City Council - City Services Committee Hearing on Docket #1804

Thank you.

Good morning. For the record, my name is Ed Flynn, District 2 City Councillor, Chair of the Boston City Council Committee on City Services. Today is October 23rd, 2026. The exact time is 10.02. This hearing is being recorded. It is being live streamed at boston.gov citycouncil-tv.com and Broadcast on Xfinity, Channel 8 RCN, Channel 82 Fios, Channel 964. Written comments may be sent to the committee email at ccc.csit at boston.gov and will be made a part of the record and available to all city councilors Public testimony will be taken throughout the hearing.

Individuals will be called on in order, in which they are signed up and we'll have two minutes to testify. I also know that there's people on Zoom virtually that want to testify as well. If you are interested in testifying in person, please add your name to the sign-up sheet near the entrance of the Ayanella Chamber as you walk in If you are looking to testify virtually, please email our City Council Central Staff Liaison Megan at meagan.coruge D-O-M-A-R-T-I-N at boston.gov let me repeat that email again m e a g a n dot

C-O-R U G E D O M A R T I N at boston.gov for the link and your name will be added to the list Today's hearing is on docket 1804. It's an order for a hearing to discuss the status of the Boston Road Action Plan. The matter was sponsored by Councilor Liz Breadon, Councilor Ed Flynn and was referred to the committee on September 23rd, 2026. I am joined by city councilors in order of arrival. City Council President and Liz Breadon. I'm going to give an opportunity for Council President Breadon to speak.

Opening statement as well after the council president. I will give an opportunity for the invited panel to provide an opening statement and the administration team that is present includes John Elrick, Assistant Commissioner Environmental Sanitation, Inspectional Service Department. Luke Hines, Co-Chair Boston Road and Action Plan. Josh Uffring, Chief of Maintenance and Inspections at the Boston Housing Authority. And Jeff Kaplan who's at the DUA team, Information Technology City of Boston. But I do want to give Council President Breadon an opportunity, and then I'll speak after Council Breadon. Council Bradon, you have the floor.

Thank you so much, Chair Flynn. And thank you for partnering with me on this hearing and thank you to the panelists for being here today. I also want to thank all the Boston residents with quite a few folks who have actually taken the time I want to thank you all for taking the time to show up, send in your comments or if you're watching online. Big shout out to the folks in Alston Brighton who are checking, listening in at home. Rodent activity remains to be one of the most frequent concerns that we hear about from our constituents. The Boston Rodent Action Plan was released in 2024 as an initiative intended to streamline and improve the City's rodent control efforts. It called for stronger inspections and enforcement, better waste management practices Improved data collection and coordination across city departments.

The report also outlined priority action neighbourhoods, PANS where road in control efforts were to be targeted My district of Alston Brighton is the second highest priority PAN in the Boston Road and Action Plan. Two years later, we're still waiting for... We have not received a public update on the Rodent Action Plan, which is really important. We're hoping to get some really good updates on the action plan this morning. Austin Brighton is waiting for targeted interventions promised There were discussions about rodent-resistant trash cans for Alston Village, but we're still waiting for those to be installed. Last month Boston hosted the National Urban Summit League bringing together researchers, public health professionals

and municipal leaders to discuss new approaches to our road in control. This hearing is the council requesting an update on the status of the Road Action Plan, and I look forward to hearing from inspectional services and other departments Thank you all for being here this morning. I look forward to the conversation and Thank you, Chair Flynn.

Thank you Council President I'm going to hold off on my opening statement at this time. I may do it later but i want to go right to the administration for opening statement So of the four of you, do you all want to speak?

Thank you, Councillor. We actually have a presentation that we submitted to central staff. Is it possible that we can pull that presentation up and do that for our opening statement?

Sure. How much time do you need for that?

I think we can get through in about 12 minutes.

Okay, I'll give you 12 minutes Just give me just give me a second

No worries.

After the 12 minutes, instead of us going into questions I'm gonna take an opportunity to... There's three or four people on Zoom. I may take an I ask them to testify. They include Bonnie, Kelly, Valene Smith and someone with the initial D. So I may take those four after you give your opening statement. So for those four people, On Zoom, I'll be calling on you shortly after the testimony. It seems like the live stream is down.

Let us take a brief recess.

Thanks for watching!

We are back on the record. There might still be a technology issue, but I would ask if people would go to youtube.com slash Boston City Council TV. And if I get another update, I will pass it along but we are experiencing some Technology challenges with getting this information out. Having said that, I want to go directly to John Elrick for your presentation.

Thank you Chair, thank you Councilor. So as Councilor Brayden mentioned, we're really grateful to be here today to provide an update on the status of the Boston Road and Action Plan. If you flip to the next slide just want to start with a quick agenda of what we plan to cover here today so We're going to start just giving folks an overview of what is the action plan, who's involved in BRAP and kind of some of the key focus areas that Brayden outlined in her opening remarks. We're going to transition into talking a little bit around the response efforts to some of the road complaints that we've received over the last many months, and then talk a little bit about the end, about some of the cross-departmental programs initiatives that we have underway and that are upcoming and planned over the next couple of months. So as we transition into the next slide here, really just want to give folks an overview and understanding of what the Boston Road in Action Plan is.

As Councilor Breadon mentioned, a little over two and half years ago under Mayor Moussaoui's leadership we launched the Boston Road in Action Plan. It is a cross-departmental coordinated effort and Dr. Bobby Corrigan, one of the world's leading rodentologists came to this city to do an analysis around some of the challenges that we were facing and put together some recommendations which we follow to help kind of influence our plan and also help us reduce rodent activity here in the city. And so some of these priority areas, as the councilor mentioned is really taking this city-wide coordinated approach utilizing new technology. Really trying to get a better sense using data kind of what are the different interventions that are the most successful, educating residents as residents play a really big role in helping us to reduce rodent population here in the city. and focusing on some of the root drivers of rodent population, which is trash collection. And so our goal of BRAP is to measurably reduce rodent populations and really try to improve the quality of life

by improving basic city services across all neighborhoods. And so just quickly highlighting who is involved in BRAP, BRAP is a city-wide department wide effort we have over 18 departments that are involved in this initiative It's led out of the mayor's office, out of Chief Dion Irish's cabinet. And we co-chair it alongside myself and John but many of the different departments that are joined alongside me here today and that you see listed on this screen. And this map just on the right side of the screen highlights many of the different interventions and pilot programs that different departments have taken on and are moving forward over the last six months and going forward. highlighting our sewer traps, our surface traps, different sensors, the barrel toppers and new rodent resistant bins we have in parks. talking a little bit around the tree pit work that we've done and highlighting some of the other mitigation efforts that we do to reduce rodent population here in the city. And so with that, I'm going to pass it over to John to talk a little about the work his team does to address some of these complaints.

Thanks Luke, so these are some of the numbers since January 1st. So my team we have 13, 14 licensed inspectors, but one of those is the chief inspector and a director. And we are an enforcement team. Our main function is the enforcement of the state sanitary code and we respond to 311 complaints. So since January 1st, we've responded to 6,018 rodent complaints. We have conducted 750 rodent treatments A lot of that is baiting sewers or using carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. We've issued 785 violations, and so when we issue a violation, they are served either by priority mail or by constable.

And then when you receive a violation from the data service, you have seven days to correct that violation If you don't correct the violation in that time, you're sent to an administrative hearing to give another opportunity to correct a violation. If it's not corrected at that time you're send to housing court. We've also conducted 3,000 dumpster inspections. This is our site cleanliness program so every licensed dumpster gets a annual inspection to make sure it's functioning and that it's containing trash properly. 210 construction sanitation inspections, that is our community sanitation program Any kind of permit that you pull, whether it's demolition or any kind of construction that may disperse or affect rodent population if they're on the property. They are required to have pest control

and an inspection by a licensed pest control technician. Then we inspect the property to make sure that happened, and then we've conducted 25 community walkthroughs so if an area has multiple Complaints and they need a little more attention. We work with the Office of Neighborhood Services and our own constituent services to conduct neighborhood walkthroughs, to do education and enforcement. Next slide. This is just a slide to talk about the coordinated response within ISD. We have 14 inspectors that are licensed to do pest control and deal primarily with rats, but within ISD we have almost 60 inspectors that can deal with rat related complaints.

We have housing inspectors that deal with the interior of buildings and rental units, we also have health inspectors permitted food establishments. And so this case was a complicated case, a large building in downtown Boston, where it had 12 stories and a lot of roading pressure. They had commercial condos on the first floor and the situation was pretty bad. So we, along with the housing division and the health division, we showed up and did a coordinated inspection We then set up weekly meetings with the management team. We made a list of recommendations, one was that they hired a consultant to deal

specific vulnerabilities of that building which they did and they conducted a report. We then met with them every week to make sure that the violations were being All the commercial units. and every residential unit was offered an inspection, and we were able to resolve the violations. Next slide, I'll turn it over to Jeff to talk a little bit about the data.

Good morning, I'm Jeff Kaplan. I'm from the city's analytics team and yeah, I am going to talk How data has supported the BRAC program throughout its life? So we've primarily used data in two areas. The first is basically to evaluate whether interventions have been effective, and second is to support teams like John's team with data for proactive mitigation strategies. So I'll start by talking about some of the data collection tools that we use and just generally like the process of how we're thinking How to use data to evaluate. So generally our process has been to start by taking a baseline measurement, so that's like getting there before we do anything just seeing what the level of rodent activity is Then, making an intervention and then after the intervention using control sites to compare against and say okay do we think that this intervention was actually effective at reducing rodent activity. So two of the programs that we're going to highlight here have been our ground sensor program.

So those are the charts that you can see on the left here. Basically, these are little tiny sensors about the size of an AirPod case that go in bait boxes with non-toxic bait and every time a rodent comes into that bait box, it detects them and measures their presence. So we use that program to try to measure some things like trash topper improvements around parks The other technology we're going to highlight here is some camera sensor technology that we worked with. Extrasense was a company we worked on this, and the idea here is that the camera uses an algorithm to detect the presence of rodents and many more. two different ways that we were using basically to collect this data. But in both cases, it was trying to see are the interventions that we have effective? Next slide please.

And then in terms of proactive mitigation, we've been working. We've been trying a lot of different things to work with John's team to try to give them the tools to have a better and more proactive approach to mitigation So this is something we've landed on and we're hoping to sort of launch and pilot with his team this fall and winter. We call it our hotspot model, so you can see here there are kind Thank you. and elevated level of violations in this area. Another is 311 complaint clusters, and specifically areas where there haven't been too many violations or inspections in the last several months but we are seeing an uptick in 301 cases. And then the last is a block group with the longest time since ISD has done an inspection. So this just keeps places with fewer 301 complaints and violations in mind as well.

and all this is just being a way to sort of like make the data legible for John's team, easier for them to access and use in their day-to-day work. Next slide. And then lastly, sort of the next phase of this. We're doing another pilot in partnership with a research institute called Basis AI and they are a group of rodent behavioral researchers. And so, they use audio to detect rodent presence and sort of use it as like an ultrasonic level, so outside the range of human hearing and essentially we've been working with them so far on six sites. We've seen a lot of really good preliminary success on this, of them using this technology to measure rodent activity in sort of like a more reliable way than what we've able to do so far and they're a really great team with a lot of really useful experience for this so we're excited to partner with them moving forward. I'll pass back to Luke, I think? I can take this.

