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Q&A
Council Member Carr questions DSNY on illegal dumping enforcement and electronic waste collection
1:05:22
·
3 min
Council Member David M. Carr engages in a Q&A session with Acting Commissioner Javier Lojan of the Department of Sanitation, focusing on illegal dumping enforcement and the suspended curbside electronic waste collection program. Carr expresses concerns about the limited sanitation police headcount and the challenges in combating illegal dumping, while also inquiring about the possibility of restoring the curbside electronic waste collection service.
- The sanitation police headcount is 159 citywide, with no specific borough allocation.
- Carr emphasizes the need for increased enforcement to combat illegal dumping effectively.
- Discussion on the suspended curbside electronic waste collection program and the limited drop-off options available, particularly in Staten Island.
David M. Carr
1:05:22
Thank you, Chair.
1:05:23
Commissioner, as always, good to see you and your team.
1:05:25
I just want to begin by thanking you, the Community Affairs, Intergovernmental Affairs shops, and of course, Borrow Operations for their phenomenal jobs they're all in collaboration with my office and with others.
1:05:35
One of those positive collaborations has been in the area of illegal dumping.
1:05:40
But it continues to be a persistent challenge.
1:05:42
I just did a beach cleanup with some local not for profits.
1:05:46
And we're taking tons of contractor waste out of these areas.
1:05:50
And so despite the increase in camera deployments and other means, I think we still have to focus on this.
1:05:57
And so I was just wondering what is the sanitation police headcount citywide and expected in the coming fiscal year?
1:06:03
And what is the distribution to Staten Island and Southwest Brooklyn?
1:06:38
And do we know where they're distributed, you know, by borrow at this point?
1:06:58
Because in in the past, you know, we've had there were times where Staten Island, think, had one sanitation sergeant assigned.
1:07:04
And obviously, you know, that's a lot of ground to cover for a single person.
1:07:07
It's a lot of ground to cover for 159 people citywide.
1:07:09
And I think that's kind of the point of my question is unless we really start improving on that headcount, it's going to really be hard to have a persistent enforcement action, which is really what you need.
1:07:21
It's a war of attrition, right?
1:07:23
And so is there any plan to increase the headcount in the coming fiscal year?
1:07:27
Right now, there's not.
1:07:32
And are you at your budgeted headcount or do you have room for some hires?
1:07:39
Okay.
1:07:39
Well, I'd love to collaborate with you more on improving those numbers in the future.
1:07:44
One of the other areas I wanted to talk about is one that I think I ask every time you guys testify, which is curbside electronic waste collection.
1:07:53
That program was suspended two fiscal years ago.
1:07:56
I know that there's more drop off locations being done by the agency based on the testimony at the last hearing.
1:08:02
It's a very small piece of the budget pie to bring that program back and ultimately the stage for a citywide expansion, which was planned, I think, around fiscal year twenty eighteen and then COVID ensued.
1:08:14
So there's no place for people to return their electronics unless they happen to have a model that's accepted by one of the stores they bought it from.
1:08:23
And we only have one drop off-site in Staten Island that's permanently there.
1:08:28
So is there any wiggle room, any opportunity for us to restore this program so Staten Islanders can get the curbside pickup they used to get, particularly in light of the fact other boroughs get more benefit from e cycle because there's just more buildings that meet that requirement with 10 units or more?
1:08:43
Well, one of
1:09:09
Okay.
1:09:10
Looking forward to talk to you more offline.
1:09:11
Thank you, chairs.
Javier Lojan
1:06:26
So the total head count citywide for our sanitation police officers, which includes supervision, are 159 total post positions.
1:06:41
No.
1:06:41
So one of the things that we try to do is that, you know, 159 for all community districts are a lot.
1:06:48
So we try to assign them, you know, monthly or weekly as necessary.
1:06:54
So we don't really have we really don't have like a set number for each borough.
1:07:28
I mean, we'd love to work with OMB and counsel on that.
1:07:36
No, we're at our budgeted headcount right now.
1:08:44
the things we did, a council member, with that site in FreshKills was that we were able to expand the number of days that we have the drop off sites.
1:08:53
So we just expanded that in December.
1:08:57
So we're happy to look to see what what kind of numbers they're yielding, but we think that is gonna be beneficial hopefully for the residents of Staten Island, adding those two extra days to the drop off sites in Freshkills.