Morning committee come back to order.
Um, we're gonna start this morning with public comment,
beginning with Sheree Travis, followed by Miriam Renard.
Good morning. My name is Sherry Travis.
I'm an, I'm a, an attorney, I'm a landlord,
and I'm also one of the founders
of the Chicago Animal Law Student Initiative.
I am here to talk about a humane solution, um,
to the rat problem that we have in Chicago.
Uh, the Chicago Animal Law Student Initiative is partnered
with the Lincoln Park Zoo with Dr.
Maureen Murray, who is a scientist who's been studying urban
rats for six years, and also with Wisdom Good Works,
which is a non-profit
with scientists in Arizona who've been studying, um,
mammalian fertility for 30 years.
And what Dr. Murray's research shows is that, that, um,
currently when she looked at, at Urban Rats in Chicago,
that they carry diseases like Leptos Sclerosis
and e Coli, that the poison we're using is killing
non-target animals like wildlife.
And that rats actually have evolved
to survive eating poison.
So when she tested 74%
of the rats she tested had rat poison in their system,
but didn't die from it, what do we know?
We know we're spending $15 million a year
poisoning rats, and we know it doesn't work.
Even Dr. ega from Public Health agrees
that we need to find a better solution.
There were 48,648 complaints
to 3 1 1 in 2023.
And why doesn't poison work
and why is fertility control the solution?
Let's start with the facts.
The fact is that urban rats live only about a year in the
streets of Chicago, but during that year,
they can have about a hundred offspring.
They start breeding at about two months old.
So two rats can become a hundred,
and the combination of the rats
and their offspring can become thousands in the,
in the span of a year.
So how does rat contraception work?
It's delivered in the form of a palate.
The pate is, um, most, it's 99% grain and,
and some peanut butter to,
for flavoring to get the rats interested.
And it's less than a 10th of 1% contraception.
The rats eat it. It affects both the males and the females,
and they stop breeding and stop reproducing.
In Boston, where they did a 15 month, uh, pilot study,
they saw a 70% reduction in 13 months.
Boston is looking to expand the program.
New York City is looking to do a big pilot in the spring.
Evanston is looking to pilot a program as well.
Um, so what we're looking for, this is a, this is a solution
that will benefit everyone in Chicago and the animals.
So what we're looking for is we're looking
for an innovative person to replace Josie Cruz,
who's now retired as rats are
for Department of Streets and Sanitation.
We're looking for an investment in alternatives.
We wanna do a major pilot of rat contraception.
We wanna demonstrate success so
that we can solve this problem in Chicago.
I'm inviting any city council member.
Unfortunately, we don't have too many here,
but I'm inviting city council members and streets
and sanitation to a zoom call with the scientists
to ask all the questions you have.
I'd love to keep this conversation
going, so thank you for your time.
Thank you, ma'am. Uh, next we'll have, uh, Miriam Rena,
followed by Zoe Lee.
Good morning. Thank you for giving me this opportunity
to speak with you this morning.
So I'm Professor Miriam Reno.
I, uh, teach medical ethics at DePaul University.
I'm also affiliated with the Chicago Bird Alliance,
the local chapter of the Audubon Society.
But probably more important
for my comments here this morning.
I, um, am a resident of Ward 43.
So Lincoln Park and I live right across from Lincoln Park,
more specifically North Pond, where, uh, family of three
owls, uh, decided to nest, uh, last winter
and through the spring, they had an, uh, uh, uh,
a baby owl, an alet.
And so we who lived near the pond, uh, got to go to the park
and see these animals.
Uh, these beautiful, great horned owls make their, uh, uh,
home in the park, uh,
and then raise, uh, their, their offspring.
It was a very lovely thing to witness.
Uh, but then what happened is, first the male owl,
um, became ill.
And we knew that because he was actually, uh, on the ground
where Als never are at the base of the tree where, uh,
the female and the outlet were living.
Um, and so he was probably trying to be close to them,
but we learned later was dying.
He was later found at the bottom of the tree, uh, in a pool
of blood, uh, tests showed that he had died from lethal
dose of rodenticide or rat poison.
Um, and his job is to feed the female in the owl.
So now the female was left alone to try to feed herself
and her baby owl leaving the outlet in the nest.
Uh, she, uh, the next to die was the outlet, uh,
also from lethal doses of rat poison.
And eventually also the female, uh, died of, uh, rat poison.
So, uh, unfortunately
because we use rat poison to try to regulate the population
of rats, uh, the rats don't die, but they're sickened.
And so they become the most easy prey
for raptors like owls.
And this is why in this case, this family of owls died.
And so I'm here to ask that you consider other methods
of dealing with al with rats, um, in ways that are safe for,
uh, raptors and, and, um, uh, great horned owls.
Apparently another one has been cited in Lincoln Park.
And so we really hope actually he doesn't decide,
or she doesn't decide to nest, um, in our area,
um, for their own safety.
Um, unfortunately, rats, as we have just heard, uh,
continue to live even though they're poisoned.
Um, and so other methods seem to be helpful.
Uh, more trash pickup so that rats don't have food, uh,
would be an alternative also. Thank you so much.
Thank you for your comment.
Next we have Zoe Lee, followed by Ann Abrams. Abramson,
I'm from New York, so rats, I don't know,
you probably gotta talk, go talk to the people in New York
because rats is everywhere.
They ain't going nowhere. We got the biggest ones.
But, um, uh,
when it comes to this budget, and I know this is streets
and sanitation, uh, but I wasn't here for the public health.
That was November 7th.
And, um, I know last is my second, uh, budget,
uh, hearing that I had to force to look at.
And, uh, because you guys won't settle my mother's case.
Uh, so until y'all settle my case,
I'm just gonna keep looking and looking and looking.
But I was looking at the, um, the program
for epidemiology, which is the study of how diseases
and health related conditions our distributed
and control within populations.
It involves analyzing the patterns, causes
and effects of health and disease conditions in specific
groups of people aiming to approve public health
through prevention and intervention strategies.
Now, we are a billion dollars in the deficit.
And now the mayor wants to try
to see if he can get $150 million in property tax raise,
which again, do not touch our property taxes
'cause we are losing residents.
This has been the lowest from population since
1920, and y'all know that.
But back in 2019, the Epi Epidemiology program, uh,
was $5 million.
That's how much y'all had allocated.
But since then, it has been up to almost 300 million.
So you have, uh,
2 20 20 was $5,251,000.
And 2021,
it was
$198,773,486
and 2022,
it was
$421,941,589.
And 2023,
it was 332 million $141,998
and 2024.
This was when he, uh, this is his first budget he passed.
Well, you guys passed
$296,415,414,
and then you are trying
to pass another 2200
$29,420,000.
Now that's almost $1.4 billion
and studying for some diseases.
And that is where y'all need to start this forensic audit
that, because why do they have so much money in there?
But y'all are trying to raise Chicago
citizens, uh, property taxes.
Again. Now, I am not an economist nor an accountant,
but I have common sense
and I know that that does not make any sense.
Uh, we got 13 seconds. I'm gonna let you know this.
26 votes bet not pass for this budget.
We are bankrupt. Just let it be bankrupt
and figure it out from there.
Thank you.
Thank you for your comment.
Uh, Ann Abramson, followed by
Judy, uh, Jody P*****k.
Also, uh, wanna recognize, uh, former alderman, uh,
Joe Moore from the 49th Warders, uh, with us today.
Thank you for joining us. Welcome again,
you may proceed. Dear
City Council members, thank you so much
for the opportunity to testify.
Could you speak to the mic please, ma'am?
Yes. Thank you for the opportunity to testify here.
My name is Anne Abramson,
and I'm here as a lifelong Chicagoan
and nature lover, especially urban nature.
I'm also a member of the Chicago Animal Law Students
Initiative, Kelsey and Chicago Bird Alliance.
Our aim is to create a city that is healthy
for animals and people alike.
Over the years, I've been excited to see
how Chicago has been using native plants to create natural
landscapes which create habitat for pollinators
and other urban wildlife.
In particular, the transformation
of Lincoln Park's North Pond into a spectacular
nature preserve is stunning.
Last spring, I
and many other Chicagoans were thrilled to see the family
of Great horn owls that made their home in North Pond a sign
that we can live in harmony with nature,
even in an urban environment.
Unfortunately, we were devastated when the all owls died
Just a few short weeks after they appeared.
Necropsies later revealed the reason
for the deaths rodenticide in its ongoing war against rats,
Chicago has been poisoning the very food that owls
and other raptors eat.
The city's contract with Chicago United Industries reveals
that we have been using especially deadly rat poisons, known
as Es scars, second generation anticoagulant rod
rodenticides, even when used by licensed professionals.
These poisons create a toxic food web
that kills the very predators
that keep rat populations in check.
And these poisons become less effective over time
as rats become resistant to them.
Rats have evolved to live with humans for thousands
of years, despite all our attempts to eliminate them, even
after eradicating rats in a particular area,
they have eventually become, come back.
The secret of their evolutionary success is their fertility.
As my colleague mentioned, a female rat can have hundreds
of offspring in just one year.
I am here to urge the Department of Streets
and Sanitation to discontinue purchasing
and using these rat poisons.
I encouraged the department to use its funds instead
to initiate a pilot program
with a rat contraceptive called Good Bites.
Scientists at Wisdom Good Works, a nonprofit
have spent decades developing good bites as a non-toxic,
nature friendly and effective method for controlling rats.
Cities like Boston
and Seattle have been using good bites
with excellent results.
The contraceptive strategy works
because it reduces the rat's superpower their fertility
with ongoing use good bites can cut rat fertility so much
that they no longer pose a problem.
For people. On behalf of our beloved Urban Owls,
please stop poisoning their food. Thank you.
Thank you for your comment.
Uh, next we will have, uh, Judy P*****k,
or is it Jodi P*****k, followed by Alexis Gonzalez.
Yeah, thank you so much, uh,
for the opportunity to address you.
I'm Judy P*****k
and I'm the, uh, president of the Chicago Bird Alliance,
which is a chap, the chapter
of the National Audubon Society.
Uh, so we've been interested in this rodenticide issue
for a number of years,
and this past year we formed, uh, a task force
that would look at it.
We have a, a research group in there,
and our research group has confirmed, um, a lot
of the things that you've heard.
We reached out to Willowbrook Wildlife Center who confirmed
that these three owls that were beloved by many, many people
in the Chicago area did in fact die from Rodenticide.
And in fact, many other, uh, owls
and raptors in our city have died
because of the rodenticide.
Uh, and then we also have, uh, an outreach
and a communications group.
So, um, our po our position,
which is on our website, you can read it.
Uh, our position is
that we really wanna reduce these toxic rodenticides.
And, you know, the, the, the previous speaker explained, uh,
how these are much more deadly than other rodenticides.
And they work their way up the food chain
and they kill the, the owls
and hawks, which are, you know, in our city
because we have a bird friendly city.
Um, um, but they're, they're dying.
Uh, yeah, it was very traumatic for us
to watch these three Lincoln Park owls die.
But that's really just the tip of the iceberg.
The, you know, we've been in touch
with Chicago bird collision monitors who pick up many hawks
and owls that have been killed by this rodenticide.
Uh, so our position is just to stop using this,
this second generation anticoagulant rodenticide.
We would like to see you reduce
by 20% in the budget this year,
and then just continue reducing as you are able to, uh,
replace it with some other options.
We're strongly in favor of the, um,
the contraceptive, uh, trial that's been talked about
by a few people here.
Uh, we are really happy to see
that you're also be gonna be doing a trial
of carbon dioxide.
Um, that's another thing that we recommend. Uh, yeah.
And then just more public outreach, you know, dog poop
and garbage and the whole, the whole nine yards.
Um, we're, we're, we're happy to help you with that.
Uh, but I think, uh, we are, you know,
we really just wanna see a road, a reduction in rodenticide,
which is killing our animals 20% this year.
And then hopefully we'll be on a path
to completely replace that.
Thank you for your comment. Uh,
and our final speaker is Alexis Gonzalez.
Good morning. Thank you so much for hearing us out today.
Uh, I'm a three L at DePaul University College of Law.
I'm also the president of Kelsey, which is the Chicago
Animal Law Student Initiative.
And I will start by saying that I never thought
that I would be talking about Rodenticides at a
budget hearing when I started.
Um, but here I am
because I see what a serious problem this is.
Um, I mean, every time I leave my evening class, I,
I counted yesterday for my pretrial class,
something like 20 rats just by my university.
And, um, it's, it's sad to think about, um,
not only the number of rats
and the amount of money that we're unfortunately throwing
away, um, on an issue, on a solution that,
a solution that doesn't work.
But also hearing about the, um,
owls just broke my heart as well.
Uh, I'm a lifelong Chicagoan,
and I simply just would like to urge you to look at, uh,
the bra contraceptives
and, um, please hire somebody
who will work on making changes, real changes.
And, uh, and thank you so much.
Thank you for your comments.
Go ahead Mr. Blakemore. It's the last one.
Just go ahead, go with your comment.
Okay. Thank you. I came, I know
that the way the process work, you start at 10
and, and you, uh, finish
after you hear the public speakers.
And I don't know why that gentleman, uh, refused,
told me that I can't, uh, speak
however, is just the streets in sand.
Well, you know what, what have happened?
They have sold out the streets.
These, these politicians, they sold out the streets.
And, and that's your money right there.
You wouldn't have to go up on property taxes.
People like you all.
Now, why would you have the, the, the people are here
from streets and sand
got
1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 5, 7,
uh, Altimas are here now.
Don't you think this, that, that they should be here
because it's dealing with the budget, the streets in sand,
the streets in front of, uh, it's something wrong here.
It's the system is broken
and you know what's wrong is not on.
We can't beat up on, on these bureaucrats and,
and these elected officials, if we the people, uh, uh,
if something wrong now,
I'm speaking right now, it's his job.
The chairman is to hit on that counter order. Him order him.
You should never have a public speaker and
They turn.
Mr. Blakemore, would you please, Mr.
Blakemore, just please your comments, please.
We can't, we can't hear you. You gotta be on the mic.
Can't hear you. But the,
You are me turning me back to me while I
job off you outta chair.
I was bully for the sheriff,
even though I told him to have, I came to Al.
Now. I don't how to go over
here. Come
Back this way,
Mr. Blakemore. Mr.
Blakemore. Mr. Blakemore.
Okay. Thank you. Uh, thank you for your comment Mr.
Blakemore.
Alright, uh, we will begin, uh, today.
Uh, again, we have the Department of Streets
and Sanitation before us.
Um, we will begin with the, uh,
council Officer financial analysis, uh, director o Gray,
after which, uh, we will go into, uh,
presentation from the Department
of Sanitation Commissioner Cole Stallard.
Uh, once you're on, if you can introduce the, uh,
individuals have with us hearing in the well as well
as those that are in the box.
Uh, director Ode Gray, please proceed.
Lee Alder, persons and guest, good morning.
My name is Janice Oda Gray and I'm the Director of kofa.
I'm gonna provide a brief snapshot of the FY 25 budget
for the Department of Streets
and Sanitation for Alder Persons
following in the Kofa book.
It's going to be on page 98.
The proposed budget for streets
and sanitation for fiscal year 2025 is
352.9 million, a decrease of point 37 million
compared to the revised budget for fiscal year 2024.
The budgeted full-time equivalents,
as you can tell from the graph, um,
there's been a change in that number.
It's expected to be 37 positions lower than the revised
figures for fiscal year 24,
decreasing from 2,293 FTEs
to 2,256 FTEs.
This is a modification from the original reported numbers
due in part to the diverse labor force at streets
and San that consists of part-time, full-time,
seasonal and temporary workers.
But the number reported today has been reconciled
with the department as well as OBM
In terms of expenditure.
The budget allocates 209.9 million for personnel
and 142.9 million for non-personnel cost.
The purposes of specified account has increased by 110%
or 2.8 million due to a federal grant for the Urban
and Community Forestry Program for 2.8 million
recognized in fiscal year 25.
That's that reserve balance account.
Finally, it's worth noting that 58.2%
of the funds in the fiscal year 25
budget our corporate funded.
Thank you. Director Gray. Uh, commissioner
Honorable Chair Irvin, vice Chair Lee,
and members of Chicago City Council.
I'd like to introduce my staff to the right of me is, uh,
managing Deputy Eric Colon over admin, uh,
administration and finance.
First, first, deputy Luis Edda,
managing Deputy over operations.
Tommy Johnson. Deb De Lopez,
deputy Overstreet Operations.
Chris Sovay, deputy over recycling.
Malcolm Whiteside, deputy over Forestry.
Mike Koco, deputy over Traffic Services.
Deputy Gloria Pittman over road and control.
Mike Cola, deputy over sanitation.
And Kelly, very over, um,
performance management.
I'm sorry, performance management. Thank you.
Morning, I'm Cole Staller, commissioner
of Department of Streets and Sanitation.
I continue to be grateful for this opportunity
to serve Mayor Brandon Johnson, the members
of the Chicago City Council
and Chicago residents in the delivery of vital services
that keep our great city operating, including
but not limited to, sanitation, recycling, forestry,
street operations, graffiti removal, road
and control, and traffic services.
I also wanna acknowledge the valuable DSS leadership team,
who because of their dedication,
we have achieved the 2024 accomplishments we are,
are highlighting for you today.
Prior to Democratic National Convention, DSS worked
with the mayor's office, Chicago DNC 2024,
and multiple city, state,
and federal stakeholders for months to prepare for Chicago
to be featured on the world stage work included tree
trimming and planning, collecting garbage from public areas
and vacant lots, removing graffiti and sweeping streets.
The Bureau of Traffic Services also work closely
with the Chicago Police Department, the Office of Management
and Emergency Communications, the state of Illinois
and the US Secret Service to provide barricades
and post restrictions that help meet transit demands
and help protect both motorists and pedestrians.
During this event, in collaboration with the Mayor's office,
UNA 10 0 1, the Department of Human Resources,
Chicago Public Schools,
DSS launched an innovative labor training program designed
to provide CPS high school students
with a valuable hands-on labor experience in public service
and bridge the gap between education and the workforce.
70 participants were selected
to work alongside experienced DSS employees
who offered the student exposure
to real world functions critical
to the city's day-to-Day operations.
The students work hard
to help DSS clean in the neighborhoods across
Chicago for the DNC.
Today, over 50
of these students are local 10 0 1 union members
and general laborers at the
Department of Streets and Sanitation.
DSS also insist assisted with logistics for nearly
2,600 films
and special events, including the Chicago Pride Parade,
nascar Lollapalooza Bud Billiken Parade,
and the Chicago Marathon.
Our recycling team continues
to expand on waste diversion opportunities
to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions.
The Food Scrap Drop Off program
recently celebrated its one year anniversary
to great success due to the growing demand.
Streets and sand. Added two new locations in March
and another three in August, bringing the total
to 20 locations along with six community gardens.
To date, over 5,800 Chicago households have signed up
to our participate.
And since the program launched over 246 tons
of food scraps have been compo composted, uh,
and 161 metric.
Tons of carbon dioxide equivalent
of greenhouse gas emissions have been prevented.
This is equivalent
to preventing emissions from burning roughly
18,150 gallons of gasoline.
This fall, we launched a backyard composting giveaway
to provide free backyard composting bins
to residents living in homes with four units or less.
These bins allow residents to turn materials such as fruits,
vegetable scraps, fall leaves,
and grass clippings in the compost.
Through natural decomposition,
every ward received an initial allocation of 20 bins
to kick off the program.
With the high level of demand citywide,
we are now providing an additional 40 bins per ward
and have plans to relaunch the program in the spring.
The Bureau of Forestry, along with the Department
of Transportation, planted over 13,000 trees across Chicago
so far this year, bringing the total trees planted
to nearly 50 thou 7,000 through our roots Chicago,
a groundbreaking initiative
to equitably increase the city's tree.
Urban Canopy.
The Department of Public Health
and Environment collaborated with us
to get the word out across stakeholders and alderman.
This effort helps improve air quality, reduces urban heat,
and enhances green spaces
for Chicago residents and visitors.
The Bureau of Forestry also has committed
citywide area trimming.
This year crews scheduled
and trimmed all trees in one geographical area,
creating a more efficient and equitable process
for Chicago residents
and allowing for proper maintenance
of the city's overall urban tree canopy.
This strategy continues to show results with the Bureau
of Forestry trimming over 134,000 trees since the
program's inception in April of 2023
or 121 grids, which reflects approximately 23%
of the overall tree canopy.
The DSS Quality of Life program cleans areas with overgrown
and unsightly weeds and debris in
or near videx alleys and vacant lots.
Since the program's inception in 2016,
the team has expanded from five to 30 employees
and is equipped with six vans, three of which are electric,
allowing them to service multiple communities in the city.
Simultaneously this year, streets
and Sand completed 716 larger jobs
and 4,000 906 6 smaller jobs.
DSS also worked with the mayor's office, CPD
and other city departments in a full
force of government approach.
At the take back the block events held last summer to engage
and clean targeted areas.
As part of the city's public safety efforts, our bureau
of street operations manages graffiti operations.
As it fully prepared for this winter's snow operations,
we will be hosting our third annual.
You name a snowplow contest.
Information for this year's contest is forthcoming
and will be announced soon.
The Bureau of Rodent Control continues to respond
to 3 1 1 requests
and proactively addresses rodent evading
through door-to-door abatement face-to-face engagement
with residents and informational material in
four different languages.
Looking ahead to 2025 DSS will shift resources
to provide the Bureau of Road
and Control with five extra crews, uh, for next year.
Starting now, helping to maintain a presence in each ward
every other day, enhancing coverage
and response efficiency across the city.
We will continue to leverage the great success
of the Laborers training program
with additional student participants.
DSS will be expanding composting
and waste diversion efforts, such as adding locations
for screw boots, scrap drop off
to further reduce our environmental impact.
To build on the citywide beautification results showcased at
the D-N-C-D-S-S will like to work with DOE
to find an innovative
and cost-effective efficient method
to implement a pro proposed plan
for the Keep Chicago Clean Anti Litter campaign submitted
to the Committee on Environmental Protection
and Energy in September.
We are also developing several technology applications
specifically for towing tree inventory
and basket collection routing, showcasing our ability
to operate effectively across both digital
and operational platforms.
In closing, I would like to thank all city council members
and staff for your continued support, especially
for our spring clean and green event
and the backyard compost giveaway.
I also want to acknowledge the entire streets
and sand staff for their tireless effort
and commitment to the residents of the city of Chicago.
My staff and I are happy to answer any questions
that you may have at this time. And thank you.
Thank you, commissioner. Um,
thought I was gonna leave me hanging this morning.
I was either, you got me. Okay. All right.
I said either Cole was doing a great job
or a terrible job, so,
uh, you sure?
We gonna open with, uh, we're gonna open
with Altman walk back this morning.
I think they trying to tell you something, man.
Trying to tell you something. Slide over. Overwhelmed.
How about this one? There we go. Thank you, chairman.
Um, good morning Cole, and good morning to all your staff.
Um, one of the issues that's come up, uh, from just talking
to different people, um,
maybe an easier question in on this one is cart
removals and replacements.
Um, can you discuss a little bit how that's being handled
and when we have, uh, a replacement, um,
le what do we do when we leave the damaged ones behind?
What's the process for that
and how can we utilize that more effectively?
Thanks for your question. Um, as of now, if you were
to pull that number, that number would be under 10.
Uh, we worked hard to get that number down.
We understand that's a process.
Um, our cart delivery is in November, so anybody
that put a cart in October or before blue
or black cart, those have been delivered.
Uh, the team worked hard to, uh, pick up all those.
We picked up over a thousand
of those carts throughout the city so that
that issue's been addressed.
And that's a separate crew that comes through
after they drop off the initial cart?
Yeah, a lot of 'em have garbage with 'em
and yeah, you know, garbage in 'em,
and we try to coordinate the, the drop offs,
but it just doesn't work like that sometimes.