So the next is containerization of trash. With BRAP, we are looking to containerize trash where we can We're focused on improving street barrels and park litter baskets. And so our new rodent resistant barrels, we started in the Boston Commons with the with the new Victor Stanley rodent resistant barrel. We also installed the Victor Stanley on some of the street in the north end. Recently, we've replaced all the street barrels in Chinatown and Mattapan Square and every new park will have these new rodent resistant barrels in their specs. The barrel top is a less expensive, We're also trying to measure

The impact of that on the rodent pressure around the barrels. Next slide So we also want to think about rats when we're designing parks and we're thinking about building. This slide below the pictures are of a park in the north end Catillo Park. So the park was designed and had some issues where There was some initial rodent resistance thought into the design, but rats are really clever and found some real vulnerabilities with this. and so we had to go back and think about the design and how we could keep rats out.

And so, we went back removed the decking There was a void between the decking and the ground where rats took advantage of. And so as you can see on some of the pictures in the below, the tree pits use this resin We also filled the void beneath the decking. Moving forward, I myself meet with the parks team as they design parks There was one recently in East Boston where we look at the design and if we think about rats, in the design phase It really doesn't add any cost or significant costs to the product. So we also I work with public facilities to add rodent recommendations, rodent resistance in the design standards. One of the buildings that

One of the first buildings that received those changes was the library in Eggleston Square. And moving forward, we're going to work on a document for public facilities I'm going to turn it over to Josh to talk about housing.

Good morning, councillors. Thank you for the opportunity to speak about the BHA's enthusiastic partnership with the BRAP along with other 20 plus sister agencies The Boston Housing Authority for its pot has dedicated a rodent reduction team Full time to the treatment of rats and other rodent pests. That's now four full-time staff who work 40 hours a week taking the fight to the rat's house, so to speak Identifying Burrows, and full-time treatment basically 365 days a year. This has really enhanced service delivery most importantly Previously, we would rely on our IPM pest control partners to sort of handle the job for us. And now if we get a resident complaint or 311 complaint Any forum, really.

A complaint comes in about boroughs or rat sightings. We have a dedicated team that goes out there and again takes the fight to them. Administrator Bach in the last bargaining contract with the laborers BHA has offered an enhanced salary for anyone who gets their pesticide license, and that's whether or not you use the license. So the BHA is encouraging all of its staff to become educated in rodent reduction as well. Next slide, I think. And some of the sort of modern things we're thinking about. And I know that through the, what was it? The participatory budget in your district, Councilor Breadon. We are working on a very new pilot program at our Commonwealth site that's really a holistic approach to it

It involves containerization, education of residents who are definitely partners in this fight and sort of more proactive engagement with residents because we certainly understand from our participation in the BRAP that we can't exterminate this problem away. and that we have to take a sort of, again, a holistic approach around that. And that's what we're doing. We started with new containers that are brought in Proof, to the extent that that's possible. Commercial level hauling to basically keep the pads and areas clean Um, in between pickups and also where we're rolling out a compost program to try and you know there's a number of reasons why the BHA is interested in that but as it relates to rodents If you take the food away from the waste stream, of course that's going to have a dramatic impact. Thank you for allowing me to share.

I'll turn it back to Luke.

Thank- thank you.

Councilor, we just have a couple more slides if that's okay? We'll be very quick, I promise. So just want to highlight a little bit of the work of Boston Water and Sewer because they're another critical partner to us in this work. And so some of the things that Boston Water & Sewer has been piloting is really better understanding what subsurface rodent population is, We've been working with them on deploying sewer traps as well as sewer sensors across various rat vulnerable sewers throughout the city. And so a rat vulnerable sewer is a sewer that is 14 feet in diameter, low flow and made of brick And so we have some of these sewer systems in key areas such as the North End, Chinatown, South Boston, areas of the city with older infrastructure. And so we've deployed over 25 sewer traps in the North End and in the Back Bay, which helped us not only mitigate rats but also collect valuable data points around where we're seeing these high populations. to help us better understand some of the different findings around those rat-vulnerable sewers and how populations thrive there.

And so in the coming weeks, in addition to some of sewer traps and sensors we already have deployed, we're working with Basis AI as Jeff mentioned to deploy some of their audio devices in key areas such as the North End and in South Boston where we have some of these rat vulnerable sewers, to better understand that rodent population. And help us also understand We're going to use this device to help us better understand the hypotheses that we have. And finally, just want to highlight some of the work that Councilor Breadon mentioned around the National Urban Rat Summit. So we were very grateful that many of the world's leaders in this industry look to Boston to host the National Rat Summit because of the great work that we've been doing here. And so what happened at the National Rats Summit was on the 23rd and 24th of September,

Over a hundred different academics, cities, pest professionals come to Boston and really share some of the different strategies and solutions that are new and up-and-coming. and it was an opportunity for us to share what we've been doing and also learn as we continue to move into the next phase. So, the right side of the slide and I won't read all these just some of the key takeaways of the things that we want to focus on from the things we heard at the summit And just finally, the last slide here is letting folks know that education and making sure residents know how they can help us prevent rodent activity is really important. So we have all of these different strategies and solutions on our website, boston.gov slash rats. We also have an email which is rats at boston dot gov. We encourage residents to reach out to us. We're happy to always meet with them provide them with some solutions that you see on this slide for how they can prevent rodent activity in their yard or in their neighborhood. And if you see rodent activities, we just encourage residents to submit this to 311

John and his team have a response rate of 24 to 48 hours, and we just want to make sure that we're responsive, educating residents, and really trying to achieve the ultimate goal of BRAP, which is to drive down rodent population and improve the quality of life for all residents. Thank you.

Thank you. You requested 12 minutes initially. I let you go over significantly longer. I want to be respectful to you, but I'm the chair of the committee.

We appreciate the extra time.

I'm going to go to public testimony on Zoom. Let me start with, and I don't like to cut people off We're also joined by City Councilor Durkan. We're joined by city councilor Murphy. I want to go to Bonnie and give Bonnie an opportunity to provide public testimony. I'm going to give each person that testifies two minutes, but I don't like to cut people off whether it's the public or my city council colleagues or the administration. So I'll give you a grace period Please try to respect the two minutes. Bonnie, you're up please.

Yes, hello can you hear me?

Yes we can Bonnie welcome.

Yes yeah thank you Councillor I met two nights ago on the walk on ComAv so I'm Bonnie Weiss I'm a property owner at 58 Commonwealth Avenue. My husband and I own the Brownstone. So after 15 years of living here, my humble observations are that as long The trash collection remains the same. We will continue to have rats. We are required to put all of our garbage out in plastic bags. The bags get ripped, They fall onto the drive area, cars run over them. There's shards of glass and it happens every week. So on the residential side, that happens. On the opposite side which is the rear of Newberry Street between Berkeley and Clarendon streets there's a lot of food Commercial.

The business is there, plus there's the Church of the Covenant we're at directly behind it and we have Rosie's Place. The containers that they use are often overflowing. One actually fell into the road the other day as I was driving and a lot of food spilled out, and I said to the person From the restaurant, I said are you going to pick this up? I need to drive by. And he kind of laughed and then he pushed it back into place. So it's just a chronic problem because as long as the plastic bags are out there and rats can chew into them, We have individuals who look for cans, and they sometimes disrupt the bags and don't put them back where they need to be. There's wind, there's vehicles. It's just a chronic problem. I sight rodents during the day, and it's very troubling. That's my testimony.

Thank you for your testimony, very helpful. We appreciate it. Could I go to the initial D that is testifying? D? Okay. D, you're up.

Good morning. Sorry, can you hear me now? Yes we can. Okay, one thing that I've heard throughout this testimony is that it's talking about property owners but yet the city has property that isn't maintained either directly what they own or Things that they should be able to contact who owns them. One major issue is bays water right across from the City of Boston Senior Center Four months ago, I opened up two cases. The first one was closed out and said transitions. The second one, which I opened a week later, was noted as duplicated. When I opened up cases two months ago again for the same location, the first one was labeled as transitioned and not city property. The second one was then transitioned and called Joe Ruggiero. George Urio is a private individual who owns a funeral home around the corner. This is the Hero Square at Bayswater and Saratoga, which was left absolutely disgusting right across from the Senior Center so

Our city councilor was there, saw the trash pile. Public Works is driving by it. It's a city property and there's this trash pile across the street and it sat there for a month Also at the same time, on the end of Bayswater and Avoy, on August 4th there was a body found in the water. If you look at the news photos, you will see the trash pile there. On August 5th, Councilor Coletta Zapata did her road walkthrough, photographed that same pile. Two weeks later I opened up a case it said closed while it was still there I opened up another case and that case is still open after two months. I sat there and took it upon myself and called Massport and got it removed within 45 minutes. But two weeks after our councillor did a walkthrough, photographed that trash pile it was still sitting there. And in general Bayswater is a place where people come drink

Throw their bottles, they get fast food, throw their trash in the bushes and it sits there. There was recently a cleanup by Bank of America and I think that saw at least two dozen trash bags. So not only these people A open container B probably drinking and driving, but they're littering and causing the rodent problem. and the city departments are saying, transition not our problem. Point the other way but it doesn't matter because then the city is spending money on roading control instead of actually dealing with the issues D, why don't you finish up your comment please? Um, that's all I have to say is it's you know this area is a constant problem and our city councilor came out here and said she was going to do something about it yet nothing is being done. And this is all just trash right out in the open At the same time, I've seen ISD ticket to dumpster across the street from that trash pile multiple times without actually picking up that trash file.

Actually, one other thing I'd like to add too is that one time we had a dead rabbit. Someone from DPW picked it up. I asked him, I said, who's in charge of the square up there? He's like, oh, I saw it drive you in. He's He drives back around five minutes later and was told, told us that his supervisor at DPW told him not to pick up that trench. Even though it had been there for weeks. I understand.

Thank you D. Thank You Thank you. I'm going to ask if we can bring in Lydia Lowe on Zoom. Lydia, you're up. Good morning, Lydia. You might be on mute but good morning Lydia.

Sorry.

Yep we can hear you go ahead Lydia

Good morning and thank you for holding this hearing. This is a very important issue. I'm Lydia Lowe from the Chinatown Community Land Trust, The rodent problem is very serious in Chinatown. I personally was part of that metropolitan building Thank you for joining us today. New technology and other good practices to tackle the problem. I just wanted to raise that the rat problem, it's very closely linked to other infrastructure problems. And one issue that's, I think important in Chinatown

is that we have very old infrastructure that dates back to the early 1800s. So there were streets and alleys that are private ways, that have not historically been served by the city and that includes some of these. There are some private ways that are so small, there's no trash pickup on the street And so, you know trash would have to be brought people to do. And then we have small, these small older homes the row houses where there isn't really a common space to store a trash container

So what we end up is a lot of tenants in Chinatown leaving trash bags directly on the street that are not containerized. You know, education is really important but also there's a limit to what education is going to accomplish because if the tenants don't have a trash bin because there's no place in their building for their landlord to provide it, then they're gonna just keep leaving it on the street. So I feel like some of these issues need bigger solutions Thinking about trash containerization, maybe the city needs to play a role in particular neighborhoods or spots like Chinatown where You know, you have trash containers that could be owned by the city that are available for residents to put their trash into. Otherwise we continue to have this problem

One of our properties is sort of like the trash dumping area for our part of the neighborhood. And, you know, the other thing I just want to raise is that I think we also need to crack down on abandoned buildings because there are these buildings where owners are just sitting on them and not doing anything with the property for like 10 years, 20 years. and the rodents run free, and they make their nests in these yards. So I feel like if the city can crack down on these absentee landlords who are doing nothing but sitting on their property for speculative reasons that would help the situation also. Thank you.

