It's a rat.

How can they put that instead of rather rather than like hey, what's happening?

Counselors want to take your seats, please.

Gus, you ready?

Okay, go ahead.

All set, Gus.

Good evening, everyone.

Like to call the committee on public safety and neighborhoods for August 19th, 2025 meeting at 7 p.m.

in City Council Chambers at 7.01.

Note that this meeting is being live streamed and recorded on City Council and committee meetings.

Can be viewed on the city's New Bedford pay homepage under the quick link and then meeting.

Anything to be read into the record tonight.

I have nothing to be read into the record.

That said, in attendance tonight, and my colleagues that have joined me, Counselor at Large, Ian A.

Brooke.

Ward 2, Councillor Maria Giasta.

Ward 5, Counselor Joe Lopes, Wad 6, Councillor Ryan Pereira, Counselor at Large, Linda Pereira.

Linda Pereira.

Sorry, Linda.

I don't know what that I don't know what that was all about.

That slip.

Congratulations.

Yeah, to both of you.

Counselor at large, Linda Morad, Counselor at Large, Naomi County, Ward 3 Councillor Sean Oliver, City Council President and Councillor at Lodge, Shane Burgle, and Waterfall Counselor Derek Baptiste.

Thank you all for being here.

Hold up.

Ladies and gentlemen, before we get underway tonight, I would like to um call to the podium our newly appointed uh police chief Tody, if you would take the podium and um give him a nice warm welcome to the city.

Some of you have not welcomed him.

So the the welcome has been warm.

Um so uh uh I I was asked to to stop by here and introduce myself.

So I've seen a uh a bunch of folks out in the community at some of the great events like the feast and the feast parade and the and the national night out.

Um you know this is uh this is day two of of week five, so it's been a little uh busy, I'd say coming in for a couple weeks before the feast and uh trying to get myself immersed in that, making sure that event goes off without a hitch.

But uh as I settle in, um I'll I'll be reaching out to to a lot more folks, including all of you to sit down and uh do some one-on-ones about what you're seeing in the city and what your uh public safety priorities are so that uh so that we can best align them with uh kind of our efforts.

Um born and raised in Connecticut, uh started in uh police explorers when I was 14.

Um got hired in in Hartford as a police cadet when I was 19, uh stayed with Hartford for 28 years, uh served everything from cadet to officer to detective, uh went all the way up through the ranks, uh served from uh 2019 to 2024 as chief uh through the super simple times that were COVID-19 and uh and George Floyd and everything that was uh uh the that was a true challenge for law enforcement.

Um but wouldn't trade it for the world, uh loved the job.

Um loved that city uh and was honored to work there as the the mayor of of Hartford uh decided not to run.

He's pursuing uh bigger and better things now.

Uh I thought it was a good time to to retire.

Uh the department was in a good place.

We got it out out from under a 50-year-old uh stipulated agreement consent decree.

Um good time to pass the reins.

I had a great staff there.

Um so uh and then was kind of like on the lookout for the next chapter.

Uh this opened up.

Uh my wife and I are uh we love the ocean.

We we have a boat.

Um we love we love to golf, so we first kind of looked at the city to see if it was a place that we would want to call home.

Uh passed that test with flying colors, um, had some some great food up here and walked around in some great streets and we had a nice hike on the cove walk and all the all the great things that New Bedford has to offer.

So we we visited a couple times before I applied for the job, uh went through the process, met a couple uh council folks uh during during the process process as well.

But uh we really just kind of fell in love with the city.

Um and now that I've been here for a little while and and really got to know the police department beyond uh what was what I could find online and what was in the Jensen Hughes report.

Uh this is a a great department full of of great people that are dedicated to the safety of this city.

Um and I I think what I hope to bring uh is just a little bit of an outside perspective.

Um you know I've had uh some great opportunities in law enforcement as I told uh the troops during roll calls and stuff.

I I took every opportunity that was presented to me, whether it was training with the FBI Academy or whether it was opportunities to be on on committees like the fleet committee and the uniform committee.

Um I served on all the special teams like the the tactical team and the honor guard and everything.

I I just I love the job.

I did everything um that I could while I was while I was there uh and encouraged the folks here to do the same.

But uh, you know, I think I can and bring an outside perspective and merge that with the great work uh that the women and men of the New Bedford PD are currently doing.

Um we've got a great command staff, uh assistant deputy corolla is here with me tonight.

He's he's uh he's been with me really since the very beginning, along with Derek.

Um so uh it it's really been uh I've never been a chief coming in from the outside before.

I was a 28-year Hartford officer.

Um but it's been uh an extremely welcoming uh process and it's been um really kind of seamless.

Uh we just we just had a roll call out here uh in front of the library as we look to address some of the issues in in downtown here.

Um and uh I look forward to finding where all those issues are in the city and and doing our best to uh to address them as well.

So um before I leave, uh I'll certainly make sure that those that don't have my number get my number um and I will be uh reaching out as now things are finally starting to settle down a little bit as we come out of the summer season.

Um, you know, the next thing on my priority list uh really outside of the operations of the police department is is uh getting out meeting meeting our elected officials, meeting our our uh other department heads.

I'm I'm randomly bumping into them at City Hall, um so I can sit down and and really get to know some folks a little bit better.

But uh I appreciate the welcome um already uh friendly faces, which is nice.

And again, anything I can do.

Um I'm a phone caller, a text away.

But thanks for this invite and this opportunity.

Thank you very much, Chief.

You're not going anywhere because the first item is called for you, but you can have a seat with Chief.

The change of the wording is chapter 32 of the general law.

It should read no retired police officer shall be eligible for an appointment of special police officer if the applicant has attained the age 70, and any officer shall be appointed uh so appointed shall be terminated upon attaining the age of 70.

This is a home rule petition amendment to enable New Bedford police officers over the age of 65, the ability to be assigned to detail work in the city in New Bedford to be referred to the mayor, the police chief, our local state delegation and the committee on public safety and neighborhoods this matter was referred on August 18th, 2022.

On September 6, 2022, it was returned on signed by the mayor.

On September 28th, 2022, it was tabled for 60 days.

On February 21st, 2023, it was heard and then again tabled.

On July 27, 2023, it was heard and then tabled for 90 days.

February 28th, 2024, it remained on the table.

On August 26, 2024, it remained on the table.

Um and on March 11th, 2025, it was heard and then tabled for 90 days.

One is before you and it remains on the table.

Motion to remove the item from the table.

Motion removed the item from the table by Council Pereira.

Seconds.

Seconded by Councillor County.

All in favor?

I oppose the eyes have it.

I may have the chief on the steps prematurely on this, and he may not be aware.

Chief, this is uh having our retired officers be able to work special details like traffic and stuff like that.

I understood from our previous chief that there was some uh negotiating going on with the union.

Does that continue at this moment?

So I I have not discussed that with the union.

Uh I read uh obviously the agenda here, uh, had some some conversations.

Um as far as I know, there is no issues with the union.

That was not uh, you know, I've I've talked to Chief Oliveira a few times.

Um that was not something that was brought to my attention.

Um I think in in this day and age, it's sometimes tough to fill these details.

Uh it does go to the officers, the active officers first, and then uh to you know, to the to the uh the officers that are coming back from retirement.

Um so I I don't see a union issue there.

I can certainly talk to the union president about it.

Um, and I I would support it.

Um I think with the caveat that as you get uh you know I'll be 50 in a couple months.

I'm not I'm not the same spry cop that I was when I was 21.

Um, you know, the caveat that you know these officers are out there, they're out there, uh, the these retired officers, special duty officers are out there in the heat, uh in the cold.

You know, I I think maybe uh some kind of uh of a of a medical clearance uh would would probably be appropriate at you know after age 65.

I feel like I probably need one after 50.

Um so that would be the only thing that I could think of uh would be to maybe make sure that that they get cleared, you know, by a doctor that they're okay to do that work.

Um, car accidents can happen, uh, you know, incidents can happen where some of these people could be approached as though they're an active duty officer.

I don't know that the that the that the citizens in a crisis are going to differentiate them from uh an active police officer.

So I would just want to make sure that they are able to you know to function in that capacity.

But um if the the union uh was an issue, I'll I can double check with the union president.

Okay, and then we can come back and look at this.

Uh again, uh I agree with you on the medical clearance, but I thought that this gave the department an opportunity to fill some of them details when you can't fill them with these retired police officers that it's still physically fit and able to uh be out there.