But to put it in perspective,
there's probably a thousand out there that are, are done,
and we've probably delivered close
to 60,000 carts this year.
And, um, when we're talking about damaged carts, um,
many years ago we had that program
where they were taking them back to repair 'em.
Um, when we have that many carts that are damaged, um,
do they go back to the manufacturer
and what do we do with the damaged carts
or the, the ones that are full of holes or whatever.
We do have a fixed program, so we do have a,
a refurbish program, but then we do auction 'em off.
Okay. But the company that initially, uh, create
or created them,
they're the ones doing the redesign or is the, or the, um,
No, we're, we're fixing 'em ourself.
Okay. We have, we have people, we have a, we have a welder,
uh, a person that fixes those and replaces the wheels.
Uh, a lot of times the lids are, um, have holes in them from
squirrels or the, or the raccoons.
And, um, we'll literally change out the lids,
change out the tires, power wash 'em,
and, uh, change out the bars sometimes.
But, uh, we have a team that does that too.
Okay. Um, what's the warranty on those carts?
10 years. 10 years. Okay.
I thought it was much less, but thank you. Um, all right.
Moving on to another issue, swap, uh, program.
Um, how many requests for swap do we get per year
To say swap?
Um, first off, I'd like to say and,
and thank Sheriff Dart, we're back with swap.
I would definitely wanna acknowledge
that the people over in the county, I know
that was a long fight through the process of covid
that we got through, but we're averaging 13 people a week
now, um, which is definitely up from where we were at.
But we do have, um, quality of life teams out there.
We do have reentry teams out there.
We have our labor, so to say, it's a,
a swap specific request.
Um, we, we kind of tackle it with all hands on deck
between those and our laborers behind the trucks also.
Um, I, I was talking
to some folks at the sheriff's office too, just trying
to figure out, you know, how much more of that we could get.
So that's what I was wondering.
I know it takes management of those people.
You can't just put it, put 'em out there.
You have to actually manage 'em
and watch what they're doing.
So yeah.
My question was more towards, I guess,
are we gonna see an increase in swap teams again,
like we used to have, oh,
We continue. We, there's an
ordinance and an agreement
with the county an an agreement.
Let me re retract. MU There's, there's an, an agreement
with the county, um, that we are to get 20,
uh, swap people a day.
Um, two crews with sheriffs,
and like I said, I'm, I'm happy
to report that they're at 13.
Um, it's based on what, um, they have, um,
but we are seeing an uptick in, in the work, um,
that they're able to do for us.
Okay. Um, switching over to special events.
You mentioned special events and how you guys help out.
We all see, uh, for different events, you know,
you might see the plows out there,
the garbage trucks blocking, um, you know,
helping out shutdown streets, um, know a lot
of ward superintendents go out
and help on events like the marathon.
What is, um, our overtime expenditure
on annual events
and what is the annual cost of using all
of these staff and the deployment of all that equipment, um,
for all these events on an annual basis?
Oh, And this is the reason I'm asking you this is
because we, uh, have very clear evidence
through the police department that we are paying tens
of millions to the police department,
um, every year.
We're, we as taxpayers are footing the bill
for all these events where we wanna see the event
planners, the management companies start to take on some
of the responsibility for paying
for police overtime deployment of city resources.
To the extent that it is out, the, the cost
of doing this are far outweighing the benefits
that we see other than, you know, the co the, you know,
the nice picture of an event being out there
and drawing people in.
And maybe there's some kind
of economic impact study that's done.
But what we need to see is what is the cost
to city taxpayers for the day-to-Day operations,
let's say on a, on a four day event where you have
to deploy resources
that then get pulled away from doing the other things
that taxpayers wanna see done on a daily basis.
And then deploying trucks, the cost of all
that gas, the cost of everything that's kind of outlined in,
in an annual, uh, on an annual basis.
That's kind of what I'm getting at here.
Thanks for the question. A, a as I said, uh,
the city's back, um,
we're seeing events like we haven't seen in a long time.
Um, just the move the, the movies and the,
and the TV shows alone.
So we, we understand there's a demand
on all of our resources.
And to put it into perspective,
we spent 1.192 million for the DNC.
So we do have cost out for everything we do.
Um, we're, we're part of public safety in that regard, um,
because we are offering, um, not only the cleanup
before, during, and after the event,
but our spreaders are out there for the public safety,
that that's why we're out there.
So you run a cost analysis
and you tell this, this special events company, this is
what it's gonna cost you to utilize our services.
We work with BACP on that. Okay. Um,
I'm sorry, D case you mean D
case I'm sorry. Yeah. D case.
So this is what we've asked D case,
you're signing off on the events D case
and you're telling us the events ready to roll and I'm done
after this chairman, but, um, the police are kind
of put in the corner to say yes to an event you guys have
to clean up before and after it,
or during it deploy resources.
That's what I'm getting at is
that there has been a huge disconnect
for many years in terms of the resources
that we're outputting with, you know,
what we're seeing back in terms of the cost.
So that's, um, this is, this is a broader discussion.
I just wanted to know what your piece was of it.
Thanks for the question. But we, we do have our costs.
We do cost out, uh, what each one cost us.
And like I said, um, we're part
of the public safety in that regard.
We get an order from, uh, the first, uh,
superintendent from their office in regards to
how many pieces of equipment will be needed.
Um, and then we, we do the cost analysis of the cleanup.
Okay. Thank you, commissioner. Thank you Chairman.
Thank you. But you round two
or was that a, um,
going back to, uh, the question that, uh,
audible walk spec raised, um, do you all code out, uh,
or have a, a pot
or an event number
or some way to delineate resources that you guys are using
outside of, for lack of a better term, normal operations?
Yes. Um,
and through the, through the Cherokee,
if you could provide us your, uh, cost on these events
outside of your normal operations, be it through D case
CPD, any other department are requesting assistance,
if you have that information, uh, coded as such.
Yeah. Uh, for example, bud Billiken 152,000,
the Chicago Marathon is 500, 1000 plus
Lollapalooza was 201,000.
The Pride Parade was 136,000
and NASCAR was 112,000 plus.
Okay. Alright. Um,
and any other events now the, of those events
where you wouldn't know what was city,
what's a city event versus a private event, uh,
more or less or are those
We have that, we have that information all Yeah. Have,
If you, again, just provide that
so we can get some clarity
and understanding, especially these events that are ticketed
people are charging for.
What are we seeing back in relation, uh, to those?
Uh, next we're gonna have Alderman Riley, followed
by Alderman Lopez if he's here.
Thank you, chairman. Good morning, commissioner.
Morning. Um, first I, I wanna
compliment you, um, personally
for the excellent job you've done leading this department.
And to everyone in the box, thank you
for all the great work that you do.
Um, I, I don't have, uh,
any meaningful criticism of your department, which is rare
and during budget hearings for me. Thank you.
Write, write this down, man. Write this
Down. Sorry. This
a moment in history.
Um, and, and I understand your budget submission
and along the lines of ultimate Waga specs, um, questioning,
I'm not gonna reiterate all that he said,
'cause I agree with him a hundred percent.
Um, he's not asking you those questions related to, um,
recouping special event costs because streets and Streets
and Sanitation isn't properly invoicing and,
and recording the, the manpower dedicated to those events.
In fact, you're doing it right. And, um, that's refreshing.
Sadly, there are other departments that are within
that special events realm
that have not done such a thorough job.
And I think we're, we're using this particular piece to
emphasize that point to the administration, that they need
to do a much better job, um,
assessing real costs for these services.
Um, because more and more, as you note, more
and more of these special events are for profit
and less so, um, you know, in the public realm
as free events sponsored by the city
or legitimate nonprofits.
And so, um, I wanna compliment you for the work
that your department's doing, but we're gonna use this
as a learning moment for others to step up.
'cause these things cost money at the end of the day.
It costs our constituents that money.
Um, so thank you for the work you're doing on that.
Um, I, I've looked at your budget submission.
You're seeking to eliminate roughly 31 vacancies you're
hoping to carry over, um,
what is it here, 91?
Yes. And would you happen to know
how many of those 91 vacancies have gone
unfilled for more than nine months?
I, I'd like to say we've hired over 600 folks in this
department, minus, minus the two hour drivers.
So if you added the two hour drivers to those numbers,
that would be an additional 340 over the
last, uh, two years.
So, hiring my hats off to the team at DHR along
with the team that's sitting in the box here.
Um, we've hired over 600 people in the last two years.
Um, so as far as our openings, um,
being open for over nine months to get you to that level
of detail, I'd have to get you that through the chair,
but I, I can't say it enough.
When, when the former commissioner left the DHR
and Commissioner Blakemore came in, she tasked the team
with, um, making sure departments were in a good place.
And I have to say, we're in a good place as far as, uh,
what we're able to accomplish at hiring this year.
Very good. And you know, we've been talking to each
of the departments over the last couple of weeks about, um,
grant funds and federal ARPA funds.
And I know that your department is not one that, that relies
disproportionately on outside grants.
Um, but did your department benefit at all
from federal ARPA funding?
Yes, we got the 45 million
for the 75,000 trees that we're gonna plant.
And we got, uh, I'm looking at my
team to fact check me here.
We got 6 million for what we're using for, uh,
our recycling efforts. And
That money, I assume CRP funding,
I, I assume that money has been programmed and,
and spent, so to speak.
We're in a process, yes.
We've, uh, we've planted with that money 56 between us
and seed out, we've planted 56,000 of the 75,000 trees
and we have two more years to do that,
and we continue to grow with our recycling efforts.
And do you have a sense of how much of
that money is un expended?
Well, if, if we're looking at, um, the 45 million
he's gonna give, he's gonna gimme that answer.
What we spent on tree planting so far is 21 million.
But we look to, we're we really planted a lot
of trees last year, our number just shot up.
And so now we're getting, that was due to the, the backlog
that people waited three years for trees that we were able
to kind of drill.
So we're really trying to drill down
and put trees where people actually want 'em to,
where they're gonna take care of 'em.
So that's the only reason there's the slowdown in regards
to getting these trees in the ground
because we wanna make sure that that person wants that tree.
But right now on the tree planting,
we spent 21 million to answer your question.
Hold on. Um, does that include any other funding
or was all of your tree planning, uh,
funding coming from a, from arpa?
All CRP funding? Oh, CRP funding? Yes. That's
For Clarification. That's
totally different then. Okay.
Who said arpa? I thought
I But actual ARPA dollars, how many ARPA dollars?
We, we don't get arpa
Crp. Okay. I'm sorry, Vanessa.
The
Point of clarification. CRPI, I apologize.
The, The, the, the answer to my question threw me off.
I'm glad you clarified that, chairman,
because I was actually gonna use this department
to make a point about ARPA funding and,
and the fact that some of these departments budgets have
have absolutely mushroomed, uh, thanks to ARPA.
And, you know, while that's been a welcome influx
of resources, it's not something we can sustain.
Um, out of curiosity, commissioner, i, I assume,
and thank you for responding to my budget memo,
um, through the chair.
Um, I assume that the responses
to these memo requests are
prepared in tandem with IGA.
Is that accurate? Or would it be the Budget Office?
Do you respond to my memo?
Yes, we responded. So Streets and Sanitation Yes.
Directly responded to you. Very good.
Did, were you given any guidance
by the budget office heading into this season to, uh,
implement zero based budgeting
to construct your department's budget this year?
Did you receive that guidance from the budget office? We
Work very closely with 'em, um, through the whole process.
Again, if you look through our budget, we're in,
we're in pretty good shape.
We're in real good shape. As a matter of fact, um,
as I mentioned, there's, we're saying 31, 31 37,
um, positions that we lost, we feel we could move forward.
Um, with that, um, the cost of the contracts went up.
We, we know that, uh, for the, uh, uh, workforce
Commissioner to be clear, uh, I, I don't take issue
with your budget submission.
And, and I, I, I, I think what you're,
you've submitted here is, is a responsible submission.
Um, I'm simply asking whether
or not you receive specific guidance from the budget
department, sorry, budget office, to,
to engage in zero based budgeting.
I know the answer. Um, and,
and my, my frustration is not
with you Commissioner, not one bit.
It's with the budget office.
Um, that should have been a part of this exercise,
and it needs to be a part of this exercise moving forward.
And the reason why I meant a number
of us are focused on vacancies
and how long they've gone unfilled.
Um, and I'm glad to hear
that the statistics in in your department are good.
Um, is that, uh, we can't afford
to keep balancing budgets the way we have historically.
Um, this year we're looking at a billion dollars next year.
We're looking at 1,000,000,002 to 1,000,000,004 the year
after that more.
Um, and those are certainties.
And so again, this message is not for you,
for the folks upstairs in the budget office.
Um, we need
to start building these budgets from the ground up.
Um, which is, is not an unrealistic expectation.
That's actually how most public bodies budget.
Um, so I'm, I'm gonna leave it there.
Um, I, I think you're doing a fantastic job.
Um, you direct your, your office
and the folks who work for you, uh, are front facing.
Uh, they interact with the public on a daily basis
and they provide some of the most important
and visible services in the city.
And so, um, thank you for being efficient
and being mindful of our tax dollars
and I think delivering a superior product, um, for,
for Chicago taxpayers.
So, thank you, uh, commissioner.
I appreciate your work and everyone in the box,
Thanks for the kind words.
No. Round two man. We're gonna write this down.
We have to write all this down today. Okay.
Uh, you ready?
Chair Do chair do, followed by Alder Mat Farrell,
unless, uh, alderman Lopez makes his way back.
Uh, thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Good morning, commissioner Stallard.
Good morning and good morning
to everybody in the box who I've worked with.
Um, just a few questions.
A again, I don't have a lot of, uh, qualms with the streets
and sanitation budget, um,
but I wanted to ask a few questions.
The $3 million in the Urban Forestry Grant,
which was not spent this year, is gonna be more
of a carryover for 2025.
What is that? What's the plan for that money?
That's where we're looking for the tree inventory
that's gonna go out, uh, first quarter next year.
So what we'll be able to do with that is to be able to see
what kind of species the size, the, um,
condition of the tree.
And, um, it's something we're looking forward to,
to help us, um, get a better grasp on our tree canopy.
Okay. And, and that is for, uh, that's the citywide
Yes. They're gonna inventory
what we,
the number I always use is the 625,000 plus households out
There. Okay.
All right.
Um, I think I talked
to you not too long ago.
I really need to get a map of the grid
for the trees and to see if I can get the schedule.
I know that it's on a certain day,
but I wanna know where they're gonna be on a certain day.
And in the grid,
Uh, Jimmy Sheen from our office is gonna meet
with your staff, uh, I believe next week.
Okay. They, they set that up with Allison.
All right. And you have a map
that I can actually put on my wall?
Whatever you like, will make available.
Thank you. All right.
Uh, and on the,
uh, weed cutting, uh, typically the weed cutters, they use
that riding mower.
They don't go around any poles or anything.
They just ride the thing.
Can we get them to remove some
of the stuff around the poles as part of their contracts?
It's part of their contract.
Um, so, you know, so if that's not being done,
we can address that with the vendor.
But they're to remove around poles, they're to remove, uh,
trim along the fence lines.
They're to pick up the debris, the garbage
and know that, uh, we cut over 70,000 times this summer.
Yeah, they pick up the garbage. Yes, they do.
They do a good, good job of that.
And, uh, but they don't get around the little poles
and the bushes grow and then I have to have, uh, streets
and sand come out and do that work.
We'll address that. But now I know
We'll address that.
Okay. Uh, can I get through the chair?
How many citations were written due to the lack of, uh,
maintain lots citywide
and uh, how many lots did you have to cut
because the owners aren't taking care of it?
And have you recouped any of the costs for that work?
I can give you that now if you'd like. Sure.
Um, of the 70,000,
and I'm gonna use round numbers if you want
exact, I can get you exact,
No round numbers are fine. Um,
Approximately 32,000 were private cuts
of that 70 we wrote,
and again, I'm gonna look at my team to fact check me.
We look at like 16, wrote like 16 million in tickets.
And the one thing that I'd like to say, um, in regards
to the tickets is, I know it's a pain point for alders
with them getting 'em from law late,
but of the 53,000 tickets we wrote citywide
for other things, 3,300 people, um,
looked at online where you can literally look online now.
It's something they've been working on for a long time.
3,300 of those tickets people actually looked online. Yep.
That's me. And paid.
So we'd really like to get that message out
'cause it'll help with administrative hearings and so forth.
But it was the first year out
and it was, uh, 3,300 of those 53,000 tickets we wrote.
And if you were to quantify
that from the $16 million in tickets that you wrote,
what would be the collection number?
I'd have to get you that number through the chair
because that, that they're collecting.
Um, we,
we will get those numbers from like the previous year
for the 2023 for this year,
because a lot of the effort that we put in,
we were writing tickets probably up through September.
That that hasn't been heard yet. Okay.
Um, commissioner there, the, uh, waste disposal
for the Bureau of Sanitation
and the corporate budget increased by $10 million from 2023.
What is, why are we seeing that kind of increase?
I,
I'd like to get you that through the chair
because the answer right now is contractual,
but I'm not, I'm not, I'd like to get you
that through the chair Okay.
Of why it went up $10 million.
Okay. I can wait for it through the chair.
Um, and can we get a revenue calculation for
what towing cars?
What if we tow more cars instead
of putting tickets on them?
How much would we collect?
Okay. That's my questions.
No, I'm saying do you want me
to get you that through the chair?
'cause we'd have to look at that if we told yes.
If we tow cars versus riding the ticket. Right.
I mean, I, let me ask Michael Coco, Mike,
deputy Commissioner of Traffic services, Mike
La Coco, deputy Commissioner of Traffic Services,
the issue with the towing of cars, we don't know
how many tickets are on each car.
If they're parked in a no parking tow zone
or not, they have
to be parked in no parking tow zone in order to tow 'em.
Sometimes they might get tickets for expired meters,
other things and other things that aren't towable offenses.
So as far as if they were parked in no parking tow zone,
yes, we would probably generate more
revenue if we told them.
I didn't quite get that,
but I will, I'll come and talk to you. Could
You speak up a little bit? We're
having trouble hearing you.
The, the reason if we do tow cars, some cars that we tow
aren't towable offenses, some tickets that are written up.
So if we did tow more vehicles inside
that were parked in no parking tow zones,
of course we would generate more revenue for that.
But not every car that's written a ticket on it
is a towable offense.
Do we need to, right now there's that seven day
So that we're talking abandoned vehicles.
That's totally separate.
Is that what you're talking abandoned?
Yes. All right. So abandoned vehicles are,
Why do we have to wait seven days?
I guess that's my question.
That's, that's the law that we have to follow.
That's the ordinance. That's
That's our ordinance, correct.
So we could change that number if we wanted to.
Yes, you could, but they also have to,
if they're seven day, if they're a seven day vehicle
with li valid license plates,
that's why we put a seven day sticker on it.
If it has a valid license plates,
they have to have due process.
So they have to have a time for a hearing.
Okay. Uh, thank you Commissioner.
I don't have any more questions.
I reserve a right for round two. Chairman,
Can I, can I ask for point of clarification?
We're showing our refuge disposal
0 1 8 5 is 56 million
1 91 7 1 4.
We're showing increase of 1.6. Three six.
Okay. Uh, let me check
and I'll come back in round two if we need to.
Thank you. Um, alt ul Pharaoh, follow Baltimore Viegas.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, and commissioner to you
and your team, thank you so much for, um,
uh, work that you do.
As I know you have one of the more difficult jobs in this
city, and so I certainly want to thank you, uh,
for the fine job that you do.
And, um, just the collaboration, uh,
that your department is head with my, my Ward office.
I certainly appreciate it.
Um, with regard to your quality of life program,
uh, this is something that we've depended on, um,
quite often and I want to thank, um, Tommy Johnson
for the fine work that he does there.
Uh, is there a specific,
because I'm, I'm trying to find it in the budget, um,
the budget recommendations book, is it,
is it specifically line item or,
or is it part of your overall operation? Part
Of our overall operation.
Okay. Is there any, um, is there any intention
or plans to improve their program
with the number of employees?
Oh, for sure. Uh, that's where I, that's what,
What does that look like for, um, 2025?
I, well, we're adding, as I mentioned, we're gonna add,
let me retrack, we're gonna repurpose
or reallocate folks in graffiti,
I'm sorry, in roading.
Um, control, which we're gonna have five additional crews
there to get us to the number of 25 crews.
So we're in the ward every other day.
So one way, we're in your ward
next day, we're in the neighbor's ward.
That's the goal here. As far as the quality of life,
we had 5, 6, 7.
That's been a dream of Tommy Johnson managing
Deputy for 10 years.
That's finally come.
We were able to put 30 people on there that are trained
with chainsaws and, and further equipment.
Um, we literally grabbed four people from each division.
We have nine divisions to get that up to that,
that 70 number.
And we wanna continue to show those efforts.
Um, we're using electric vans.
We got three out of our six vans are electric, um,
to test those out for our friends over at Fleet.
But we're, we're at like 70 folks out there right now.
Uh, they do the heavy, really heavy cleaning, um,
where we see some alleys with some overgrowth
that haven't been touched in years.
We're focusing on those.
Um, so it's something we continue to add to.
It's not something that we're gonna pull from. Okay.
As long as our numbers are able to stay where we're are.
So are you looking at increasing the 30 people, um,
next year or as again, I got lost as far as,
um, how many people you're planning to operate that, um,
section with that program with,
Again, we're, we're at the, uh, trained is 30,
we added 36 to that number.
Um, through the divisions.
We know sign hangings, um, coming to an end soon.
So we're gonna have those bodies incorporated in more deep
cleaning and, uh, continue to, if we have, um,
knocking on wood as we speak, if we have a, a not so heavy,
um, winter that we can really get these alleys in good shape
for that springtime.
Um, with the additional folks we have
Okay. And
take back the block.
Um, I know you've done several of those events, um,
and those are coordinated efforts, I believe,
with CDOT in other departments.
Um, how do you determine, uh, what, what area, um,
that you're going to, for lack of a better term,
take back the block, and then what's the cost, um, of
that program as, as it relates to streets and sand?
Well, we're, we're working with Darien, uh, Gatewood on
that, and we're doing those, um, cleanups
as course of business.
Uh, it's just concentrated in that four by four block area,
and it's done on, it's done on regular straight time.
So it's the, the course of business.
So is, is that a request from an alderman or Darien?
Gatewood gets to, um, put that thing together and,
and determine where to go?
I, I couldn't answer, I
couldn't answer Darien on that one.
Okay. Darien, I'm sorry.
Okay. That's all I have, Mr. Chairman, and thank you.
Uh, thank you, commissioner. Thank you.
Thank you, alderman. Uh, for the record, uh,
Tommy Johnson got that idea from the 28th Ward.
That's why you brought it up.
I, I knew we, we on the waves, a west side thing,
so we'll, we'll get it together.
Uh, we're gonna have, uh, next was Altman Viegas,
followed by, uh, Altman Taylor.
Thank, uh, thank you, uh, Mr.
Chairman and Commissioner and your team.
Obviously, you guys do a great job, so very supportive.
Um, quick question for you around, uh, rodents.
I see that we've claimed the title for 10 years in a row
around having, being the readiest city in the country.
Um, I think today, earlier, uh, prior to some
of my colleagues here, there were some folks that came in
and talked about a pilot program
that's being utilized in Boston for the last 15 months,
and they've seen a reduction,
a dramatic reduction in the amount
of rodents that are there.
What are some of the plans from the city, uh, to,
to alleviate ourselves of that title of the Readiest?
I mean, I don't being, I don't mind being in the top five,
but, uh, 10 years in a rows.
I think we can do better than that.
Well, they have a, a great marketing team over at
that company that puts us out there,
but you can look at the other company that's out there,
and we weren't in the top five.
Um, but I'm not gonna mention either of those companies.
It's a heck of a marketing strategy.
Um, I did hear the, the folks at the public, uh,
hearing comment, um, she actually came up
and had a chat prior to this.
