City Council - Regular Meeting

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Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to the Sustainability and Environment Meeting. My name is Councillor Victor Davila. Today is July 20th, and the meeting time is 5.08. Excuse me, 5.13. I'm officially calling this meeting to order. Today, we're being joined here in person by Councilor Martin. Thank you, Councilor, for joining us. We also join, I'll let you introduce yourself.

My name is Cori Durham, and I'm a resident of the Outer Belt neighborhood.

Cori, thank you for joining us, Cori. And we are joined by Jeanette DeForge from the Republican and La Voz Hispana. Jose. Jorge. Jorge Nunez. Thank you, Jorge, for joining us. And so unfortunately, I have to say that the department heads that were someone to be here today, someone was not the right word, they were requested to be here, are not here, which is unfortunate. We will look into it. And I will be holding another meeting into it. But since we're here, we figure we have a little bit of discussion going on amongst ourselves. The reason we are here is because in May 26, as you may recall, we had a significant amount of illegal dumping on Orleans Street. We have piles of trash that was overflowing over to the sidewalk, to the drainage, and to the streets. Thankfully, that got resolved. But there were some questions that arose out of that. One, why did it take so long? Even though it was private property, why did it take so long to be addressed? The fine system, the fine structure found out that they're completely different. We have one structure, I guess one department could give another fine as opposed to the other. The state has a whole different structure, which is actually more heavier. And one of the things that I'm going to be looking at is the possibility of bringing our fines in line with whether it be the state or throughout the state, because I think it's to be uniform. Unfortunately, we figure out that sometimes the left doesn't talk to the right or the right doesn't talk to the left. And the end result is that the trash accumulates and our quality of life continues to decay. And that is not acceptable to me. So that's basically the list that I want to talk about. In the last minute, we also talked about Operation Clean Sweep. And I was a little surprised, according to the director, Tommy Ash, who was a great help, that I believe we do about 300 responses a week on illegal dumping throughout the city.

What was that number? 300.

300. 300 throughout the city. And I was shocked. That's during the summer.

Oh, during the summer specifically?

Yes, particularly in the summer. But they go out throughout the years, as I understand. So that's where we are. And so it is something that I do intend to follow up. so that we can get this into life and getting the resources that they need because we do have some sort of quality issues happening in the city of Springfield, and we all want the same thing. But with that being said, that's pretty much what we have. Again, I regret that the people are not here in the room, but they will be. They will be. because I'm going to call them. They will be here. But with that being said, Councilor Amari, is there anything you want to share?

Yeah, Councilor, I just, I want to say, first and foremost, thank you for hosting this meeting. And, you know, even before I was, you know, formally elected to the city council, you and I have worked closely on this issue. You know, there's been a lot of repeat bad actors, as I know, you know, Ms. Durham and myself personally, And no, throughout even Ward 7, let alone the whole city, you know, a particular house on Braidcrest, a particular house on Cooley Street, they just, you know, continue to violate our ordinance. And there's little follow through on that. Or, you know, they get ticketed, but there's no teeth to the enforcements. And I just, I looked online to the previous Operation Clean Sweeps in the past. Back in 2010 on this article, it said that there was 118 cases that the Springfield Law Department brought before Housing Court to make sure that there's court orders that these properties clean up their- What year was that? 2010. How many? 118 cases.

How many were resolved?

It doesn't say how many were resolved in this little write-up, but this was right from the city's website. I mean, this is something that we, you know, that for me is an example of putting teeth and some weight behind these ordinances, which is so desperately needed to make sure that there's no there's no repeat offenders. So, Councilor Davila, thank you so much for, you know, staying on top of this issue. Thank you so much for hosting this meeting and we're gonna keep fighting.

Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Martin. Co-executives, do you want to share any concerns? Councilor, you're with the 16th Agri-Civical Society.