Thank You Lydia, thank you for the important work you're doing in Chinatown greatly appreciate it and I know we do have an abandoned building Right next to the Chinatown Gate that is a major concern for all of us. Thank you, thank you Lydia. I'm gonna go to one more public... I'm going to go to on more virtual testimony then I'm try to do some in-person testimony I'm gonna try to balance it a little bit. Harry on Zoom, you're up. Good morning, Harry.

And in the meantime, I'm gonna have some people start coming down to the microphone. Harry you have to accept to be promoted toward the panel. Please. But in the meantime, could I ask the following people to come down and maybe line up in both microphones? Councilor Julia Mejia is present. Could Susan please come down, David? Fran Gozzi? and Allie, maybe two on each side. Harry go ahead please. You might be on mute but go ahead Harry.

Well, in the meantime Susan why don't you go ahead please.

Good morning everybody my name is Susan Buda I live at 9 Nock Street in Boston and I hold the community relations seat at the Bay Village Neighborhood Association First, I'd like to thank Councilor Flynn and all the city councilors that are here. We really appreciate your attendance. And especially to City Services who really do try and seem generally concerned about the problem. We have a lot of work to do though. So Bay Village is old. We don't have alleys, we don't outdoor storage. Our trash is put on the streets and we see rats scurrying every day. It was even funny, at our block party we saw rats out and there were 120 people on the street. And yet they were still bold enough to come out. It's a problem. Visitors notice in this city. Matter of fact, last night somebody noticed who was a visitor from Chicago and said oh we saw a rat I'm glad you're going to this hearing

The only answer to this problem is to reduce and cut the food source, as we've heard. Except for... We have to put out our trash the night before at 5 p.m., garbage can go out, until 6 a.m. to the next morning So the Bratz have an entire night to feast. Now why don't we put our trash out in the morning? It's because our trash has to be out by 6 a.m. In the previous contract that was waste management, we had to put out our trash at 7 a.m., and that made a difference. People were up, they were on their way to work, they'd put their trash out in the morning. It didn't solve the whole problem But there's a heck of a lot more trash with the 6 AM pickup, because people aren't going to get up at 5 AM to put their trash out. We also have vandalism.

Yes, cans and bottles are cut off and put in their trash instead of recycling. And honestly that's on us as a neighborhood also to do a lot more education and we are committed to that but What about the vandals that went down Fayette Street last week and opened every bit of trash and started dumping it out? How do we fight that? The third thing I'd like to bring out is the garbage-to-garden expansion. It is such a great idea! I have participated in garbage to garden since I got one of the first bins, and I have been religious about putting all my food scraps out there. The expansion is a great idea, but it is misplaced right now. Our neighborhood should not have to bear the street trash pickup and reduced food expansion pickup. So right now, well we used to have until October 1st bi-weekly pickup.

I mean, I'm sorry weekly pick up. Now it has changed to every two weeks. This is going to be a problem And we'll enhance rat and rabbit infestation because I can't miss a pickup. If I miss one, then it's a month before my trash is picked up. Even in the summer, even missing one weekly pickup meant that I had to remove hundreds of fruit fly larvae. from my bin, the little egg cases and stuff. They weren't quite hatched but if I miss one it's a problem. If I missed one of the every other week pickups Now we're talking that I have a full infestation and that's, I'm not gonna be able to tolerate that. Or, I know, I can pay for one more pickup But I pay tens of thousands of dollars in taxes. I'm doing my part to reduce my trash.

I am recycling vigorously, I am doing the food program and now I'm gonna have to pay more? In a place where I have to put my food on the street, I don't think this is a good idea. So we do need to expand strategically, especially in the neighborhoods that have to put their trash on the street. We want to keep this going. We are committed but you know I just I can't leave that food for a month in my bins. And my neighbor does send greetings to you all, for our current rodent practices which although They're trying, it's not good enough. He had a lovely time cleaning out in 90 degree temperatures a dead rat from his backyard and didn't really think he thought you should know. All right thank you so much and I appreciate everybody.

Thank you, Susan. I do want to go to Harry one last time before we continue with in-person testimony.

Okay, thank you. Can you hear me now?

Yes, we can.

Good morning, Gary. Thank you very much. I'll be quick because I think a major problem I see in this neighborhood is putting like the previous woman spoke about bring the trash out the night before. They have a banquet there, the night is four and I go by at night and I see the rats just going into all the trash containers. Why can't we go back to picking up telling people To put the trash out and have the city change that policy to put the Trash Out the morning of because our trash gets picked up at 10 30 11 o'clock sometimes two o' clock in the afternoon so it's So it sounds like an easy fix. So that's my big issue and I appreciate everybody's help on this issue, thank you.

Thank you Harry, thank for your critical leadership The South End and throughout the city as well. I want to continue with the public testimony, then I'm going to go back to begin the questioning for my colleagues. David? Good morning, David.

Thanks, Councillor Flynn. First of all, I recognize that this issue is as old as the Boston Hills. But I want to give a little bit of perspective in December 8th 2022 there was a hearing in this chamber on this subject and the whereas clauses in the order for that meeting are exactly the same as the whereas clause is today. So we're here four years later talking about the same issues in the same way In the interim, I appreciate the work that is being done by the Action Committee. But I have two suggestions, two simple suggestions. One is, and this was not incorporated in the Action I believe there needs to be a rat czar. Somebody needs to own this problem, it has to be the name and face of the solution to this problem With 20 committees and agencies and departments, it's very difficult. And I appreciate the challenge of coordinating the effort. I think somebody needs to own it.

If somebody doesn't own it, it doesn't get done. Second suggestion is, we have adequate or at least somewhat adequate code Regulations in the code today, but enforcement is a problem particularly in areas where containerization is not possible. All we need to do is enforce the timing, whether it's the night before or the day of. There's still a lot of transgressions of that issue and then the second issue an example Thank you. Thank you very much. There's no enforcement of that problem and when there is no enforcement, there isn't sufficient compliance. Thanks very much.

Thank you David. I do want to respond to the Barraza comment you made, but out of respect to the public. I'll respond later. But I respect your comments and agree with you. Francosi.

Yes, that's me. Yeah, good morning. It's good to be with you. Good morning and thank you everybody for all your efforts which I applaud. I think that there was all this very sophisticated methods are necessary But at the same time, and I'm here on a very personal and non-concerned citizen because I do not have this problem personally. By the same token you see a lot of and I'm not talking about the trash containers. Talking about sidewalks, these restaurants that have set up their little cafes on the sidewalks just Cambridge Street right near here I don't even want to walk on Cambridge Street because sitting right across from a major world-renowned hospital You have this filth. And no offense, but I walked into City Hall today for the first time. The welcoming carpet outside itself is filthy.

So we have to teach and I think Clorox I mean, at home I'm called Mrs. Clorox. But I think that in other countries you clean sidewalks with Clorax almost on a daily basis and eliminate the grease accumulation and I think that should be also one of the methods. Thank you very much.

Thank, thank you very, very much we're also joined by City Councilor Lucie Louis-Jeanne and finally, Allie. Good morning, Alli.

Good Morning. Thank you Ed for chairing this important initiative I too was President at that 2022 public testimony. I've also collaborated very closely with Luke and John Ulrich in the Boston Rad Action Road and Action Plan Team. I also sit on a neighborhood board in Back Bay, although my opinions here are explicitly as a resident perspective. and I'm happy to hear, I see a couple of remote people were testimonying from my area. They are block captains. We run a very large block captain program in Back Bay probably the largest in the city and one of the largest on the East Coast. But a couple of things that have been brought to my attention Our damages to automobiles.

We are having an increased amount of car wiring being eaten, chewed through by rats and we've done a lot of education to get people to move their cars more regularly So that they're not sitting stagnant and experiencing those catastrophic damages. And upwards of this week, one of the block captains themselves had $6,000 of damages to their vehicle and not all insurance companies are covering for the repairs of this. I do advocate, and I would implore the Boston Rat I wrote an action committee to really let's see if we can get to same day put out of garbage. I have read and seen successes in New York, in LA In Arizona, when you move the trash placement time to the same day of pickup, the rat population dramatically decreases.

I understand there are some constraints with that but if we can get to that great. On the subject of containerization and the last gentleman that spoke, I have actually taken photos when you place the white kitchen trash bag at the curbside versus the black contractor bag. There seems to be a dramatic difference in the chew-through rate on the white kitchen trash bag. It is very permeable, easily penetratable by the rats and I would love to see The Boston Road and Action Team, maybe run a pilot. Maybe we run it in Back Bay. I did notice on the heat map we were the reddest Thank you for joining us. Putting all curbside trash into black contractor bags and let's measure the difference.

We can do a pilot two blocks, three blocks square radius I think this is something that is doable and might have a significant impact. Containerization has got to be enforced, I really think we need to pressure that And just so you know, the woman that spoke earlier, we mentioned that we put the trash out currently at 5 p.m., and we have the overnight that occurs but because of the trash rotations That trash sits out at the curb for a net 22 hours in any given neighborhood based on the rotation of the trash pickup times. So if the trash goes out at five, sometimes the pickups are 3 p.m. the next day. That's a net 22 hours Buffet for these rats and we need to close the buffet for the rats. So that would be my primary point to you folks.

And if we can't get to same day put out, I'm really willing to work with the city Can we move the trash placement time from 5pm to maybe 8pm? And I think that might have a dramatic decrease in rodent activity For at least three warmer hours of the day where the smells emanate from the bags, that would be probably something we could try to pilot. So thank you for the time, and I appreciate the support. What we're hoping to get action on this plan and something to get to containerization implemented citywide and move that placement time out, that would be great.

Thank you, Ali. It's good to be with you the other night in the Back Bay. We still have more public testimony in person and virtual but at this time I am going to ask my colleagues if they would like to ask questions to the panelists here. I'm gonna give everybody five minutes, each city councilor five minutes I don't interrupt my City Council colleagues when they're speaking, whether I agree with the question or not. And if they go over the five minutes, you know, I'm not going to cut them off either. I do want to be respectful to them. Having said that Let me start with the City Council President, Councillor Breadon.

Thank you and thank you for your very comprehensive update on the BARB. The BARB determined that enforcement can be rendered quite challenging as per city of Boston needing access and permission to step onto private property. Is there any way, any desire to explore ways we can make that legal? to allow ISD to carry out enforcement on private property. I know Cambridge does that, but Cambridge does a lot of things as we don't do so. Any thoughts on that John?