And presently you do have some of them, some of your retired uh police officers that are working these details.

Yeah, there's quite a few of them, and honestly, um you know, from a kind of a different angle.

Uh some of them are still kind of happy to have their foot in the door with law enforcement.

This is sometimes a tough industry to leave.

Um, so I think it keeps folks engaged.

I I don't see a negative uh to it at all.

So you do say if uh at the age of 65, if you can pass a physical um uh thing that there's a possibility that we these officers could continue to work these details from the Bedford police officers.

If it's up to me, yeah, I would have no problem with that.

Um like I said, I I didn't know about the the potential union uh issues.

I I in my head right now I I can't think of what that would be because our active officers there, union members have first writer refusal.

Um but I'll double check with the union president.

Well that that's what we were told that there was uh negotiation, at least even the last time that we had uh the promot chief here that the they were still to speak into the union.

So at this point, um I'll give you uh forty-five days.

Is that good enough for you to look into this and come to some conclusion?

We'll bring it back and um try to put some of these officers to work covering these details, not um taking your offices away from other things that you need them for.

Plenty of time.

Does anyone have any questions to the chief?

Seeing none.

A motion to table for 45 days.

Second.

Motion by Councillor Ferrera, seconded by Councillor Abreu.

All in favor?

Aye.

Upposed, the ayes have it.

Chief, thank you very much for being here this evening.

Item number two is a written motion.

Councillors Oliver Morat, Abreu Lopes, Baptiste Giesta Carney and Gomes.

Requesting that police chief Oliver Executive Secretary to the Traffic Commission, Lori Alfonso, City Solicitor Eric Jakes, Chief Financial Officer Robert Ekstrom, and a representative from the traffic division meet with the committee on public safety and neighborhoods to discuss the current policies, procedures, and ordinances surrounding campers, RVs, boats, and trailers that are left unregistered and abandoned throughout the various streets and neighborhoods within the City of New Bedford.

And further to discuss improvements and initiatives to address these matters in a timeline manner so not as to pose significant safety risks and eyesores and to improve the overall cleanliness within the city.

It was referred here on July 18th, 2024.

On August 26, 2024, was a vote to send to the purchasing agency uh agent to draft an RFP for a company to take and store and or demolish campers, RVs, boats, etc.

It was tabled.

And number two is now before you and it remains on the table.

Motion or remove from the table.

Motion removed from the table by Council Oliver, seconded by Councillor Burgle.

All in favor?

I oppose the eyes have it.

Councilor Hollida.

I'd like to think you, Mr.

Chair.

I'd like to hear from actually Police Chief Thhodi.

Since we've heard from everybody else, just figure see if there's any initiatives that they've been doing from his previous municipality.

Chief Yes, so uh in in looking at this, I I kind of took a look at the initiatives that the police department has had.

Um it it appears as though the traffic division and and those folks have been staying uh pretty on top of this.

They've they keep track of it uh in a spreadsheet here of the uh I can give you some stats if if you'd like.

Um so there's uh of the 46 of the campers and or boats um that they have found out there, um there are 23 that are still active that are still out there uh on the streets, and of those 23, I think one of the issues is that they are um all 23 of those are registered.

Um so uh of the 46, 23 are out there still registered.

Um I think uh you know, one of the things that uh that we looked at in my previous municipality was like, are these campers attached to something, right?

Are they still attached to a vehicle?

Um is there a noise issue?

Are they uh running a generator?

I do know that a couple of our officers did issue um some generator citations uh recently.

Um and that and those were folks that actually had a generator like off on on the sidewalk, which um you know is kind of egregious, um, not just a generator running in the unit.

But you know, we kind of looked at noise, we looked at whether they're attached to something.

Um, you know, there was talk of potentially uh some kind of uh of an ordinance that talked about having to move the the vehicles every so often to kind of make sure that they're they're still viable.

Um it's my understanding that as of now, if they're registered and they're there, um there's not too much we can do beyond that unless we find another violation as the officers have done.

Um but to date um we've we've had five that after speaking with the folks, they have moved.

Uh we don't know where, in all honesty, we don't know where they moved them to, but we know they're not where they were.

Um we've towed a total of 18.

Uh we've sent eleven for destruction, and we have currently seven uh that are pending pickup.

Um this week alone, um we uh we had dealt with we towed two one from 25 Morton Court and one from Summit and Maxfield, which was a boat and trailer.

Um but uh you know, as you can see, they're you know, they're they're keeping track of this stuff.

It's on our radar, and the officers are continuing to uh to do what they can with it.

Okay.

Are there any were there any uh other um initiatives or anything like that that you would uh that you would bring from Hartford that maybe they were doing differently, or are we kind of on par with that, or was this even an issue uh in Hartford?

It was.

Um, you know, we it wasn't uh I didn't see it as as many as this, uh if I'm being honest.

Um but I I think you know, some kind of um, you know, I I think it's it's the the taste of of the the council or the legislature to figure out something that says, okay, even though this is registered, you know, it either can't be on the street for for this long.

Um what I one thing I haven't seen that did work pretty well in keeping these things off of certain streets was um odd-even parking.

We saw that in Hartford a lot.

We used it where certain days of the week you were allowed to park on one side of the street, certain days of the week you were allowed to park on the other side of the s side of the street, which made uh you know these kind of campers and and and things move.

Here I've noticed that you guys generally park on both sides of the street, so I don't know that that would work here.

Um but I can certainly uh you know take a look and see if there's there's initiatives that uh some of my my colleagues uh around uh around the country are are doing that are that's that are successful.

That that that would be helpful.

Um are we having a problem or to your knowledge?

Uh maybe this isn't a question for you, but uh as you guys are towing them or having them towed, um is there any um uh are you facing any difficulty um getting that tow initiated or um finding places to tow them to?

Are there places because one of the one of the concerns was tow yards um don't really necessarily like to take these types of units in because they take up a lot of space um and uh before anything can be done with them.

So I know that the registered ones are a issue that uh colleague of mine is working on this council is working on as well.

This this in front of us is more just like the ones that are left abandoned.

Uh a lot of them, you know.

I've I've seen a lot of them down by the waterfront in the Hicks-Logan area uh on some of those uh desolate streets that you know aren't as traveled.

Um so I guess are you are you finding it difficult to get these things towed and to stand and stored?

It's probably a little early for me to say that here, about here.

Uh I did take a I looked at the at the sheet and kind of found some streets that were popping up more often than others.

One of them was David Street or Road.

Uh forgive me if I don't if I got the street or road is the street.

Okay.

Um, you know, and there was a there was a few there.

I I double checked with them on the list, they're registered.

Um but one of the issues that we did have in Hartford was uh you know, people uh initially they don't they're okay taking them, and then when they realize that they're just gonna sit there, folks aren't gonna come get them.

To your point, they're gonna take up space, they're really not worth anything.

Until you can find someone that destroys them, um they are a little bit of a burden uh to the tow firm.

Uh we wrote it into the towing contracts.

If you wanted to be a contracted tower with the city, we wrote it in there that you you gotta take these things and kind of figure it out.

And you you said that 11 of them, I believe, were destroyed.

Is that that was that is the number here, yes.

Okay.

Um is that one particular company that's destroying them or are we destroying them?

How do how is that?

Do you know?

That is a good question.

I can get back to you on it.

I I do know that 11 were sent for destruction in all of the um in all of the uh information that's on here.

Um I got make model plate.

It doesn't say where they were taken for destruction or how they were destroyed, but I can find out.

I can I I can ask me maybe somebody else will have that that question, but um if you can get it as well and just um give that information to the clerk.

That's all I have at this time, uh, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor.

Counselor Lopes.

Thank you, Council Chairman.

So staying on the eleven that have been demolished.

Can you provide us with the cost associated for the demolition of them and how you're gonna be covering that out of a budget that you didn't get to build?

So you've inherited a budget.

You had five weeks and two days to analyze it.

But how are you gonna handle the the financing of the demolition?

Because once you started with eleven, there's eleven people in this room that are gonna call you and say, well, you've demolished eleven and there's still seven out there.

How are we gonna get those removed as well?

Yeah, and and we know we have seven that are kind of pending being picked up, so that the that's a good question.

Um that was not a line item as you know at in five five weeks uh that came out of the police department budget, just for the record.

It was uh uh it was kind of the the the tow firm because they would be able to recover like metals sometimes, like so there were some value to them, um, but I don't know if the juice was worth the worth the squeeze for them, and I think that's where we kind of got back and forth.