We're open for anything to make it better. Yeah.
Um, we, uh, we understand
that just throwing more resources at something, you know,
just doesn't always work.
Uh, I use that to say, uh,
we're gonna try carbon dioxide.
You know, we'd like to look at carbon dioxide,
uh, as an alternative.
Um, again, we're open. Could
You explain that carbon? Is that the
one where was the dry ice?
No, it's not the dry ice. No, no.
This is literally a, it's a, a tank with carbon
dioxide in it that we put into the hole
and cover up the other hole.
And it seems to be pretty effective.
These are just strategies that we're looking at.
Another thing, um, I say it every year that I'd like to, uh,
see is you gotta pick up after your dogs.
Um, that is the main food source
for rodents is picking up after your dogs.
The other one is all these baskets
that everybody likes on their, their, um,
main streets in front of their businesses.
If people are throwing food in there,
it's another source for these rodents.
So we did a study in, um, the 43rd ward,
um, where we, some of the baskets where they weren't,
they saw, uh, uh, less response to seeing rodents out there.
So more garbage, those recycling bins in the front
of the business is always not necessarily
mean, less rodents.
'cause people just put their food in there.
That's what they're putting in there.
They're finished with their food,
they're eating out in front, they're throwing it in there.
People are walking by walking their dog.
Nobody wants to walk with their,
their dog's waste in their hand.
They throw it in those that all that all contributes
to this, this issue.
So that's just another message that I like to get out.
But as far as, um, looking at alternatives, 100% off for it.
This is how, this is how things get better. Cool.
Um, so for not the readiest city in this, in the country
for 10 years in a row, where do you know where we rank?
Oh, like I said, it depends which, uh,
which vendor you wanna listen to.
If you talk to the other vendor,
Tell gimme the b the best one, the best one that
I'm not, I'm not a promoter for, uh, I'm not a promoter
for any road, and I, I we're the best.
That's why I said New York came to us.
She was here, that Rat Czar was here, uh, for a couple days,
and their mayor was rolling out garbage
cans six months later.
So we, we suggested that without garbage cans
and you throw in raw garbage in a bag out on the street,
the rats could eat two plastic.
So I'd like to say we worked together.
That's not a shot at New York, of course.
Um, we worked together to try to find strategies and,
and again, I, I heard them loud and clear, loud
and clear on, uh, how to get this better.
Okay. And what's the, what's the spend on dealing
with rodents on an annual basis?
I'm sorry. What's the spend?
What do we spend to deal with, uh,
rodents on an annual basis?
Is it like 15 million or something? 15
Millions. 15 million.
Okay. Cool. All right.
Well that's, that's all the questions I have.
Um, just, um, heard the constituent or not strike that.
Heard a resident and she had, uh,
she's gonna send me some information.
I'm gonna send to you as well to see if there's an
opportunity there to, uh, potentially pilot it.
Thanks for the questions. Thank you.
Thank Alderman Altman Taylor, follow Alderman Rodriguez.
Thank
You chairman. Hey, commissioner,
how you doing? Um, safer.
Why is safer not a year round, um,
organization that we use?
And if you could give us a cost of how much that would add
to your budget, could you let us know?
Yes, I can. Um, it's got it
stretched from March to, we started about the mid-March
and, um, go till they're still going right now.
Okay. Um, actually, so, you know, that's the majority
of our, where things are really dirty.
And if you have snow, you know,
that's why I'm hoping for not much.
So we can really get some deep cleaning going
so we can see the garbage.
You know, the city never looks dirtier.
Um, come March, you know, that's when the snow melts
and the city is absolutely looks filthy.
Um, but I can get you that number through the chair.
Is there any talk about a,
talk about a winter cleaning plan?
'cause I agree if that snow melts
before March, it just looks nasty,
is there, should we be having a conversation about
what a January to March
cleaning looks like and what that cost would be? We,
We talk about it every day.
Uh, Tommy Johnson will literally tell you that
finding ways to get the city cleaned up,
begging folks to stop littering, um,
stop throwing stuff outta windows.
Um, getting that message to those CPS students to try
to tell their parents to,
don't throw the stuff out any way we can.
Um, I complimented Alderman Mosley
by putting up these signs.
Yep. Um, he's got the signs right by the expressway on 99th.
He's got 'em on a hundred 11th, please. It worked.
Uh, you literally saw less littering in those locations,
so anything time we can get
that message out, we're all for it.
Because we spent a lot of, we picked up
66,000,
66,000 bags of litter.
Now our bags aren't small. I can fit in one of our bags.
66,000 bags of litter. That's not from a garbage can.
That's not from a, it's
Picking it up around the, It's picking up around,
around the, uh, city.
So there's a recommendation for us
to offer those up in the community.
Correct.
It's a, just to get, help us get that message out.
I see everybody's got great websites. Everybody's got it.
They got good followers.
Any, any way we can get that message out
to just stop littering.
So you all do an amazing job on cleaning green.
Have you all thought about doing that during the duration
of the, the summer or the year?
We're year-round cleaning green.
If anybody's looking for tools, if anyone's looking
for support, anyone's looking for bags, we're there to work
with the ward superintendent to coordinate that
With Ward Base.
Um, well between grid
and Ward base, um,
I hear folks say they would rather be ward based, um,
versus grid and the, with the trees.
Going back to both. Can you kind of talk about that for me
With, we're talking the trees right now. Trees
And garbage. Okay.
Trees. I, I'll go through garbage. Um, garbage.
It was 60 trucks a day that we were able to save.
We're finally to a point with garbage
where I can't sit here in front of this body
and say, Hey, we don't have people.
When I took this position, we were at 169.
One person trucks, a hundred sixty nine, one person trucks
out of 291 trucks.
We put out 169 of 'em.
Had one person on the back of that truck.
They can't clean the way they should clean.
Right now, we're probably at about 61 person trucks.
And if we didn't take people
and put 'em on those cleaning crews with Tommy,
if we didn't take the extra people and put 'em in rodent
or put 'em in cart delivery, we can be at zero to.
But we do have one person routes it's designed for,
because they have one, what we call one Arms.
Um, so it's really a, an effective there.
There's not a, there's not a logistic company in the world
that would do things the way we used to do 'em,
because the way it's designed.
Um, so I think you're gonna see a more positive
product moving forward.
Again, we've hired 600 people in,
in the last two years,
and we lost about 140 due due to retirement.
So those are unbelievable numbers.
And I'll give Tommy an opportunity at one point to tell you,
in his 30 years,
he's never seen the department in this good a shape
as far as manpower.
So my excuses are not there.
In regards to the tree trimming, um,
do 40,000 running around all over God's green earth
versus 90,000.
We're on pace to hit another 90,000 this year.
So I committed to 90,000.
We we're, we're, we're on pace to hit 90,000 this year.
And we hit 90,000 plus last year.
We had one heck of a storm.
Our emergencies this year were up a hundred percent,
a hundred percent of our emergencies.
We were up. Um,
but as far as the benefits
that we're gonna see, once we get to this mark,
it's gonna be like garbage cans.
You're not gonna hear about garbage.
You don't hear about garbage cans anymore
because we solve that problem.
Um, tree trimming, it's, it's,
this is the tough part to get us through that hurdle.
And if it is laying on somebody's house,
if the trees are bouncing off somebody's house
or it's an unsafe situation, we're gonna take care of those.
We seem to be getting more calls about trees
because you can't put it in 3 1 1.
And so how do we take care of the balance?
'cause it's always bring
It to us. Bring it to us,
and we'll take care of 'em. Okay?
And we're not gonna lose an efficiency
because we're gonna hit that whole block,
or we're gonna do it at the end on our way in when we finish
the block and something's not posted.
So we're gonna take care of that.
What is the conversation around vacant lots?
So let me say this. When it comes to the grass contract,
I've been hit or miss one year.
It's been great. The next year sucked.
How was it this year? It could have
been, let me just say this.
I think my second year here, whatever contractor y'all got,
they were amazing because they cleaned up out themselves,
they cut around, they did some amazing work.
And you're looking at wars like myself, all the woman, Dow
and Stephanie, we got more lots.
Um, how do we get more folks to cut and clean those lots
and that there's a big problem when they go to court?
Um, it seems like they throw out these tickets.
Oh, for these bad actors.
Like they can continue not to clean and cut.
We are made to clean and cut,
but then when they go to court, the tickets are thrown out.
And so are we going to, are we sending somebody to court?
Are we talking about that these folks are not doing
what they supposed to do in our community?
How is what, what are we doing about that? I, I
Could work with, uh, pat from ah, on that
and see, hey, if we,
because I was sharing with chairman prior to the hearing
that we wrote 32,000 tickets
for weed cutting, you know, 32,000.
Well, there's a lot of duplicates
in, a lot of duplicates in there.
So we can definitely take a look at that
and see, Hey, are these, are these folks getting,
make sure we're doing our due diligence too.
Because, you know, we can't just take a picture of grass,
you know, over 10 inches.
There has to be an identifier in there.
So, um, we know,
but I, I definitely will take your recommendation and,
and work with, um, Patrick Coac over administrative hearings
and, and, and look at those constant, um,
We have a lot of, um, abandoned homes
and spaces where we just haven't been able
to catch up with these owners.
And so what is the next step? What do we continue to do?
There has to be something legally we could do for these bad,
because literally across the expressway for me,
there's an abandoned home, which
they just now demolishing the home.
I guess they couldn't find this owner.
But for at least four years, the grass wasn't cut,
there wasn't clean.
And I would have to call my wards superintendent
and say, Hey, can you go over, um, to clean it up?
And so we, we gotta figure out something else
to get these owners, 'cause it's,
it's not working well in my ward.
Um, great job doing the DNC.
Can the state have that same energy during the summertime
for expressways?
You talk about this all the time.
I'm gonna be honest, they horrible.
They don't do a great job at coordinate with you all.
And what I wanna see is a schedule.
But when they clean those expressways, expressways are, are,
those are roads to our community.
And so they should be clean.
And I could eat off the expressway during the DNC.
Now I don't wanna walk past it.
And so I want us to have a real conversation.
They're working with the state and I know
they're supposed to be a partner.
They've been a horrible partner.
Chairman Dow uh, agrees with that. Absolutely.
We, we literally met with, uh, the state for years, um,
where, um, hear you loud and clear and,
and, um, we'll partner with, uh, Tom Kearney,
commissioner Kearney from CDOT to make that happen
because they have, uh, they have
that relationship too.
Um, as you said, I said, if we can do it, we did it
before the elect
before everybody got sworn in for the last, uh, election
expressways were clean.
We did it for the DNC Express.
Why can't we do it all the time,
as you mentioned, so Understood.
Chairman, can I get around too?
Sure, ma'am.
Yes.
I wanted to add to, uh, alderman Taylor's point.
It's not just cleaning of garbage.
It's also graffiti removal. And that's, uh, long.
The Dan Ryan,
the Eisenhower are all over the place downtown.
What, what do you know about the Eisenhower?
You know, I spend time in, you know,
I spend time in the 24th war,
Very, very, very well, uh, alderman Rodriguez, followed
by Alderman Cardona.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, I'd, I'd add on to the, the,
the expressways, the state owned, uh,
the state roads as well.
I think about Cicero Avenue.
And, um, certainly interest there.
I I did wanna talk about, um, the, the grid system briefly.
I actually want to give, uh, one of our, um,
folks in the media, some, some credit, uh,
Alex Kin looked at, uh, from one year to the next.
I know your favorite individual looked at one year
to the next, um, how many trees, um,
we trimmed and I think, uh,
before the grid system, we were at about 40,000 trees a year
after the grid system.
I think he noted there was about 123,000 trees
that were trimmed about 118% increase, is what he's saying.
Um, I don't think there's a question anymore about whether
the grid system is the right way to go.
Um, I think that's done with, in my humble opinion.
Um, I think, um, logistics, best practices,
if you want to talk about best practices in the private
sector, government sector, uh, the fact is there,
there's no sector that would go the route
that we had been going, uh, to quote you just now.
Um, so I think it's been a spectacular, uh, uh, change.
And, um, it's one that needs to be spread to other items
as far as I'm concerned.
So kudos to that work. I know it was tough.
It was tough dealing with us 'cause I was
even skeptical, to be honest with you.
Uh, but the fact is, I think there are
some things to tweak, right?
There are some specials that Alderman know about
that we gotta get addressed quickly.
Um, but I've had the experience that that still gets done.
So kudos to that work.
And I don't know if that data makes sense.
Is there anything else in that data or?
No, I, I'd like to thank you for that.
Um, the, the, the reporter,
he got about 80,000 views off of that,
which he didn't get over 500 prior to that.
So it did have legs.
And I want to take this opportunity to say thank you to each
and every one Alder,
because I couldn't have done it without the mayor's office,
or I couldn't have done it with the alders
for the simple fact that I knew it was gonna be an issue
for everybody in this room
because your phones were gonna be ringing
and I begged for the support.
Just gimme the support.
Let us, let us, let me just see what you can do.
So I want to thank everybody for that support.
I'm asking for a continued support
because we know we can tweak this.
We know we can get this better.
Um, and we're gonna make those adjustments
and we're gonna continue to work with you.
I don't wanna chew up your time,
but thanks for acknowledging that.
No, I appreciate you even saying that.
'cause most folks don't even recognize that. So thank you.
Um, on the rodent issue, I think about, uh, you know,
when I worked in ward office back in 2000 to 2003,
and the amount of time it took to get a garbage cart out
and replaced, um,
and it seems like we're getting, uh, much better at that.
However, um, I tell my my residents,
if you've got a garbage can with a hole
or without a lid, you no longer have a garbage.
Can you now have a, a restaurant for rats?
Um, I, I think it might be the most, yeah. Thank you.
I'm gonna use that one. Yeah, go right ahead, sir.
Um, I think, you know, replacement of garbage cans, um,
making sure that they're fully operable.
Um, it sounds very simple,
but I think it's the, one of the, one
of the most important things for us
to bring down the rodent population.
Now, Johnny needs to do a better job
of throwing out the garbage and make sure he is not leaving
it on top of the garbage can
or on the side of the garbage can.
But, but that, so how do we achieve that kind of efficiency
in, in re in proactive replacement
of garbage, uh, carts?
I think that's where we need to be going.
Yeah. Again, I, I use that as an example
of us working together.
When I first got this position, uh,
three plus years ago, I met with everybody.
And when I walked through the door,
everybody's issue was garbage carts.
So we really looked at it.
Alderman earlier asked what the, uh, the, um,
life expectancy, the, the warranty is on it.
I, I said 10 years.
If you look at it, if you just look at easy numbers
of 600,000 residents, if everybody had
three carts, we
we're way ahead of that curve.
So we're at in November right now
for carts as far as delivery.
Um, our garbage men will literally say, Hey,
there's nothing here with a lid.
Because the last thing they like
to see is when they're dumping it, a rodent or a squirrel
or a raccoon jump out at them.
So they'll bring that to our
attention. Also, on the proactive,
I will say that I do see three one ones
or previously had seen three one ones that were closed out,
uh, that did, you know, they were rat holes
and they were closed out because they did have a lid.
So, uh, um, you know, I, I just, I would like
that tightened up because I, I'm not sure if
that's necessarily the case for sure.
Uh, hold up my, is there a way for the, um, laborers
that are doing the, uh, picking up the garbage
to mark a cart that needs to be
replaced if it's got holes in the bottom
or whatever lids missing?
Um, it, going back
to his point about proactive replacement Yep.
If there's a mark or something that could be placed,
whereas the, the cart crews coming
through the alley sees the mark,
takes the cart and, and keeps moving.
Yeah. And great, great thought. Great.
Um, we would literally ask for that labor to put it
what we call on the sheet so we can actually track that,
not just rely on somebody putting marks on it,
but to your point, we can look into that.
Yeah, I, I think the proactive nature of the grid system
has proven to be successful, in my humble opinion.
I think we can get there on the garbage cans as well.
The, the fact is we are doing way better.
I just quoted you 2000, it took us maybe six
to eight weeks to get a cart.
Uh, that's not the case anymore. Uh,
Six months.
It was six months. You
Know, forgive me, you're exactly right. It
was more like six to eight months. Yeah, that's right.
Uh, and it's much better now. Um, couple other questions.
As it more relates to the budget, I'm looking at some
of the positions here, um, one
of which is a field sanitation investigator.
I just wanted to make sure I understood
what that that position does.
That one is somebody that we use inwards where
it's heavy.
Uh, for example, with vacant lots during this,
during the weed season, we found out that there's no way
one person can go in the 20th ward
and not be able to help that ward superintendent
to do all those lots. It's impossible.
So do they interact with citizens with, with,
with, with folks on the street?
Do they have conversations?
Are they mo mostly interfacing with the, the leadership?
They're, they're working with that ward superintendent.
Okay. And, and they're, they, they can write tickets,
but then also they go with Mike Le Coco's group also
for the towing operation.
So it's a, it's a position that we use very, uh,
freely, um, because they can issue tickets.
They do have some leadership skills and,
and it's definitely a, a position that we like. Uh,
Just one of the reasons I bring it up,
or the reason I bring it up is I've been mindful of, uh,
language equity and different departments,
particularly building inspectors, a couple other inspectors.
When I saw that, I just wanted to ask if they do interface
with the public and if there is any, like, bilingual, uh,
requirements to be in that position
or benefit to be in that position.
But it sounds like they're not necessarily
interacting with the public as much.
No, but we, we, we take that, um,
really into consideration.
We do have folks as a, as a matter of fact, uh, a person
that answers our phone upstairs is bilingual.
Um, we, we understand that, um, there's a need for that and,
and we'll, we'll work to, uh,
always address people's concern if there is that barrier.
Great. And the last line of, of, of, uh, questioning,
you know, again, around earlier thoughts around, um,
what I would call climate change
and the potential for changing the way we operate.
Um, it seems to me that Octobers and Novembers
and even Decembers are a little bit warmer and,
and those, uh, uh, snowfalls
and the last snowfall seem to be happening sooner.
And that March gets real dirty, as you indicated, uh, given
that we spent less money, uh, on, uh, I,
I believe we spent less money on things like salts over the
last couple years, or at the very least,
we haven't used it as much.
We've had more stockpiles.
I'm wondering if there's a change in philosophy on how, uh,
we're doing things as it relates to the change in climate
or the change in environment, if you will. Yeah,
No. Um,
supposed to snow tonight, so everybody get ready.
Um, snow tomorrow, um, may have a sloppy, uh, commute,
but to your question, we're constantly looking.
We gotta get the leaves off the street for this snow season.
Um, so we'll be sweeping as far as weather permits,
we're gonna be posting past Thanksgiving, right?
So that Friday, we're still gonna post.
We're not gonna ticket that last week due to the fact that,
um, it's no longer on the website.
But we will post to try
to get those streets as clean as we can.
Things that we do in regards to climate change,
I want to say planting all these trees, you know,
there's this philosophy
or this mindset out there with these trees.
Um, for, for folks where I read
that a mature tree, a mature tree during a rainstorm
can grab up to 300 gallons of, of rain.
So that's one tree.
I couldn't believe it when I heard it,
but it just talks about air conditioner, you know,
heat island effect.
So you asked about
what we're doing in thinking as far as the environment.
We have 45 Kelly, 45, 50
EV trucks that, that we're just trying,
please don't tell me that was a rodent.
It's a fly, it's a fly. Uh,
Um, we have ev trucks that
we literally are trying out different times,
different parts of the year.
We have vans. We're, we're literally trying a, a sweeper.
Um, you know, so there's things that we're looking at to,
um, understand that we gotta do better as a,
a big department like streets and
Sand. Yeah. And chair, I'll save you
on a
round two with the last comment.
I, I think if you look at
where flooding occurred most us most, most problematic,
you also look at a direct correlation with, uh, a number
of trees in those areas as well.
And I think that, uh, you know,
if we wanna solve issues like flooding
and things of that nature,
we need to think about this issue.
So I thank you for your proactive nature again
on, on this issue as well. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Hey, thanks for all those kind comments. Thank
You. Uh,
Aman Cardona, all followed by Vice Chair Lee.
Thank you, chair, commissioner,
and individuals in the, in the box.
Just wanna say thank you for, um, all your help
with my residents and especially all
of us here in the city of Chicago.
I have a, I have a question.
Uh, could we speak about, you know, how railroads, um,
we railroads go through the city of Chicago,
and then they have debris
or they have weeds and things like that.
Um, why do we have a hard time con communicating with them
to help clean up their, their, um, their sites?
I throw that to Alderman OSHA to answer that question.
Um, now we, we know it's an issue.
Um, I talked to Alderman Curtis, um,
I think Alderman Quinn, I mean, uh, OSHA Quinn,
we've all lived that.
Um, to where to try to get them to move the needle
is like pulling teeth.
It's a huge issue
because they say we can't
enforce on them because of the, we're the city.
So we constantly try to work.
I understand there's a, a new partner at CSX, um,
that we're pretty excited about.
Derek Curtis actually introduced, um,
me to that person.
And, um, Debbie de Lopez is our conduit
to all the railroads.
So any issue, um, we have, I gave him
Deb De Lopez to deal with in regards to trying to get them
to do anything, because we know that's a problem.
Um, where whoever, whatever ward has railroads going
through 'em, we know it's an issue and it's a big issue.
And we've made that point.
And I referenced Alderman O'Shea
because years ago we literally sat on,
on someone's front porch with people that came from dc, um,
came from DC and said, what can we do?
So that's the level that this has been taken to.
And so I can't give you an answer on
what we can do other than if you have an issue, Deb De Lopez
has good working relationships.
Um, but, uh, we'll,
we'll just continue to try to help you out.
Yeah. Because I know, um, the railroads by us, it goes
through, um, I believe, uh, alderman Viegas, myself, uh,
alderman Cruz, Al Alderman, uh, um, Fuentes,
I mean, it, it is just a hassle.
Is there a way we could, um, um, find them, um,
for being like not great partners?
Do we have to introduce an ordinance for that
or talk to our Congress because it's a federal, I mean,
because it's getting outta control.
And the thing is, I talked to, uh, deputy Commissioner,
deputy Lopez, and she's great help.
You guys are great help, but it's like,
I understand it's like pulling teeth,
but you know, they, they need to wake up
and they need to start, you know, being a partner in this,
because I know just myself
and others, this is our frustration.
I'd love to be part of that conversation.
Um, please include me in that conversation and,
and, uh, I'd love to make that happen.
Um, because, uh, we have more challenges
with them than probably the state.
Believe that or not. Alderman, OSHA
Point of information.
Uh, thanks, chairman Alderman, I'd be happy to talk
to you offline, uh, Debbie de Lopez, myself
and you, uh, identify which
railroad entity that is and who a better contact might be.
But, uh, there's a lot of work goes into it,
but we'll talk offline on it.
We have no authority over the feds on this, but,
but we'll talk at a break. Thanks. Okay.
Thank you. Thank you, chairman.
Um, another thing I wanna talk to is, um,
the right abatement, right?
Um, uh, can
You repeat that? I'm sorry.
Pardon me? I, I didn't hear what you said. So
Next thing I wanna talk about is right abatement.
So, um, I know, um, former commissioner retired,
but the, uh, deputy commissioner now, I was wondering
how did you restructure that, that department?
Or did you restructure it?
Yeah, we, we keep saying we reallocated,
um, five crews.
Josie Crews did a fabulous job.
Um, I wanna say that we added,
we reallocated five crews there,
so we're gonna have 25 crews,
because what I want is I want a crew in
every ward, every other day to, to deal with the situations.
Right now, um, we're at about four days, four days to, uh,
get that complaint addressed.
Um, as mentioned where, um,
Gloria Pittman is the deputy over Road and control.
She has her, her pest control license.
Um, she's had it for over 20 years.
She's, uh, a, she was a ward superintendent,
she was a division superintendent.