So we do the best we can. You know, inspectors should be ringing doorbells. It doesn't have to be the owner of the property. It could be a tenant. That gives us permission. We also if we're on a neighboring property and we have permission, we can look over the fence and so inspectors should be making every effort to access and see what they can but I can Talk to legal about efforts, especially if you say Cambridge. They're allowed to walk on the property and see if there's some efforts to expand that capability.

I know you mentioned in your presentation about the BARP informing park construction. I know there's been a big issue at Ringer Park How does rodent control get integrated into projects at the Parks Department? Because I think Brighton Common is another one where there's a beautiful little stage with decking and the that had a great little colony of rats in under that. So how are we working with Parks Department to sort of head this off

So now when there's a new park, we meet and go over the design. We can be on site. We did it for Copley. Greenway, East Boston, Contillo They designed the park, had some rodent prevention in there but rats are just really smart and so they find vulnerabilities You know, that we didn't think of. And so the things that we learned there where we're going to include moving forward but we're gonna create a document of design standards for both parks and we have already worked it into the design standards of public facilities.

I know there's been a lot of talk about rodent birth control Has this been proven to be an effective management tool or where are we at with that?

We haven't seen, for the folks that have invested in it measurable improvements. But we're still looking and you know there was a presentation in New York at the summit but We haven't seen any, any proof that there's been a measurable reduction and way that we could incorporate it at this point. But you know where We're constantly open to it and if there comes a point where we can find a product that works, you know, we would try it.

I know rodent activities in our neighborhood, we've had a lot of construction. Very often neighbors say that rodent activity is very directly related to construction Are there any recommendations for BARB to place the onus on developers and contractors to help address that issue? I know the jury is out sort of on whether or not that's a real factor.

So the rats have to be there, obviously for it to be an issue with construction. So our community sanitation program is if In the design review, the plans examiner will assign the community sanitation sign-off which means they can't get a permit from ISD unless they produce I have a report from a licensed pest control technician that says the property is rodent free and that monitoring stations have been placed around the perimeter. Once that happens, we get their report. We give them the sign-off and then we dispatch an inspector. So I think it's around 210 Construction inspections since January 1st. And so that's what we can, there are ways that you can hold construction companies Very good. Thank you.

I'll come back for a second, Ryan, but thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you Council President. Councillor Breadon, you're up. I'm sorry, Councillor Durkan, you are up.

Thank you so much, Chair. And thank you for your work on this issue. I know that we've had many hearings on this issues. I think Councilor Flynn and I have both filed a ton of filings on this. And I know last year we had a hearing Exploring Same Day Put Out and Pick Up for Non-Containerized Waste, which I authored actually thanks to my friend and my constituent Harry Collings who I know just testified virtually a great who worked for Mayor Menino and now does a lot of great work in our neighborhood. I'm just curious, sort of where we are because I think a lot of what came out of that hearing was that, you know, what New York was doing wasn't working. People were abusing those containerized trash cans Now they have Merrimum Doni. He's actually expanding sort of those, you know, smaller containerized totes. I know how expensive they are.

Even with the rat-proof trash cans, we aren't getting 100% rat proof. And so even with what we're trying to innovate We have a lot of work to do. I think getting trash off our streets is an important part of that, and obviously a lot are now apartments. So how do we do this? And obviously there's trade-offs with parking and other things, but what is the city thinking about in terms of containerization and also potentially changing the policy For Same Day Pickup and Put Out, which I know is a huge charge for the Back Bay and Beacon Hill, which are dealing with the negative externalities of not having space for trash rooms.

Thanks, Councilor. Appreciate the question. So as you know, this city is very unique and I think Each neighborhood has their own unique set of challenges. Some are more dense than others, which makes it challenging for containerization in every neighborhood, which is why we have a couple of different methods of how we collect trash across the city. As you know, over the last year we've been working with different university partners as well as community partners to better understand what are the different options that are available to us to kind of make reforms to some of these different challenges that you're talking through and what are some of those reforms that community would be in favor of supporting. I can't speak specifically to the exact kind Thinking of public works as to kind of the long-term solutions and strategies. But what we've been doing in coordination with the streets team is identifying those different options,

Working with community partners to better understand what they would support and then kind of working with the trash contractors to see what would be feasible for them to operationalize. and then you know hopefully in collaboration with Public Works they'll kind of roll out a long-term strategy but again they would be best to kind of answer some of those different options that they're continuing to explore.

Well, I think that we used to have that you could buy City of Boston recycling bags at Whole Foods. That was something that and I don't know they had literally the city of Boston logo on them. who was selling them or why and if the city was actually involved in that. I think it's really important that we have a standard, if we are going to do non-containerized waste, that we and many more. I know in my neighborhood you can't find the type of trash bag that to sell the right type and weight of trash bag, I think would be huge. A huge part of this is education but if you can't even find in your local store what you're supposed to be using We're going to continue to use kitchen trash bags, and we're gonna see them in our neighborhoods.

And they are easily as we know a buffet and a feast for rats when and I know that we are doing everything they can to expand Project Oscar which is, I think has been a huge you know it has been really really helpful to get as much of the waste I know Holly wanted me to get this on the record. Apparently there's an HKS study on containerization, we would like to see it. So if that can be provided to our office, we would prefer I think we as a city council could really unite around containerization. I know it's expensive, and I know there are different factors in different neighborhoods. The North End might be different than Beacon Hill, but we have very similar challenges.

So I'm from West End to Mission Hill lots of different issues. Can you just tell me very briefly When someone sees an influx of rats, what they're supposed to do and sort of what those next steps are. Because I often find that neighbors They don't always know that they should report to the city when they see 10 rats in a row and when they increase rat activity. What should residents be doing when they see rats?

Yeah, happy to start and then John should chime in as well. But we really encourage all residents anytime you see rodent activity to submit that to 311. John and his team can respond within 24 to 48 hours but also we've set up a dedicated email address which is rats at boston.gov since we launched that over a year ago I think that's been a really great platform for folks to submit some questions about how they can help prevent rodent activity But also let us know about some of the challenges they're facing. And we utilize that platform to just send out inspectors to help kind of reduce the road and challenges that they're seeing, and address some of those concerns. I just want to highlight that your point around education is really important I think some of the work that Ali and her neighborhood association do is really a great kind of standard that other neighborhoods could follow around Helping your fellow residents know around the right practices of how you store your trash.

I know we should shout out Beacon Hill Civic Association as well because I know they're getting going with their block captains program and a lot of work to do in our neighborhoods.

Yeah, and so all of these educational materials that they're submitting are available on our website as well. And I think those are the practices residents should follow to help prevent rats.

Thank you.

Thank You.

Councilor Murphy, you have five minutes. You're up.

Thank Thank you for convening us. Thank you to the panel, and especially to the residents who came in person and on Zoom. And just looking around I see people from Chinatown, Back Bay, Bay Village Back home in Dorchester, East Boston. It's a citywide issue. We know that. And when I first came on the council we would sometimes joke that when we would have rat hearings we'd get like all of the councils to show up right? It's something that we definitely deal with and get a lot of calls for, but I'm going to kind of shift what my questions were based on what I heard from some of the residents. And I do think it's tied closely Other departments, which was said about trash and stuff. We recently had a hearing on trash pickup and also the

Change to pick up the green buckets like every other week now, which I hear is a concern people are concerned it's going to affect But one man, sorry I forgot your name but you talked about the code and how it already is stating the thickness of the bag because I often talk about my street John. I know we've done several walks on Monsignor Lydon Way and several of the apartment buildings do put out the bags. And the mound, no lie is like as big as this and it is small thin kitchen bags I thought I had been told that when you store it during the week, it has to be in covered barrels. But once the time opens up to bring to the street, the sidewalk, it can be kind of in anything. Is it true or is it supposed to be and like thicker type bags.

Yeah, so it's improper storage of trash if it's not containerized up to five o'clock the night before trash pickup and then once trash pickup is allowed to go out, they're allowed to put it in bags. What they should be... And I believe in the code it says two-ply. Which is... Basic Kitchen. It should be thicker? Yeah, it should be a thicker plastic than like a white kitchen bag.

What do we do about that? Because I know just on my own street, I guess I should call it It's just regular kitchen bags that are opening up without even any rodents or people walking by trying to see if they can find other, you know.

Yeah so well for Environmental Services, we do the education. I don't want to speak for code enforcement. I'm not sure how they enforce that but Thank you for watching. The least amount of time that trash sits on the sidewalk reduces a chance it's going to be a food source.

Also learned yesterday that our new 311 system has gone into effect with the way they're collecting information. We had a hearing on sidewalk blocking, bike lanes and cross lanes What type of new information have you learned you'll be getting from the new 311 system based on these types of calls that come in?

So we've had a couple trainings I think November The fourth is the full switchover for my team. I think that there are some similarities between Our inspectors currently use City Worker. They'll have a very similar process with Creatio and Bean. But we'll have more options. The views, the maps will have more visibility on the different kinds of complaints and for me as The head of the department I'll have more visibility on closed complaints and things like that.

Okay, thank you And I'm just gonna assume because you said it in your statements too that that's where then You'll be putting more resources if we see that there's hot spots that are continuing.

Yeah, with the hot spot map is something that we're going to work into our workflow so that we can be more proactive in identifying through the data and the hotspot map.

And I know that trash time pickup, and I know thats not under anyone here particularly but every neighborhood I know wishes they could get the first pick up in the morning twice a week You know, would be great. It's just expensive any Any just understanding on that when residents say like how come? We can I mean, I know it's always usually comes down to money but

Yeah, I think that's a great question. And as John mentioned, we're trying to make sure that residents know that the closer they put that trash out to the time of collection, the better. But right now, we have identified using some of the data tools and just experience that rodent activity is most prevalent between the hours of around 8 PM to 5 AM. Using that information, I think that's informing some of these changes that we're continuing to look at with the Public Works Department taking into some of the feedback around making adjustments that align with the operational and financial challenges that we are facing here in the city.

Not a question, but thank you, Josh, for being here and all you do for the BHA. And I'll reach out personally if there's anything concerns I'm hearing from residents directly. Thank you. Thank You, Councilor.

Thank-you, Councilman Murphy.

Thank you, Chair. And I just want to acknowledge your work in this space and your advocacy for RATSAR for a long time now. And he'll talk more about it during his time. But for now... I am curious, and I really do appreciate the Clorox comment being an immigrant myself. Cleaning is an everyday thing and we use all types of materials and Clorox's definitely, and Vicks. Vicks fixes everything but I'm just curious when you hear some of the recommendations that The folks who are here for public testimony talked about same day. So have we tried that, putting the garbage out the same day?

We haven't made any of the changes based on any of the recommendations that have been said today. Councilor, no changes have been made.

But I have a question because I'm going to assume that's not the first time you heard about these recommendations. So in previous iterations of these discussions Those recommendations, I'm going to assume were made. And I'm curious as to whether or not those were considered and if not why?

Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to misunderstand your first question. But yes, all of the recommendations that we've heard today have been part of a robust community process that we're done over the last year. Folks like Ally Foley and other community leaders have given us a lot of really great feedback Durkan, and we're analyzing much of that feedback and working on kind of understanding what are the operational and financial feasibilities for us to implement some of those changes. But as I mentioned Public Works would be better fit to kind of explain some of those long-term strategies that they're continuing to explore based on the feedback that we've heard from all residents.

Yeah, I always say this is that Boston is resource rich but coordination poor and so the fact You're deferring to Public Works. Have you been in communication with them? Do you get updates from them, like do you have any status

Yeah.

Updates that you can share about some of those outcomes?

Most definitely, yeah. So Public Works, the streets cabinet is a critical member of the Boston Road and Action Plan team. They're part of the leadership team. And we have frequent conversations with them These changes, as well as other pilot programs that we can work on. As I mentioned, I just don't want to speak on behalf of that department for the robust changes they want to make.

And how many changes have you piloted already since you've initiated this?

As it comes to trash, we've really taken two main pilot approaches. One being the work at the BHA facility as it pertains to residential dumpsters and changing from city pickup to commercial level pickup We're measuring the impact using data collection to see what the impact actually is of changing those containerization at BHA Commonwealth. Similarly, containerization of trash is important across the board small or big and so we're focusing on Street Barrels and Parks Barrels, and containerizing trash in those locations as well, and measuring the impact of that. Because I think those two pilot programs and the results of those will help inform some of the long-term strategies we want to fund.

Okay, so I'm curious. New York has this new killing machine. I just read it on the New York Times. It's called Burl Rx. Have you heard of it?

They took it from us, yeah.

Are we using it?

We have for many years now when we had struggles with the dry ice and getting the dry.

Here I am thinking,

It's a very effective machine. It's allowed us to reduce our reliance on rodenticide. And are we still using it? Yes, we have multiple teams. worked with BHA to train their staff on the Barra Rex. We also have a carbon dioxide tank that we also use.

So can we send it to Bay Village? Can we send some of the spaces and places that have been here

Yeah, we're all over the city using that machine.

All right. I'd like to go with you when you bring the machine to the town. All right, so Ali talked about there's a heat map Is it city-owned? Do you guys run this, because I just Googled and I could not find it.

I'm not exactly sure what map she was referencing. We have a couple of different maps. One of them is the PAN neighborhoods, which is in the Boston Owned Action Plan, which Councilor Breadon referenced. We also have the hotspot model, which shows different maps of 301 complaints

OK, so here's my question because I'm going to come back for a second round. I am curious about how we are tracking the outcomes. Here are the inputs. Here is what we're doing. How are we measuring success? And when somebody puts in a complaint, how do we track that? The inspector goes. Where's the report? Where is the transparency piece around kind of like how we can hold ourselves accountable What does that look like on your end?

That's why we're working very closely with analytics to use different data collection tools. We collect a baseline at a site, so baseline rodent population. Then we deploy a mitigation tool whether that be a barrel topper or a new dumpster at the BHA Commonwealth Site or whether it be using the BRRR-RX machine. And then after we do that intervention and deploy that intervention, we continue to collect data and measure the impact of the successfulness of that different strategy That will help us better understand which tool and solution is most effective.

Is that public information?

So right now, we're continuing to collect the data on all of these different tools. Our goal is to put together a comprehensive report that would be public on our website showing kind of the impact of some of these tools and strategies. That would be really helpful. And John can speak to enforcement.

When we get a complaint, it comes through the 311 system. They get a response on the inspection. So if you use the app, if you call, you should save the case number So you can call back and get a response on what the notes were from the inspector. So that goes back. But if a violation is written, a case is created. It's a written violation served by a constable. There is premise report so every time an inspector does it in inspection he writes a premise report of what

And how much money are we charging folks?

It's not a fine, it's a remedial violation.

Oh, we need to start fining people.

So the code enforcement is the punitive side, so we work closely with them if there is an issue that sometimes using both. So the immediate punitive fine and then the remedial violation, our violations add up in housing court. So it's not just a ticket we write a violation, we served it by a constable and that if it's no corrected after multiple times We give a chance after re-inspections. It's sent to housing court to get a resolution.

I know my time is up. Thank you. Next up, Councilor Louijeune. You have the floor.

Thank you Mr. Chair and I just like to note most of the things that New York does they copy from us okay? And so I want to thank this panel for being here I want to thank... We just hosted the RAT Summit, and this was a second RAT summit that ever has happened. This was the first time that we hosted in Boston. I know that I missed the beginning of this, and so I would love to know top lines what we learned Like, what were the top lines from that? Sorry if I missed that. I want to thank all the advocates and everyone for coming out. There's been so much work done by members of this council in terms of how are we dealing with this very important quality-of-life issue that we get from all of our residents My birthday, we were here a few years ago talking about something like rat birth control which we work with in a local nonprofit and we did a pilot in Jamaica Plain and sort of

Followed that and hunted it all the way down to see that the results were not where we wanted them to be, but We're part of it. I know when I was before the Beacon Hills Civic Association. One of the things that I heard there was mint-laced trash cans, and I don't know if we've sort of done any work exploring looking into that. I know one of the is carbon monoxide, and so our increased usage of that This council has thought a lot about containerization and what that would look like. We've talked about collapsible bins, where do we stand with collapsible bin? and also I'd love to know if our compost bins currently, if they are rodent resistant. Are they rodent-resistant?

Yes, I haven't got a report that a rat since the beginning of the program. We met at the beginning to look at the barrel and we thought it was a good A good barrel to store food in and I haven't had one report.

Thank you. I think expansion of that, of our composting would help to also reduce the rat like it when done correctly would help We also had a hearing a few weeks ago where we talked about Project Oscar and we saw where there were Project Oscars. It was noticeable that in Mattapan, a neighborhood I think because he was talking about it, where a lot of the I just wanted to make sure that you're talking with Chief Osgood, and we've been emailing about it. But just wanted to uplift that as well. And I also just want to give a huge, huge shout out to John Ulrich and your team. We call you, neighbors call you like we did a rat. We were out in Hyde Park for a Rat Walk on Monday.

We did one two weeks ago so I just wanna thank you for your responsiveness whenever we do have I know that if there are any residents that do have an area or concentration with a lot of rodent activity, we'd be happy to continue doing rat walks. Emily in my office, we do them all the time alongside your office so just wanted to thank you for that And I guess the main question is, what is it that we learned from the RAT Summit? And are there cities that are doing innovative work that we aren't doing that we should be doing?

Yeah, thank you so much for these questions and I'll get on the rat summit piece but just want to highlight the Project Oscar piece. In addition to replacing all of the barrels in Mattapan Square with rodent-resistant bins, I know you and Chief Osgood have been talking about this but we're also working on a new Project Oscar site for Mattapan as well. So I just want to highlight that first. But as you mentioned, the reason that Boston was selected as the second location for the National Rat Summit is because a lot of the innovative work that we're doing here in this city and a lot progress that we are making as it compares to many of our other cities nationwide. And so what happened on the 23rd and 24th of September was over 100 different academic cities, research professionals came to Boston. And the goal was really share and educate So we had a lot of educational opportunities and things we took away, but we also had an opportunity to share a lot the work that we're doing. And it was an opportunity also make a lot different connections with other cities that we can continue to talk to such as Seattle

folks in California about work that they're doing, that we can implement here in the city of Boston. Some of the key takeaways to get directly to your question is that cities are cities. Cities around the country face a similar challenge You know, old infrastructure abundance of food places for rats to hide and we really need to focus on those three areas to help reduce rodent population. We've heard that rats are continuing to be a public health issue and why it's really important for cities to take Thank you. And I think another really big focus was that we need to focus on rat populations not only on the surface, but also in subsurface populations. Which is why we're really focused next kind of six months How do we address rodent populations in the sewer system and better understanding some of those challenges? And just lastly, I think the main thing we took away from the summit was a lot of the different solutions and strategies and tools that were discussed.

were a lot of the things that we already have here in place and that we're working on expanding. And so I think it was a really good reflection moment for us to share out, but also learn kind of things that

Thank you, and I think it's really smart to have it as a data-driven. I know there are more cameras. So thank you Joe for the work that you're doing. Thank you to BHA for what they're doing, I think the cameras hopefully will be helpful The Mint Laced, and that's my last one.

So we have it.

I know we've talked about this, and you don't think that this is anything. We haven't seen it work.

And I talked to Dr. Corrigan and some of the other professionals recently It is widely marketed as a tool. The only thing that we've seen that works on barrels is using 10% bleach and water and spritzing the barrels, spritzting trash bags. That's the best deterrent. Rats really don't like it but mint you know there was a study done and the folks that I have talked to, not really impressed and haven't seen it work. Thank you. Thank You John thank you to you and your team for all of the work you do. Appreciate it.

Thank-you. Next up is we're also have been joined by City Councilor Brian Worrell.

Brian Worrel, you're up. Thank you Chair and thank you for holding this hearing and your leadership on this matter. And I know a lot of my other council colleagues I dove into this matter as well, so just thank you to all my colleagues as well. When it comes to... First, I want to shout out John, your whole entire team. Bobby is a rock star in the community. How, and I would love to advocate for you know us to keep our technicians in our neighborhoods for a longer period of time because my understanding is that Do they rotate? Yes. Okay.

Yeah, the wards rotate. It's not on a specific schedule but it's usually yearly. They move around some inspectors stay and so on. So that's really what it is.

Definitely want to advocate to keep Bobby in the neighborhood just because we have strategies that are working. And when the strategies are working, wouldn't want to have a new technician come in and implement a new strategy. And I'm sure that they pass notes, but I think when we're keeping it consistent with one technician, that strategy can continue to work and not trying to deviate from it. When there's rat problems, are any of these Areas. Do they transition over to the problem of property task force or is problem properties just solely like noise complaints, police complaints? Or does it include you know rat issues as well?

I'm happy to speak a little bit to this so Problem Properties Task Force is a comprehensive organization that focuses on all quality of life challenges, loud parties or rat complaints. And so John and his team as well as myself we sit on the monthly problem properties task force meetings and any property that has a you know prolonged rodent challenge that we could use some assistance from the operations team on We uplift that address and then work together with the other divisions there to address that challenge.

Awesome. And when it comes, because I know a lot of our rad issues are on the exterior, and sometimes when I'm touring homes or properties where Bobby, you could see an infestation. What warrants us to then decide to go and take a look at the inside?

So we would need permission, either by a tenant or the owner to access the property. If we believe that the rodent problems are inside the building We would refer to our enforcement investigation team at ISD, Flavio. And they would try to gain access the enforcement and investigation team has a building inspector, housing inspector and environmental inspector. Flavio is the director and so they work on complicated issues, accessing property borders stuff like that. So we would refer to that team to see if we could get access to the inside.

Awesome, and then another program that I'm a big fan of is Graffiti Busters but they're able to do work on private property where my understanding is How do we gain that same access or the same

So the challenge is that

What we are able to do, it takes more than doing private properties for pest control. So in an issue where it's a safety issue We might be able to do a treatment once, but they would still need pest control because it takes multiple and they really need a licensed tech to manage it.

Got it and I know every building or there was a trash plant ordinance for I can't remember. I think it was like large commercial buildings, supposed to have a trash plan? Do we know where they're at in terms of does every building have a Trash Plan?