But it did not come out of the the police department's budget.

Um but I when I find out who took them and how much it cost to destroy and and where you know that came from, I can give you back get back to you.

And then I I will this isn't related to the subject, but it's in the same manner.

A couple years ago I had floated the idea to your predecessors that at one time the city used to have its own tow yard.

The police department had its own tow vehicles.

We towed during snowstorms and things of that nature.

Other communities do it.

Is that something that would have been of interest to you during your tenure to analyze the ROI to your department if we were to reinstitute our own towing?

So when I first got on the job in 96, uh our city yard um Department of Public Works is what we called it, uh did have their own tow trucks, and for certain things they would tow.

Uh they would generally tow like our city vehicles that broke down uh and things like that.

They didn't generally engage in snow tows and things like that.

It would be something worth you know looking at to see you know the cost of building a tow fleet, maintaining a tow fleet, having tow truck drivers.

If you get really large police departments like NYPD, they run an entire tow fleet and cops drive the the tow trucks.

You know, um they can ticket the car and tow the car.

Um, you know, that would be something you that I would have to look into to see if that's if that's worth it, what the upfront cost is, what you know, maintenance cost on a tow truck.

I I haven't I have no idea.

But um there are places to do it.

Well we get we get a chance to sit down and have coffee.

That'll be one of the pressing topics that I'll bring up to you.

Towing, got it.

Thank you, Chief.

Thank you, Chairman.

Thank you, Councillor Lopes.

Counselor Abel.

Thank you very much, Mr.

Chairman.

Good evening, Chief.

How are you?

Good evening.

Good.

Good to see you.

Nice to meet you.

Um this has been a problem we've been dealing with for quite a while.

In fact, the War Three Counselor and I asked a personal friend who has a tow truck service to tow a vehicle out of War 3 about six or six months ago, right, Sean?

Yeah.

So obviously we're beating a dead horse, but it's a continuous problem.

Um we understand when vehicles are uninsured and they're not registered and they're abandoned, it's fair game, and we have enough of a problem trying to get those out of neighborhoods.

I know you had said earlier we have this problem with regular vehicles in neighborhoods if it's insured and uh it's registered.

If it's on a public street, you don't have too much latitude on what you can do.

You have no latitude actually.

But at what point if a V if a RV or trailer is registered and insured on a public street, does it become a hazard?

Like what quantifies a hazard?

Smashed windows, smash tires, people squatting.

At what point is it like, okay, it is registered, it is insured, but we do have to try to get this out of here.

It it's my understanding that there's not a statute specific to that.

I think you'd have to attach um you know you'd have to attach something else, like I said, to uh you know, either a noise violation or like to your point, uh some kind of a safety concern.

Um, not you know that that would be something that I think you know, even the solicitor's office would probably have to get involved in to see like what what exactly we could attach to that to be able to take action because it's a motor vehicle, um, it's registered, it's insured.

As of right now, I don't think there's like a limit, a time limit on on how long we can, you know, if a certain time limit goes by, then we can take action.

Um so I I think we'd have to do some research into like what what statute we could use for that.

Yeah, that's a fair that's a fair point.

Um my second question was of a financial basis, the what if I have counselor already asked that as to how we foresee going forward into the next fiscal year as you start to the next couple of months already with the CFO, the administration and us start to build next year's budget because this problem isn't going away, it's getting worse.

And my other questions were already asked about kind of you know your past experience in Hartford with these.

So I'm not gonna grill you too much because I know you're only a few weeks into this, you're learning the community, you're learning kind of the landscape here.

But I look forward to sitting down with you and chatting about this and other issues in the future, hopefully soon.

Um and I appreciate your willingness to obviously come in tonight and feel these questions because it is a serious problem.

And I'm sure as you can understand, coming from Hartford as well.

It's like New Bedford in the sense of um quality of life is very important to the neighborhoods, as I'm sure you can respect and understand.

So we're responsible for the quality of life for these constituents and our residents.

So I know you take that seriously.

So thank you for uh looking into this.

Thank you.

Mr.

Chairman, I'll yield at this time.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Councilor Abel.

Before I recognize Councillor Giesta, I'm gonna ask you again, sir, if you would put your feet down.

Out of respect for the chamber that you're in, I don't want your feet up on the furniture.

Can you put your feet down?

Thank you very much.

So if it's okay, I'm gonna let um let uh assistant deputy chief uh Corolla, he's got a couple answers.

Good evening.

I'm sorry to uh interrupt, but I have some answers to some of the questions that were uh being fielded to Chief Thody.

Uh so DFFM currently takes possess takes they arrange for the tow and the destruction of the oversized campers and boats that the normal tow companies won't take.

They work with South Coast towing.

South Coast towing arranges for the destruction and this the it costs uh a hundred dollars per foot.

So if you have a 20-foot camper, you know it's gonna cost you two thousand dollars.

That I it's my understanding that's currently coming out of the DFFM budget.

All set, Counselor.

Thank you.

Counselor Drevster.

Um thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Good evening, Chief.

Nice to see you again.

Good evening.

So as my colleagues know, um this has been an ongoing issue that I've um tackled, if I may uh use that term, uh, from the beginning of my um tenure here on the city council.

Um and over time we've really seen an explosion of a lot of these campers and trailers and tow vehicles, which I've said many times, it's very specific in the ordinance that tow trucks are not allowed at all to park um in neighborhoods and streets.

And over time we're starting to see those types of vehicles now parking in streets and also notice that many commercial vehicles um are being sent home because it is cheaper for a company to send their vehicles home rather than finding a parking lot or a garage to store them, right?

So clearly something needs to be done, and I've worked with our attorney um over the last few years to really work on the language that would benefit the residents of the city, but also make sure that you know the the law is not broken from our perspective and our point, but something needs to be done.

Um because these vehicles are just too big and too, you know, large and wide to be in some of these neighborhoods, and many times we see well I've seen it, where emergency vehicles, uh fire trucks and others have to back up school buses because they can't get through a street because of these vehicles, they have to park up on the sidewalk because they're too wide or too big.

So clearly something has to be done, and I'm not gonna uh you know, I I'm aging myself right now, but growing up in New Bedford, I never saw this.

We never saw these types of, you know, camper belongs on a campground, not on a Cushnet Avenue or Ashley Boulevard or West Rodney or East Rodney French Boulevard.

It just it it I don't understand how that is allowed.

I get that they're registered.

I understand that, but why is it now allowed and five or twenty or thirty years ago it wasn't?

And I don't know if you know it, and you know, I I just think that's the problem is we've allowed this to happen over time.

And clearly the ordinance was changed at one time to allow these vehicles to do this.

And I agree with my colleague from Ward 5, and I we've had this conversation that I think it would be a good idea for the city or the police department to have their own towing area and that way it would also generate some money for the city.

But c because clearly something needs to be done, and this has been going on for too long.

So I appreciate everything that the police officers and the traffic department has done, you know, helping us with this issue, but I hope that going forward um we can do more to make sure that these vehicles are not permitted to park in neighborhoods.

That's I I just don't understand how a camper why is somebody living in a camper, and you know, I get it, you know, it it the economy is tough.

Um, but just thinking what's going on in that camper, um, you know, are they cooking in there?

Are they, you know, where what are they using for their bathrooms?

Um so it I don't think it's fair for the neighborhood that they have to put up with this kind of um you know things going on.

So um again, my heart breaks for a lot of these people that that's the only thing they can afford, but maybe that there's you know, New Bedford is a city that doesn't have a lot of land available.

Um but campers and trailers should not be allowed on streets.

Um I'm looking forward to sitting down with you and your staff and discussing this further, and I hope to have uh my motion come before us soon in the ordinance committee so that we can continue um not just to have a discussion but coming up with um some resolution on this issue because it's just getting worse.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Uh Chairman.

I appreciate the time.

Thank you, Councillor Drivers.

Counselor Baptist.

Thank you, Mr.

Chi.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Chief, how are you doing today?

Good.

Um I hope everything's all right and glad to see you here.

Um facing the fire earlier.

First time they're throwing it at you.

But um I have a I have a two-part question.

One is um piggybacking off of what the counselor said.

Um what do we do about the overpark vehicles in our neighborhoods that people complain about?

Um or that that's not getting told a fine or work for companies that will continuously pay the fine of the ticket and continuously park and places that they don't suppose to.

So they rather just take the fine and just keep on paying the 2550 bucks than doing it.

