Updates from Last Week

• NFL Draft funding passes unanimously, with council members committing to monitor how funds are allocated.

Special Session on Trash Can Fines

Councilman Charland led a meeting focused on the proposed fines with Eric Contakos, Inspections Supervisor - Department of Public Works, detailing the current enforcement of trash can rules:

• Approximately 3-month turnaround time from initial complaint of rule violations to resolution
• After inspection, violations are referred to the magistrate court for a hearing in front of a judge
• Approximately 9,000 case files from 15,000 inspections in the last year
• 13% of cases resulted in criminal complaints

Based on this week’s meeting, the goal of the proposed fines is to reduce the turnaround time from complaint to clean-up and remove the dependency on the magistrate court system. Also mentioned, the mayor’s draft budget includes funds to hire additional inspectors.

Councilman Charland also mentioned that the legislation will incorporate feedback from the previous session: tickets will include information in multiple languages.

note

The video for Wednesday’s Standing Committee meeting had not been posted as of 12pm on Friday and will be covered in next weeks newsletter. Potentially interesting are proposed changes to rules around signage/digital billboards on the North Shore.