Not with Outer Belt, but I'm here as a resident today. I've lived in the city for 38 years and I've seen a big decline in property maintenance. It's really discouraging because I pay almost $6,000 a year to have property taxes on a five and a half from branch in my neighborhood. And I have problem houses and they've been ticketed and they just don't pay the tickets or they don't clean up the property. And I think the ordinance officers for the police department are discouraged because they don't see results when they do that either. And I've wondered what other cities and towns do to get people to follow in with the rules. And I think it's kind of probably known that the city of Springfield just doesn't follow up on this stuff. And I think we need to change that tone. And I listened to the report from CBZ, the consultants, and I think they were talking right about it the way I feel as a resident is, you know, I just invested in a new deck on my house. And, you know, that was quite expensive and I'm, you know, getting other things. Should I keep investing in my house if the city is going to keep going down or what? And I think the CBZ report, which you were the chair that day, says that if you don't do something in the city, you're going to drive the middle class taxpayers out of the city. Because I don't want to live in an area that looks run down and it's almost embarrassing to have people come to your house and say, where the heck do you live? I mean, I think that sums it up.

I think you're right. As you were talking, one of the things that popped out of my head was that this report that you referenced from CBC, I think it was called the Springfield Housing Plan, I think it was called. We have challenges. And a couple of things that stuck out to me on that one was that if we don't address several things, one particular housing market or decaying housing market, that's specifically what they used, that we're going to be in trouble because we are not going to generate the appropriate revenue to sustain our budget. Mind you, the budget, as we know, is already $1.3 billion. And two, they talked about the worst of bossing in my hair, not in my hair, I don't have hair, on my mind, the chaos. They describe the word chaos and later. And so, you know, a few years ago, I produced a report. I created a little committee. I had a little committee. I wanted recommendations to later. Now, this is illegal dumping, which is different from later. But this is one of the things that we have to stay on top of it. We need to make sure it can expect more anybody putting in that next budget that we really Parliament has to really, really need to tell us what they need. One of the things that I hear, that I've been hearing a lot, and I'm sad to push it back, it's like, when the new season comes around, it's like, no, we're fine, we got our staff, they have what's for the year, they tell us which staff. But which one is it? Either you have staff or you don't have staff. And if you do have staff, tell us. We can hopefully do something, work with the administration to get you what you need. And so I think these are issues that can be resolved. I'm sure they will be resolved. You know, I'm sure the administration and the property departments will be more than willing to work with us on this issue. And I have a lot of faith. But we got to do something because I'm a little concerned with what's happening with all the chaos, and to use the word chaos, I especially don't like it.

Yeah, that report was spot on. It really was. I mean, he was brutally honest. I think one of the points they made, though, is nobody wants to just run around and ticket people. But if there's reasons people are having trouble keeping their property up, you know. I think that, you know, it needs to be a bigger picture. And then when they talked about focusing on small areas and finding out why the properties are not maintained. You know, is it income wise? Is it elderly people or people that don't have the resources? You know, but then there's people that just blatantly have the resources to take care of their property or to... buy an $8 ticket for a bulk pickup and don't bother to do it. I mean, we've got the greatest service for $8. I mean, I just had four items picked up a few weeks ago. You know, I mean, what other town has that service?

If I recall correctly, I believe Chris Ignoli told us that when it comes to legal dumping of mattresses, most of the stuff is being dumped from people from outside. They come to the city, and they just dump it into wherever. In my own neighborhood, I have every year, you find one tire here nicely placed. They don't just, they put it nicely. Like, you could tell somebody took the time to put it there nicely. A tire here, two over there, one over there. And I ask, and I believe they think that it might be out of the city tires. please, Lord, let me cash them, please, let me cash them. You know, things like that, I just don't good for the city. And so, and all this, it just goes on 20K, I see. But what I'm going to do, I'm going to reschedule this meeting. Corey, I will, if you give me an email before you leave, make sure you get it, say the loop. And next time, I'm going to make sure. personally, that they are here. I don't know why they stopped doing this communication for now. They have been extremely helpful in the past, and I know they will be helpful in the future. So, any other comments?

perhaps before you have a meeting, I know you're focusing on the illegal dumping, but the picture is bigger than that. It's that people do their homework and find out what other cities and towns are doing to enforce and maybe get some feedback from the legal department on why we can't look at some of the worst offenders. And a lot of them are absentee landlords too. and look at, you know, from the legal department, why we can't put some effort into, you know, making some examples of worst offenders. Because I think the word is out. Springfield doesn't care.