And how would how do we um how do we tally that so that we can stop moving these people on um how about if it's the towing company that we use that are breaking the rules?

How do we deal with the towing company that we use that are breaking the rules if you know because I I have a constituent on Hillman Street that complains about our towing company all the time because they have somebody that lives up over there that works there that pox his car and it's on the sidewalk?

It's a flatbed.

So that's um that's the first part of my question.

The second part of my question is to deal with the campus.

Um, you know, my hot breaks for people that have to live inside their campus.

But what do we do about um the campus that are constantly parked next to public places like schools and parks and youth centers where kids uh regularly going in and out of um you know, we have a we have a big security issue with you know with with not knowing, you know, we can run the plate, but we don't know the real the actual person that's in there.

We don't know the people that they keep in there, we don't know what their intent is.

So, you know, my concern is because you know, I have constantly have had um campus and areas near parks, near the boys and girls club, near places where kids are freaking in their schools near parking school and stuff, the way kids are frequently running around.

That is my concern with with the kids running around and and people in campers just parking there, not knowing where they come from, what their history is and what they do.

So that's one of my major concerns about how how do we um move them along from places that uh very that are frequented by young people so that we can make sure that they're safe.

So I'm sorry.

No, no, it's fine.

So uh, you know, my philosophy that I think is you know is has been pretty successful, and I didn't invent it is is you know, you kind of use the carrot before the stick, you know.

We have good outreach here.

Um I think going to talk to some of these folks to see if there's um uh something we can provide for them to get them out of that situation is the you know the compassionate um empathetical way to do it first.

Um, you know, uh and I don't know that if that approach has been taken yet, but I I will I will find out.

Uh but I think if there's folks living in these things, um, you know, that's the good first approach, is to see if if there's uh you know housing assistance, if if you know someone from our outreach uh team can help out with that to make that problem go away in a in a in a way that helps the person in the camper and it helps the person in the neighborhood, right?

But but the stick side of it and and really the response to to most of the comments is really gonna be to create the tools where you know the police department can can enforce something.

And my understanding of it at at this point, and and again, I I met uh with some of our folks on it when I saw the agenda, is there isn't that isn't in place.

So while I understand, you know, the the quality of life issue for sure.

Again, I drove around myself to see the situation.

Um if there's not if we don't have a legal standing to do something, then we can't do something.

Um we can't just forcibly remove something to um you know the previous comments point.

I I don't know if there was a uh a change in the law or or a change in in city ordinance that uh suddenly allows for this versus you know, five, ten years ago.

Um, or if the police department, you know, operated differently five or ten years ago and you know and and told these people they had to go without a legal backing.

Um, you know, my uh my approach is gonna be that you know, we're glad to engage in the process of creating those tools, those those uh that legislation, that ordinance uh with the solicitor and with this body um to give us some teeth to to do something.

Happy to do that um based on what I've seen here and and the folks that I've talked to.

In any situation where the officers have been able to take action, they have taken action.

There's not legal grounds for us to do some of the things that are being asked for us to do, which means that we just can't do them.

I we can't take action without without the legal backing of a statute or uh or an ordinance or or or something, uh right.

We can't just make that up.

Um and we do have at least one case here uh on James Street where we where we towed the camper.

Um the officers did their job and they went and paid the fines and registered the camper and put it right back where it started.

So we got accolades from the community only for a week later to be like, well, it's back, and then come to find out it's legally registered and shit all the all the criteria has been met by the owner of the camper.

Our hands are tied at that point.

We can't do anything about that without the teeth to do it.

Now again, um, you know, I'll work with I'll continue to work with our team to try to be creative um in finding some teeth where they may not exist um when it comes to noise or uh or or any other statute or ordinance that we could connect to it.

Uh I'm happy to to be creative.

I love thinking outside the box.

But um I I do think you know it's probably necessary to come up with something to give us kind of the authority to do um you know what probably everybody wants us to do.

Uh I don't I think the officers are somewhat frustrated too.

In fact, you know, that was the first case they came to me with like, you know, Chief, we did our thing here and got paid the money to your point, put it right back where it was, and now it's legally there.

Um so I think that's um you know uh an ongoing discussion that we should that we should do quickly.

But how about the um habitual offenders with the big trucks parking on the street and getting ticketed and continuously?

So I didn't look into the commercial motor vehicle aspect of it.

That is a problem that we did have in Hartford, and we did have an ordinance that we allowed us to ticket and tow those things, and that was one of those oversized, that's not a tow truck that we would own as the city.

I don't know if you've seen these things, but they're massive, and they're I think they're over a million dollars.

Um but that was something that we were successful in because um while the company and we really saw that happen after COVID, because um folks let the let the drivers take the trucks home because they didn't go back to the depots because a lot of times the depots were closed because of COVID.

So it was almost like the truck driver's version of work from home, and these things just started appearing.

Commercial motor vehicle, and I'm talking about tractor trailer trucks, you know, we in Hartford did have something on the books on that, um, and we were able to be successful because those fines were huge and those toes were very expensive, and the companies and the folks driving those trucks couldn't afford to keep keep doing it the way you said.

Um and and they moved around like whack-a-mole for a little while, right?

We wouldn't we would tick them in one place and tell them one place and they'd find somewhere else to park.

But they eventually got the message and uh we did get that that problem to go away.

I don't know if there's a different law on the books here when it comes to commercial motor vehicles and where they park, but um but uh you know that's that's another thing um that I can look into because I I don't think that necessarily, especially legally from where I came from at least, that wasn't the same as like campers and and trailers and things like that.

That was a different that was a different issue that we did have some teeth.

That's a whole nother thing.

But you know, they they can't park on the streets and you know when they are after a certain size and and you know they they cannot park on the sidewalk, of course, that's illegal.

So those these are the there's you know certain issues that we um deal with constantly because you know some companies don't care.

They'll pay the $25, $50 fine, let it go, and then continuously do it.

You know, it's peanuts to what they that to what some companies make.

So um how do we you know like that that's why I wanted to see if if you can look into it and see how when they when they're when they're continuously doing it, how that how now that they can pay a deeper fine or we can do more work with that.

So you know, so thank you for everything that you've done.

Um if you can just look into that, please.

Um and good luck on the job.

So I yield the floor.

Thank you.

Thank you, counselor.

Counselor's remind you this item is to um be uh to do with the campers.

I know there's separate ordinances and other motions to deal with those are um oversized vehicles, and that's a concern of all of us.

Is there anyone else have any questions of the chief?

Anyone else?

Uh counselor Abro.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Yeah, just one just one more thing, Chief.

Uh I know we we've talked about obviously if vehicles are registered or insured or inspected, you're free to park on a public street in front of a home.

Um I'm just looking at Mass General Law here, but it says unless specific municipal slash local parking rules are violated, which means we need to come up with something locally, say if it's a camper and RV, can't be planted in front of a home for I don't know, 72 hours, whatever we feel.

So if we can get some teeth to your point, something local, and then because the mass general law says right here, unless violated by a local municipality, so that's the kicker right there.

So that's what we have to work on, and I look forward to your help on that.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

That was it.

Thank you, Councillor.

Anyone else?

If no objection from the chair.

Could I um have uh Council Garotelski to the podium?

This is probably not the first time we've had discussion about these campers that are on the streets and from the information you're hearing from the chief again.

It kind of goes back to a city ordinance.

Is uh I uh I understand these things are registered and they have to be hooked to a registered car.

Am I correct?

Yeah, locally the the local ordinance says that you have you can have a camper park so long as it's attached to the vehicle.

So um if it's left alone, a boat camp, a boat trailer or boat on a trailer that's not attached to the vehicle, it can be removed and it's a three hundred dollar fine for every day that it's it's parked there.

So um but if it's attached to a an automobile anchored to it, then you it's allowed to be on the street.

Let me ask you this, Council.

And I I brand this by I I I believe, and if I haven't, it's been in my discussion.

Um how about a city ordinance that would say these things could not park on the city streets any longer than 48 hours at a certain location?

Yeah, I guess you could do that.

Even though they're registered or whatever.

We have to define exactly what it is.

If you want to take all of those trailers that are currently have to be attached, but I'm not sure.

Are you talking about like RVs that are self-driven?

I'm talking about campers, RVs.

We've had a problem with all of them.

Some of them that are driven.

Yeah, like what I'm saying is can we put together an ordnance that would say that these things cannot stay any longer than 48 hours on the street parked in in a neighborhood or anything like that?

Um we talked about this.