She understands what it takes to
respond and understands the importance of responding
to the Alder alderman and their offices
because we know this is a pain point for everybody.
And know, we, we know we can do better.
And again, as they mentioned earlier, in the, um,
in the public comment, we're always looking at, um,
options to do this better.
Um, one of 'em being carbon dioxide.
That's what procurement now that we would like to, um,
in the process of dealing with procurement in, in order to,
uh, try to find, uh, better solutions.
Okay. Well, thank you.
I, I believe the, the way we could, um, uh, curve the red,
uh, the red infestation is by getting more, um, um, carts,
garbage carts out there that are not broken.
Um, I know we're doing the whole replacement, uh, process,
but I mean, we just gotta educate our, our residents
and tell 'em, if you have a broken cart,
just call us or let us know.
We put in the system for 3 0 1 so it could get replaced.
'cause that's gonna curve the rodent problem.
And, um, I'm, I'm done, chairman. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you, honor Cardona, uh,
vice Chair Lee, followed by Adam Manhattan.
Thank you chairman, and good morning commissioner.
Great to see you and, uh, you're incredible team in the box.
Um, I just, I'll start with the, you know,
leadership starts at the top
and that, you know, is, uh, is absolutely true in the case
of streets and sanitation from your,
through your leadership, um, on down through the ranks, um,
I can't say enough, uh, in, in gratitude for all that you do
to keep the city clean.
Um, I, I get a lot out of town guests.
I had some folks from Shanghai recently comment on
how clean they thought Chicago was.
Um, I'll take that one, right.
I mean, they're, they're a little bigger than we are.
Um, but no, uh, in all seriousness, I know we, we've got all
of our own challenges, but I think the, the work
that you've put in over the years to address these sort
of more, um, really global issues that we deal
with across the city, whether it's garbage carts
or tree trims, um, you know, we're, we're moving the needle
and I appreciate all the work that you've done, um, sticking
with that, um, and especially this year
with all of the storms that we had.
I mean, I really, the, the forestry department, um, Malcolm,
your team and Jimmy Shehan and,
and everyone down the road from, you know, dispatch, um,
onto the folks that are on the trucks doing all the hard
work, um, you know, had several trees down in the ward.
Um, and, and people got on top of that real quick, um,
to make sure that people's lives weren't disrupted any
further, um, from those trees being down.
But, uh, I know it was a yeoman's task this time around, um,
with all the storms that we had to deal with.
Um, and that just backs you up on a lot of other things too.
Um, so I think a lot of times what we're doing
with our constituents is really just sort of explaining
to people, Hey, we're gonna get, there.
We're, it's not that it's not a priority,
but we have limited resources
and, you know, we have to, we have to keep the city running.
Um, I think on the, the trees,
um, I love the grid system.
I think that some of the calls that we have been getting,
um, I'll echo some of what, uh, old woman Taylor was saying,
because there's not people were used to being able
to request a tree from, you know,
we are like broken records.
We are on the grid system now.
Every single tree in your grid,
once they get over there, it's going to be trimmed.
So it doesn't need to be trimmed
again for another five years.
Um, we have had some people call in
and say that, um, not every tree in on the block was,
so we're handling those as, as they come along,
but I just wanted to flag that, um, as well.
But the, the emergency tree trims, um, you know,
the forestry department gets on top of those really quickly
because we do have issues where, you know, uh,
I had one lady come in, um, a tree branch actually, uh,
fell on her and cut her head open, actually.
Um, and forestry was out there basically within two days.
So thank you for continuing to, to take care
of those emergency requests in addition to all
of the other things that we have going on.
Um, and on the ward cleanups, I'll say for everybody else,
and my colleagues, um, we do cleanups all year round
as well, and we, we totally tap into your resources.
Um, and it's great because we do, we're, we're able
to get the trash cans, uh,
and the trans, the trash bags, uh, the rakes, the shovels,
the, the gloves, um, so that those who want
to help clean up can do that for us.
Um, I wanna talk about poop for a second, though.
I just wanted to say poop on the record. Poop, dog poop.
Uh, all right, we're talking poop.
We're talking about dog poop.
Uh, it, I, I'd love to try to figure out a way
that we can just get people to, to do,
to pick up the duty off the street, right?
But are, are streets and sands, um, are ward superintendents
or other streets and sands, uh,
staff authorized to issue citations?
Like who's authorized to issue citations for this?
Yeah, it's, uh, code 7 12 4 20.
And in 2024 in the 11th ward,
there were 2032 incidents, 24 pled liable,
six investigated, and two closed out.
I would love you to send that to me
and through the chair if you
have that for every single ward.
I think all of my colleagues would appreciate that.
Um, so those were issued by Streets and Sanitation workers.
I, I would. Okay. That's,
that's what we have. 30. All right.
Um, if there's a way to deputize other people to do
that, I think that would be great.
Um, because this, this is an ongoing issue everywhere.
The number of times we see people opening up their front
doors and letting their dogs out
and standing at their front door
and not being able to, I see it.
I'm like, I can't, I'm not authorized to issue a citation,
but I know that that would solve
so many problems at the end of the day.
So I'd love to, to figure out with you
how we can support more citations
being issued for that sort of stuff.
I know you have to witness it,
like you have to see it happening.
You can't just, you know, take someone's
word for it, a neighbor or anything
Like that. Well, I'm, I'm gonna,
I'm gonna go out on a limb here
and say that you probably have the most
incidents of caught.
I mean, I, I, I really like to look into that to see.
But, um, 24 pled liable.
I mean, that's, that's a statement there.
Pick up your dog stuff.
Yeah. Well, um, I, I don't know how to take that,
that we have the most, I think it's great
that we do, but I think it's also,
You got a pro, you got a proactive,
I do have a proactive word, thank you.
But, um, yeah, that, that is very often one
of the things that I get complaints about the most is
because, you know, we put out these signs.
And I, I, like, I've never thank you for that information.
I, I never knew that. Um,
and I'm glad to hear that, that it is being enforced.
Um, and that we're,
we're leading the way in the 11th ward on that.
I don't know if that's a better statement
or poor statement about how many people we have,
just letting their dogs out.
Um, on the, on the subject of wire baskets, you know, you
and I have talked a lot about wire baskets.
I know it's your least favorite subject.
Um, and I wanna thank, uh, your staff.
Deb de Lopez came out to one of our meetings actually,
and really gave, uh, my, my PB committee a great education.
And, and why, um, uh, wire baskets aren't necessarily the,
the sort of be all end all answers to everything.
Um, I think there's a lot of education that we have to do
to the public, um, about what those wire baskets are for.
And, you know, in Chinatown, I have a chronic issue
and we have an SSA and I think you guys, um,
and uh, uh, the street ops team for ensuring
that you guys come by
and pick up the, the slack for the, the SSA, um, you know,
we sell a lot of Thai rolled ice cream in Chinatown.
Um, and, uh, not having enough, uh, bins
or not having enough pickups is a really big issue.
It has the city looked at all at, I'm sure you have,
but can you talk about just other types of receptacles
that we could potentially put on the street that are covered
or those, you know, I know we had those solar belly bins,
those didn't work out really well,
but are we looking at other, um, other options?
Because I, I don't think it's an option
to not have them on the street at all.
Um, but I understand they, they come
with their own set of challenges.
Again, with those, the,
the cans you referenced before, they were just messy
and didn't work in, in our setting, I'm gonna say,
um, people that do pick up their dog poop
tend to throw 'em in those baskets,
and that's what attracts the rodents.
Um, so I'm gonna always say contrary
to popular demand, less baskets
in the front of buildings, you get less rodent activity.
Um, I know it's not popular. I, I get it.
And there's less debris if you go to other countries.
Some of them don't even have garbage receptacles,
and they're the cleanest places in the world.
People just don't litter
or they, they respect
that they're not gonna throw the stuff on the ground.
So I'm, we have this conversation, as you mentioned,
a lot in res regards to these receptacles.
It just is provide nobody,
if they're not throwing household garbage in there from it
being in front of their house on a boulevard,
let's say it's food.
'cause nobody wants to smell the,
or have the stuff in their car or it's feces,
and those all attract rodents.
But I'd love to further be of help any way I can
for, uh, everybody.
And it's just, uh, my thought on that.
Yeah, no, I appreciate that.
And with the, the last minute that I have, I'll just say,
I'll, I'll put the, uh, the plugin also
for the quality of life teams.
Um, Tommy, thank you for those.
Um, you know, I, I got some before and
after pictures of something we just
did recently in Canaryville.
Um, and I, I know we've had them out in the community,
and I think they, um, they make a huge difference.
Um, so thank you for, for that.
And, you know, I, I think expanding that would be a,
a great idea because what you can do with that team versus,
you know, just sort of triaging a graffiti here
and a, a little waiting in line for the,
for the cutting of the weeds there.
Um, you, you know, this,
it's like playing whack-a-mole, right?
There's always gonna be some other need,
but if you can come in and comprehensively, you know,
hit an area, it makes a, makes all the difference in the,
um, just the, you know, the wellbeing
of the community at that point.
I, if I may please, um, quality
of life falls under sanitation with Mike Cola and his group,
but quality of life is near
and dear to managing Deputy Tommy Johnson.
So I just want to give Tommy a, a moment to
enjoy the accolade of us actually recognizing
what Tommy's dream has been for 10 years
and it coming to life.
So, Tommy, do you got anything you want
to just add on quality of life that
I may have not have said, um, that, you know, you wanna,
you're never sure for words when, when, when we're talking,
it's, you gotta turn it on.
Tommy.
Hello. Thank you, commissioner Tommy Johnson,
managing Deputy Commissioner Rean.
Uh, thanks to you commissioner.
Quality of life is something we came up with years ago
under several different administrations,
and it didn't catch on until recently.
We saw the need for this kind of cleaning throughout.
It's been a passion of mine for sure.
And with your support
and support of this administration,
we've gotten those people trained
and we're making a difference throughout the city.
Uh, cleaning those underserved areas
and those overgrown areas, uh, I'm really, really, uh, proud
of that, that it's come to life in all my years,
my 30 plus years.
Uh, having the opportunity now to see
and be able to get this work done, having the resources,
having the support, uh, it's making a difference.
And there's a significant change you'll see
in the city in these communities based on that.
And I'm just really, uh, proud of that
and, uh, to have that come to life from a dream to a reality
again, citywide.
And we want to continue to build on that. Thank you.
I'll just, uh, close with the, I appreciate the,
the attitude from your team all the time.
If I call with a problem
and I am a little bit of a problem shot, so I do apologize,
but you guys always bring solutions.
Um, and, uh, you know,
there are times when other people's problems land at land at
our doorsteps, your team is always there to come up
with a solution or to help in any way that they can.
So I just want, on behalf
of the 11th Ward, thank you for all of that.
Um, and, uh, you know, especially thanks to all of you
who work on this stuff every day.
Um, we just appreciate it. Thank you.
Thank you for the kind words.
Thank you. Vice Chair Lee. Thank you.
Uh, deputy Johnson,
you still ain't tell us
where you got the idea from though, man.
You still aint, you know, it's, it's cool.
And I'm not going to be labeled the point with you.
I remember when you was doing reruns on Tuesdays,
you know, uh,
You remember that Alderman? Thank you
For that. Yeah, remember that? Yeah,
because we was a Friday still trying to get out the alley.
It did start in district three, one
of the roughest districts in the city at the time.
Absolutely. That's where I started. Thanks.
Thank you. Uh, alright,
next we're gonna have Alt Manhattan.
Altman Ramirez.
Thank you chair. Um, and hello commissioner
and to the entire team.
Hello. Um, so I want
to lift up, um, I don't have a lot of questions.
I wanted to lift up, uh, Alder Alderman Rodriguez, um,
was asking about kind of climate change pieces.
So I just wanna thank you. Um, I know, um, uh, you know,
uh, our ward soup has already, you know, kind
of been keeping us in the loop about the extended street
sweeping, so I appreciate you
and the department just proactively adjusting, right?
When we think about just the changing seasons
and the changing needs, but also the equipment maintenance.
Um, like I know the, the big rain that we had just a,
a night or two ago, um, I got a ton more leaves down, right?
There are so many more trees that still have leaves.
And when we think about, um, when we eventually get snow,
um, what that'll look like, so appreciate that extended, um,
uh, street sweeping, um, past Thanksgiving.
And would love to hear from your department kind
of post budget, um, since it's not really a budget piece,
uh, about whether there are things that you need counsel
to do, um, on any kind of ordinance,
amendments or adjustments.
So when we think about the ordinance that we have around,
you know, where you can park during certain times of year,
it would be really good to sit with your department
and just look at our trends, um, to see, you know,
do we need to, do we need to make some changes?
Are there some, um, other than the practical things
that you've been already adjusting to, are we at the point
yet where we might need to make some
ordinance changes as well?
Um, that better fit and align with what you guys are seeing
and what you have to do.
Um, that way we have less confusion when it comes
to constituents as well.
So just thinking about like the, the ticketing,
the enforcement and pieces like that.
So just as a, you know, post budget would love to, to sit
with you and the team to think about that.
Um, um, also want to, um, you know, thank you
for the work on the grid.
So as you know, chair
of our committee on Environmental Protection
and Energy, um, I also get
to serve on our urban Forestry Advisory board.
Um, so I've very much appreciated, uh, the leadership of Mr.
Malcolm Whiteside
and gonna say a, um, happy retirement to Malcolm.
Um, happy retirement.
We've appreciated your support
and your leadership, um, very much on the advisory board
and your time and service to the city.
And, um, I, you know, I don't know who we'll get to work
with next, but I do feel like there's some good
recommendations and we've very much enjoyed the
relationship, um, with Malcolm
and your department as an extension of him
and making better policy,
working on different recommendations.
And again, I feel like, um, more than other departments,
you guys have had to be so flexible
and responsive, um, just to,
our changing climate are changing
seasons and are changing needs.
So, um, not really a question, just a thank you.
I look forward to that continued work,
and thank you for all your support.
Um, not just in the 49th Ward,
but of course across the city.
Thank you very much. Thank you Alto Manhattan.
And, um, Malcolm did send us a note.
This is your last, uh, round with us
after, how long has it been?
37 years. 37 years. So, uh, congratulations.
We wish you the best,
but you, you're, you're not leaving
it until like June, right?
Okay. All right. I was just wondering.
He sent, he sent the note. I'm like, man, we you want
to is, huh?
Oh wow. Okay. All right.
Thought you were gonna take like a long extended tour
through the com, through the community, uh,
over the next six months.
So, but no, it is all good though. You, you deserve it.
You've been with us for a while, uh, knocking this out.
So, uh, alderman Ramirez, uh, followed by
Alderman Fuentes. Great.
Great. Okay. Well thank you guys as always.
Um, you guys are the bread
and butter of our ward,
so we work very closely with you guys.
Um, I did have a few questions around the tree trims.
I know I haven't been here long, so I can't really
appreciate the changes that have been made.
Um, curious to know,
right now we're on our third zone in the ward.
It, are there markers
or goals that you guys have each year on
what you guys are covering in terms of the different zones
and then wondering the process of deciding which zone?
I know you guys typically ask us, is that
what you guys do all throughout the city?
No, ward is alike,
so I wouldn't ever put everybody, no, we
Don't, I only ask that to know,
like if you've seen a difference of the process,
how fast things are running, what's easiest to
communicate with constituents.
There's, on this new program,
There's so many different neighborhoods in this city,
which makes it great, but there's areas
that haven't ever been trimmed.
We have trees out there in certain wards
that haven't been trimmed in 50 years.
Um, we have areas in the ward
where people called constantly.
We have areas in wards where there's not that many trees,
so there's so many different variations.
Got it. For those alders that wanna work with us and,
and offer, or we work with, with their ward soups
and say, Hey, this area is really bad, um,
let's hit this one next.
We're all ears for that. Um,
because as I'll say, you, your ward soup,
you know the wards best Mm-Hmm.
Um, to, to sit there
and say, I know all 50 wards, I'd be kidding myself.
So any input that we can have
and support we can have in that we're here for you. Um,
Go ahead. Yeah. So
I know that the numbers have increased.
I mean, really remarkably,
are there markers, are there goals?
Well, what I said, if we're saying we have 600,000 trees,
and when I sat in front of his body a couple years ago
and said, you know, we're trying
to get 90,000 trees per year,
so it's gonna take us about six years somewhere,
somewhere in that ballpark.
Um, we're gonna be able
to meet the goal for the first two years.
And obviously we wanna adjust, we wanna try
to meet the needs of the people.
Um, if there's trees in your ward
where you're getting a phone call that says, Hey, it's,
it's laying on my house.
Um, there's certain buzzwords that everybody's gonna learn
to use, um, to try to get some action on that tree.
We just ask that you share it with your ward tube, Hey,
go look to see if it actually right is laying on the house.
So we're not racing resources. Hey, this is an issue.
This is, this block is, it's blocking all the streetlights,
it's blocking police cameras.
There's all things that come into that
that we know that we need to.
It can't be rigid Mm-Hmm.
This can, it has to be a fluid process
and that's where we're willing to work
with everybody in this body.
Yeah. And you know,
we've gotten calls whether you guys have trimmed too high
or you haven't trimmed enough
or you haven't trimmed the issue.
Right. And so is there like a process that we can get ahead
of instead of you guys having to go back to that area
or a way to do a survey?
We have a supervisor check that.
We have a arborist that will go out
and check, um, the location after it's done.
But it just goes, if there's anybody, uh,
that understands this, it would be this body that
you can't make everybody happy
and you're gonna have somebody that has an issue with,
uh, the way we did it.
Um, so we work through those issues.
Okay. Got it. Um, I heard you mentioned EV trucks.
Is that like, do they happen
to be garbage trucks at all that you guys have on hand?
Hand? Or I can give you a breakdown or give
You I can give you a break. I, yeah, I can give you
A breakdown. Okay. Hold
on. Yeah. I
You how fast you can shuffle through these cars.
Yeah. Come on.
So I, I was curious like what your thoughts were around EV
and if that's something you're looking
forward to in the future.
W we wanna work, um, we're working with fleet,
we're working with, uh, commissioner
and her team in regards to be able to report back.
So bear with me on this,
but we've had, um, 195 new pieces
of equipment in our department, uh,
this year delivered.
But as far as ev we've had,
we got a total of 21, 27 cargo vans,
13 pickup trucks, five hybrid SUVs for a total
of 45 8 of those this year.
So within the last two years, and we're reporting back
and we have a, um, a sweeper, I'm,
I'm sorry, uh, Kelly Ver you're not on Cal
Kelly, ver performance management,
we have three EV refuge trucks they should be in at the
first quarter of next year,
and one hybrid sweeper, which should also be in,
within the first quarter of next year.
And so we're literally, we're asking our folks
to report back because we're 365, 7 day a
week department.
So we're out there in every aspect
and every realm of, you know,
how, Hey, how's it working in the winter?
You know how we have 12 charging stations.
Okay, is that enough? Is
that enough charging stations for our department?
So we work closely with Commissioner of Fleet
that's giving us, um, charging stations, you know, to to,
to meet our needs, to see what charging sta it.
It's, it's a collaborated effort to try to move towards
that, um, sustainable future.
Got it. Um, yeah,
'cause I just had a question around like, maybe
how many trucks are typically down?
How many they get fixed
and then, um, you know,
like garbage juice coming down the alleyways
and, uh, whatever you wanna call it.
But it's, you know.
Oh, so I mean, is that getting better
or are you replacing those, or? No,
We, we, um, Contract for,
We literally, we have a fleet
of 1,744 pieces of equipment.
Um, we're to Commissioner Connell,
fact, check me on this, but we're the third largest
department, depending on the time of year, um, in the city.
We're a huge lift for our friends over at Fleet.
Like right now, we're so demanding of them
to get our spreaders up, Hey, we need our spreaders.
Hey, we need to keep our, our sweepers going.
Oh, you need sweepers. You need spreaders,
and we need garbage trucks.
Yeah. So we're, we're so heavily tied at the hip
with fleet to make sure that we run every day.
Um, are there tougher times for us through the,
through the season, but for me to sit here
and say that we received 180 plus new pieces
of equipment in this past year, just
to see it coming and keep coming.
I just got a call for five more pickups. It's, it's coming.
We, we went over a pretty big hurdle, um,
and that hurdle through Covid, it was rough.
It was rough. Our spreaders, yeah.
I got 33 spreaders this year.
30 30 to 33 spreaders this year. It's a big number.
And we used to always get those numbers up.
It was 20 every year, 20 every year.
Um, during the 21, 22 year, we weren't getting those,
but now we're starting to see a po positive uptick on that.
Um, bless, bless you. Positive uptick on that equipment.
Got it. Um, I'm gonna ask questions.
I mean, not really a question
around the basket, the baskets.
I know you're not in favor of those so much
because of the rats,
but I do do wanna mention, in particular in my ward,
the garbage around the parks.
CTA stops around our plazas. I mean, it's, it's difficult.
It's a really hard issue.
And there are a lot of people
that do come in wanting additional baskets out there.
So I think back to Alder Woman Lee's,
I'm wondering if there's any other ideas that we have
that feel more contained.
Um, people are looking for that as an option.
And, um, my next question is around fly dumping.
There are areas that where we see
fly dumping very regularly.
Um, and so I was just wondering, is there any idea around
enabling cameras or some sort of monitoring
that could help support?
Yeah, we do, um, about 5,000
high lift front end loader with a semi jobs a year.
I've been doing that for close to 20 years.
It always magically ends about 5,000. Okay.
We do have cameras. Um, we're looking at alternatives
to our camera system.
Um, our camera system caught
19 people this year, uh, fly dumping.
Interesting. So they do work.
Um, they are movable,
but, uh, we'd love to look at new options
and technology to try to deter, uh, that from happening.
So that exists. Yes, it does. Can request. Okay, great.
And then, um, can I just ask one more?
Thank you, commissioner. Um,
just wondering if anybody has brought to your attention
that a lot of people are always asking, like, how can youth
and young people support,
whether it's shoveling snow or cutting grass?
Are there any programs through Department of Streets
and Sand, maybe during the summer
or maybe through one summer Chicago,
that helps support just keeping the neighborhood
clean with young people?
One summer? Chicago is an excellent resource for that,
um, opportunity.
I'll say it between us and cdot,
and I'm not gonna speak for cdot,
but I'm going to say what we did as a team.
We take, we've taken,
and I'm looking for Debbie, to keep me honest here.
We've taken up to 1200 kids at one summer
for the program at one time.
1200 kids, young people
that cleaned that mulched around trees,
picked up boulevards.
We work closely with the police.
We work cl most closely with the community, um, leaders
in that area to ensure that those kids were safe.
And it's a, a program that I would love to, uh,
bolster up those numbers again. Awesome.
Okay. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Alderman Ramirez.
Alderman Fuentes, followed by Altman Lawson.
Thank you Chair. Uh, let's see. It's afternoon now.
Good afternoon, commissioner Stalin. Good
Afternoon. Uh,
First I, I wanna thank everyone in the box right,
as a first time alder.
Uh, there's nothing more important, the folks
that work department
and ensure that Alder has all the resources that they need.
And the 26th Ward has been well serviced.
And so thank you and thank you to Luis Pera, who allows me
to give him a migraine
so I don't have to give you a migraine.
Uh, but he ensures, and, and everyone at Streets
and Sands ensures that we have everything we
need in the 26th Ward.
So thank you for your leadership, um,
and, you know, for putting folks in positions
that allow you to have a great team.
Uh, I wanna just echo, uh, alderman Cardona's point around
railroad accountability on the west side of my ward.
Um, we have many points of entry for the railroads,
and at this point, I have weeds that are about 15
to 20 feet tall, um, and that are filled with garbage.
And so I would love
to participate in this little focus group
with Debbie de Lopez, osha,
and Cardona to help resolve some of that.
Um, and I'm also willing
to apply some pressure on our Congress folks, right.
Uh, so that we could get the federal support we need.