Yeah. A couple years ago, we were having issues with fireworks and illegal dumping. Surprise. Again. So this has been going on. This is a historical problem. And the time has come for the city to really say sit down and look. I authored a ordinance in which we got the state house to approve it that you lose your car if it's used to legal dumping. Now, I'm talking the big items, the big ball caps. I'm not talking about a robber. Because if you don't have a car, guess what you want to do? You want to transport large items to top, right? And so we started doing this a while back. We need to get back on the horse on this. I want to say we, I mean, I can't go there because of Martin, ourselves, I'm doing it ourselves. And so, but we will continue to air this out because I'm hearing a lot of concerns and the city, and you can see, you honestly can see it when you drive throughout the city. With that being said, does the media have any questions?

I have a question. You say that you live here about 30, for 30 years?

38 years.

38 years. And it has seen a decline. When you see the decline, can you give an idea? Has it declined the last few months, the last few years, the last decades?

Maybe in the last 10 years, maybe. Out our way. And I think... has something to do with the amount of rental homes not picking on just renters and just multi-generational families living in homes because of the way the economy is you've got maybe three generations of people living in a home and it's there's not enough space i mean you've got people with seven, eight cars in the family parking on the lawn and, you know, all that stuff, which means they don't cut their grass and stuff because they got cars parked on it. Just that general decline. I think those are two things, the amount of rental properties. And I think, you know, the number of mom, the amount of people that it takes to live in a house these days to be able to afford the mortgage, you know, it's just not enough space. You know, When they talked about ADUs, parking, we can't hardly plow the streets with all the cars there are in this city. So when you, you know, you add more and more in, I mean, it's, So that's, you know, but I've seen it. I mean, I live in a really nice street. Everybody gets along. Somebody moves into the neighborhood. The other point I want to make is you don't want to have to be a neighbor that has to confront somebody on, you know, cut your grass and stuff. And so people have said, I know Walter Gould from the Outer Belts says all the time, Why doesn't code enforcement, if they see it, why don't they say something? Well, I guess the department's pretty small right now. But you don't want to pit neighbors against neighbors. I mean, did you read some of the comments on Nextdoor? Somebody got a ticket for parking on their lawn and all these comments were coming in. Well, it's your yard. You should be able to do whatever you want. You know, and that's the attitude that's a problem. There's rules and regulations. Why aren't people following the rules and regulations? Is that where the decline is? I mean, I don't know.

You're asking a million dollar question. If I had the answer, I would tell you, but I do think that there is a general social decline.

Do you mind if I take a photo of you?

No, I just don't. No, I'm sorry.

All right.

So, are you done with your question?

I'm done.

That's fine.

All right, Councilor Martin.

No, I just kind of want to reiterate an earlier point that Mr. Arum said earlier, and I think it was spot on, is just making an example out of these repeat offenders. And a lot of that is going to, I think, require some upheaval from our legal team, from our legal staff. Because as you and I know, Councilor Davila, A lot of these repeat offenders, I mean, they get issued a ticket, they get issued multiple tickets over a period of years. And the worst that we can really do after so much time is put a lien on the property after two years of unpaid tickets. And that lien doesn't get paid until the property itself is sold, which it could be decades after that.

My understanding is, Chancellor, that, and don't quote me on this, but I believe that it was changed to now put it on the taxpayer.

I also think it's the link. That's part of this. We'll have to double check.

The law department here as well. That's definitely a low question.

What I understand is people pay their property tax, but they don't pay the additional fines that are tacked on.

That's true. More importantly to me, it's just fixing. Just take care of what's going on. Because If you, all this is interrelated, as we know. You know, kind of a broken window theory. Everything's interrelated. And so if you have somebody with high amount of grass, you're gonna have eventually illegal dumping in that area. Eventually, that name was going to go. But I'm sorry, I interrupted.

No, it's all right. But no, I just, when I went to, I believe it was the collectors or the assessors back when, you know, a couple years ago when we were still looking at this issue initially, I believe it was they put the lien on the property. And regardless, whether it's they put it on the tax bill or it's the lien on the property, that's way down the road. And it's not fixing the issue. And I really think by bringing them into court, by putting, again, these repeat offenders on the spot, then we can really start to turn this around and try to nip it beyond.