I I want to believe we talked about this when we talked about the campers before.

And um I said something pertaining to a a special permit.

Like if I had a family member, you're my family, you're coming down to see me where I live, but you're coming with the camper.

We get a special permit from City Hall that says you're going to be there for seven days or the traffic commission wherever.

You're going to be at the house for seven days, that camp will be parked in front of the house.

Still attached, following the laws of Massachusetts.

But doing something that would stop from what's going on.

Uh we we've got campers that are in neighborhoods and affecting even businesses or whatever all over the city.

Is this some is this something we could do?

I think this would give leverage and take to the police department to get these things moved and give uh a clear message to those that are uh uh abusing this that you can't do it in the city of New Bedford.

We'll move you.

The the the concern with the 48 hours is how do you you know how do you how do you enforce that?

I mean, you enforce it the same way the police department does when they go for a tow and a car is wrecked on the street and they have to put an orange sticker on it for 72 hours, warning the people that if they come back uh after 72 hours and the camp is still there, there's a violation there.

Right.

I but I guess where uh you're saying four 48 hours, but that was an example.

I'm just saying, I'm just saying, let's say it's 24 hours.

Parked where, and then what if they drive it around the block and park it across the street?

Does that count?

You know, so I don't know.

I I you can create this cat and mouse game between the police and the owner of the camper.

So I just want to keep that.

To me, it's not a cat and mouse game.

It it's a it's uh something that has been bugging this city and it seems like we can't understand anything in hold on.

I understand, but you when you're writing a law, I just want you to know that you have to be able to enforce it.

So if you say you can't park it in a in a location for more than 24 hours, right?

If the person then says, okay, I leave it there for 12 hours, I drive it around the block and I park it a few feet from where it was before.

Do we start the clock over again?

Do you understand what I'm saying?

So that that's where it becomes complicated for the police to know exactly what the what the camper is doing.

Did they move it across the street?

Does the clock start ticking anew?

Those are the problems that when I say a cat and mouse game, those are the problems that the the owner gets creative and starts to make these little changes that make it hard for the police department for then to then tow it when they said, Well, it was here for 12 hours and then it was across the street for 12 hours.

Does that count as 24?

So those are all the little things we have to think about when you put a law together.

I understand when you think about it, you say, yeah, it shouldn't be there for more than 24 hours or 48 hours.

But where?

Down the street, maybe a little bit?

Right?

In the same spot only, what are we what exactly are we going to do so that the so that the enforce the enforcing agency knows exactly what they have to enforce?

That's what makes it a little bit complicated to to do it where if you allow them to park at all, and you then they start moving it because there's a time frame, that can create a little bit of an issue.

Okay, let me ask you this question.

Could we have an ordinance that would not permit these things to be on the city street?

I think you I think you could, yeah.

Something we could look into?

Yeah.

I can't.

But I guess the question is then if someone owns one, where do they put it?

So that's where the special permit comes in.

Well, you could do that too.

You can make that part of the ordinance.

We're working.

Thank you, David.

All right.

Counsel Oliver.

I had another question.

I had a question for Attorney Taratowski.

David, thank you.

Um to get back to the uh the abandoned and unregistered uh vehicles, the what is what is what am I legally able to do with that?

I drive down the street and there is a boat with no plate on it, no car attached to it, just there.

Can I have that towed right then and then according to the way the law is written now?

It's a $300 fine, plus you can tow it.

Okay.

And then they, if they want to get it, they have to pay storage fees or whatever the case may be.

So these unregistered vehicles, no plates, no nothing, not attached to a vehicle.

The problem then bit is where the heck do we put it?

That's a whole different story.

But legally, I can these things can be towed immediately so long as they're not registered.

Um attached to the.

Well, even some trailers have have a registration plate on the trailer.

Correct.

But if it's not attached to the vehicle, correct.

Then you can tow it.

Correct.

Right now, the way it's written, it has to be attached to the driveable vehicle.

And technically I could do that with a camper as well.

It's it's registered and sure, but by law it's got to be attached to a vehicle.

It can't just be unless it's a self-driving camper, then.

That's a different issue.

Right.

So these items though, registered or not.

I know what you're talking about.

I'm sure there's some of those some.

I'm sure there's some of those somewhat.

I don't know.

Um but registered or not, unhooked to a vehicle, not this not the self-driving ones or the RVs.

Uh registered or not, unhooked from a vehicle, they are towable.

The way the ordinance is written now, yes, I it you can't tow it if it's not connected to a vehicle.

So then the city's problem is finding the resources to tow them.

Correct.

And store them.

Yes.

Okay.

I I do know that the way the the calendar was written, at a certain date and time, I think there was a motion that was passed asking purchasing to draft some sort of RFP about uh a company to be able to do this type of thing.

So take store and demolish.

Yeah.

So I don't know whether that's occurred or you guys have looked at that.

I don't know.

Okay.

So I just I just wanted to get clarification on that.

Registered or not, unhooked trailers, unhooked to campers, um boats, RVs, all those things, except for the self-driving or the uh self-contained uh, you know, mobile, you know, RVs, the R uh the name escapes me now.

But the the coaches, motorhomes, yes.

Yeah, yeah.

Um aside from those, they're not attached to a trailer.

I can tow them.

Correct.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, Council Oliver.

Um I just uh like to bring to your attention that uh while the illegal uh um uh unregistered um uh campers out there uh are a problem to the city, also the ones that are registered have been a hindrance to neighborhoods across the city.

And we've all heard the complaints.

With that said uh counsel Pereira.

So uh just as a point of information to you, Mr.

Chairman, just we for the public to know, we received a communication um a year ago when this motion was uh had and we requested the RFP as Attorney Garatowski has said, and um uh uh department head question if they have room to store this.

The administration then responded to the council's email, the council office email saying that the mayor's office will take responsibility for responding to this request.

Did you receive a uh an answer from the mayor's office?

This is what I received.

Is this the same one as you?

A memo.

No, this is from uh uh um our office.

It's from our office.

Yes.

No, I don't have any memo from the mayor's office.

Okay.

So uh as a request, Mr.

Chairman.

Uh since uh Neil uh Mallow, Chief of Staff is taking responsibility.

Can we name him as an invite at the next time we bring this up so he is here to answer our questions?

Yes, sir.

Since he is taking responsibility?

Okay.

Okay.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Sir Clerk, noted.

Thank you.

Mr.

Chairman, could we make the communication that counselor Pereira has part of the record, please?

So uh make a motion.

We have it though.

That's the microphone.

Is that what you talk about?

But you want to make it part of the.

We're talking about a memo from Neil Mellow.

Do you have that?

Number two.

Number two.

Yes.

You I I gave you that all tonight.

So you're receiving a placement on a file.

I did not receive that.

Yeah, you should.

That's all right.

Yeah.

I don't have that, I'm sorry.

Clerk Lawrence.

I'm sorry.

Yeah, we don't have the Neil 1.

So I don't give it that.

That's okay.

Oh, right.

Okay.

Where would you like to do, Counselor?

Well, whatever course of action the committee wants to take, I just wanted to make sure that Neil that as a request from this counselor uh to the chair that you you put Neil Mellow as a specifically named uh invite.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Anyone else?

Mr.

Chair?

Yes.

Bob Ekstrom is still in the room.

What is it?

Bob Extram?

Yes, he is.

Yep.

Bob.

Council Moread, did you want to receive that um Neil Mellow?

Evidently nobody else does, so that's fine, no problem.

Second counselor by Councillor Moorrat.

All in favor?

Aye.

Propose the eyes have it.

Thank you.

Do you have the floor, Mr.

Chair?

Bob, thanks for being here.

Good evening.

Deputy Chief Carola told us that Jen Vieira is making arrangements to figure out how to demolish and pay for uh campers.

I I don't recall that in her budget.

Is that in our line items?

Yes, uh it's in the solid waste waste disposal subfund.

Uh oh, it's in the solid waste.

Yeah, the total request was 9.3 million, 9.2 of it is belongs to capital waste, but there was a little bit in there for the next solid waste contract and she had 25,000 dollars.

She had 25,000 dollars for yeah.

Plus we also I try to text her.

I haven't re I haven't heard back from her.

She was able to encumber some money at the end of fiscal twenty-five because she has some uh favorability in one of her accounts, and we knew the problem is bigger than 25,000.

So she uh put away some money.

I'm not sure how much though.

So that'll be used in fiscal twenty-six, but in case we're gonna be able to do that.

