Committee Report - PHPS - 12-7-11 — File 192320

December 7, 2011 Public Health and Public Safety Committee Page 1 of 2 Printed 12/8/2011 REPORT OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH AND PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE Attendee Name Title Status Arrived William A. White Jr. Chair Present John M Connolly Vice Chair Present Walter F. Pero Ward Four Alderman Present William M. Roche Ward One Alderman Present Dennis M. Sullivan Alderman At Large Present Omar Boukili Administrative Assistant Present Thomas Pasquarello Chief of Police Present Michael Glavin Exec. Dir., OSPCD Present Eddie Nuzzo Supt., ISD Present Dave Fallon Captain, SPD Present Timothy Toomey State Representative Present 192050 - That the Chief of Police and the Director of SPCD (ISD) respond to the attached list of problem addresses and be prepared to provide an update at this Board’s October 24 Public Health and Safety Committee Meeting.: Chairman White recapped the last meeting on this matter. Mr. Nuzzo spoke about the process of visiting troubled properties and enforcement for violations, citing examples of how complaints are handles. Residents expressed concerns over certain properties with alleged violations and also about the leaking roof at the East Somerville Library. Alderman Roche’s motion that the Commissioner of Public Works inspect the roof of the East Somerville Library, make the necessary repairs and report back to the committee, was approved. The committee also discussed the tracking system for dealing with multiple complaints made to various departments for the same properties. Mr. Boukili explained how SomerStat tracks complaints and Mr. Glavin told the members that his department would look at ways to improve methodologies for centralizing data. Chief Pasquarello spoke about the Police Department’s role in responding to problem properties. Representative Toomey stated that he would work with the City and try to solve this problem from the state level.

Committee Meeting December 7, 2011 Public Health and Public Safety Committee Page 2 of 2 Printed 12/8/2011 Chairman White spoke about the need for the City to have a system in place to flag problem properties as a result of citizen complaints, especially since residents and aldermen can leave complaints with the Police Department, 311 or Inspectional Services. For example, some people in an area might call the police to complain about noise from a property, others might call 311 and others might contact Inspectional Services, and all of these complaints should be centralized and a process put in place to deal with properties that rise to a certain level that obviously creates a problem for the neighborhood. Chairman White said that he would schedule a meeting in March of next year to follow up on the problem properties previously identified and on the coordination of efforts of various city departments to flag and address problem properties. Alderman Roche’s motion that the Chief Information Officer make recommendations for a centralized database so that information may be shared among various city departments when tracking problem properties, etc., was approved. RESULT: KEPT IN COMMITTEE