Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Lacey Tauber, Representative from Brooklyn Borough President's Office
2:17:58
ยท
154 sec
Lacey Tauber, representing Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, expressed disappointment with the slow rollout of the Commercial Waste Zone (CWZ) program and urged for faster implementation to achieve the program's goals of providing good jobs, safe streets, and less pollution.
- Highlighted concerns about safety violations from assigned carters in the first zone
- Emphasized the need for clarity in the implementation timeline for waste hauling businesses
- Expressed support for Intro 1228 (expanding organic waste separation requirements) and Intro 784 (tracking yellow and brown grease disposal)
Lacey Tauber
2:17:58
Good afternoon chair.
2:18:01
Hi.
2:18:02
So my name is Lacey Tauber, I'm representing Brooklyn Borough president Antonio Reynoso who was here earlier but unfortunately had to leave.
2:18:10
We wrote the testimony before this morning's announcement so I'm just gonna wing it.
2:18:15
I will say I wanted to echo a lot of the sentiments expressed by council member Ressler.
2:18:21
I think if anybody saw the BP speak at this morning's rally, his hair was in fact on fire about the timeline.
2:18:30
Just as council member Ressler said, you know, we've been working on this for about a decade, and it's really disappointing to see the rollout be so slow.
2:18:40
The BP would really like to see it move faster so that we can deliver on the intent of the bill to provide good jobs, safe streets and less pollution.
2:18:51
So we've been getting some regular updates from DSNY and just wanted to say, you know, regarding some of the enforcement that was discussed, it is concerning that out of three of the assigned carters in the first zone, two have already received $2,500 penalties for reaching an excessive number of safety violations in a short time frame.
2:19:14
So on one hand, this indicates that DSNY is doing its job with increased enforcement but it also speaks to the fact that the industry is still in need of a major culture shift that won't happen until all 20 zones are fully implemented.
2:19:26
So Carter's are talking to our office all the time and telling us that they need to know what to expect if their business is going to shut down, when that's going to happen, if they weren't awarded a zone or when they need to make new investments if they were.
2:19:39
The timeline that DSNY presented today gives a little bit more clarity but really not enough for them to do that kind of effective planning.
2:19:47
Today's economy is unpredictable enough and these small businesses, they deserve clarity on what their future holds.
2:19:54
And I just wanted to really quickly comment on the two bills.
2:19:57
The borough president supports intro twelve twenty eight expanding the types of businesses required to sort of separate organics and then an intro seven eighty four, that was his bill in the council originally on the yellow and brown grease.
2:20:10
So just to clarify that the goal is really to deter both illegal disposal which creates some issues sometimes, you know, with the fatbergs and also theft as was mentioned.
2:20:20
One of the ways to address some of what we heard from BIC is to see the language be a bit more specific to create a chain of custody tracking requirement that tracks from the source through collection and ultimately to disposal.
2:20:32
Thank you.