The money that you're referencing is in the fiscal twenty-six budget, correct?

Yes, it is.

Okay.

So when you have a chance and you don't need to do this today through the clerk's office, could you find out how much he's already expended since we're already at the end of August?

Oh, yes, sure.

Yeah.

Thanks.

I don't think it's going far based on what Deputy Chief Carolla just said.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you, Counselor.

Anyone else?

Council Oliver.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh Bob, is this um is this being done by the direction of the administration, or it was already something, it was already a practice that Laurie that I mean, I'm sorry, not Laurie, um that Jen was doing.

So I I can't speak to the the operational practice.

I know that this is the first time we've introduced that line item on the solid waste budget.

It's only the second year we've had that separate solid waste budget.

Uh I used to be under, if you all remember, on uh general government unclassified solid waste or so was a component of one of the 14 costs in that in that cost center, and we segregated it out so it could stand on its own.

So that was the first year.

So she just introduced something this past year.

I'm sure she's been taking them over the over the years and she's been paying for it out of her own um operational budget, DFFM.

Okay.

And have you um spoken to anyone in the uh purchasing department uh regarding that communication the the RFP to look into the uh storing demolishing of these vehicles or I have not.

No.

Um, do you know if it if that's something that's been uh I'd have to check on that one.

Uh uh and they wouldn't actually probably be the ones who write the proposal, it would probably come from Jen because she would be the person who is going to be the contract a contracting officer.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

That's all I have right now, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, Councillor.

Anyone else?

Thank you, Bob.

One more time.

Anyone else?

Seeing none.

I do have something, Counselor.

Do you have something?

Yes, if uh if um Commissioner Um Alphonse can come up just because she's invited as well and she's waiting as well.

Counselor Oliver has a question for you.

Thank you, Laurie.

I didn't want you to feel excluded.

Yeah, no, I was hoping nothing I was there.

Um this is an issue that your um department deals with as as well, correct?

This is an issue that you guys deal with as well.

Do you guys uh well I mean like we um like um Carola was mentioning you know DFFM had started to um get involved in torrent uh towing.

So what they said was um we're pretty much like the eyes and ears sometimes in the city because we do drive around, because we get emails, because we get complaints from constituents all the time.

Um so you know we will we will tag it as much as we can, but it's not a $300 fine, there's no towing involved, but at least it will give us some type of information whether or not the car is registered, whether there's an inspection sticker or not.

That sometimes, as you know, I'll tag tag it for days with an inspection sticker until somebody comes in and moves the vehicle so we know whether or not it's abandoned or not.

Because we don't always have, you know, the police aren't always out there being able to go out there to give a ticket, but you know, Monday through Friday, eight to five, we are.

Right.

So that was the the reason for my question is because you know obviously we're going to be taking resources from the police department that you know they could be doing other things or uh or whatnot.

So I just wanted to make sure that your office was, and I know you you do, but for the general public to know that your office is out there doing that and relaying that information to the police department in some instances as well.

Yes.

Um is there anything that in in your um as you've gone through this that you think that we could be doing better or something an initiative that we could institute to to aid in in in removing of these vehicles or well I think the from the last time I was here, there's more communication through the departments that play a role in this.

Um like I mentioned, I was I was invited to a code enforcement meeting where I didn't even realize all this was in place as far as DFM being involved and health being involved when people were living there.

So now there's a lot more communication where I'll get emails and then we'll go out and we'll look and see okay, has this car been you know moved or inspection been updated?

But again, once we're registered, once it's inspected, um, you know, then we have to find another way.

And I think today, um, unfortunately we kind of got off track.

So there's a lot of issues with a lot of different variables that could be different ordinances that are gonna have to either be changed or implemented.

You know, we're talking about commercial vehicles, unattached trailers, abandoned campers, abandoned trailers.

There's so many, there's so many different definitions, even in the ordinance now or in the s in the state regulations that councillor April read about the 72 hours.

You know, somebody could be on a uh you know a trip for a week.

Doesn't mean it's abandoned, but then you can look at one and know it's abandoned.

So it's it's it's tough.

It's okay.

Well, thank you very much.

I appreciate the you know you being, you know, with another set of eyes and ears out there and you and your department um trying to you know combat this.

So I thank you.

That's all I have right now, Mr.

Chair.

Okay.

Thank you, Councillor.

Counselor Giesta.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Good evening, Laurie.

I just wanted to say thank you publicly for all the help that you have given me over the time over the years on a lot of these vehicles.

Right.

Can you just for public knowledge, especially when we're talking about certain vehicles because there are certain vehicles that are specific in the ordinance right now.

So can you tell us and for so the public knows what vehicles right now cannot park on the city streets?

So right now, the way that it's read and how we go over the oversized or overnight vehicles, um, that would be any vehicle that requires something other than a Class D license to drive.

Or something that has a towing apparatus attached to it.

Great.

Thank you very much for that clarification.

I appreciate it.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you, Counselor.

Anyone else?

One more time.

Anyone else?

The Chair would entertain a motion requesting that legal counsel David Garotelski along with attorney Jakes draft an ordinance that would prevent campers from being parked on city streets overnight.

By counselor Lopes, seconded by Councillor Carney.

All anyone on the question.

All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed?

The ayes have it.

Is there anything counselor?

Well um I'll I guess uh well we've got the table.

We'll just table it for uh well, just just table it.

The motion that was just put forth that I asked to be entertained.

I think it'd help us all by not allowing these things to park overnight on the city streets.

No, absolutely.

Um Mr.

Chairman, yes.

If I may, I apologize.

I don't mean to interrupt.

But as I've explained earlier, Councilor uh Garitowski has written um a new ordinance regarding a lot of these vehicles that will be becoming before the ordinance committee.

So this is this is only pertaining to the campers.

Okay.

All right.

Yeah, the campers will be included in that too.

So but I will defer it to the chairman and the gentleman, the the the maker of the motion.

So I just wanted to put that in the middle.

I know you have been working on that.

I'm looking to solve this problem.

Yep.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All in favor?

I'm not sure.

Oppose the ayes have it.

Anyone else?

Motion Oliver, you want to table this for the question.

Just motion to table.

Just leave it on the table.

And we'll bring it back.

Yep.

Okay.

Second.

Motion to table by Council All but seconded by Councillor Connie.

No one on the question, all in favor?

Opposed.

The ayes have it.

Number three is a written motion.

Council Gomes requesting that the Committee on Public Safety neighborhoods meet with the CEO or designated representative from E.

L.

Harvey Trash and Recyclables, along with representatives from the New Bedford Health Department and the Department of Facilities and Fleet Management for the purpose of discussing what is being done prior to the fire to address the rat boroughs at said location.

And further to discuss what preventive actions have been implemented to ensure that this type of incident never happens again.

It was referred here on July 17th, 2025 and is now before you.

Second.

Motion by Council Burgle to receive and place on file.

Second by Council.

All in favor?

I oppose the ayes have it.

I think a motion is.

Motion to receive this communication that we all received on file.

Motion received the communication from Harvey's seconded by Council Oliver.

Seconded by Councillor Loebs.

All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed the ayes have it.

No objection from the chair.

The reason that this motion is here is um we just want to get some clarification on is um everything all set up there.

Is it safe?

Is it um been taken care of?

Seeing that this never happens again.

And um that the park is open, and I've gotten some information from Stephanie tonight that the park is open now up at the airport.

And just wanted to get a um clear of how why this happened and how it should not ever happen again.

And if we've got a clear that this is all gone and there's no public safety threat, that's why I place this on the agenda tonight.

Our first person I'll hear from is the gentleman from the hobby.

It doesn't have a name.

It just says whoever is representing Are you you the representative?

I'm sorry, I don't have your name.

Could you just speak into the mic?

So I cliff, could you spell your last name for me, please?

Sure.

It's Bassett, B-A-S-S-E-T-T.

And I need a street address for the business.

It's uh 21 Ventura Drive in Dartmouth Mass.

Thank you.

Thank you, and welcome to um New Belfort City Council.

Thank you for having me.

We're all aware of the problem that we had, including your company or whatever.

Um I've asked everyone to come in tonight.

I want to clear a path for the general public to feel safe in that area, to feel that we've you've gotten rid of the problem, and what are you doing to uh uh address this problem that it never happens again?

Okay.

Uh well thank you all for having me here.

Um as I said, my name is Cliff Bassett.

I'm the district manager of Harvey New Bedford.

Um been in your lovely city for about a year now.