I'm not very familiar with the ordinance, Councilor, but I think we can get back to you on that specific question.

All right. And then my last question is, Luke, you spoke on a comprehensive report that's going to be uploaded online. What is the timeline?

Yeah, great question. So right now we're trying to kind of measure seasonality impacts and so right now over the winter we're going to be getting data on subsurface populations in the sewers We're installing audio devices and data collection tools in the north end, in South Boston in the coming weeks. And then as the temperatures rise in the spring probably like late March early April will deploy another round of the surface sensors to measure the impacts at BHA Commonwealth. And then after that data collection and analysis, we'll produce a report sometime hopefully by the summer of next year.

All right, thank you and thank you all for always being super responsive and shout out to each of your teams and also shout out my guy Bobby

Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Worrell. I'm also going to take five minutes. I'll make sure I keep myself under that time as well. I want to say thank you to the administration panel for being here. I especially wanna say thank-you to the residents that have testified in person and in Zoom as well, listening to the public testimony makes it a better hearing because we understand exactly the concerns from residents. I also received probably 30 pieces of testimony from residents across the city I'm not going to read that into the record, but I might highlight a couple things later. Pest control is critical to our residents' quality of life as rats and rodents are not only a nuisance

They also impact public health, sanitization of our neighborhoods, maintenance of our properties, and public safety. Just yesterday I received an email from a neighbor in South Boston who was coming home from a walk and told me that a rat jumped into his son's stroller. Unacceptable. Following last year's release of the City's Boston Rodent Action Plan, it is important to review the initiatives in delivering results. For years I have asked us to prioritize issues of trash and containerization across the city, enclosed rodent resistant public trash barrels, pest control around sewers in neighborhood walks. I believe it's also critical that we launch a massive public awareness campaign including in languages other than English as well.

That includes language access, translation so that all residents understand their responsibilities to work together on a problem that has now left us rated the top 10 most rodent infested cities in America. I'd also like to us to revisit the recommendation of both the studies on Arthur, Dr. Corrigan and myself for the creation of a dedicated position of RATSA. We received public testimony already from David in the south end recommending the same Back when I was City Council President, I spoke with the New York City Ratsa Kathleen Karate at that time on this issue. Learned a lot from her and from that conversation

and from my experience working on this issue with Councilor Breadon, with so many other city councilors I pushed the City to establish the Rodent Action Plan that it was actively involved in. But the one recommendation that was not included was the RATSA, basically a standalone city department. that would coordinate all activities as it relates to pest control. That is critically needed. We need to have concrete measures in place to adequately tackle the rise in rodent activities The spread of potential diseases, it's public health as well. Including more inspections, working on the weekends, public awareness campaigns, public outreach. We need to get this right so that people continue to stay in the city Call Boston home. It's that serious.

When a rat is in a child's crib or stroller, we can't ignore it. Some public testimony already included phrases such as we have a serious problem, trash dumping. The way we compost is now being reduced from weekly to biweekly. Need more licensed inspectors. Someone mentioned the city not maintaining their own property, a chronic problem. There's some disconnect between what you highlighted, Luke, on how things are going well and what residents are experiencing in their own neighborhood. When residents tell me that there are rats

in their baby's crib or in their stroller, and I see them on my street in South Boston on Gold Street. We're flooded with rats. It has not improved. It's gotten worse It's a major public health, public safety quality of life issue. We need to streamline the process and provide Executive leadership, positive leadership and John Ulrich's doing the best he can under challenging circumstances. Have respect for John but the goal of pest control needs to be elevated I do want to keep myself to the five minutes. As chair, I don't take the opportunity to continue to speak. So I'm going to stop there. And after public testimony, I do want to go back to city councilors.

But I do wanna say thank you to all the residents that have already testified from the Bay Village, Chinatown, South End, South Boston Back Bay. Many in my, many in District 2. So I'm going to continue with public testimony. I'm gonna do a couple virtual and then I'm going to do a couple in person. So let me ask, I may have missed her already because Jill had Jill told me she was leaving at 1115. I may have missed her, and if I did, I apologize but is Jill still with us? I'd like to try to get her to testify if she's still on with us.

In the meantime, can I go to Randy Glanthrope, please. Okay, Jill is off. Let's go to Randy, please I believe Randy's in the St. Patolf Neighborhood Association in the Back Bay South End area. Randy, good to be with you. You might be on mute, Randy. Randy, are you with us? Randy, you're up next. You might be muted, Randy.

In the meantime let's go to Kevin Conroy and we'll come back to Randy. Kevin Conray? We might be having technical issues. I'm going to go with public testimony. Here we go, Ed.

Ed, are you there?

Ed, here I am.

Kevin Conroy, you're up next. Thank you. I did submit... Written testimony, but I just would like to kind of reiterate what I had put into that. Wife and I are both lifelong residents of the city of Boston. We've lived in South Boston majority of time, spent a few years in Savin Hill. Moved into this, bought this house we now live in in 1997. And up until two years ago things were fine Roughly two years ago, I don't know what all of a sudden the neighborhood is just overrun with rats. We can't use our yard but unable to use a grill have people over it's just we've hired A professional pest control company. We've been using them regularly, probably for the past three years

and occasionally we have to call them for extra visits. It's just the neighborhood in itself, it's disgusting. There is a need or some sort of central Authority that would be responsible for an overall strategy as opposed to just using different departments with their plans. I appreciate The efforts by ISD and the present road and control people, they're doing the best they can as you said earlier under very challenging circumstances. One thing I've noticed, and I think it's a big problem even speaking with the pest control guy that comes here is the improper disposal of household trash. Garbage. Around here in this neighborhood, we live down the lower end. We live on West 8th Street.

In the general neighborhood, a great deal of property is absentee landlords or LLCs and in these, the residents by and large are good people but you have a fair amount of I call them indifferent. And the way they handle trash or dispose of it It's just mind-boggling sometimes what I see. There are problems with these absentee landlords, they have a property management company. I don't know how that trash is put out or not put out. I've called 311 a number of times. But household trash, it doesn't get put out for week to weeks. Other times the barrels are just left out and nobody brings them back in. Household, you know the kitchen bags put out of the sidewalk. You see them ripped open trash garbage out on the street from rodents and other critters getting into It's just a list of so many different things.

I think one thing, fines need to be upped. Obviously they're not getting the message through. Money is something that people understand and if they have to start pulling it out of their own pocket They're going to stop paying attention. So I think the city should look at upping the fines and You know, increasing enforcement. It's the only thing that people understand. I hate to say it but that's it. Other than that, I guess I'll just close with saying I appreciate everything that people are doing. Ed, you was especially leading this and I'll end there. Thank you. Thank You Kevin

Is Randy available to?

This is Bob Lathrop. Can you hear me?

Oh, hey, Bob. Yeah, we can hear you, Bob, go ahead.

Okay, yeah. Randy stepped out to get a COVID shot but she said hold on if you can get on so thank you for having us. I'll be brief and first of all I want to commend you Tremendously, I remember. I'm going to talk about a successful situation that we had in our area. You know where that is. About a year and a half ago and at that time I think even earlier you were talking about trying to get, and we all talked about it'd be great to get a rat czar because I think accountability as some people have brought out is a big issue. coordinating of resources is a big issue and someone has to be at the top to stay on this but anyway We live in the St. Patel neighborhood area, we have a condo on it's... The back of our building is The Colonnade Hotel has its trash on the outside of that building.

Two years ago, we had a phenomenal rat problem in the back of that alleyway. I mean it was not only rats, it was a community of rats and there were nests underneath some of the building there Food source is the most critical, containment of that is the more critical thing you can do. We got together with all the neighbors in our area. We get together with the people at the Colonnade Hotel, who I want to respect and say because they stepped forward They, because they had barrels out. They were contained but they weren't fully contained. They even went to metalize things and once this was done and the neighbors saying we don't have that problem now to the level that we had and it was a grassroots level that Randy worked on with the St. Patel Neighborhood Association, with all the neighbors in the area as well getting together As well as with the hotel, because a food source is where you're going to get at. And I want to thank all the people we work with

We now have it contained. It's never gonna go away, but I remember my son being out on our deck at night looking out at two in the morning and he would see not only single rats, you'd have families, communities of rats. It's amazing what comes out at night. You talk about during the day. I mean if you don't contain the food source they're gonna come from all over the place The other thing someone said that I agree on is, and we were talking about earlier here about Clorox or bleach. If you put some of that on it they smell it and they stay away so I don't know how That could temporarily be introduced, but it is effective. But and the other thing I think you got to address it was I didn't hear here because of the neighborhood we live in there are a lot properties where there's a turnover of tourists coming in and renters or whatever, and they always put their trash out. We have a horrible problem on alleyway 402 behind us.

We finally had to work with the realtors, the property managers. We even had people opening up and looking at the bag of what actual buildings they were in, grassroots up to get enforcement to fine or whatever because it's a horrible issue. But one of the things that wasn't brought up today, I think needs to be looked at is property managers because you have a lot of people not only residents But people coming into areas that come and go, rent, put the trash out, they're gone, they could care less, whatever. And there's going to be some accountability back to the property managers. But number one, and finally, it's the food source. If you shut it down, you close it up and many more. Thank you.

We have an internal containerization. We pay to have it put out first thing in the morning and it's immediately picked up. That helps where we are, but at the corner Alleyway. So those are just some of the suggestions but Eddie, thank you so much for organizing this. You were the spearhead of this thing. I do think we need a rat czar because forget all the analysis, whatever. We need accountability on the issues. That's all I want to say. Thank you.

Thank You, Bob. I do want to go back to in-person public testimony If you hear your name if you just come to either of the microphones John Heather, Alicia, Janet, Is there a Jane also? Bezkowski.

He's going to forego the test, though.

OK. And if Lexi is here, does Lexi want to come down? So I'm going to give everyone two minutes. If you want to give your name and maybe the neighborhood you're from, take the two minutes to state your position. Yes, sir.

Hi. My name's Jeff. I've got a statement here previewed what I'm going to read and I've some that I'm gonna email your offices in more detail So my name is John Baczkowski. I'm a resident and owner at 12 Acadia Street in South Boston. I've been a resident at that address for the past 23 years. The past three years, we've seen major upticks in rats on Acadia street. The initial wave seemed to coincide with the demolition of the old L Street power station and a second wave with the renovation of the Christopher Lee playground ball field last year. It's rare night you don't see several rats running around. About three years ago, they started invading our yard and that of our neighbor Al Roach, burrowing nests under her sheds and raised garden beds. We smoke bombed them, we filled in their burrows. We lined our gardens and fences with buried wire stone and metal mesh. We pretty much succeeded in keeping them from making homes in our yards but they're continuing to use

Our yards as almost a highway to each other neighbors' yards. It's like a route highway. There is not much more I can do for my end. I regularly put out rat traps right across my property. This year, I've killed so many rats I've lost count. Almost 40-50 rats. In the past 10 days alone, I have killed 8. That number is staggering! Now this is a more critical issue. Earlier this fall, my son contracted leptospirosis. It's a rat-borne bacterial infection spread via contact with rat feces and urine He was in the hospital for two weeks and ICU for a week, and suffered serious liver and kidney injuries. We'll never know if he contracted it from our yard or from the trash bins at J.P. Licks where he works, that's his part-time job. That's not the point. The issue is we have to talk about this at all.

