Youth Services Program Manager Gwendolyn Busch Williams (pictured) said that her department still hopes to hire 600 young people this summer as part of the annual Youth at Work summer jobs program.

She said that the department currently has 65 work sites that are still signed up to host the 2020 Youth at Work programs.

If those sites drop out because of the public health crisis, she said, the department is considering hosting some kind of training program for young people whereby they can come in, complete the training, and get a stipend.

“If we lose some our work sites, we will have a Plan B,” she said. ​“We are willing to adjust our programming so that we’re still able to give our young people a work experience this summer.”

Busch Williams said that only 150 youth have applied for the summer jobs program so far. She said that the department is still accepting applications, and will keep the application window open for another two weeks after whenever City Hall reopens.

City Building Official Jim Turcio said that his department is still expecting $19 million in building permit revenue next year — thanks in large part to $6 million expected from Yale New Haven Hospital as part of the beginning of its construction of a new neuroscience center and St. Raphael campus expansion. He said the city expects to bring in another $4 million next year with the beginning of the construction of a new biosciences lab and office tower at 101 College St.

“Between those two projects, that’s $10 million alone,” Turcio said. ​“We’re only up against $9.5 million for the rest of the year.”

“And you’re confident there’s enough building going on in New Haven to make $9.5 million” in building permits? asked Westville Alder and Finance Committee Vice-Chair Adam Marchand (pictured).

“Easy,” Turcio replied.

Livable City Initiative (LCI) Executive Director Serena Neal-Sanjurjo said that housing code inspectors are still out in the city, investigating buildings to make sure they’re in compliance with city housing safety code.

“They’re doing those that are empty and they’re doing emergency calls for housing code only at this point,” she said. They’re largely refraining from conducting non-emergency residential inspections.

“Even in this crisis we’re receiving between 25 and 40 calls a day,” she said. ​“We are fielding those calls and we’re sending inspectors where we can to make sure they are safe and there are no issues.”

And city transit chief Doug Hausladen (pictured) said that his department is still fielding phone calls and responding to SeeClickFix complaints. He said his staff is working with the building department and the Department of Public Works on right-of-way permits, and is continuing its involvement in major infrastructure projects like Downtown Crossing, Phase 2.

They’ve also stopped monitoring parking meters, reduced the number of parking enforcement officers out issuing tickets, and put a pause on parking ticket escalations through April 30. The mayor has also suspended the vehicle tax and parking ticket scofflaw towing contract, he said.

What kind of impact will the temporary suspension of parking tickets have on city revenue? asked Festa.

City Acting Budget Director Michael Gormany said that he plans to take a look at the entirety of March’s expenditures and revenues next week and to provide an update to the Board of Alders as to exactly how much of a hit he expects the Covid-19 pandemic should have on this fiscal year’s budget.

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that TTP has put a pause on issuing new parking tickets. It has instead stopped monitoring meters and has reduced the number of parking enforcement officers out in the field.