Um very grateful to be here uh in this seat.

And um, you know, I'm saddened to think that I cause any hardship to any of the residents of your your nice your great city here.

I've enjoyed it um as well as the chief.

I've had plenty of good food here, so I don't want to seem like this happen again, and it will not happen again.

So previously what we had done is through Flint Pest Control, which is a company that we use to uh during the process and we still use today to make sure this doesn't happen again.

We had weekly monitorings of we had six we had 45 bait stations on our site beforehand uh during the operation.

Um those were used to monitor the activity of any kind of vermin on the site uh previous to any fire.

The fire did occur on May 14th.

Uh we did not have um any issue with the rodents leaving the facility.

We were aware of the presence of them in the building as well.

We had Flynn engaged with us.

Uh Flynn is a very reputable pest company.

Uh they actually service our other facilities in Rochester and Sandwich and then the CMass facility, which is obviously a much larger burn facility than any of the facilities that we own.

So they're well situated to handle situations like this.

Uh through the weekly monitorings, they made sure that there was no activity outside of our site, which there was not.

Everything was kept in bay.

Um, you know, on the unfortunate night of May 14th, there was a fire in the building.

Uh after the the fire, the facility was shut down um due to some damage in the building, and then just for general safety.

Uh as a trash facility, obviously we were accepting MSW, MSW is your general household waste.

Uh we did MSW and C and D.

C and D is the byproduct of construction projects.

But the MSW is really where this issue sort of arises from.

Through the daily activity of the trucks coming in and coming out, uh we provided, I would say, a area for the rats to to want to be.

When that uh steady flow of trash every day did stop going into the facility, that did cause the rats now to or the vermin to want to seek other shelter.

And that is where this problem arose from.

We stopped taking in the MSW.

We then um through the DEP asked for permission to begin to empty the facility so we could assess damage to the building from the fire.

Through the emptying of that building and once again removing any food source from the from the vermin, the rats did attempt to find food elsewhere.

And that was how the problem spread to the surrounding area around our facility.

Uh it was Memorial Day Monday.

I first had the pleasure of speaking with Joe.

I was standing on the beach in Socco, Maine when I received his phone call uh to find out that you know the issue had obviously escalated beyond you know our current control.

In the process of the fire to that Memorial Day Monday, Flynn was engaged the entire time monitoring, seeing what's happened.

We didn't increase up to 90 bait stations before that Myrtle Day Monday.

We had also then done daily monitoring of all our facilities on Shamit.

We have five addresses on Shamadav.

We made sure that all those facilities were checked daily to make sure that they're you know what the activity level was and where the spread was.

Uh after that Myrtle Day Monday, we came back, we had a meeting with the Board of Health, we had a meeting with DEP animal control on our site, and then at that point, seeing what had happened over that weekend, we greatly increased our uh monitoring and our activity on that site.

Through the Board of Health, we um were asked and volunteered to make sure that the city streets around Shamadav, including the airports and some of the dead-end streets in that area were kept clear of any rats that may have made it to the streets.

Uh myself uh and my people in my facility, we were there three days, three times a day, circling the area, making sure there was no uh carcasses left around, hopefully not to spread any kind of disease to the public that was on those streets.

Uh the city did uh send down some police detail to make sure that there was no additional activity on it, which was appreciated.

It allowed us a chance to safely monitor the streets and make sure we were walking around and there was no traffic that was uh you know gonna harm us or allow any people to you know to get near any animals that were left there.

Uh we have 110 bait stations now on site.

Uh at during that first week or two, I can say that they were there three times a day, flint pest control, first thing in the morning, lunchtime, and on the way home.

We were filling those bait stations to capacity pretty much every time they were there.

So they were there, they were uh consuming the bait, and then it was helping the issue.

In the matter of about two weeks, we saw a drastic decrease in the activity on the site, and then through the site, also then the surrounding area around uh Shamadav.

We still to this day we have daily monitoring of the system.

So every bait station contains about 16 to 18 pieces of bait.

I want to call them like a tide pod.

That's about the best way I can describe it.

So of those base stations, there's 18 in every one.

We have 110 on site.

I'm very happy to say when I spoke to the man yesterday morning that monitors our site, in all of our 110 uh bait stations that take about 20 TI pods each, which is you know a couple thousand bait bait pods, he only refilled eight.

So the number has greatly decreased.

We have not seen any activity on our sites in um probably about a good month now.

So safe to say that we've done a we the through our efforts of Flynn and ourselves and our people and with the cooperation of the Board of Health, I think we have done a good job of keeping the situation at bay.

And moving forward as we seek to reopen, which we are working with um building department, DEP to you know regain the permits and make sure we're the building's safe for us.

We have a plan that I passed out or um someone's nice enough to help me pass out.

That's we uh we submitted to DEP and the Board of Health.

Um, this is our rat control plan.

Uh we feel it's a fairly robust plan.

We are open to any critique or any suggestions we might have.

I know Stephanie has a few uh suggestions that she's gonna pass by me uh probably this week.

So this is a living document, it will be amended, it will be addressed.

Uh really what it calls for is just very active monitoring, as well as making sure the floor is clean.

Uh by the floor being clean, I mean having the product not left on the floor for an extended period of time.

What the flo what the product on the floor does is it allows them to continue to feed, set up colonies, and then the prep the problem perpetuates.

Every 45 days, generally the rat will reproduce.

They can have anywhere from up to 15, 20 in their litter.

So it's a problem that needs to be addressed on a monthly basis at least to have that pile turned over so we don't have that happen.

When the floor is clean, everything will be um used a solution that will be cleaned, so there's no residue, no sub chance for them to want to stay there any longer.

The ongoing issue that we will face in any facility like ours would face is that every time a trash truck comes into our facility that's been picking up um trash from New Bedford, Boston, any small town around here at Cushnet, is there are rats present in those cans.

So this is not an issue that we can just turn off and forget about.

This is gonna take us actively monitoring and actively working with a company like Flynn, the Board of Health, the DEP to make sure this doesn't happen again.

I'm open to any questions if anyone has any.

Just before you do that, would you consider the area safe?

I would.

I'm gonna agree with you.

Because I'm in that area every day since this has happened.

I am there at night because I seen it when it was at its worst.

And I got to commend you and whoever is responsible for a good job because I have not cited anything.

And um are you uh uh the only thing I want to ask you those um bait boxes.

Uh are you still expanding them outside of the areas um around are those the black boxes that I see along the roadside that you're catching them on Downey Street or wherever?

They are, they are the other bait boxes.

Um we we have left them in place, but we have seen no activity in those boxes.

Again, I'm gonna commend you for the job that has been done this far.

Council Oliver.

Thank thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um I'll we'll piggyback on the the good counselor who spoke before me.

I live you know right there, I live I live right behind the Cumberland Farms.

Oh, really?

Okay.

Yeah, so very close.

Um and uh the amount of activity that uh we I think we all saw um has is there's almost no sign of it.

Um so uh and then uh the the communication that I had with your um uh company and um and the uh pest control uh they were right there every time that I called for certain issues that came up.

So th thank you for that.

Thank you.

Um I had as we just received this and haven't really been able to to peruse through it, when you start hearing these, you know, these great things that are happening, you know, uh uh when we're not rebating as much now because they're not taking in, you know, I start to think, and maybe others as well as well, they're gonna start ramping down.

Is there a ramp down or is are we going to maintain this for a certain amount of time at a certain level?

Um as we initially reopen, we're gonna keep exactly what we're doing right now.

110 base stations on site.

We're gonna do the the two-day, twice a day monitoring as we reopen the facility.

As we open the facility, uh Mass DEP has granted us a limited capacity permit.

So we will bring bring in less tonnage than previous.

We had our 1,500 ton a day permit mix of C and D and MSW.

I don't have a final number yet, but we're in the range of a hundred tons of MSW, 50 tons of C and D.

What that is gonna allow us to do is to prove to you know great people in New Bedford as well as the DEP that we can handle that volume and we can do it safely and do it well.

What we're planning to do as we reopen is we'll have the floor clean every night.

So there'll be absolutely zero chance that they would form a colony because we'll have that floor clean.

We will monitor our inbound tonnage versus what we can do on the outbound side.

We haul our trash out on either um rail rail car or 100 yard trailer.

So if we know that we're getting in, you know, only 100 tons, only 100 yard capacity, we'll only take in you know an equivalent hundred yard 100 yards of trash.

25 tons-ish per 100 yard trailer.