It's been my experience, I appreciate the Sadie Zephyrs and what they're saying but it's in my experience that haven't been particularly useful. Over the years after complaints to Mr. Flynn's office and the 311 line, inspectors visited us two or three times and gave us the same suggestions. It's kind of the same old story. We followed the recommendations from the get-go, but the problems persisted and seemed to have gotten worse. I understand this notion of citations If people aren't getting fined, no one's going to do anything. We need to be more aggressive on that. Money talks right? And I want to address the issue of bags. I'm not sure how the style of bags are useful, but rats are literally chewing through the trash bins in our neighborhood. There's big holes on top of the trash bin. I know Southeast is just one neighborhood in the city. This is a citywide issue. I appreciate the efforts at this point, but the proof is in the pudding. This Is a serious health issue that can have fatal consequences

The time for research studies is well over. It's time to stop playing this bureaucratic hot potato, get our butts in gear and really do something about this issue. You can tell I'm very frustrated by this, and I think a good first step is to appoint a Ratsar. That's what I have.

Thank you, John. Look, I'm going to respond very briefly to what John said I said this was a public health issue. I believe it's a public-health issue. Um, I brought this to the attention of city officials including Public Health Commission Last year, a Tufts University study in Boston urban rat population found that many rat populations in Boston are carrying and spreading leptospirosis as John mentioned. Bacterial disease that impacts both humans and other animals. Leptospirosis is spread by the urine of infected animals through contact with infected soil and water these are concerns on How this may have impacted vulnerable populations, including the homeless but also including health workers as well.

But the city pushed back on me and said that wasn't necessarily a major public health issue. We know it's a public health now after listening to John's testimony. Yes ma'am?

Hi, Ed. Thanks for having me. I'm Heather O'Brien and I'm from Dorchester. I live in East Boston. I work in South Boston and I did see the feisty rats on L Street yesterday when I walked from the gym to go do an errand. It's bad. This is a public health issue. We are dealing with environmental justice communities who are already vulnerable. neighborhoods where children have higher rates of asthma than other places in our Commonwealth. We have adult populations with kidney diseases, Diabetes and things that make them more vulnerable, the rats. make their way around by dropping urine and they smell that. The urine contains salmonella, the urine contains lepto, the urin contains hantavirus People can get lung diseases and kidney diseases from this. It's not if it's going to happen, it is happening. So I think that this is very important.

And it's not just a nuisance oh we see rats and we don't like it, it's ick. It horrendous. Some of the things that I would suggest that we do is look to other cities and not just talk about how great it was to have the RAC convention, while we're looking into things. These rats are prolifically repopulating. There's more and more of them every day. You kill one, and there is like a litter of 17 born the next minute. It needs to be a more holistic approach. The trash containment That I have personally seen work in European cities is not that hard. People get used to it. We live in densely populated, we've got more We have more dense housing in Boston than we've ever had before, and we need to have a way to keep this. People will get used to bringing their trash to the metal bin in New York, where they've done it in Harlem. They've had a reduction of almost 40% rodent sighting where they did that pilot program.

It's really great. I want to just give my anecdotal experience because right now, I live next door to Rat Disneyland. It would be funny if it wasn't. For the past three years, I've submitted 247 311 reports. I clean the trash from the street on my block twice a week. I wash the sidewalk with Clorox, I wash my trash bins with Clorex. Next door to me, a developer who got planning permission, who got ZBA relief for their hardship Built Luxury Housing. Never finished the project. Half of the things are not done, it's full of rat tunnels He's been cited for, with one of those $25 tickets from code enforcement for air proper trash. But he's been getting those since I reported the initial

Um, dumpster that he put on the site with no lid and kept bringing household trash to. And that's when the rats started. So for three years these rats have moved in. Next door we've got like um There's another blight property, and then there's like a local restaurant that works really hard to keep things clean and does things the right way but has an exterminator once a week because he's afraid the rats are going to come there. I have personally had to buy rat bait boxes and Rat Poison to kill my next door neighbor's rats. This is my next-door neighbor. These are the properties that they have, these are the ZBA requests that they had to develop more properties. People who have problem properties or are in noncompliance with either the rubbish or the rats and it's not been mitigated should not get permission to do more. We shouldn't have this many from someone like that.

This is atrocious. There's nothing I can do. They do not care one bit about that $25 ticket. They have done nothing to get rid of the rats. Not one thing. And I feel like I can keep sending these 311 reports with the address, like ISD asked me to and there are non-compliance, and there's nothing they can do. And like even ISD said he's a lawyer, he's just gonna fight us. I think that the city needs to come down harder on the big problems like this because it doesn't matter what I do if this is still going on. The other thing, the rat bait boxes, I did ask if the budding neighbors could get them from the city and then the answer's no The City of Revere has a program where they have hired an exterminator so people at abutting properties, if they've seen rats come onto their property, they can get them. The city just has the exterminator come out and put them in for the people

I do think we need to do more to help our neighbors instead of just saying when you bring the trash out. If the trash is in the alleyway or the trashes on the curb, the rats are still getting access to that trash and we need The burden on our neighbors because they're doing everything they can for the most part. There are a lot of people doing a lot good I think that the big players, the big developers, the LLCs who pay no attention, who don't care what happens to the neighbors. They're in there to make their money. They don't if there's rats. We need to be harder on them.

Thank you Ed. Thank You very much. Thankyou for your testimony Hi. You're up next.

OK, hi. I'm Alicia Manning and I live on Beacon Hill and I've been there over 30 years. And the rats have definitely gotten much worse there I, too, echo that we need a Ratzar. And for all the reasons that I just heard in the two previous speakers it really comes back to accountability Nobody is running the show here. I've listened to the panel, and the panel is doing a good job with the tools that they have but nobody's running the shell Everybody's collecting data or trying to deal with the problem, with the resources that they have. But nobody is sort of dealing with the big bear in the room which to me seems to be public works

and getting them at the table, and getting to help the residents deal with the issue which is not putting food out between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m., which you've got the data, you know that's when rats are out there Eating. So why are we putting food out there for them? It's absolutely insane. So I would encourage you to just deal with the problem and stop dealing with the symptoms. Coming up with fancier containers, catch things in sewers, more gas. I mean these are all problems to deal with the symptoms and I understand that. I've had those solutions come into my neighborhood where there have been problems, but the issue is to really deal with root cause and the cause is the food

and we've got to stop putting it out. So that's all I'm gonna say, thank you.

Thank you for your important testimony greatly appreciate it. Good morning.

Hi, good afternoon. My name is Lexi Gross. I live at 41 Haskell in Alston. I'm sort of surprised that I am the only one here from Alston First John, I'm very sorry about your son. My dog had leptospirosis and I can't even imagine what it would be like for your own child. I'm really sorry but you look pretty good man. Keep it up. All right, one quick note here. Six bytes per second at 7000 square feet That's what we learned at the rat summit, how much a bite of a rat goes through. So our little hefty trash bags are going to be pretty rough. Thank you, Councilor Flynn. Thank You Liz Breadon for Co-chairing this. I've lived in Boston, literally lived in the city for 25 years, 16 as a homeowner in Kenmore Square the past six in Alston, Brighton.

I've worked with IAG's neighborhood committees particularly around to the development and impact of Development on Our Neighborhoods, specifically with the rats. I'm also an appointed member of the Alston Harvard Task Force and I've worked with the university as well as the Rat Rangers on rodent mitigation. I held a master's in political communication for over 20 years, my work has included public health crisis and community management communication One thing I've learned is that the best public initiatives cannot succeed without effective communication and community engagement. I recently had the privilege, thank you for participating in the second annual RAT Urban Summit. I cannot emphasize enough how impressed I was by what Boston is doing, you guys. That's what I learned. I would see if you were here. We, I really want to recognize what Mayor Wu was doing.

John, you and your team are phenomenal, what you guys are doing. We are leading actually Quite extraordinarily in the world, you guys. Some of the most incredible rat mitigation processes. The Inter-department of Collaboration, Expertise, Innovation and the Commitment to Public Health. This is a model that people from across the country in the world are learning from. We do have the opportunity guys to become an international center for rodent research, including the whole AI communication going on and developing of safer alternatives to rodenticide We've also become really, really important with our environmental regulations and our regulatory framework as we learned that our birds, our raptor birds are almost 80% infected now with rodenticides. But you know rats don't respect property lines, neighborhood boundaries or our municipal borders.

This simply isn't a rat city problem which by the way I have a problem with too It's a greater Boston problem, public health requirement that really needs a cross The state, holistic regional approach. We have two opportunities. One we need the public health communication guides. We already have the tools 311 heat maps neighborhood data tracking but the data won't change our behavior. We need a coordinated, multilingual communication strategy reaching the landlords, tenants, students, universities, restaurants and businesses and not just Boston regionally. Cambridge wants to work with us, Brookline wants to works with us. There was so much goodwill out there. Wellesley wants to worked with us where I grew up we have a huge rat problem there My mom was head of natural resources for a while. So I want to give you one person example, and I'm going to be done but I have

Call out the woman who just spoke. I didn't mean to laugh, but I've got Disney World behind my house. Okay? Our neighbor just bought three... There used to be six people in the house. Now there's 12. They have not many trash cans. Basically, I've communicated many times to...

Thank you. Can you wrap it up?

Yes, we need to have these landlords, these absentee landlords be accountable not given any more construction permits until they clean up. How many times can you ticket someone 25 bucks? They're gonna stop it. I have rats coming into my children's bikes, into their rooms. Our whole entire house is infested and it is not gonna stop until you guys hold those landlords accountable.

Thank you I believe we still have three people on Zoom that want to testify. Then, I'm going to go to one final round with the remaining City Council colleagues But is Valerie still with us on Zoom? Ma'am, did you mention Ratswell coming into your into the room?

Into the house.

Okay, they're coming into your house. Okay, could we ask Tracy if she'd like to testify? Good afternoon, Tracy. Tracy, I think you might have to accept as a panelist. And you may or may not be muted if you unmute yourself. But you're up next, Tracy. Accept as a panelists.

Hi Tracy. Tracy, we can't hear you. You might be on mute. Hey Tracy, we can't hear you. You might be on mute. Tracey. Well, in the meantime we'll go to city council testimony and finish with the questions.

Okay she's not able to unmute. Okay, we'll have to... Tracy I don't think we're able to get to you. I think there might be a technology issue. Is Valerie there or Kelly? Valerie O'Kelly. Accept as a panelist and unmute.

Hi, it's Kelly. I'm here.

Hi Kelly, you're up.

Thank you. I want to thank everyone for letting me speak today. My name is Kelly McGrath and I'm the Executive Director of Brighton Main Streets in Austin, Brighton. I'm sorry. I am here because rats are a business card issue not just a residential one Our small businesses, especially food businesses live with the consequences every day. Overflowing dumpsters, trash shut out overnight and burrows along commercial blocks. and Brighton is consistently among the neighborhoods with the highest 311 RAC complaints in the city, and our corridors fail to pressure directly. I'll include Alston in that as well. Brighton Main Streets is trying by bringing the environmental team to the district for walks, which we've done many times. We have used the 311 system as well and we always do get great responses and we're appreciative of that And we're also trying to build a reporting culture on the corridor.