However I can assist, uh, commissioner
or anyone, uh, that you wanna assign the question to.
Uh, can you tell us about how much does it cost
to repair trucks, particularly those
that we see in our wars that are leaking?
Right. I have a couple of leaky trucks, uh, in the 26th.
Uh, my ward soup
and my sweeper, they do a fantastic job
in supporting the truck.
Right. And just sort of getting it cleaned up at the end,
but just so we have a sense,
how much does it cost to fix them?
Those tend to be a plug. Okay.
So it's a plug. It's, it's a plug that
when it works, and after a week of rain,
or if we have heavy rainfall, you can see how well it works.
If you went behind the truck
and saw in the hopper, what we call the hopper,
you're literally dancing.
The garbage folks are dancing away from the water splashing
on 'em, because it sits in that hopper.
Mm-Hmm. So those plugs sometimes,
um, fail or come out,
and that's where you get the garbage juice on the streets.
Um, so we ask that
to sweeper be proactive and go sweep it.
And we down the truck. So we down the truck.
That's usually a quick turnaround.
Um, but it's a, it's a plug.
It's nothing more, it's just a plug.
Um, so it tends to really be noticeable if we get a lot
of rain, because that's a compactor in the back of
that truck that's just compacting that garbage.
And all that water from the garbage is just come in,
sitting in that hopper, and it, you,
you'll literally get two feet of water in that hopper.
Hmm. So sometimes that stuff splashes out too.
And we just work with the sweeper to try to get that up.
But we know it's an issue.
I'm not acknowledging that it's not an issue for folks.
Um, and that, that's how we try
to address it and down that truck.
Fantastic. So I, I should get my word to to report
that truck so we can get the plug.
All right. Yep. Perfect. Uh, we,
we know littering is a serious issue,
not just in the 26th, everywhere.
We're, uh, actually splitting our yard sides now.
So it's like, pick up after your dog and don't litter.
Uh, what other sort
of marketing investments is the department going to make
citywide to try to prevent littering?
Well, I wanna, uh, thank Alderman Moore for championing
that ordinance to try to get that message out.
I, I say we have the, um,
best opportunity moving forward to work with CPS
and us trying to get that message out.
I begged the alders in this room right now
to put it on their, on their platforms
of just any way we can get that message out.
I mentioned earlier, alderman Mosley, just,
he put up signs at the side of the expressway
and you saw a difference.
You saw the difference at 99th.
You saw the difference at a hundred 11th,
and it was a sign that just said,
help keep our community clean.
It was a big sign. It wasn't small,
but you saw a difference that, that sign made.
So it's just getting that message out.
I mean, I grew up in a time where you didn't put it,
you didn't put your kid in a seatbelt.
You don't wear seat belts.
And through that messaging of just driving that home,
people now wear seat belts.
You know, if I even, I grew up in cars.
I didn't even know they had seat belts.
But now, now it's there.
So it's just getting that message out, you know,
that we just need help getting it
out and everybody's platform.
Fantastic. Can you tell us if any of the vacancies
that you are letting go in this budget cycle,
will they have an impact on
operations for streets and stands?
Anytime you're cutting, but
as I've said a couple numerous times, now,
we've hired over 600 people and we lost 140.
So you're still a, you're still a net gain, a good number.
We're in great position to, Tommy Johnson will tell you
in his 30 plus years in this department,
he's never seen it better as far as manpower
and we're able to deliver.
I have no ex, I cannot sit in front of his body
and make any excuses.
Three years ago, I was able to make some excuses.
I cannot give an excuse in front of his body
or to anybody other than we'll get it done.
Um, because we do have the manpower.
And if you look at this budget, if you pull out our budget
and take a peek at it, you'll see
that we're gonna have the ability to get things done.
Fantastic. And the last comment shares, you know,
I'm super grateful for the amount of young people
that you take on through one summer of Chicago.
I'll say, you all employed a little over a dozen young
people that reside in the 26th Ward.
There's two of them now who want to be ward superintendents.
Uh, they also come by the office.
They're a part of my, uh,
participatory budgeting advisory board.
Um, and one's trying to convince me that in five years,
I gotta fire my ward soup so I can hire, hire him.
But what I will say is, you're preparing a workforce,
which I think is extremely important, uh,
because young people see a future, uh,
for themselves and for the city.
And so I appreciate how many young people you take on.
It's not easy, right?
I, I was a school administrator for 10 years prior, prior
to becoming an elected official.
And when you take on young people, you also invest a lot
of time in training them
and getting them prepared to be a part of the workforce.
And so, thank you for the investment
for everyone in the box, taking that time
to mentor young people, to train them so
that they can become our future workforce.
Thank you, commissioner. Thank you, chair.
Thank you. Thank you Alderman. Uh,
Altman Lawson, followed by Alderman Burnett.
Uh, thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, good morning.
Good, good afternoon, commissioner.
Good afternoon. Good to See you.
I'll start off by thanking you
and the entire team for everything you're doing in 44.
We have a busy ward, whether that's Cubs or Marathon,
or our favorite, the Pride Parade.
Uh, we got a lot of compliments on
how the cleanup went for pride.
I felt like, uh, maybe half your department
was in my ward that morning.
Um, and it was really well coordinated.
And, and so, uh, we're gonna need it again.
And I, I appreciate your support on everything there.
Um, a lot of things have already been chatted about,
so I'll just, I'll go sort of quickly through, um, uh,
Gloria Pittman is our new, uh, rodent Control Chief.
Um, is she here? Yeah.
Gloria Pittman. Please address yourself.
Thank you for asking. Hi, alderman.
Gloria Pittman, deputy Commissioner Road and Control.
Hello, deputy Commissioner. We'll go to lunch in my ward.
Um, I just wanna make sure you were here
'cause I I, I, I stay busy and, uh, no problem.
I definitely want to, want to get to know you
and, uh, get to know my neighborhood really well.
Um, I appreciate the extra crews,
'cause it's a constant battle, um,
when you've got businesses
and people living on top of each other, um,
private and city pickup.
Um, one of the things that, uh, my staff was asking when,
when we're doing our regular, uh, rodent baiting,
are we also inspecting the carts at that point?
I know the, the pickup crews are doing that,
but do the bait crews do that as well?
Yes. Great. Yeah, we will. Great.
Gotcha. Um, if, I'll, I'll just say this maybe
to the benefit of my colleagues or everyone else.
When we, when as constituents says they have holes,
we tell them to turn it over.
That way nobody tries to put anything in it,
and we know it's bad.
So if it's not even, you know, so that,
that's an easy thing they can do.
You answered a social media trend.
What, why is the garbage card over? So, last, that last
44 we're very trendy, commissioner, very trendy.
That's why. Um, let me, uh, just go real quick then.
Um, everybody's, we're talking about recycling.
What's, what's our total cost on recycling in the city?
It's, um,
29, 29. 30 million.
29, 30 million. Because that we're only,
I know we're only diverting a, a small fraction of, of
what we could be.
Right. We're getting better.
If I can take the time.
I don't want to chew up your time on this, but No, go,
Go ahead. It's important, it's
important. We've been having this
conversation around recycling anyway, so go ahead.
You sure? We'll go ahead. All right.
We'll, we'll, he'll be fine.
I'll be good. Yeah, We,
and I'll get, Chris will get into the weeds if need be,
but we collect 80,000 tons
of recycling, 80,000 tons a year.
The reason our number sits at the nine 10% is
because that's just what's coming out of the blue cart.
But we collect 80,000 tons
of recycled material that we divert,
we pick up 800,000 tons of raw garbage.
So that's why our number is so skewed.
And I say skewed because that's one aspect that we use.
Chris, uh, pointed out a, a thing yesterday that says,
since the blue cart's inception,
we're gonna crack 1 million tons
of recycled material this year.
And I said this, and I didn't say it to make a joke,
but the staff laughed.
I don't know if they laughed 'cause I'm the commissioner,
or they laughed, laughed because they enjoyed the story.
But I said, if you put that into perspective,
that's a million elephants.
Just picture the size of a million elephants
that we diverted from going to the dump.
And so when you look at what other cities do,
everybody wants to compare us to other cities.
I say we're uncomparable,
but when you compare us to Seattle,
people like to compare us to Seattle.
I know we're bigger than Seattle,
but we literally recycled more than Seattle.
We recycled more than Denver. Okay.
What other cities do to get their numbers up,
is they use other things.
So if I take advantage of that just to get a,
a quote in the newspaper tomorrow to say, a,
there's people that use, uh, numbers from MWRD,
uh, facilities like that.
If I took that number
and just added that number from MWRD,
we'd be in the 20% fair to say, Chris,
if I said, let's use and, and,
and say we're reporting as a city, not as a Department
of Streets and Sanitation, if I added
what Tom Carney's group does in CDOT of
concrete and asphalt,
because that's not going to the dump,
we'd be in the 30 percents.
So what we report is only blue carts.
That's all that we report.
If we added everything that this city does,
I'm not talking about the department,
but this city does, we can get those type numbers too.
And I, I'll close with this, where we can get better
and where we're gonna work to get better.
We were tasked with this through the Inspector General
is high density buildings, five units and above.
We don't capture that. We have a mechanism to capture that.
So I hope that I'll be able to report back,
because we're gonna work with Angela Tovar group on that
to get that number up to show that we're doing better.
But if I took what every other city reports
to show that number, I can balloon that number up too.
But when we're reporting out, we're reporting out
that I'm saying 80,000 tons of recycled material
this year, and we'll hit a million from in the last 12
years has been diverted.
And if anybody doesn't believe that it's a real thing,
all they gotta do is go see the vendor's operation.
They got that on in this side to see
what actually gets recycled.
It's unbelievable. So I, I I'm, I I'm saying
if it's a point that has been, um,
talked about within this body, 80,000 tons of debris
has been, um, removed from, from those blue carts.
Excellent. Thank, thank you for that.
And, and going through it, I'm, I'm, uh,
maybe we should bump up our numbers
and talk about all the good things we're doing,
like some of these other cities.
But, um, I, I appreciate the,
the conversation, the distinction.
Um, I could always use another blue cart
and probably a few less black as we look at, um, you know,
going forward, you know,
I know we're selling there every other week.
That's a labor issue, maybe on a supply issue, you know, uh,
I have a, you've heard me say this, I have a four flat,
we've got three black, two blue.
We could probably use three blue, two black.
Um, you know, and, and that's gonna be true.
I'm happy to hear about the private haulers.
That's something that's come up when we've talked about
revenue as well, to make sure that, um, you know,
everyone has a private hauler
and where the accountability is there,
because that's a big problem, right?
People are using our carts because they're in a five flat
or higher that just doesn't have anything,
or they don't want to use it, or there's rats in theirs.
And so having that accountability,
I think on the private side is gonna be really important.
Um, I wanna ask real quick about, uh, sweepers.
I know I got an extra week.
I think, uh, because we're gonna need it this, this fall.
A lot of the leaves, because it was
so warm, came really, really late.
So whatever we can do around, um,
sweeping off season, I think is important.
Um, do, do we keep sweepers on standby through December,
January, February?
Or the do at some point? Do we have none available?
No, there's never none. Okay.
It's, it's a, um, weather thing.
But we overhaul the majority of fleet.
Our fleet gets overhauled,
but we always have sweepers on throughout the year, um,
throughout, throughout the year, as long as it's over to 32.
And the ground, ground temps come into this too.
I can't be throwing water on a, just
because it's 38 degrees in the air.
Right. That ground temp in January is 24.
It'll cause an ice skidding rink.
Uh, so we're there, um, know
that I mentioned this earlier today.
We can see snow tomorrow. We can see snow tomorrow.
Uh, morning. Sure.
You know, so it's, it's weather related,
but we need to give that piece of that equipment over
to fleet so they can overhaul it.
No, I, I definitely understand that, uh, you know,
as flexible as we can be going forward.
And, and that maybe sort of dovetails to my last point,
which is really maybe more for fleet and when they're up.
But, um, you know, we need to, we need
to electrify our fleet in the city.
We know that we need to have put the
infrastructure into do it.
Um, and through the cherry you can get this, um,
that you're 185 new pieces of equipment.
We'd love to see what those are.
Um, and again, you can, you can send that through.
I don't need to know it now. Um,
and when you were talking about the electric vehicles
though, you mentioned vans, pickups, SUVs,
but not sweepers, garbage trucks or spreaders.
It, it, it could be a question for two fm,
but are we, are, are those vehicles even an option? Yeah.
Ho hold for us. Uh, I wanna throw this
to Kelly Berry, right?
Uh, cal, can you just give the update on, um, the ev
and the, and what we're doing for that?
Um, like I said earlier, in the first quarter
of next year, and possibly even in December,
we will be receive, we will be getting a hybrid sweeper,
which is both diesel and electric.
And we are in the process of getting three EV refuge trucks.
I'm sorry, EV Refuge trucks.
Refuge trucks refuse. Great, thank you.
Um, two more quick things.
I would love to tree trim one your street sweeping.
I know that's easier in my word than others,
but wherever we can do to coordinate that
and let us know when you're coming.
We'll let, we'll roll out the red
carpet for the tree trimmers.
Every time I swear,
I just, um, know that they're, they're required
to clean up after, you know, not to leave a mess, right.
Um, but just work with the ward soup on that
and just tell 'em, Hey, man, at the end of the day,
before they go in, just go take a quick, quick run
because you're getting a sweet, uh, uh,
a tree trim in there once a week.
So, right. Go make that run.
It's not a, it's not a heavy lift and
We'll need it. The other thing on,
on the equipment is we're seeing more
glass, not so much the juice,
but glass from, from some of the recycling trucks.
Um, and I, I know, you know, that's a maintenance issue.
I've got my ward suit putting it too.
But, um, my husband was convinced it was someone, you know,
intentionally trying to, to pop our tires
'cause it was so perfectly placed.
But we'll follow up on that as well.
But just anything on equipment,
um, that we can be helpful on. Yeah, please let us know.
So, you know, we got 26 new sweepers also in
the last couple years.
So we've replaced almost half the half the fleet.
So again, three years ago, equipment, I'd be up here,
but we're, we're getting in better shape with our equipment.
And there's no cub sweeper that's new. That's right. Oh,
He brought up the cub sweeper.
Actually you got 'em all, you got 'em all
Pride Parade ly. He brought up the
All five were there.
I think the Cubs, the Cubs one was looking pretty ratty,
which, uh, I don't know.
That's no comment on the team. Thank you, Cheryl. I'll stop.
Do we have a bear sweeper?
No, but we have a shock sweeper.
So when do we get the bear sweeper?
We have one honoring the, uh,
women's basketball team in this, uh, city too.
We have one of those. We have, uh, breast cancer,
um, Blackhawk Blackhawks, the Riverfront, no Bears.
Mount Carmel was, uh, sweep.
Oh, car sweep. Oh God.
We'll put that one behind the parade with the horses.
We've got, uh, vice mayor, uh, vice Mayor Burnett, followed
by, uh, alderman, uh, Howorth.
Wow, that's a great idea, man.
Maybe we can market that
and make some money off of, uh,
letting people put advertisement on the street,
sweepers and trucks.
We should think about that. But anyway,
uh, thank you, commissioner.
Appreciate everything that you
and, uh, everyone on your staff do.
Um, a lot of great people.
I don't wanna start, uh, mentioning names.
I do, uh, want to get, get the, uh, phone number
to the young lady who took over rat abatement.
Uh, so we can, I know you, but I wanna get your number.
'cause we, you know, living over there where we have a lot
of construction going on in our neighborhood, we always tend
to get a lot of, uh, a lot of rats
after they start digging up.
And, uh, if the United Center do,
what they gonna they're gonna do is gonna be a whole lot
of rats in that community.
So, uh, we looking, looking forward to do that.
And then I, I'd be remiss if I did not, um, you know,
commend my brother over there on a great job.
Done. Um, you know, uh, good luck on your,
on your retirement.
Uh, he's, he's my brother in two ways.
Uh, so, um, you know, we, we wish you well, um,
well deserve, um,
and thank you very much for all the service
that you've given us over the years.
And seeing you grow up, uh, in the, in the,
in the department is a great thing to be able
to see you leave, um, in, in good shape and doing well.
So, but commissioner, uh,
and I'll also be remiss if I did not thank all your guys
for all the help during the Democratic convention, uh,
not just with the cleanup.
I know your guys had to, uh, work with me, uh, over
and over again on trying to communicate and,
and put up signs in reference to the parking situation.
So I want to thank, thank them very much.
Uh, I just wanna say thank you all very much
for everything that you did.
Good job, everybody. Thank you. And that's all I got.
Thank you. Vice mayor, all alderman manna hopper.
Worth followed. Baldman. Scott,
Thank you, chair.
Hi, commissioner. Hi.
How Are you? Good. How are you? Thank you.
To you and your team. As, uh, many have said, I commend you
for your work at the DNC.
It was fantastic experience for, for me,
and I think for many others who are very surprised
to see a beautiful city clean and safe
and everybody having a, a great time.
So thank you everybody in the box
and, um, congratulations on your retirement.
Um, Malcolm, uh, well deserved
and also fantastic work on the grid system.
It, and, uh, just echoing what
Alderman Rodriguez is saying, um, it's a model to,
to do other things in, in a way that's more efficient,
that's more equitable and touches all parts of the city.
I had a question. Well, firstly, thank you.
Thank you for your work in the 48th ward.
Um, public safety around our parks is essential
'cause so many older adults.
We, we trend older. We also have families,
new families in the ward.
And, um, people just want to be able to enjoy our public,
public spaces, including on our lakefront.
And also, um, at Interfaith Park, for instance,
on Sheridan Road, um, people have taken it upon themselves
to go into the park to cut branches
because they want to make sure that
the sight lines are clear because people, um,
because of public safety reasons, they're hanging out
and they wanna know who's in the park.
Um, and so there was a very big, a very large hill
of branches of trees that were cut.
Um, and so, um, my ward has the best ward,
superintendent Conrad, and, um, was on it right away.
And so we are very grateful for the work that he did, along
with caps and our block clubs that are, um, you know,
railing around to save our parks.
'cause this is a, an area where people go at,
on Sheridan Road is a very dense area,
but families go there, older adults go there.
And, um, we wanna be able to hang out
and also, um, not have large hills
of branches where rats, um, go.
And, um, there, there have been issues with, uh,
rats in the park.
There are so many holes
and, um, people are taking it upon themselves to do things.
So I just, uh, I wanna commend you for that work.
And, um, and things are getting done.
Um, but that it's not just the only place in the 48th ward
or in Chicago that, um, needs help with rats.
You know, I have neighbors who have,
again, somebody mentioned dry ice.
They're, they're going to the suburbs.
They're bringing it to, um, their alleys.
They're, um, putting it into holes
and they're hanging out in the alley, having their beers
and waiting for, for things to happen.
And, uh, I, I don't know. I think that we can do better.
So I hope that we can, um, just, I hope
that we can work towards a better
solution for the whole city.
'cause um, again, we, we just want our kids
and our families to be safe and to enjoy our public spaces.
Um, and I, um, I had a question about,
um, regarding, um, safe spaces.
Uh, uh, again, our sidewalks are used all year round,
of course, and we're looking forward to snow.
I like snow. I, I like to change the season,
but also it's harder for our older adults to get around.
Um, and we do a really great job with clearing snow from our
business areas with the ssas.
And, um, but it's, it's really difficult to get around, um,
on the sidewalks in Edgewater
and uptown when there's snow on the sidewalks.
And, um, I understand that there, there was a pilot
that was being worked on for a very long time
with advocates in the mayor's office and you all,
and I was just curious to know, um, you know, how, how do,
how, and I, and I would like this through the chair also
because I would like this to be a longer conversation about
how we are prioritizing clearing our public ways for,
you know, uh, families with young children
who push strollers or, you know, those with disabilities.
I also as a, um, as a person
who has had two hip surgeries in the last four years,
have struggled to get around my neighborhood when it snows.
Um, and I, and again, I understand
that there was a pilot program that was, um,
being talked about for a very long time.
Um, I would just like to know, do, are there plans in place
to, um, move forward with that pilot program at all?
Um, maybe not in this budget, but in the future,
and how much would that cost?
I'll get you the cost through the chair and,
and know that we're always looking at ways
to make things better
and more accessible for, for everybody.
There was a working group that was put together
with advocates, with alders, with cdot, with MOPD,
with OOBM
and um, DPS over the past year.
And we put together a comprehensive study on, um,
what that would take to do.
Yeah, I would, I would love to know
how much that would cost.
I think that, um, somebody might have mentioned
that was about a million dollars to do,
to run the pilot program.
Um, I would love it to be a holistic approach,
much like our tree trimming, uh, grid system
where we understand that, um, the whole area is going
to be taken care of.
I, you know, I, um, new things are hard to start.
Um, but I think that if we just tried, um, if we just tried,
I think that we would see that people appreciate it.
I know I did. I, uh, when I was walking
around in the neighborhood last, um, time, there was a,
a great snowfall when after my hip surgery
and getting around and, um, going back
and forth from the red line, coming back and,
and managing the snow.
Um, it was very painful,
but a neighbor actually cleared half of the block
and it was like, incredible.
You know, it was so much easier to just manage the sidewalk.
Um, and I didn't feel like I was going to fall.
So I think about the, those that use power wheelchairs in,
uh, Edgewater, and they're actually, they're,
they're actually on Sheridan Road.
They're on Sheridan Road
to like two folks in power wheelchair on the road instead
of on the sidewalk because they can't manage it.
Um, so I'd like to work together with the team
to figure out ways that we can just do,
just try something, um,
that might actually help older adults, those
with disabilities, you know, young families with strollers.
I, I'm a mother and I've had to do that
with my stroller getting around.
And it's, it's not easy.
So, um, anyway, thank you for your work. I appreciate it.
We rely on you every day
and, um, my team cannot thank you enough in the 48th Ward,
Edgewater and Uptown, um,
because you really do, um, exemplify, um, a department
that wants to make quality of life, uh, um, better
for everybody in Chicago. So thank you.
Thank you very much. Thank you.
Um, alderman Hopman with Altman, Scott,
Philip Alderman, osha,
Good afternoon.
Um, thank you, commissioner.
Thank you to everybody in the box.
I know you all be sick of me.
I'm so sorry, but you all are a great group to work with.
Thank you for always being collaborative with my office with
Charles, with Tanya, with Michelle.
Um, we utilize you all a lot.
And so I appreciate your work.
Um, I don't have any questions for the budget.
I really wanted to give praises
because, you know, I, you know, every ward is not the same.
Everybody has their own complex issues,
and I think that we all know that.
Uh, but something that, uh,
alderman Taylor did mention about how myself, the 16th Ward
and the 20th Ward all share the same, um,
gripe with the lots.
And I know that there's always a, a issue every summer
with cutting down the lots.
And so, you know, I think the three of us have,
are working together to come up with some kind of, uh,
comprehensive plan so that in the summer we get a, I mean,
I know we get some attention, but we need a lot more.
When you're dealing with 3000 lots, um, in one community,
uh, it it where you all are always my savior.
When the lots I can't be done, it looks like, oh,
the alderman's streets
and sand, we're not doing what we're supposed to do
because it's just so much.
And like this year it rains so much.
So it looked like every time we cut, we didn't cut
because the grass was just growing wild.
And so where we did work, thank you Gloria.
Debbie, always thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Um, I can't stop, you know, screaming your praises
because I know that, you know, we're also having a lot
of issues with a tremendous amount of fly dumps,
homelessness that's coming up in the ward a lot.
And so, uh, we do, you all do.
I said we, like, I work for,
but we do our best to take look, we, we,
we do our best to tag team those problems.
And I thank you for always really being
collaborative with me.
Um, and I know it's a, it's, it's a challenge.
And, um, I just really wanted to say thank you
because I know your work is not easy
and dealing with so many people, especially in, you know,
the war, like 24 when the whole, um,
the whole garbage, uh, crew will call off
and on one day, you know,
but we figure it out and we get it done.