So we're gonna monitor that, and as we prove that we can handle that, they hopefully our permit will increase.

We're gonna leave as we get going, we're gonna leave 75 bait traps on site, and there's a map in that plan that shows where they will be.

There'll be 50 outside the building, 25 inside.

The reason that number exists is because for proper protection for the site and for the area, every 25 to 30 feet there should be a trap.

It's just the way that the rat moves around.

So they need to be on a building line.

They can be on a fence line, but they like to be a rat by nature is a private animal.

It doesn't really want to be seen.

So it runs along buildings because it's quick, it can hide and it can scurry.

So by placing them on the building, they're actually forced to run through the bait trap, and then that's how they're you know, that's how we keep it in track.

And then through that those bait traps, we will monitor the daily consumption.

And if we find that there's you know some kind of influx, obviously we're right there.

We have we're gonna keep the additional bait traps on our property, and if we need to, they go right back up.

Okay.

Well, it's good to hear that there's no plan of a ramp down in um you know uh mitigation of of for this issue.

Um are these those initiatives that you just spoke to, are those new initiatives?

Are those things that you guys are doing in the past, or is this something is these all new, uh these new added um features to the your mitigation plan?

They're stepped up.

Um we had the bait traps in place before.

Um we didn't have the I would say employee buy-in to be as attentive to them as we now do.

Um you'll see in there we have a daily monitoring page that we're going to use.

We have uh put in place a new prior training for day one for any sort of vermin issue.

We're gonna do quarterly update training for all our employees.

And then Flynn has we contracted Flynn to do twice a year training um basically to keep all of our employees up to date on what's new in the world of uh of pest control.

So we can make sure that we're being attentive to anything that's happening.

Uh daily monitoring of the um the grounds around the facility for boroughs and things like that.

I I can say it wasn't something that I was aware of at the time, but this was how they kind of traveled and went by.

So now going through this, um being with Flynn for the past couple months, we know what to look for.

We're gonna have records um for for anyone to consume that'll be kept at our facility.

Uh there we are using it really more for DEP, but if the the city would like to see them that they're they're open record for us.

But uh uh but as far as the cleaning and um emptying of the floor uh on a more regular basis, is that is that a new initiative?

We the last time the floor was clean in that facility was mid-February.

And we had the fire in mid-May, so about three months.

So yes, we're at we're proposing every month having the floor clean.

So once again, a stepped up effort.

Okay, good.

Um and I guess uh my last question is um the are you guys still um handling any um calls of the local neighborhoods that come in um for um any mitigation or anything like that, or are you guys done with that?

So I believe the last call we took was probably about two, three weeks ago.

Um, someone on the other side of the airport, they had an issue.

Um I did speak with the Board of Health and this originally started.

I did want all the calls to come through myself, which we could then disseminate to Flynn pest control.

My my logic behind that motion or that move wasn't because I uh we want to be controlled of what happened.

I wanted to make sure that the city of New Bedford and their residents received good quality pest control.

My fear was if they were to left on their own, they might call some kid going to Home Depot and who knows what he's buying for product.

I wanted to make sure that they were given something safe and done properly.

So when they did get a call from it, we set up about a mile, mile and a half border.

Uh generally rats you know travel about a mile if they're looking for food, they don't really venture too much farther.

So we took that upon ourselves to to kind of monitor through the Board of Health as well, giving us addresses.

We would send Flynn out, they would monitor the situation.

They would generally put out a couple of test uh bait traps just to see if there was activity.

They would return two to three days later.

If they found activity, there'd be a stepped up plan at that property to make sure it was mitigated and going away.

A lot of times when you know, luckily enough when they went back there there wasn't a lot of activity.

Okay.

And then I lied because you had you just prompted another question.

Okay.

Um the uh as you said, like uh to um not you didn't know what uh people would be buying over the counter or anything like that.

There was a uh general concern um uh from the public um uh regarding um the uh the product that you guys use as far as other animals getting into it or coming into contact with that.

Is that a concern or not not so much?

Not a concern that I saw.

Um you know when the Philly was open, um most evenings there was a lot of um uh avian activity at the site, whether it be a seagull, turkey vulture, things like that, crows and birds.

I never noticed a a dead animal on our property outside of the rat.

Okay.

All right.

Well, thank you very much and for your efforts um to try to get this under control, and hopefully these new stepped up measures will will do just that.

So thank you.

Thank you.

With that I yield, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, Counselor.

Anyone else?

Seeing none.

We're gonna give you a break and we're gonna have the Board of Health come up.

Stephanie.

Good evening.

Thanks for being here this evening.

Um we had a brief discussion before the meeting.

Um looking to um get information from you as a board of health.

Are you feeling comfortable with the work that has been done?

Are you feeling that the neighborhood is no threat at this time and we're just moving in the right direction as we've been told tonight that um while we had a problem, uh the problem was addressed and corrected, and we have nothing to worry about.

The kids can go back to the park and all that stuff and the airport and everybody can function as we regularly would up in that area.

Yes, we're definitely uh moving in the right direction.

Flynn and um Cliff and his team were very cooperative and worked with us to get a really intensive plan in place um to make sure that we could really knock down the population.

Um and we've been monitoring it really closely with Mass DEP.

Um and like some of you mentioned, there's little to no um activity anywhere.

Um we rechecked um the bait stations that were around the airport park.

They hadn't seen any activity.

Um so we did reopen the park um and are really pleased with um how it's you know the the level of activity being none, basically.

Except for in the beginning, have you had any complaints in the past few weeks since this has subsided from the residents or businesses in the area of any complaints or anything?

I would have to double check, but I do not believe so.

Okay.

Any questions for Stephanie?

Joe, did you have something you had to uh offer?

No, I just uh Stephanie just said No, I kind of reiterate what um Stephanie just spoke about.

Uh we've had nothing but cooperation from Harvey.

Uh uh basically with Cliff and uh Al from the uh Flynn Pest Control.

Um the uh really knocked it down in a hurry and um just got under control uh because of his stepped up actions.

So uh the cooperation has been nothing but top notch.

Are you happy with what you're seeing out there, Joe?

Yeah, at this point, because I I take that same ride by there uh pretty much almost every day, uh usually in the morning early, and I don't see any uh activity out there.

I don't see any anything uh in the road or anything like that.

So I'm still monitoring myself and um last probably the last month or so I haven't seen any action at all.

You'll continue to your department will continue to monitor this until well we're comfortable now, but to continue that comfortableness with throughout the neighborhood and uh um business area.

Oh, yeah, yeah, we uh we always do.

I mean we answer all complaints and uh we try to address them as fast as we can.

Thank you.

Any questions for the Board of Health?

Council Oliver.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh uh either Joe or Sloan, uh the monitoring at the playground.

Um is that something that we will continue?

Is there still gonna be bait stations there or those have have those been removed?

Uh I believe at this time there are still bait stations in the area.

Uh those won't be removed.

I'm assuming that they they still monitor those bait stations just like they do along the road.

Um we try to keep them not too visual because of children playing and all.

So we okay.

It if if so, could you just make sure that I think it would be beneficial for if your department would make sure that we do that probably in that area for a little bit longer, that's all.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

Thank thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Anyone else?

Thank you for being here this evening and uh thank you for um the approach on this whole matter.

Uh it was important to many of us and to the city of New Bedford, had never seen anything like that.

Want to thank you from Harvey, uh Mr.

Bessett, and your uh company on the action it was taken.

Again, I asked you to come here this evening because for one thing we hadn't heard anything publicly um to put the public at ease that this has been addressed, and that's exactly what you did this evening is is put I think put the public at ease and um uh uh my colleagues that this issue was addressed at full force, nothing held back between yourself, uh Board of Health, continuing to work together and the industry.

We appreciate that.

And thank you.

And thank you for being here and keep up the good work.

With that said, I'll um entertain a motion of no further action.

So moved.

By counsel all of us, seconded by counselor carney.

All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed the ayes have it.

Um the chair suggests uh waving the reading and no further action on four and five.

Second.

Fall of recommendation, Councillor Carney, seconded by Councillor Lopes.

All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed, the ayes have it.

Want to thank you for the this evening.

I know it's a summer night, but uh we have business that we have to attend to, and this council usually does.

Have a great night.

This meeting is adjourned.

Motion to adjourn.

By counselor Abreu, seconded by Councillor Carney.

All in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Thank you very much.

We uh we are adjourned to 829.

Have a great evening.