But it only works if, you know, the response are kept at pace As we review the status of the Road in Action Plan, we hope enforcement and follow-through reach the commercial corridors with the same urgency as residential blocks and keep reporting back to the districts on what the data shows. Our businesses will do their part on sanitation, but we need a plan to meet us there. We represent the small businesses of Alston Brighton's commercial corridors. We ask the committee to ensure the road and action plans enforcement and follow through reach commercial corridors with the same urgency as the residents. And we'll continue to help by doing the walks, doing the 311 reporting and hopefully be able to pilot some programs with these new trash barrels in those dumpsters that I've seen at Commonwealth Fidelis. And I'm so impressed by thank you.

Thank you, Kelly. Thank you very much for your testimony. Greatly appreciate it. I think Tracy might be on with us? Okay, we lost Tracy. Ellen? Ellen you might have to accept as a panelist and unmute please. and I think that will be it for public testimony after Ellen.

Okay, we're gonna go right to City Council final round of questioning. I do apologize about the technology mix up here. We had some technology Brayden, For a final round of questioning, I'm going to give each city councilor three minutes but I am not going to cut off the city council or the person answering the question. Council of Bread in Europe next.

Thank you Councillor Flynn and thank you to all the folks who've taken time to testify this morning. In Alston Brighton, it's one of those hotspots. Alston Village, one question was the rodent proof Trash cans, we were promised them last year. I asked about it this year, still not coming and just want to put that out that you know we need to be consistent if it's a priority for Alston Brighton Then we should be getting a run-proof tag of time. And I don't want to take, I've got three minutes so I'm just putting that out there In terms of the composting, the curbside composting is incredibly popular. I know there's a change in the protocol right now. It's going to go to every other week. Are we going to get some data on... I'm anticipating there's going to be more food in the trash again and we're going to see more rodents. Are we going to try and do a little pilot study just to figure out what's happening with that?

I think that's a great suggestion, something that we're working on with Public Works to explore a little bit further. To your point around kind of A lot of people interested in this program. One of the reasons we went to biweekly was to expand the number of participants in the program, so doing that allowed us to actually expand and incorporate another 1,100 residents into that pilot program.

There's only so much room in the freezer though. One of our constituents talked about bad landlords and the fact that these landlords are perpetual offenders. and that they keep coming back is constantly not complying with code enforcement rules, et cetera. That if you come back to the zoning board that will say excuse me no Go away, fix up your issues and come back and we'll talk to you. But I think we need to have some really teeth in there. And I think that's one of the things that we're missing here in terms if we have chronic offenders

Delivering in terms of quality service and not complying with our code requirements that They just get a free pass. And then also, John, I know we've been having this conversation yearly. This is my seventh year here for seven years. In the early talks we talked about fines and you said The fines were so low that it's just the cost of doing business. Well, one as a consequence of those comments from you and others we went and got a home rule petition passed at the State House to raise the maximum fine to $2,000 For chronic offenders, people are just not doing what they need to do. Are we enforcing those? Have we changed the fines and are we reinforcing that new structure?

So ISD, we do not issue fines. Our violations are remedial. It's court enforcement and I don't know where they're They're actually at with the ordinance and the change of the cost of fines. They enforce very similar codes, together with the issue of the fine and with our violations when it involves rodents, that case moving forward to housing court is really the best way to resolve it.

Yeah so I'll follow up on that. Yeah, please because you know it took us two years to get that home rule petition passed. It's no small thing and we would like to see actually Some return on the effort. And then one last thing in terms of Alston, it's is one of those when will there be a reassessment of its priority as a neighborhood area that needs attention and What sort of metrics will we have to say that, okay, we've got the problem sorted?

Thank you for raising that. in great detail with Dr. Corrigan when he was here for the National Rat Summit, was actually working together with New York over the next many months, probably the next year to really better understand what are the 10 factors that lead to increased rodent population and rat habitats? And I think after we kind of work together between sites in New York and sites here in Boston where we're experiencing challenges and compare findings, I think those factors will help us kind of reassess some of these pan neighborhoods as you're mentioning. One of the things you brought up earlier was the work at Ringer Park Rinder Park is one example of kind of our efforts Alston, Brighton wide. We're deploying our BRRRX machine there regularly as well as measuring the impact of that machine I think sites like that will kind of help us make a long-term analysis of where we need to continue to devote resources and then where we can reallocate resources depending on the severity of the problem.

I think Ringer Park is a case in point, like right across the fence from Ringer park. I was there on a walk recently There's buildings in which the management companies are not disposing of their trash appropriately, so there's a buffet. Right across the fence, and then you have a nice wooded area that provides lots of cover for rodents to live. We need to start having our management companies and our landlords do their fair share to help address this problem because we can't do it without their cooperation. And if we have to force them to do it, then we're going to have to This is, as somebody said, a really serious public health issue. Animals, pets and individuals, adults, human beings are getting leptospirosis It's a quality of life issue, but it's also a public health issue.

Yeah, so Rigger Park. I think there's three property management companies on the other side of that fence, which I believe we have open cases for all three of them where we're going to hold the case open. Trash is that the violation they can clean up the trash. But because it's an ongoing issue, we're going to keep the case open, have them all come in for a hearing. The Parks Department is also investing money into the urban wilds to clear out some of the debris, to give my team access to the burrows so we can use machine. And then we're measuring with the tools of Basis AI to see the impact that we're having with that machine. Hopefully we see a huge improvement very soon.

Thank you, thank you Mr.

Chair. Thank You Councillor President I'm going to Councilor Mejia.

Thank you. So I'm curious, I heard about the situation with the young person. I'm curious, how many medical situations have you known about?

Yes. I don't want to speak directly for the Boston Public Health Commission. But what I would say is that in collaboration with Dr. Himmelstein, who's the chief infectious disease expert at BPHC, she's let us know that the case numbers are relatively low and to kind of help prevent leptospirosis or other public health associated diseases. The best way is focusing on sanitation and the other efforts we're deploying to mitigate rats.

No filibusting because I've got two more minutes left. Hold up, I have a follow-up question. Stay with me. Out of these medical, even though there is a low... Have you guys been paying the medical bills and taking care of folks who Have I had to take time off or what's that look like in terms of our own accountability? Are we feeling the financial impact on that?

I don't have that information, Counselor.

because we're talking a lot about accountability. And I really do think that once we start filling it in our own pockets, then we start really thinking about the impacts that it has on our constituents and not to say that we're going to be paying people's medical bills but there has to be a role that we play in having to address some of these concerns. So I'm going to stick with the accountability piece here. Restaurants, landlords and residents are kind of like the three buckets that I see in terms of what this looks like Fees, fines, enforcement. What does that look like for restaurants? Who's tracking that and how much money are we making to help support the prevention and education efforts as a result of this.

So violations, if trash is a violation with the restaurant code enforcement issues the punitive fine ISD food establishments, licensed food establishements are overseen by the health department. Dan Predick asked his team No money?

What do you mean? No financial violations or just like, hey, it's a warning. I'm talking about money. I think that people respond when they start feeling the impact in their pockets and so my question is whether or not restaurants are being fined financially for the harm that they're causing the residents that live in and around their establishment.

I can add to John's response. So every restaurant that stores trash has to apply by the site cleanliness program and ordinance that John and his team oversee, If a restaurant doesn't have a site cleanliness license and code enforcement goes out and sees that they don't have that license, they will issue $1,000 fine.

And how many dollars have we had?

I think we'd have to get back to you on the analysis of how many fines they've issued and add up that math for you.

Yeah, because I think to the point of what we're trying to do in terms of intervention and education and prevention, We shouldn't all just come from the city. Like, the folks who are doing business in the city should play a role in helping to support the residents and this issue. I'm just giving you all something to think about Same with the landlords. And residents too, I know that if your garbage is overflowing you get a violation and residents have to pay

So court enforcement is the enforcement agency that would deal with residential trash.

Yeah, so residential folks are paying but and Landlords. I know that, Councilor. And my time is up. And I have so many more questions. But this is not an issue. And, I'll be honest with you, most of the constituents that I serve are dealing with issues around violence and a lot So this is not one of the topics that I have focused a lot of my energy on, but I will say I'm glad that I came to this hearing because some of the infestation are in people's homes. They may not be big old rats, but they're little mice I know that, that also is an issue. And I think that the big rats have babies and everyone is having the same issues so I think the next time we do this I would love to see some of the folks from the BHA housing Dorchester, Roxbury, Mattapan folks coming here to testify and having this as a collective conversation because whether they're big rats or mice is still an infestation.

We have an opportunity to really organize across our neighborhoods around this issue. And I look forward to at least being a part of that conversation and helpful in any kind of way. and my time is up, so y'all lucky that I can't get at y'alls for some more questions.

Thank you Councilor Mejia. I'll also take three minutes What I found most valuable about this hearing is the public testimony from residents, but I do believe there's a major disconnect between what residents have expressed today and The administration has expressed today, residents have expressed to me and to city council colleagues this is a major public health, public safety quality of life issue. I knew that. I've been working on this issue for nine years The issue is not getting better. In fact, it's getting worse. We can't say things are getting better and tell residents they are getting when a rat jumps on some baby carriage.

when a young person is exposed to a rat and gets leptospirosis. Those are serious issues. That's public health, that's quality of life, that is public safety. Someone talked about the rats eating through underneath their car probably impacting maybe the steering, maybe the brakes Residents are using their own money to deal with pest control, hiring a pest control specialist even though they're paying huge property taxes. What I also understand, and I knew this for years is the people here are doing the best job they can under very difficult circumstances. It's not enough Residents aren't accepting that any longer.

Residents want us to overhaul the entire operation and have a city department of RATSA that can coordinate all aspects of pest control That means there's no accountability. There needs to be one designated person, overall responsibility for pest control in the city of Boston that has the authority to conduct the operations she sees fit to improve quality of life conditions in this city and deal with pest control. We don't have that. Again, I'm calling for a designated Ratzar in the City of Boston, elevate it to a city department.

I think it's that serious of an issue that it needs its own standalone city department and during this budget process, I'm gonna fight for that because residents want me fighting for these quality of life issues, public safety challenges. They might not be sexy, they might not glamorous But that's what residents put me in office for, is to tackle these issues. Quality of life issues, public safety, pest control. When a rat is in someone's home That's a significant problem for that family. they have to decide if they're gonna stay in the city. They have to decided if they are going to put their house on the market, that's how serious it is. That's what residents are expressing to me They want us to move with that sense of urgency as if a rat is in your own house and what are you going to do about it?

You need to put that I want to say thank you to the for being here, say thank you to the public for testifying. I want to acknowledge Councilor Breadon's important work that she's done for a long period of time and as the original sponsor with me I want to say thank you to City Council Central staff for working with me on this. I'm going to keep this in committee, I might have a hearing on this at some time in the near future to get another update because this issue is not going away and neither are the city councillors. Docket 1804, order for a hearing to discuss the status of the Boston Rodent Action Plan is over.