And so that's the,
that's the thing that people need to hear.
That when it is a situation like that,
when a hundred people call off on a
Friday, we still get it done.
And that goes just to, you know, the boss that you are, um,
the commissioner that you are,
the deputy commissioner, you all get it done.
And I thank you. And so I want you all
to look into giving us our own crew for the 16th
and the 20th ward in the summer.
Uh, something that we can do to dedicate more staff,
uh, so that we can get it done.
Or at least hire some of the, at least let's work with the,
the contractors so that they hire more of the people
that are from the community so
that we don't have those robberies.
Um, you know,
that they're not getting robbed while they're working.
Because I think if they see a familiar face,
then that'll, that'll help.
And so that's something that we need to work with, with the,
um, with the contractors
of at least hiring some people from the community.
Oh, thanks for bringing that up,
because we did discuss that.
So, uh, thanks for all the kind words.
Um, know that we're, I'm begging for a, a dry April
and may, um, to show what we can actually do.
But I, I really want to thank you for acknowledging that.
We did have some struggles this year with the robberies,
um, more than one time.
Um, and they, there was a crew that literally
they robbed all their equipment
from the place where they stored.
It also, not only was it on the street,
but it was actually at the place where it was stored.
Uh, they worked through those hurdles.
We worked through those hurdles with 'em.
But again, if, uh, all the women king that was here, uh,
prior, you know, she was a champion.
All the women do was a champion for let's get 'em trimming,
let's get 'em picking up, let's get 'em doing more than
just knocking stuff down and leaving hay all over.
We used to call it hay. There'd be hay all over the
city 'cause it would dry out.
So we've come a long way. We know we wanna get better.
Uh, as I mentioned earlier, we cut 70,000,
um, times this year.
Um, 33,000.
32,000 we're private owners. Uh, private times we cut.
Um, so the money's there.
It's, you know, it's a, it's a program that pays,
if there's any program in this department that pays
for itself, it's weed cutting.
It just, it, the benefit is, is so substantial
and the tickets pay for the program.
So again, thanks for acknowledging that, um,
what the, the department has done.
Did we, let me ask you a question.
Have you, did you speed, not you, but has the law, uh, and,
and the, um, have they sped up those tickets?
Some, because I believe, like, I'm trying to say
that on one block we went to, um, we wrote the, like
the war suit wrote the ticket.
And I think by like two weeks later, he had it.
I don't know if it's for certain tickets
that we're processing them faster,
but I saw this summer
that they did get him back a little bit
faster versus last year,
The law department works with us
because we just, April, may, June,
we're hitting them real heavy with tickets.
So they have a real uptick.
The one thing I I talked about earlier, um, today was
of the 53,000 tickets that we wrote,
3,300 of those tickets, people were able to go online,
look at it, go, yep, that's my house.
Yep, that's my infraction and pay for it online.
I want to get that message out.
I've said this twice now, just to try to get the message out
that there is that option out there for tickets from us
that they can look at it.
So it doesn't bog down folks
because of the heavy load that we give them.
We give 'em a real heavy load.
I want you to, so, uh, again, just thank you.
Mine was more of a thank you.
Thank you very much. And if I can, you mentioned Gloria,
as far as road and control, um, when,
when the decision was posed that Josie retired
and it was like, that's a big position
and that's a position that needs to be understood, the needs
of, of this city.
Um, not somebody from that says they're an expert from
outside the city will listen to those views,
but when picking Gloria to run that, she worked for
Alderwoman Leslie Ton, um, former Alderman Leslie Ton.
So she understands what it is to be responsive to award
and to the alders.
So that's why I thought that was a good fit.
She has the license. She, she didn't just go out
and get the license when she heard Josie retired.
She's had that license for over 20 years, believe it or not.
How it is a passion for her. It's a passion for her.
I don't know why, but, we'll, it's a passion,
but she understands the importance of
that working relationship with the alders and the staff.
Thank you, uh, commissioner. Thank you Altman.
Scott, I didn't, I didn't know you worked for Leslie.
Um, and you're still
saying so it's a good thing.
So,
Gloria, didn't you work for my mom as well?
Sure. Oh, I won't talk about your mom.
I didn't, I didn't get a chance to work with her,
but, uh, Leslie we all worked with.
So we, we understand that one.
So, uh, alderman, OSHA followed by
Conway,
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, The sweeper man.
We still want the bear sweeper. Thank you
Chairman. Chairman.
Good morning, superintendent.
Sorry. Good afternoon.
Um, our
salt spreaders, snow plows, et cetera.
Um, obviously we're expecting
something possibly tonight, tomorrow.
Um, are we good to go?
Are, are is Fleet have all of our, uh, fleet ready to go,
um, for the snow season?
Yeah, we're ready to go. Uh,
we got 400,000 plus tons of salt on the ground.
Uh, as I mentioned earlier, we got 30 new spreaders, uh,
that we're able to introduce to the fleet, which is great.
Uh, we're ready to go. And, uh, just waiting for it to snow.
How are we doing on all
of our apparatus, uh, garbage trucks, a a any
of the heavy equipment as far as average life
mileage on them, those that need
to be replaced in the coming years.
Um, we're give, gimme that information,
but we're again, in a great place.
Lemme rephrase that. We're in a better place than we
were years ago.
Um, we're receiving garbage trucks. We're our fleet.
We're receiving spreaders for our fleet.
We received semis along with trailers.
Um, we received 10 new trailers.
We waited for a 50 yard trailer for years,
and for us to get 10 dumped into our, uh,
our fleet, it was a huge uplift for us,
uh, for Malcolm's team and, and for lock cleaning.
Um, it, it really helped.
I'm gonna say our average fleet is 10 years old.
10.3 years is our average, uh, fleet age.
Um, a turn on a, uh, a piece of equipment
standard is 12 years, 14 years.
Uh, I'm gonna say we're in good shape, minus the,
the leaky garbage truck or, um,
Garbage juice, I think you call it. Yeah,
The, the, the people over at fleet, the mechanics
that keep us going, because it's not only us, it's fire,
it's police, it's everybody else's.
Everybody knows here, but, uh,
we're a heavy ask for them and they come through.
Thank you. Um, a subject
that has been talked about in recent weeks as we continue
to try to identify, uh, new sources
of revenue, the garbage fee.
What has our research shown when we talk about
other big cities, other neighboring suburbs, uh, what those,
those, uh, fees are
We, um, in 2016
when this became a thing, 2019
was the first opportunity that we had
to adjust the fee.
The fee right now is $9 and 50 cents,
and that does about 62 per unit for one unit.
I'm sorry, for one, for one unit, $9 and 50.
I'm gonna talk in, in one unit buildings,
'cause the price does increase for, um,
buildings over it's $9 and 50 cents.
Uh, for one unit.
We had the opportunity for the first time to raise that fee
in 2019 and, and move that fee moving forward.
Um, the department did not.
Um, we've done studies across the country
and the closest one that comes to us
or that number would be Naperville.
And that's $14
and 45 cents a
for one cart, 1 96 gallon cart, $14 and 45 cents.
Our garbage generates, its, uh, 62.
What we actually collect is about
62 million for that nine 50.
So if you just did the simple math, um,
nine 50 is 62 million.
Um, so for one card in Naperville,
it's 1445.
I know that's a topic of conversation
for everybody in this room.
Um, you can go and look at other cities across the country
and it's 30 plus dollars for a cart, $35 for a cart.
Um, we do deliver the carts.
Uh, the carts are delivered for,
for no cost to the constituent.
We know that there's 2, 3, 4 carts out at each location.
Um, but I know that's a conversation that this body's having
and with respect to this body that if, um,
I need to be part of the conversation moving forward, um,
we do have some information on that.
Okay. Um, not
to belabor the point, but I think
we really need to look at that.
We need to look at, try to identify ways
that we can incentivize this.
Uh, obviously looking at, um, not hurting seniors.
Um, possibly could, could we incentivize
with more blue carts, replacing black carts?
I don't know. But, um, I remember several years ago talking
to a member of your staff, Chris Suave, about, uh,
grid garbage and many people opposed it.
And we've saved tens of millions of dollars
and become so much more efficient.
I think we should work with Chris and your team and,
and try to identify what we could do
to make this garbage fee, have it go up to capture,
uh, necessary revenue, but also reward those
and give a break to those that it would be most harmful to.
Um, in closing, uh,
really appreciate your strong leadership,
your communication, uh, your team over in the box.
I'm not positive, but I'm fairly certain.
I looked over at one point and I saw Mike Laco smile.
Now I've known Mike La Coco, who's been out in my community
for some big events over the years, um,
in a really, really bad mood on most occasions.
But I'm fairly certain I looked over
and I saw the deputy commissioner smile.
And I, I think that is in line with
how this hearing is going.
Um, but on a serious note, uh, thanks to everybody,
don't wanna start running through names
'cause I forget a name and somebody gets mad.
Um, but I appreciate all of you.
I appreciate, uh,
your laborers out there each and every day.
Um, picking up the garbage.
Uh, I know all my folks by the first name.
Uh, they're all hardworking as are your, your entire staff.
So, uh, thank you. Thanks chairman.
Thank you. Thank you.
Uh, alderman Conway, followed by Alderman Moore.
Uh, thank you Mr. Chairman.
Um, uh, commissioner Stoller echoing many others.
Your department does a, does a fantastic job.
I think I have the best ward soup in the city and Tom Swan,
and I'm sure he is tied with 49 49 other ward soups.
Um, also, you know, I I will name a few names in terms of,
uh, our office has had wonderful, uh, interaction
with Debbie De Lopez
and John Gavin, as well as all the folks in road
and control and forestry.
So really appreciate all the work that your,
your department is, is, is doing
A question I get at every town hall,
and I think you got it last year,
and you can just tell me how to best handle it,
is I'm always asked, why does streets
and Sand not do the, the birth control for rats
that has worked in this other city?
And if you could just kind of help me with that question.
Well, oh, Is that a
Nothing to go, Courtney?
Well, well what I learned earlier, yeah.
Um, was that the method
that we tried the last time when we went down this road?
Yeah. Didn't work.
Um, so there was quite a few public speakers here
today talking on that issue.
We're not opposed to trying things.
Um, as I mentioned
before, carbon dioxide is something that I'd like
to introduce to the conversation.
Mm-Hmm. Uh, we're looking at that in, in next year.
We kind of look, took a quick sample and, and look at that.
Um, but we're always looking at ways, um, to better things.
Again, I think at, um,
at reallocating five more crews
to get folks in the wards every other
day, we'll help address it.
But, uh, just hearing what people have to say, you know,
and, and knowing what's going on in, in a ward up north
where someone's just doing the wrong thing and,
and putting it out there and not putting it in the hole.
You know, that's, that's not a, that's not a good thing.
But, uh, know that, uh, the, the person out
that was standing out there, they, uh, said
that they have something, uh, bigger and better.
Well, I, I, I suspect, I don't won't say this too often,
but I, I regret missing the public comment.
So, uh, on that, um, uh, as, as as
Alder woman Lee and, and Alder woman Ramirez mentioned, um,
regarding trash can removal, uh,
I don't wanna argue about this
'cause me arguing with you is on this is like arguing with
Tom Brady about how to throw a football or something.
But, uh, it, it seems on some of our main
tourist thoroughfares, like Michigan Avenue
and Madison Street and Halstead Street, we've had a lot
of garbage cans removed.
And I think that it has created, um, uh,
additional litter on those streets.
So if I bring you something on that, I hope
that you'd be willing to consider perhaps, uh,
replacing some of those.
Understood. Um, and then,
and then beyond that, um, most of my questions were,
were answered thankfully,
but I was kind of surprised this one didn't, didn't come up.
It was, it was reported very publicly about three weeks ago
that for basic services, like repairing a sidewalk
or getting their trees trimmed
or replacing a garbage cart,
that we could no longer go straight to our ward suit,
but we had to reach out to the commissioner who had
to then reach out to the mayor's office
for approval on that.
I didn't, I didn't think very much of it.
Um, but then when we had a standard graffiti removal request
was told that had to go to the commissioner
on a separate issue, had, um, was told
that special requests now need
to go to the commissioner as well.
So I, I would merely ask you if you wanted to,
to clear the air on that or explain your side of it.
Well, I know that COO of the city
sent out a letter clarifying on his end.
Mm-Hmm. Um, but I will say that I worked for
that man 25 years ago, and he was a leader 25 years ago,
and he's still a leader.
Um, when I tell you he was way beyond his time
as far as being a commissioner, he's, what if everybody was
what he was 25 years ago, this city would be unstoppable.
I think everybody got this witness that firsthand
in the DNC when Richie Geis retired,
John Roberson stepped right in
and carried us all through the finish line.
And I'm not saying that 'cause he was standing in a room,
I don't even know if he's over my right shoulder right now,
grinning from every ear.
He is for the record, by the way.
But I'm saying that to am saying
that with all sincerity.
Yeah. That he tasked us on what we're do.
I found out some things through that whole process
that there's, there's folks in this room
whose staff call our staff.
And I'm not talking about a deputy,
I'm not talking about an assistant general superintendent.
I'm not talking about a general superintendent.
I'm talking about someone that just answers the phone
that is doing their job.
But we had no way to quantify that
or take record that we did that.
We did that exercise.
And I'm talking about for the Department of Streets
and Sanitation, we did that exercise
to try to make things better.
And that's all we ever try to do, is to try
to make things better and communicate with the folks
where we've literally got the message out, Hey,
if you have those great working relationships within the
department, continue to use 'em.
We'd like you to cc your ward superintendent.
So when the alderman does call up
and say, Hey, this isn't done, we can look right to
that ward Superintendent, ward superintendent 20 years ago
was the key player in this department,
the key player in this department.
They were the boss. And if you had a problem in your ward,
alls I gotta do is look at the ward superintendent wards
that don't have problems, got strong ward superintendents.
I got Monez Harrison in the, in the 20th ward.
There ain't too many, uh, ward soups that would be able
to do what she does every day
because that war is of high demand.
So there's war troops out there. You mentioned Tom Swan.
Yeah. Fantastic. Tom Swan got 25 years on his job.
He knows what to do to get the job done.
So we're always looking at ways to make things better.
So I want to put that hopefully with John's. Okay.
I want to put that to rest because it was only ways for us
to look at how to make things better.
Because he hears, just like I hear from Alders out there,
we're on a roll right now,
everybody's pretty much said we did a good thing.
I know there's, there's stuff that we don't do
that everybody agrees with
that may not say it in this public
hearing, but will give it to us.
Those are all things we wanna
hear to try to make things better.
And if we just focused on we were trying
to make things better, I, I, I think, uh, I think I put
that, I can put that to rest Good.
I, I, which I appreciate
and I'll, I'll just ask it in a pointed way
so we can So did, um, so it's, it's fair to say then you,
well, I ask, I'll ask an open end.
Have you ever received a request from the COO or,
or, uh, deputy Mayor, uh, Lipson
or anyone within the mayor's office asking for approval
for services before you provide
basic services at an Alder person's request?
I don't understand that question.
Okay. Did, are you re did you ever receive a request in
the last six months from COO Roberson,
deputy Mayor Lipson,
or anyone in the mayor's office that they, that you need
to go to them before you provide basic services to a ward
and an older person's request?
I thought, uh, what my explanation that I just gave,
I thought that it was, it was understood that John put
that out and explained what that process was.
I explained how I received that process
and how I understood that process to be, to try to find
and make sure that we're delivering the services.
I report to them, I report to the mayor
and I report Lori Lipson is the person, and John Robert.
Those are the people that I report to
as far as what we're doing.
So I'm able to do all this. So I'm able to do all this.
So if John wants to throw something by here, people want me
to, people want me to try, uh, uh, uh, um,
rodent contraceptive, they want to throw that idea out.
I got the COO of the city wanting to throw out ideas to try
to make it better, to make sure that we're responding
to this body and to these people of this, uh, of this,
um, city.
And that's what I think we do.
Um, I, when I got that, uh, directive, I,
I saw no ill intent or no malicious, um, intent.
If, if that's what's being, uh, trying
to lead me down that hole.
I saw none of that. Yeah.
I mean, so I, I mean, certainly when I took office, if,
if I came to my ward, super, whoever saying,
can you repair a basic si a a, a broken sidewalk
that clearly didn't have to go
to the mayor's office for approval.
Has that changed in the last eight months? How
Many times you gonna ask the man
the same question? Well, he's
Already asked. Well, you know, he's
kind of not answering it.
That's why I don't mean to say so.
I mean, it sounds like the answer's no, but I want to,
I mean, he is answered the question three different ways.
So the answer hasn't changed.
Yeah. But has, is there an approval structure within the
mayor's office for requests from certain alders?
The, the requests that you dealt with for those two weeks?
Yeah. Where you heard about
It. Yeah.
Where I said, go back to your resource
that your office feels comfortable with.
Mm-Hmm. And we're able to continue those relationships.
I ask that you cc
your ward superintendent on those requests.
So when an older person comes to me
and says, Hey, this didn't get done.
This didn't get done. I can say
to your ward superintendent and get you that answer.
These are, I'm, there's an alderman's office
that literally spoke with a clerk
that's just doing their job.
Mm-Hmm. Nobody, uh, military, uh, folk understand the,
the, the, the chain of command. Yeah.
I was in the military for 12,
been in for 12 and a half years
For your service. Yeah.
And I know you're a prosecutor too. I understand that.
And so I get the question. That's
What you're saying. Now,
I, I get the, I get the questioning.
I get the hard questioning. Yeah.
You know, but I want you to say that it went to a clerk
and the person that was answering the phone literally would,
Hey, we'll take care of it all the way.
We'll take care of it. Um, the person calling,
it wouldn't get in the system.
We, we used to be, say we did a million service requests.
We used to have that on our website.
A million service requests.
Right now I'm at 415,000 is
because we're not capturing all this
information that we're doing.
So we're, I felt through John's direction,
and like I said, I was a laborer, uh, when he was a,
a commissioner and we're the same age.
We're the same age. And he was a commissioner.
The stuff he used to make us go through 25 years ago,
our things we're trying to do now as leaders of this city.
Did I answer your question that time?
Yes. And I hope, I hope you understand it.
It was such a salacious report.
I thought it was, it was, uh, important to get you
to be able to respond to that publicly.
And you can understand why if we're politicizing basic
services, why that would be a big issue in terms,
it would just slow, it would be able
to slow all the great work you're doing, doing down.
And we don't, you know, we don't want elderly people
slipping over broken sidewalks
'cause the mayor's office hasn't signed off,
or tree branches not getting removed.
'cause people can't find parking as a result of that.
So I thought it was important considering that came out
to give you an opportunity to, to speak to that.
And I, and I, I will certainly reiterate, commissioner,
I think you, I think you and your department are doing a
fantastic job.
And I appreciate you, uh,
you answering my questions. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you, alderman Conway.
Uh, next up we're gonna have Alderman Moore.
We're gonna al after that we will, uh, break
for lunch. Go ahead, alderman.
Thank you so much, um, chairman
and thank you, um, commissioner for the work that you
and your team do.
And I'll come back to that in a second.
Um, as I start in my notes,
and you've sent, I'm only coming back to that
because you took what I was going to say.
Um, we, we gave you all accolades and,
and well deserved in terms of the DNC.
We gave CPD, we gave OEMC, all of that in terms of,
um, the DNC and all of you all did your jobs extremely well.
But again, that was one person had to gather all
of those people together.
And that was, um, John Robertson.
And so, uh, I just wanna applaud him, um, for the effort
that he did, not only with the DNC,
but the efforts that we are seeing, um,
from an infrastructure standpoint.
Um, streets getting done.
Um, the service side, um, nothing is perfect,
but his leadership has been, um, you know, just
unmatched in terms of, um, you know, what's going on
with the infrastructure and, um, working with, um, um,
Lori Lipson to make sure this infrastructure
and the things that we do are done.
Well, I got some of the most challenging areas.
Um, Inglewood West, Inglewood West Chatham, Auburn, Gresham,
um, and, um, Chicago Lawn.
And the work that you all do, um, um,
under his leadership is impeccable.
Nothing is perfect. Right. We know that.
And we're gonna continue to try to, um, work to get there.
But I just want to commend you, um, CEO
and your team for the work that you are doing.
Um, Cole, without a doubt,
there's not a time that I don't call.
Um, you, um, Tommy Johnson, um,
Gloria, um, Malcolm.
And, um, I don't talk to 'em, but my staff does.
Um, James, um, sheen and,
and of course Debbie, um, de Lopez
that you all do not respond, um,
to me in a timely, um, fashion.
Um, I am a person of process though. I like process.
I like, um, consistent process.
'cause I can manage my constituents in terms of time
and things like, um, that, so
that becomes more important to me.
'cause I don't want to be always just chasing and, and, and,
and doing like that.
So, uh, with that said, um, I, I appreciate
what you all doing, responding to me.
Um, um, I think, um,
we wanna make sure those abandoned homes.
Um, and, and, and Debbie, you do a good job,
but you know, I work closely with Sharon
and you guys work closely together.
Um, the response time on the abandoned homes won,
probably pick that up a little bit and, and, and,
and getting a little hits.
'cause we had a lot of them in those community areas
that I just talked about.
And we get those overgrown, um, weeds there.
So I just wanna make sure on that
with responding a little quicker, um, on those.
Um, I want, I'm glad you talked about, um,
the cutter being responsible for cutting
around, um, the pose.
And I'm assuming the, um, fire hydrants as well.
I can't stress that enough
'cause I'm out there with my stuff when I see it,
that it goes from one covered up fire hose
or one covered up pole makes a block.
Look, you cut that one thing,
it makes it look like a brand new block.
If you don't believe me, go out there
and try it once you do it.
'cause you can clean it, you can sweep.
But that piece of overgrown, um, weed there on that pole,
uh, uh, that's all everybody see.
And the moment you cut it, it looks like a brand new,
um, um, block.
So I wanna make sure that, um, we're working with you
and doing whatever we need to do.
So from that standpoint, uh, our award soups, can they
somehow back to communicating with the weed people.
I know that was a problem there once
before, um, with the weed cutters that was said
that our award soups couldn't direct them, um, from some,
a situation like that, can they call them back if they were
cutting over and say, Hey, you guys didn't cut around there?
Or does that, that call have to come through?
No, we, we just asked w with that, the,
the intent there is, so
the ward two is not pulling somebody all over and,
and let them allow to do their job
because they don't get paid by the foot.
I mean, I, they don't get paid by the hour.
They get paid by the square foot that they cut. Right.
So we're trying to be mindful of a business owner.
And again, if you have those issues, let us know.
And, um, we've worked hard to make it better.
Um, it's, I'd I'd rather go
through two snow seasons than one, um,
one weed cutting season.
Um, we know that it's a tough, it's a heavy lift for you
and we'll just try to get better.
Okay. And another important to me that I, um, brought up,
I think probably the last two budget season, I just want
to let you know, in terms of those alleys and overgrown,
and we said the, the garbage people who's going
through those alleys should be reporting those.
They're not, again, let's just have those conversations
with them to tell 'em to step up on that.
I'm just seeing and, and driving the ward
and just saying, wait, you gonna tell me streets
and sand even haven't even put this in?
You know, because yes, my ward,
we have our ward suit, but that's a lot.
It's a lot. And if a garbage truck is coming down an alley
constantly and they see a bad alley, they should be putting
that in and then it should be getting responded to.
Um, I think we just, we gotta improve on, on, on that.
Um, area, uh,
If I may alderman real quick.
Yes. I, I'm sorry, I I'm being mindful of your time.
We have an app now that has been created to
where the RCCS also can put it right in the app
and say exactly what's needed.
So we're trying to get more efficient in that way.
Um, so it is a good process
because these rccs should be checking their alleys to a,
make sure they're done and to, um, make sure
that nothing else is needed in that alley.
Thank you. Thank you for that.
That's a great, uh, response and I appreciate that.
And I'm gonna be, uh, following up on that as well.
