Council meets resistance on litter clean-up initiative
The New Brunswick City Council's attempt to keep the city "green" met heated opposition from the public last night, arguing that the ordinance was unjust for city residents.
The council passed an ordinance last night that would raise fines for landlords and tenants who have litter on their property. The ordinance raises the fines for the offense from a steady $65 fine to increasing amounts for each offense thereafter. The fines range from $100 for the second offense to $500 for the fourth offense.
Council President Elizabeth Garlatti said she hopes the increased fines would stop people from littering and make the city cleaner.
The public was not about to let this ordinance pass unchallenged, with Garlatti interrupting many times to bring order.
Michael Schaeffer, a city resident in the fifth ward, said he never sees an end to the amount of litter on his property.
"As soon as I clean up the front of my house, the garbage is back. I think just enforcing the old laws would be of help," he said.
Schaeffer added that the people who actually commit the crime of littering are not the people who take the fine.
"If it becomes a problem for the homeowners, the fine doesn't go to the people who are actually committing the offense," he said. "We still have to clean it up whether they get a fine or not."
Mike Mahoney, chief housing inspector for the city, said there is no other way to stop the littering problem besides issuing tickets to landowners and not the person actually committing the crime.
"We are issuing tickets to the landlord, that's all we can do. We can't issue tickets to the tenants and we can't catch the people who litter," he said. "Every homeowner is responsible for maintaining their grounds, basically 24/7."
Still, the public was not happy with Mahoney's comments. Kathleen Feeney, a city resident in the second ward, said Mahoney's workforce and other public departments should be able to catch the people who commit this offense.
"Yes we can. We have police officers on the street. We have city workers out there. It is people like me — city citizens — that stop someone I see littering," she said. "I think that it's asking too much of the homeowner and the citizen to catch people littering."
Feeney said because the litter situation in New Brunswick is so bad, she had to start organizing her own community cleanups.
"We go out and clean up city blocks," she said. "Every neighbor knows that I'm the ‘litter lady.' It has become very burdensome."
During Feeney's discussion with the council, David Harris, a Livingston Avenue resident, said she was framing the problem as the "immigrants' fault."
Feeney responded by saying many of the people she encountered were immigrants, and she does not discriminate because of that. But she still feels knowledge is needed.
"There is a tremendous amount of education that needs to be done, plus enforcement," she said. "The burdensome task for the homeowner to pick up their litter needs to stop."
Donna Caputo, the New Brunswick Recycling Coordinator, reminded the public to call city maintenance if there is a problem and that the city is trying to make the city green by controlling litter.
"Many of you have seen the advertising we have done around the city," she said. "These signs are posted all around the city … and we are going to be seeing them more and more. We're trying to teach these people not to litter … and working to raise awareness [with these signs]."
Harris, who supported the increase in fines, echoed the words of Mahoney, saying it is the homeowner's responsibility to remove litter.
"The simple point is part of the luxury of owning the property is taking care of it," he said. "I guess at some point there is going to be a proposal for God to come down and remove the snow."
Harris added enforcement officials are too busy with more serious crime in the city, like controlling drugs and stopping gang violence.
"Do we want [the police] to go chasing people for dropping a potato chip bag on the ground? The answer is no," he said. "Saying that the police department should run around chasing people who drop the potato chip bag is just ridiculous."
Harris proposed a different solution for the litter problem by implementing cans throughout the city like he does in front of his property, which he said proves to be successful.
"What we're finding on garbage day is that [the cans] are heavy with litter because people are using them," he said. "So the point is, if we want to be proud owners of a property, then we have to take the bitter of the sweet."
The public agreed, saying if there were more garbage cans around the city, then maybe the litter problem would be solved.
Ben Major, a resident in the fifth ward, said another part of the problem is that many residents do not tie their trash bags. He said when the trash is collected the litter is dispersed in all directions.
"I've cleaned up my yard before the evening trash is picked up, and I wake up to more litter," he said. "Has there been any sort of consideration for inspectors to go around and see if the trash bags are tied properly?"
Despite the complaints of the public, Harris reminded his fellow residents that the garbage cans do work, and it is still the homeowners' responsibility to keep their property clean.
"We are living examples on our properties [with] three large containers. You will find that the [majority] of people use the containers if they are available," he said. "And this is at no cost to the city, just pride in our property."