So with that being said, please stay tuned. I will be rescheduling the meeting on this. And so if anybody at home was watching has any specific area that they're concerned with illegal dumping, they can always call here in the office. They can leave me a message or cancel mine as well. And that number I will give it to you guys. It is 413-787- 787-6177, 787-6183. You can also email me at 787-6170, 413. I recall 413. And you can always email me at my counselor address, email address, bdavila, D-A-V-I-L-A, at splintercityhall.com. And you will come to me if you have anything in Any areas that you know that are really affected with legal dumping, please let us know. This is going to take a while. This is going to be solved in two, three, four weeks. This is a historical problem that has been there, so I want to be realistic with expectations. But it's very clear to me that we've got to do something on this issue. We've got to continue to do something better. has been done optimally. So, and with that being said. Last question. Yeah, go ahead. Sure.

Right. Two things. I know, I've seen, because I've been around that, when there's grass and things like that, keeping, cutting the grass, keeping the tree trimmed, usually is a landlord problem. But many times, when the land, when the tenants have a disarray on the whole property, they have this, they have that, and they have that, the tenant that is, I don't know any procedures that go right after the tenants, but after the landlord, but when the landlord go to court, sometimes it is not a way to afford the tenants, is in my perception. So can you say, can you explain how, when the debate between the landlord and the tenants, and usually the landlord keep it tree, but the tenant have a lot of, a lot of trash around at the property, how does that handle? Some of those things are property, other tenants, for example, a broken washing machine, and when the landlord is going to try to move it, they say, no, no, that might, my washing machine, I need to, I'm going to fix it. But so they have another one and another one and another one. So how is that situation is handled when the The landlord had the tie up, her hands tied up, and the tenant doesn't cooperate. It is a new procedure.

So that would be a court issue for sure. It would be a landlord-tenant complaint. But honestly, if that was the case, I think the landlord needs a new tenant badly. Badly, because you know what? Washing machines don't belong in front of your house. They belong in the basement or a back room to your laundry hooked up. So to me, somebody gives me the argument that that's nonsense. You know what, I know we're talking hypotheticals here, but actually it's not hypothetical because it has happened. I would just remove the damn thing and sue me. Good luck. You know, so we cannot be held hostage in our own homes, in our own neighborhood, in our own home. This is our city, this is our neighborhood. If you don't like it, tough cookies, get the hell out. Leave, move. And this is not about being poor, not being poor. This is about having pride for one's self. City, for God's sakes. So, you know, by the way, one of the things I always get surprised at is litter and trash. You'd be surprised. Go ahead, Colton.

Is Operation Clean Suite just focused on residential or does it focus on commercial property as well?

Residential. Yeah, before it was previously only residential. I would like to see if we could make it Expanded to commercial properties as well. That was a question that we had asked last time. So, again, another question for the legal department when they're here down here. Can we now? Yeah. Because, like, you know, again, for example, like, we had that dollar tree last year. We have the gas station and outer belt right by Calvin school. That seems to be, you know, repeat. Violators and. they should, you know, face the consequences of that.

And that's a good example, Chancellor Martin. We worked together on that. And I have to say, I went to the dollar store myself a couple weeks ago, and you look acceptable to me. Yeah. On the outside and the inside. And I was like, okay. And so everything is, so if it's done there, it can be done at a bigger scale. But with that being said, so keep an eye out. We're going to reschedule that. Maybe a month would be good or two weeks.

I mean, as soon as we get the ball rolling together, I mean, two weeks if possible.

I'm going to wait for it.

I'm going to wait for two weeks.

After this meeting, should we expect more ticket being handled by law enforcement people who do not keep their property in cleaning mode?

That will be a question for the law and the Department. We cannot issue the ticket. We can go for enforcement.

Can you not defy law enforcement for me about this meeting?

Oh, you may believe. It was supposed to be here.

Okay, so... you would be not a fine about the situation to the call of foreman. Absolutely.

And they're aware because this is not a normal issue. They have been, this is an ongoing issue. Like I said, this is a historical problem. I think the time has come for us to really develop a real plan. And I don't want to sit here and point fingers on where the other does not know how government works. At least that's not my style. Look, we have an independent government entity. Call those out. Call those out on Twitter. We need to do something. So any other questions? Okay. So with that being said, I'm going to adjourn the meeting. I'm going to try to scale this for two weeks or so. And so the time is now 539. Thank you, everybody. God bless you. Have a good day.