The flight dump. Um, And maybe I need to talk
to CPD.
Uh, and we all, where we all need to work together.
So I just had an incident today where my, and it happened
before where my war suit blocked somebody in
and police never showed up this today.
Today they showed up.
I'm just being, we, we we're talking,
'cause we gotta get to this today.
It happened, they showed up, they may get a ticket.
What do we have to do to make that an arrest?
An empowerment of a,
I don't care if they're gonna get out the next two hours
or what, but an arrest
and an empowerment of their car, um,
whatever price it is to get that.
Um, how do we work together with CPD to um,
uh, get that,
I'll work with Superintendent Snelling on that
because what's supposed to happen in that situation,
if our ward superintendent does pull in front of that truck,
that truck's getting impounded.
Um, not, hey, just clean up the mess and,
and take the truck away and go take it to a dump.
We do want that truck impounded.
So I'll work with Superintendent Snelling on
That. Okay, great. Because
the more we catch
and the more we do that we can begin, um,
um, to eliminate that.
Now, help me understand from a process standpoint,
when we're talking about weed cutting city vacant lots
and um, parkways, which are city,
do we have to do the war soup, have
to identify this every time?
Or do they have set, do the weed cutters have set city lots
and set parkways that they should be cutting help?
Help me understand that because I
understand they gotta take a picture.
They gotta send a picture through they got.
Uh, and some to that sounds a little time
consuming to me. So
The, the lot the, I'm looking, I'm gonna,
let me just throw this one to Gloria
because I believe we do have, for the city lots, they're,
they're all shaking their head.
They are uploaded in there for the city lots.
So go ahead Gloria.
So thank you. Gloria Pittman,
deputy Commissioner, uh, alderman.
The process is that the war superintendent
or assistant is supposed
to place the city lots into the app along with the parkways.
They're able to do that after such time we're able
to go back an additional five weeks from now
and automatically enter those city lots.
We have that technology now.
So, uh, we work very hard to get it up to speed
and it is working, but the private lots, as you know, have
to be ticketed before they're cut.
Okay. I get the private lot.
So I just wanna be clear on the, let's start
before I get to the parkway on the city vacant lot.
So I'm in, I'm in this year
and we know it's a city vacant lot.
Do I have to start it all over again next year?
Yes. Okay. So if I start it over again next year
then when it's time for that second cut, does it have
to be reported or are you automatically going to cut it?
The app allows for us to automatically input it. So,
And not go cut it And cut it. No,
No, no, no. I'm
saying the, so if it's, if it's overgrown again,
the ward soup
or a 3 1 1 have to report it, you just,
this cutter is just not going back
and hitting those city lots.
That's correct, alderman. Okay.
That's correct. Because it was in the past
that they hit those city lots, um, consistently, if I recall
With that, we're hitting those con we're we're definitely
hitting the city lots more consistently. No,
You are, you are. I'm I'm
just talking about from a
a we know they're gonna grow back.
Yeah, yeah. So, but we're only gonna cut 'em if there's a
3 1 1 or the war suit capture it, correct?
That is correct. Okay. Alright.
And and what about the parkway?
The same way with the parkway?
Yes. Alderman, when you enter a city lot,
you're actually able to enter the parkway as well
as one job.
So 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Jackson Street has a parkway
and a lot to go with it. That's one job.
And so if, if the,
if my cutter go out there within these last five seconds,
chairman, if my cutter go out there
and do a vacant of city lot,
which was in 3 1 1 or my ward soup capture.
But by the time he get out there, say the parkway is done,
is he automatically gonna cut that parkway or not?
If it's not in 3 1 1 or my war soup hasn't captured it,
If the parkway isn't part of the job,
then the cutter will not cut it.
And here's the reason we pay by square footage. I
Get that. I get that part.
We gotta figure something out.
I'm just saying. I,
I, I gotcha. And,
and know that, um,
we're working towards that again.
We did 70,000. Right?
Um, we know that there's certain wards out there
that are heavy, heavy, heavy.
And to put it on one person can't be.
So we give, um, we give help to those people, right.
Uh, through the process. I mean we literally,
I'm not picking on Monda,
but we literally used to go monda, go do it
and she'd do it for 15 hours a day
and it was just, that's all she was able to do.
And, and so we give people help to try to, um,
No, you no you do. That's
without question.
That's not even our That's what I'm saying.
You gonna, but that's why I was talking about process.
We always gotta be thinking about better process.
'cause I call and be like, and you, you got to get on it.
And that's why I appreciate you all so much.
But if we can get to that, you know what I'm talking about,
that process, that's all I'm
talking about consistent process.
I, I just wanna, Gloria,
a quick question for my knowledge.
Um, all the city lots are uploaded in our
system, fair to say.
Yes. So they're all prereq.
The ward soup doesn't have to go out there and put those in
because those are in there.
Am I understanding that correctly?
They don't have to enter them? No.
They don't have to enter 'em.
But they do have to say whether or not it needs to be cut.
Is that what you're saying? Yes. So
3 1 1, They don't have to go into the, the, the,
the phone per se to say, enter
what we used to have to do.
Write it on a piece of paper, uh,
write it on a triplicate piece of paper,
then have somebody go enter it into 3 1 1.
So we get a number, then get a number, then take it out.
We're to a point now
where all the city lots are preloaded in that phone to
where they just have to, while they're driving in that grid,
because they're in that grid also
to look at those private lots
to see if they're three feet tall.
So they're hitting something.
That was a step we took to make it easier. Am I uh, yes.
Okay. You're clear. Correct. I just, I wanted
to make sure I was clear on that. And
For clarification, the preload don't have
to happen the following year, correct? Or
Well, alderman, we have to make sure
that those lots no longer are owned
by the city. Okay. So but
Purpose. So you're hearing
all it's gonna happen,
happen, happen another year.
Thank you chairman. I get it.
And we'll work through the process. We'll
work. Thank you chairman.
Okay. Alright.
Uh, with that being said, we're gonna break
for lunch right now.
Uh, we shall return
at 2 0 5.
You have to take yourself. You can leave that.
You can leave that. Yeah. We off
2 0 5.
Let mean we wanna start about two 10, you know, two 30.
Hell we 2 0 5. I'm trying to get you. Yeah.
3 3 15 2 0 5.
Hey guys, about to clear the, clear the chamber out
Sanitation purpose.
Can we clear the chamber for sanitation purposes please?
Can we clear the chamber for sanitation purposes?
We're clearing the chamber for sanitation purposes, please.
Thank you.
Good afternoon. Uh, we're back, uh,
for the Committee on Budget and Government Operations, um,
come back with, uh, Alder Alderman Taylor,
followed by Alderman Mitchell.
Hey. Hey. That's what happened when you come on time.
Exactly. Hey, no, that's not what happened.
'cause I was here before all of them last time and I
Yeah, but you, you gotta remember though.
You, you wasn't you, you know the,
you know the game. I know the
Rules. Thank you. That
don't mean I don't like 'em. Okay.
Uh, commissioner around too.
Are we still talking about doing the
shovel a sidewalk,
A pilot? That, that's been,
We put a plan together. We
put a plan together.
We work with cdot, uh, office of Budget and MOPD.
Uh, it's actually online.
Um, it's online
and, um, it's a, a further conversation.
Is it supposed to happen this, this season?
WW we've worked in a working group with Mm-Hmm.
With, uh, the advocates with, um, MOPD,
with CDOT and with, um, budget on that.
And, um, it's,
it's online where people can look at what the work
that we've put into that.
And, um, at this point, um,
it's online
and it's the, the, the plan is, is,
uh, is there,
So question from one of my constituents,
the blue carts seem
to be a lot stronger than the black carts.
They feel like the, the black carts are not
as sturdy as the blue carts.
That's, I don't do garbage, so you can't ask me.
I don't know. Is that,
I it's made it a Thing.
Is it just because of maintenance of the,
The carts? Probably
it's, it's made of the same materials.
Um, same size.
It's, they probably get a little bit banged
around if someone's putting concrete in it or,
or a material in it that's heavier.
Obviously they're heavier.
But no, to answer your constituent
to answer the question, it's the same material.
Is there a conversation about you all?
So we've been looking at,
through the budget about fines and fees.
If you all are going out, going up on fines
and fees, are we sending that out to constituents
before January one?
So think about this. If we decide to go up garbage
and just saying, are we gonna make sure that we're
advertising or sending out emails to say, Hey,
come January one, if your garbage is on
and flowing, it ain't a hundred dollars, it's $500
Now, as far as a fine Yes.
Or are you talking the fee fine?
Both. Well, the, the fine I know of, uh, none of our
fines are going up.
Okay. Um, at none of our fines are going up at this point
that I'm no fees either that I'm aware of.
No, I'm saying that I'm aware of right now.
Okay. I'm not, I'm not aware of that. So I, I, I, if,
If, if, if that's the way we go,
We Would, because there's some type of communication,
because this is what I get from,
especially my business owners, they'll say, I didn't know
what the fee was for having trash in front of my building.
Yes, you do. And you know, you can get that ticket, what,
every 24 48 hours?
Yes. They act like they don't know.
Yeah. And so
There, there's literally, we can,
we can post our fines, we can post our fines
and all of our fine ranges are on there.
Um, for from fly dumping to weed cutting to through
The chair. Can you send that to
for all of us? Yes. Yes.
Uh, quality of life.
I used to get a lot of those when there was a shooting.
I haven't gotten that many in the last
year, year and a half.
Or where you bring out, there's a shooting in a certain part
of the community and we bring out the entire team.
I didn't see that a lot of last year.
Did are we, have we stopped doing that?
Or is that some special request or?
No, we're, we're doing the, um, we're working with,
as I mentioned earlier, Gary Gatewood team on that in,
in certain areas, uh, throughout the city.
So it's, um, the one
that you're referencing on was with, um,
Glen Cross and CPD Mm-Hmm.
Um, this, this is gone to, um,
it's, it's, it's really an unbelievable event.
Um, it's, it's grown over the years.
I've, I've seen different variations of this.
And this by far is really incredible event.
We're going in there and doing the work.
And you, you've remember,
I'm sure the roll call in the morning,
we're there in the morning just doing the work.
We're doing the work prior to,
and then working with the community.
And then at the end of the, the day, um, people are getting
to come out and there was literally
job fairs at these things.
There was bounce houses.
I mean, there was, it was really,
it's really a positive program that, uh, it's turned into.
I didn't get one, so I, I don't know
how positive it is 'cause I didn't get one.
Um, during Covid,
did the ward superintendents get Covid pay? No.
Well, I mean, we got, if we were sick,
we had, we had sick pay. Okay. We
Got sick. So we did.
Okay. I mean, if, if,
if Ward Superintendent had sick time,
I had sick time and we got Covid. It was Covid pay.
So, oh, so it was it, if you got sick
during Covid, you did get Covid.
It was sick. It was sick, it was sick pay,
Regular sick pay.
Or was it something designated Just
for when folks got covid, there's a
Difference. We coded, we coded
it as covid. Okay.
And so a tracking mechanism, we saw, you know,
I mean we had, um,
I'd say the department's 2200, we probably had
over 900, you know, that covid
and we lost people to Covid in our department.
Yeah, I know. So, um, glad we're back. That's behind us.
I'm glad.
Thank you, commissioner. Thank you Chairman. Thank you.
Thank you. Uh, chair Taylor. So we're gonna have, um,
and I say you were next.
Okay. Okay. Alderman Mitchell. Uh, I'm drawing a blank, man.
I was, I I'm trying to get all these, uh,
these new sweepers, uh, labeled properly.
So we'll, we'll give you the bowing
sweeper followed by the, uh,
I want a rambling Grambling State University. No,
We're not doing a rambling sweeper.
We're gonna do a, we'll give you a bowing sweeper
Omega phi sweeper.
Ain't that right? By Oh,
Well. All
Right. Ing in out a bowing
sweeper followed by the St.
Rita sweeper. So behind that, add
to the mix. Go ahead. All
Right, thanks Jim. I'm gonna
just dive right in. Cole Dive.
Uh, I wanna extend the discussion on a few topics
that were brought up earlier.
Uh, one related
to violations in their subsequent enforcement
abandoned properties.
Um, we had properties, we, we talked about, um,
being able to go and we, we write streets
and sands violations on what we can write 'em on.
We have properties that have been vacant for years,
and we are constantly writing the same tickets
on the same properties.
Um, one of the thoughts that I had have
was figuring out a way, creating a criteria
for abandoned properties where it is
in the system is known
to all our departments as this is abandoned.
Um, so because we, we keep writing these tickets,
they don't, they still don't pay 'em.
And we're running up time. So what are we
continuously writing tickets for?
Um, so, so we wanted to continue to write the tickets, uh,
categorize them as abandoned,
and then create a whole nother quality
of life plan to deal with those.
Um, so we, obviously, I'm gonna talk more about it with you.
And I mentioned to you guys, there's a lot of, there's a lot
of things in these wards that we constantly endure,
but we, we don't write any policy.
We don't write new ordinances,
and we keep 'em going through the same
old thing over and over.
And when it comes to enforcement of these properties, we,
we, we don't, they're, it's actually not doing anything.
We look at violations as a tool for us to get compliance.
They don't comply on the ones we with that, that,
that do go to an owner.
And the ones that's abandoned.
They just, it just continue to exist.
Uh, so wanna work with you just like we did
with the, uh, towing in in the coca.
Thank you. Um, to create some policy
around what we do about this.
'cause it makes no sense to keep on writing the same tickets
over and over when we know this property's abandoned.
It's not gonna do anything for enforcement.
And then half the time, department
of law lets the tickets go.
They don't, they don't even do anything.
Which leads me to my next thing.
Earlier, I think it was asked
Like, can I just comment on that real quick?
Yeah, go ahead. Just know that full 100% support it.
Um, we used to pick up fly dumping, for example,
for a hundred bucks, $200.
We worked together with this group
and got to where the fine was $1,500.
mm-Hmm. You know, so I think
if we work together collectively on these abandoned, uh,
properties, because it's not just
in certain areas, it's everywhere.
The abandoned properties are everywhere,
where sometimes these banks
or these owners don't even know that they're on their role.
And so if there's something we can do with you as a team,
it's a huge problem for us.
And that's a real problem
for the neighborhood. So we acknowledge that
That's one of our biggest, biggest issues.
Um, and with respect to enforcement, uh,
again, the city of Chicago, the law department,
and they have a lot of turnover.
So they don't even know that this is,
this is an habitual offender and they constantly let 'em go.
And it turns out to be cheaper not even to do the work,
not even to maintain the properties
because they know they ain't gonna get fined
or they ain't gonna pay 10%.
It makes no sense. So it, it's, it's all,
All four of that.
Yeah. Um, uh, earlier it was either Auman Taylor,
or Dow asked for the listing of all the, uh, violations.
Um, and, uh, that have gone, that we've received.
I wanna make seek about being very clear what the, uh,
with the, with the, with the ask.
'cause I wanna see that too. How many
of those tickets are actually, are,
what's the outcome of the tickets?
Are they thrown away? I mean, are they, what, what?
And then I wanna see how many of these properties,
how many tickets are written for these properties over a,
at the very least a 10 year period, five to 10,
a five in a 10 year period.
So if we can get that, that'll give us an
idea how we can look at some things.
Um, another discussion that was earlier,
uh, was the, the about trees and the planting of the trees.
Um, you, you responded
or some, I think it was, uh, Rodriguez,
I think it was talking about
how good the trees are to the environment and everything.
Okay. I will absolutely concede that there's a benefit
of having trees and environment.
But I don't, I want to have,
also have on the record the opposite side of that,
that a lot of these trees are causing problems in our
neighborhoods to our homeowners.
Um, you know, tree roots are getting inside the, getting
inside the, uh, not plumbing,
but the sewer system and causing problems.
You know, I think you said that it, you got the statistic
that, uh, a fully developed tree absorbs 30 gallons of, of,
of, of, of water.
Well, we're for just like, if,
if well tree roots are in some
of these pro are causing problems for the infrastructure
gallons are going into some of our houses too.
And so I, while we saying all these good things about trees,
I want to also put on the record that some
of these trees are creating big problems for our homeowners.
And while we seek to plant se for 75,000 new trees
that we, we got, we got a, a nice subset of trees
that are wreaking havoc on our neighborhoods.
Um, so, which leads me to another point in that
a lot of new trees have popped up in
my ward, and I won't go into that.
I know you, uh, you have more, I'm not going into it.
We'll talk about off later.
Uh, all And they're being planted. I understand.
I was under the impression that either sea die planted the
trees or streets and sands.
Now I'm hearing by the department of, uh,
the mayor's office under a environmental sustainability
initiative, they also are planting trees.
Can you confirm that?
Let me, let me get clarification on that, Malcolm.
Is that who's,
we're out there planting seed dots out there planting.
Um, who's the, who's another group out there?
I know they plant the smaller trees than we plant.
'cause we, our trees are a little bit bigger than the
ones that we'll see. Malcolm,
Malcolm Whiteside, deputy Commissioner, bill of Forestry.
The only other group that's planting will be open lands
where we give our permits to them.
And they're, they're planting smaller trees like one
and a half inch caliber trees.
Okay. Um, and you guys already know this,
but you know, they're planting trees where they want to,
trees are being planted where they want to.
So I have areas where trees are planted that now
are caught are are, are impactful to us being able
to maintain lots
because now instead the tractors are not able to go
because now they have a tree in the middle of it.
So I think about, I bought it already to attention
and I wanna make sure we, we address that.
Uh, but I'm looking to you guys to ensure
that trees are just not planted to be planted them.
I understand if constituents want 'em,
and I know you guys verify, that's fine.
Won't argue with that. But
to put 'em in our lots on the side of, on the side
of ox on the side of va, that's, that's, that's,
that's unacceptable.
Um, um, so, and you guys know how I feel about these trees.
The other part to the planting
of the trees in this initiative to plant 75,000,
we already were experiencing operational issues for a lack
of a better term, with
how we maintaining our current stock of trees.
Now we are adding 75,000 more, I don't know
what the math would equate to, to add 75,000 more trees.
And in five years, what, how much more staff you would need
to maintain that in addition to our regular.
So while we wanna do all these initiatives,
who's putting the operational policy behind that?
'cause if your catastrophe plant 75 more trees,
I would be first to advocate for you
to have more staff to deal with that.
You know, we'll always take more staff.
But, um, to, to your, to your point, we lose a lot
of trees too, to storm damage, um, to dead trees.
Uh, we remove between storm damage and, and dead trees.
This year we remove about 5,500 trees.
So we're removing trees. Um, but your point's taken.
And, um, I say the block
that I live on right now, um,
was redone about 20 years ago.
Mm-Hmm. And those trees were all, uh, planted at that.
Most of the trees on that block were planted at that time.
And I'm not gonna say it takes 20 years for a tree
to get trimmed, but they're almost to the point where,
so these, these trees that we're planting now,
I think we got a while on those.
Malcolm, if you can clarify Sure.
To the level that you want it to be.
You're such a politician, Cole,
But I understand. And, um, no, you,
Yeah. All
right. My time is, so, uh, policies, um, what,
what are the responsibility
of the laborers from a policy standpoint?
What are they supposed to report?
I I situation where, you know, our laborers in the alleys,
every alley, every alley in the city,
and let's go to the seventh ward.
I've had situations where I've had fly dumping
where this is alleys or certain alleys that we have not seen
because we go out and look
and we just don't, we don't see everything.
But the laborers in the alley every, every week.
All of them. And what is the reporting requirement
for you guys if they see fly dumpers?
Do they supposed, are they supposed
to report it if they see broken or damaged trash bans?
Are they supposed to report it if they see
garbage in the alley?
Are they supposed to clean up, report it?
If they see tires in the alley, if they see abandoned in,
in, in hazardous cars, are they supposed to report it?
Because that, that extra set
of eyes in our alleys, in our neighborhoods help us.
Uh, Tommy Johnson literally, um,
brought everybody in the rccs, the supervisors,
and we have these discussions that we're, as you mentioned,
I've said it numerous times,
we hit everybody's house once a week.
Mm-Hmm. We see everything, see him, we see everything.
So we need to be proactive in everything we do,
because nobody's gonna be interested in,
in supporting streets and
sanitation if we're not doing our jobs.
Right. So Tommy's made it perfectly clear to the RCCS
to get this message down, um, that,
Hey, these are great jobs.
These are really good jobs.
Take, let's take pride in our city
and let's take ownership of these alleys
and let's, if it's on the ground, pick it up.
And that's kinda always been the motto.
If it's on the ground, pick it up.
If you see something, say something.
If you, if you run across something, report something
so we can take care of it.
Because the only thing we can't take care
of is stuff we're not aware of.
And a lot of times, going back to
where we were, we're trying to, we're trying to figure out,
so the assistant general, the, uh, division soups,
the ward soups, they're, they're, they're made aware.
Um, and not just if fall in deaf ears. Yeah.
And, and you guys, um, enforced this, uh,
you gave him the talk and this is, this is gospel now,
this is what they pick it up,
pick it up, this is the mode of operation,
Pick it up. And then
you have Sarah Cola, who's the deputy commissioner.
We got, um, uh, Juan Gonzalez, who's a general sup.
We got Manni Gonzalez, them going through these alleys
and seeing it and go, you just, we have Kelly who does,
who does, um, make sure that they're doing their job.
We'll go out and try to stay ahead of Inspector General
and do audits of, of teams
to make sure they're doing that. Okay.
And last thing, Jay, um,
you talked about recycling earlier.
You talked about 80, what did you
Say? 80, 80,000
tons.
Yeah. So what about the recycle trash
that they deem contaminated and don't pick up?
How do we what, let's talk about a little bit that, 'cause I
Believe, and again, I'm gonna fact check Chris,
I ask Chris to fact check what I'm saying,
but I believe that it, the number was 85% of the stuff
that goes to LRS.
Is that, is that number correct Chris?
Or do I gotta get that number through the chair is actually
process as far as contamination.
The question is what, how much is contaminated?
What are we doing for the contamination
Deputy com Deputy Commissioner Crystal Vey?
Um, that is correct. It's, uh,
we get an annual report from our vendor from LRS.
They do an audit of all the BlueCart material
that they're collecting for a certain period.
And they run it through their, uh, processing equipment
and determine how much residual
or material that's not recyclable.
And commissioner's. Correct.
80% of that material that's collected is recycled, sent
to different processors throughout the Midwest.
20% of it ends up being a residual Mm-Hmm.
And what does that equate to from a financial standpoint?
For us, it, I basically want to find out,
is this really worth is,
is this worth doing in the city of Chicago?
Is recycling really worth it? I get recycling.
But from a monetary standpoint, are we benefiting from this?
I'm gonna, I'm gonna say in the last 12 years, we've,
we've done a million tons
of recycling.
So I I truly believe
that it's a path we gotta continue going down
Monetary. How does that
benefit us?
I get, I get Does
that benefit us from the bottom, bottom line?
Ve what do you got to say on that one? Yeah,
So, uh, deputy Commissioner Chris Vey.
So I think that the, the real benefit alderman is
that the fact that that material is not going to a landfill.
Okay. The landfill life
and longevity that we will have for the future is,
is exponentially grown
because of the recycling program. Got
It. I think that
Was a huge financial windfall for
How much is it costing us for that benefit?
Well, the, the earlier we
provided the, the cost for the LRS contract,
which is $29 million.
How much? 29 million.
So, So it's about 30, about
36 million is the cost.
There'd still be a cost, if we picked it up
and just called it garbage, there would still be
that cost as, as well.
Yeah. 'cause that was one of the things
that was put on the table, uh, this recycling.
Okay. Alright.
Well, I wanted to clarify because I, the,
the last question that I understood,
I gave the 29 million for LRS.
It's, it's, it's about, it's 29 million for LRS,
but it, it's if you add another 9 million to that,
so you're at about 38 million total.
All. So the recycling program in the city
of Chicago is costing us $38 million.
38 million for the recycling
program for the city of Chicago
Is Deputy Commissioner Chris Vey.
That that is accurate. Oh, so that's the ls, LRS contracts
that operates in four of our zones.
And then we have two zones
that are still under municipal operations.
Wow. Okay. All right. Um, and we
Pick up 800,000 tons of garbage to put it in perspective.
Yeah. Okay. And the benefit of it's not going to,
it's going to, it's not going to our landfills.
Got it. Okay.
Um, all the other stuff, I'll talk to you offline,
but, uh, streets of sanitation, you guys are arguably one
of the most important department.
I mean, you guys have helped me stay afloat while I get
development and, and, and, and do the more things done.
But in my ward,
when they floated this whole property tax increase,
they went straight to talked about services.
Um, the last time it was the property tax was floated.
They hit me with the services.
I will admit this time around it wasn't as hard,
but they still got a lot of, a lot
of issues with certain things.
And I'll continue to work with you guys on it.
Um, um,
because again, this the quality of life
that happens in the streets, those alleys,
that it's a big deal to my constituents and, and the,
and the, and the issues with the abandoned properties,
the cutting of grass, that's all issues.
Oh, got one more policy thing.
Um, we can't cut in order to cut a, uh, grass,
they have to measure out at 10 inches.
And that is for re for residential property as well
as privately owned vacant lots. Yeah.
The, as far as in order for us to issue a ticket,
it has to be over 10 inches.
Um, what we're seeing is
with the city lots, they don't have to be 10
Inches. I know about the city, but the
privately owned. Privately
Owned, yes. 10 inches or more.
That's ordinance. Okay. City ordinance.
I want, I'm on work with you guys to potentially separate
that out because that having
to wait on a privately owned lot to weigh each 10 inches
and the size of them, that puts a, a, a, a,
a scheduling pressure on how we get those cut.
I think residential. Okay.
If you wanna leave it at 10, fine. But these lots, we need
to be able to cut those a lot sooner because they're bigger.
You know, we need to, we, we need
to hit 'em a lot more frequent.
And, and I think that would, and know it would benefit me.
And I have one of the least awards with the least amount of,
well, well, with the least amount vacant lots.
But for the ones that have 3000 privately owned,
vacant lots, that I think that would,
that would be a big help.
Um, so that's something I want to sit and, and,
and put on the table, you know, residential fine.
Wanna keep it at 10? I wanted to bring it down to seven.
But for privately owned vacant lots,
we need to be able to cut 'em.
We need to be able to cut 'em five.
We already know they're vacant. We know
no one's gonna go out there and cut it.
We already know. So let's just, let's be able to cut 'em.
33,000, 33,000 tickets were issued this year for
privately owned lots.
So that's multiple. So to your point, I'm, I'm,
I'm jumping on your point there. Yeah.
And, and Sam, well, again,
I'm not worried about the tickets because we're
not, and we'll see the numbers.
We're not benefiting from these tickets.
We're not benefit from revenue source.
That's almost 20 million in from
Term. And that goes back
to he's are vacant.
We are never going to collect. We're never gonna collect.
So that's something we need to, we need
to talk about. Um, so we,
We'll sign you up for the 300 then,
because you, you wanna spend a lot of money.
I see.
That's the, that's big little brother right there. Okay.
But, um, all right. I'm, I'm finishing up.
So wanna say, as usual, Debbie, I told you earlier,
I was about to, I was Debbie, thank you for everything.
Uh, Mike, appreciate the quick conversation we just saw,
gave me clarity on a bunch of stuff.
Appreciate what we did with the abandoned,
uh, tow ordinance. No, thank
You for that too. Yeah. Thank
you for that. It it, they
that was a win. Yeah. That
Was a win. That was
A win. And that's again,
us working together
and understanding your PowerPoint, your pressure points.
Mm-Hmm. And us being able to do what we do.
And, uh, that was, that was hopefully you
got your answers from the Coco. Yeah.
Oh yeah. He, he, Craig, Craig, he, we gonna bring 'em
to the table a couple of times, you know?
Uh, Tommy, thank for the quality of life crew.
They, they've been working with us.
Gloria can't do without you.
And I got my man, Jimmy, man, I, I, where's that guy?
He to leave? There he is, man.
Jimmy, thank you for everything, man. Appreciate you.
Uh, I, we, we gonna put,
I'm doing this on purpose now since you want No,
we gonna put you in for three 50.
No, that's all I have for sure. Three 50.
That's all I have, guys. Thank you. Alright. Thank you.
Uh, thank you. Thank you.
Chair Mitchell. Uh, Alder. McQuinn.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon, commissioner. Good
Afternoon. Commissioner.
I, I would agree you, you have a great team
and you guys go above and beyond
and, uh, it's a reflection of your leadership.
So thank you for, for all, all of your hard work.
Um, I'd like to begin with talking about snow
and just to make sure that you're fully staffed.
Um, and we have the appropriate number of salt.
Don't wanna walk into any traps like we have in the past
where we're begging other municipalities for salt.
So we're, we're good on salt. Looking into 2025.
Yeah. No, we work with the, uh, budget office.
And, and through this whole process, it was, Hey,
we gotta start with the 425,000
and, uh, we were able to get to that number again.
And so we're in. Good. We're in a great place for salt. And
Your fleet of vehicles is ready to go.
We got 30 new, uh, spreaders. We're ready to go.
We're gonna, I keep saying we're gonna see some,
uh, probably overnight.
We're we'll be out, uh, bridges and overpasses.
Um, it's gonna be real close. Yeah.
And, um, drivers.
Drivers. Yeah. We're good. We're good. We're good.
We've been working with 700,
Uh, two hour guys are good.
Uh, hats off. Uh, we got our, we got 160 on right now.
We got 20 more to, uh, onboard.
Okay. Um, commissioner changing to fleet of vehicles.
Uh, there's been a lot of talk today about garbage trucks.
Um, uh, recognizing Covid had a, an,
an adverse impact on our fleet.
About how many new trucks are we putting on a year?
Um, I floated out there 180 5.
I'm, I fact checked myself during lunch
and it's 1 95 in that ballpark there
we're at 20 garbage trucks a year.
That's kind of been our cadence. Yeah. Of what we got.
We have, uh, 30 new spreaders, which spreaders were
a tough ask for the last couple years.
Um, and another tough ask was us, for se,
with semis and trailers.
Um, we literally were able to send
and towers, we got new towers and we had three new clams.
We got seven, seven new towers, Malcolm, was it?
Seven new towers and three clams.
So we're back in the game.
Um, we're back in the game as far as getting our equipment.
Do we need to, do we need to make up for
that, those covid years?
Do we have to buy more garbage trucks to make up?
I, I was really worried about the spreaders
because, um, a worker, a, a a worker
for us has 50 plus years on a job.
Nick, er, and I asked him what was the problem in 79.
'cause he was here in 79
and he literally brought up equipment.
So for those covid years, I was literally saying, Hey,
when I got in here, we were at like 12
to 14 years on the turn for a new piece of equipment.
Right. Which was great. I said, we're gonna be at 16, 18.
And, and, you know, when, when stuff happens,
it's gonna be due to lack of equipment.
It was a great opportunity
to start seeing the equipment coming in again.
So to answer your question, if we continue on this cadence,
I believe we're in a good place due to the fact
that right now our equipment as a whole, um, is
a little over 10 years old on average.
Now that's on average. Um, so we continue to turn it over.
As I mentioned earlier, we got 26 new spreaders, I'm sorry,
sweepers over the last couple years.
Um, I was waiting years for,
um, trailers.
We got fif, we got 10 50 yard trailers.
We're we're, we're in a good spot
with equipment at this point.
Alright. Um, let's talk a little bit about laborers.
Do you have, do you have enough laborers?
I think last year this time we talked about like having a
pool of laborers similar to like you have a pool of drivers.
Have you advanced that thought?
Uh, we took it a one step further.
Um, we worked with 10 0 1.
We worked with budget, we worked with this mayor's office.
Um, Lao opened up their training center for us,
and we were able to onboard 70 CPS students where
we were kind of looking that towards our pool
and we worked with 'em and got through the program.
And I'm happy to say I know 70
young folks from CPS 55 of 'em took, took the opportunity
and became 10 0 1 laborers.
Um, and I also like to take this time to say that
all these industries need electricians and plumbers
and laborers and carpenters.
So there's a lot of opportunities for, for these young folks
to, uh, try to take advantage of. Yeah,
I couldn't agree with you more.
Um, that's, that's great to hear.
Um, commissioner, uh,
talking a little bit about tree trimming and,
and we've, we've talked a lot about this
and I, I think you're on the right path.
I, I think your numbers are very impressive.
Um, I would continue to encourage you to, to find
room in the schedule to take on
pressure points from Alderman.
So as long as you could find that balance,
I don't think it's an either or.
I think we could do both. So I would con continue
to encourage you to find that room in the schedule.
And alls I'm asking on those, if we can get
that message out, is to, if you do get that call,
have the ward who just go out
and verify that what's happening is actually
happening, just so we can continue down that path.
Sure, sure. Um, my, my last point is I just wanted
to recognize my ward superintendent Mo White, I think is
the best in the city of Chicago.
So thank you for everything that you guys do,
certainly appreciate
and look forward to working with you this winter.
Thanks a lot. Who's gonna win this weekend?
Are you, are you laying points?
Who's up? Who's up? Who's playing?
Oh, ought to be, that'll be a good one.
Where's, where are you playing at? At Rita? Okay.
I have a, uh, cousin on that team.
So, yeah, Rita Carmel No way.
I'm just,
Hey, if I could clarify, sorry, go ahead.
I'm being told it's 20
and I'm looking at Malcolm to, it's 21 Clams, 21 Towers.
I'm sorry, 21 Towers Kelly. 21 Towers.
We're all in agreeance on that 21 towers.
I said 10, so I misspoke.
And it's three clams, three clams, 21 towers.
Are those the new electric ones?
No, the, the towers.
Kelly, I'm looking at you. No.
Okay. No, but for clarification, 21 towers.
I said 10 I misspoke. And three clams. That's, that's big.
That's that's big. That, that's getting us through stuff,
uh, without having to rent stuff.
Um, so, uh, my hat's off to, uh, the efforts of fleet.
He's cloud.
Alright. All right. The back, back, uh, back roller cold.
Well, Cole, you know, Cole didn't eat lunch, so you know,
Cole didn't eat lunch, so we we're giving him a little pass.
Uh, au Vasquez followed by, uh, Alder, uh, hat out.
There she is. Der Hatten.
Thank you. Thank you very much, chairman.
Uh, looking at the time, you guys are amazing.
Thank you for all the work that you do.
Shout out to Bill Hoal, obviously our word soup.
Um, I got four quick do the chair questions
before I get to, to any.
So first, um, if through the chair you could send, um,
preferably like a spreadsheet
of the private hall licenses units they
serve and the cost they pay.
Um, just wanna get a sense of that.
So when we're talking about the garbage fee, some
of us has also been talking about the private hall and see
They put it on paper in longhand for them.
What, I'm
Just messing No, just wanna make sure.
Knowing that, like, they tear up the alleys too,
that if the, if the bins aren't full,
they're cleaning 'em, they're dumping 'em in the alley.
And so there should be some skin in the game there too.
So do the chair wanted that, do the chair also, um,
you mentioned the rat abatement pilots.
So if you can e list the different types
and where they're occurring as far as the pilots,
whether it's the contraceptives, carbon dioxide, just
to get a sense of like what's all happening, um,
through the chair, the quality of life rotation.
So the number per ward, how many we've seen
as far as, uh, visits.
Um, and then the next one, it kind
of dovetails to a full question.
So, uh, do the chair, the trees trimmed
and a map of the grids that have been completed.
So, um, I guess my first question along those lines is,
we know that there was funds for some like registry portal
to get that information.
Like to know what the progress has been
because I think
that you guys do an amazing job on the tree trims.
It's increased 118%, uh,
year over year as far as getting it done.
So the challenge that I see isn't necessarily about the work
being done, it's about the way it's communicated
to the ward offices and
how we communicated it to the neighbors.
So just wanted to get a sense
of what's happening with that portal.
One second please. Yeah, no problem.
Malcolm, you provided me that, correct?
I'm sorry. Did you provide
him this information he's searching for, uh, as it relates
to the, uh, portal and the tree grid?
Uh, trims
Provide a number to the chair.
Well, Like, like I said, yeah, do the chair for the,
the trees trimmed in the grid.
I think that's just something I wanna
have to be able to send the neighbors.
Right. Malcolm,
If you can give Malcolm, give, give, uh,
alderman here the update on actual,
where we're at with that grant.
We got that grant, we discussed that yesterday.
The grant for the portal so we can inventory the trees.
Can you just give him the update on that?
Yeah. So I can give you information.
So it's RFP that's right now sitting in procurement and,
and should be going out advertising on January.
And then I think it's, I think six months
after that it should be launched.
Okay. Definitely. And we'll make sure to follow up.
We wanna be in on kind of
that conversation the same we were with 3 1 1.
Can I just read you what we
had prepared for you on this one?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Uh, 3M Grant from USDA
through the inflation reduction act under the direction
of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources
and Community Forestry Program.
This grant, grant will be carried over to 2025.
Uh, request for proposal is in procurement.
Hope to advertise January, February.
Uh, it will identify every street tree species size,
condition, risk assessment will help us
with the area pruning.
And by giving us data we do not have in each grid block
and address, we'll identify trees needing re uh, removing.
And those that need to, uh, be addressed due to risk remove,
prune with crack, et cetera, help us prioritize work.
There will also be a revision update
of our 2023 management plan
with input from community members.
Awesome. No, thank you for that.
I think, like I said, I, I remember negotiating
and get more of the tree trim crews
to help get the tree grid system in place.
I think you guys have done a phenomenal job,
and I know that often you may not hear it
'cause people, especially folks who just like,
it's their first term, and even people in our staff,
they'll be like, the complaints we get now.
And I'm like, you guys don't know what it was like prior
to the grid system when even if you put in a request,
you had to wait for three years, four years.
So, um, yeah,
I just wanna make sure we're able to communicate that.
So thank you, uh, tons for that.
Um, the next question I got is related to viaduct cleanings.
So we've got a number
of viaducts do Ravenswood across the 40th ward.
And, you know, when we call request,
Debbie Lopez has an amazing job.
We do get that stuff done.
I just don't know what a regular rotation of
that can or should look like.
And moreover, when we talk about the, the lining
to keep the pigeons from being there, everyone's like CDOT
or Union Pacific and like, I just want to get it up and done
and never know who to hold accountable to actually get some
of that lining reinforced.
'cause we've got these neighbors that like
to feed the pigeons all the time
and it makes it even worse than the vita
and it's a regular occurrence.
I, I'm gonna say, uh,
with your ward superintendent being out there,
those concerns, I always would push that to Deb de Lopez
for the simple rent reason.
If it's not cdot, she can be the conduit that can track it
for those power for those, uh, pinch points for you. Okay.
Awesome. Yeah, so just continue to push 'em
to, to Deb on those.
She deals with the Viox, she deals with the unhoused,
she deals with those issues.
Uh, we'd have to power wash.
So I would, I would continue to, uh, use Deb as
that resource on that issue. Okay.
Yeah, no, like, I'll just double check.
I said I wanna make sure that I'm not overburdening either
and being like every week it's a thing.
Right. So, um, thank you
For that. We're, we're seven days
a week. 365. So we get it.
Well, okay, so on that, on that seven, uh, 365 last,
the number one issue we used
to get at the ward office was the tree trims.
And we see we're able to work and get that approved.
Now the number one thing is street sweeping.
And the main question, which I think a number members ask,
but I still have a handle on it, why it's not able
to go even later than November.
Is it a staffing issue? Is it a storage issue?
If you wanted to have a team that also does street sweeping
and the one that's doing the snowplow,
why can't it just move to like, Hey,
we're gonna do till mid-December if it's not snowing.
Oh, um, we're sweeping
the week of Thanksgiving after.
So then you're the following week,
you're looking at December 1st.
We're posting that week of Thanksgiving.
We're, uh, there's no enforcement on that ticket wise. Yeah.
'cause it's not on the, it's not on the, uh, website. Yeah.
So know that that is a piece of equipment that has
more mechanical, movable parts
than probably most pieces of equipment.
And they're major overhauls.
So we're ready for that April 1st.
It's in our best interest to get
as many leaves off the street as we can.
So we know we wanna street, uh, sweep,
but we're getting snow tonight.
We're getting, they're saying we're getting snow tonight.
They're saying we're getting snow tomorrow.
If the ground temps come into play,
like right now the sub temperatures are 50, 50 degrees.
We're in a good place.
But those ground temperatures get cold
and we're adding water to that.
You're, you're, you're creating an ice skating rink.
So we ask that when your ward superintendent
does that sheet for you for the season four
street sweeping that they look at it
and you know where your mature area of trees are,
where your biggest problems are.
You wanna end up in those locations in November. Right.
Do 'em last. Just do 'em last.
That's where you wanna end up and know that. I'm sorry. No,
No. We're on, we're
on our,
our we have sweepers on Yeah. Year round.
So I think similarly it might be a communications thing
where like if our people, our neighbors understood like,
hey, because the ground actually is at this
temperature, here are the reasons why.
If we literally had as ward office
as almost like a one pager that were like, Hey,
a neighbor's calling you to complain about why we need do
street sweeping a week later we just go, here's here's the q
and a, the FAQ as to why that's occurring.
I think it would help at least address
it for some of the neighbors.
'cause I think, I'll be honest, sometimes they ask us
and I'm like, well, I'm trying to wrap my head
around what we can't go later.
That, that would be, I think, helpful to a number of us.
Yeah. 'cause um, again, those things gotta be overhauled.
It's a big, big lift.
Because if I don't have 50, if I don't have 50 sweepers on
April 1st or that first week,
my phone doesn't stop bringing Yeah. You know, so,
And getting a sense of that, of like what all it takes
to overhaul these things and why you need
to take 'em off the field to make sure
they're ready for the next year.
I just think the more information neighbors get,
the more they can wrap their head around it
and the less they're complaining.
But when they don't have those answers
and not just here through a variety of lenses,
that's when they get more frustrated.
So the more we're equipped with that information, the better
Anyone on this team sitting in that box, myself included,
we can sit with your team.
You have a lot of former ward superintendents in
that box, including myself.
You got eda, Tommy Johnson, Gloria Pittman,
we get the PowerPoints and if we can help you format answers
and questions, we're all for it. Yeah,
That'd be great. Um,
another through the chair question.
I know, um, our colleague Alderman Conway kind
of mentioned the way you guys were doing the process
to determine what requests we were getting
that weren't 3 1 1 and that, not about credit,
but that's not even being recognized
as far as the work that you're doing.
So through the chair, if you could send any findings
that were came from that study
or what they were looking at to go, here's what we saw,
for example, and we know this to be true
'cause we use Airtable and other means to record it.
There's a number of categories that are hit.
We get a whole bunch of these, but none
of these are 3 1 1 able that it's good for us
to know then kind of get ahead as well.
So if you could send that information through the chair
as you have it, I'd appreciate, um,
and last question I've got
is related to curbing.
Uh, some of our colleagues know what that is.
That's when you've got the folks who are, they buy cars off
of auction, they get 'em repaired, they leave them parked.
They don't have license plates on them. Right.
And, and basically
because you've got the seven day sticker,
you put the sticker on, they move the car somewhere else.
Now they, it's not seven days anymore.
And so what we wanted is the ability to actually enforce
and tow these things literally same day.
And so when we've had conversations,
sometimes CPD will do it, sometimes streets in sand.
But the protocol and process isn't clear to us
that if I know that on certain blocks in my ward,
these guys are just basically selling cars left and right
and parking with no license plate,
that we could just basically tow 'em
because they don't have the plates.
All right. I'm gonna give you the hard truth answer.
I'm gonna have Le Coco answer it.
And this is, this is what it is. Yeah.
This is, and he's gonna give you the answer.
So if there's ways that that has to be fixed, um,
because of the, the body doesn't like his answer.
This is his answer. And,
and you're talking to somebody with 30 years
of experience in this business.
So Le Coco, did you hear the question?
Mike Le Coco Traffic services streets, his hand.
The bottom line is you'd have to change the ordinance. Yep.
That's the only, that's, that's it.
The only way we could tow it,
because if it doesn't have a
for sale sign in a window, we can't tow it.
It cannot be towed immediately.
If it doesn't have, if it has no plates,
we gotta give a two day notice.
So other than being parked in a no parking tow zone,
there's nothing else we could do.
I, one, I appreciate that answer.
'cause we actually have an ordinance in committee
that we were told by Department of Law to hold onto, uh,
we're gonna let that one go and get something passed
because there's a number of colleagues here
that are just fed, fed up.
And so we're all gonna move this thing.
And the department of law, if they don't have an answer as
to why they wanna stop it, it ain't gonna matter.
'cause we gotta pass it. 'cause we deal
with their constituents all the time about this one.
And wanna make sure that you all feel empowered.
Because if these guys
that are selling these cars just bought themselves a lot,
none of us would have a problem.
So why not just boot 'em, tow 'em, get 'em to pay whatever,
or get the hell off the parking space.
So thank you so much. That's the last question I've got.
Thank you, chairman.
Thank you, alderman. Uh, I, I think the, uh,
point about the curve storm, again, this is not new.
And, and I think I've had the same conversations with, uh,
deputy Le Coco, uh, around that.
Um, I, I definitely think we need to tackle it.
'cause again, people are turning, uh,
the streets into their own, uh, car lot.
Um, especially around areas of high traffic.
Uh, no plates, uh, nothing.
And again, they, they are very good at the cat
and mouse game as I've dealt with it back and forth.
So definitely something that, uh, we can, uh, we can tackle
and, uh, tackle and address for, for everybody.
So, um, okay. All right. Um,
Alman Gutierrez,
Thank you, chairman.
Um, I don't have no questions, uh, right now.
Just wanted to, uh, thank you commissioner
and all your staff for the great work
that you guys are been doing, uh, with our 14th ward.
I know I wanna also wanna shout out to Juan Montoya,
which is our ward superintendent,
that it's also doing an amazing job and to you all.
'cause I know it's, it's, uh, a lot of work,
but you guys get it done in a really fast manner.
And, um, just that we'll keep in communication if anything
arises, I will keep you posted.
But thank you. Thank
You for the kind words.
Thank you all the crews. Do you have anything?
Thank you, chairman. I also, um, I don't, well, I'll echo
what one of my colleagues said, but I also wanna say thank
you to our commissioner.
You're outstanding
and, you know, leaning onto you for anything that we need.
Calls, questions, you're always there.
But also your team, Debbie Dervin Park, we love you,
uh, for all the help with the, uh, pigeon, uh, poop cleaning
around the viex.
That is greatly appreciated.
Um, and Luis and everybody, um, Mike Drake. Thank you.
So, um, LACO, I rather say, um, thank you for, for,
for the help, but, um, things that I, I, you know, I,
I'm gonna disagree a little bit with one of my colleagues,
uh, regarding the, uh, forestry grid.
Um, I, I understand that it's more of, you know, um, how,
how many treats get quantity.
I'd rather say that's what I was looking for.
But then, you know, um, James does a,
a great job taking care of those requests.
But sometimes to have a, a area
or grid to take about two to three years to get there, it,
it, it can be concerning, um, as well,
because sometimes that's, you know, based on your grid.
If, if we we're in the East
and by the time we get
to the West, it's gonna be a long time.
We do have some residents express concern when it comes
to waiting for a long time to get tree trimming.
So for me is, I understand the quantity,
but I, I disagree with the way it's done now
because sometimes, again, it takes way longer
to get some tree trim that the residents are calling.
They are requesting for it, rather than some of them
that may not even care for it.
But then I have somebody who's angry
because again, it's taking longer to,
to get their tree trim.
So that's my personal take.
I know it seems that it's working for, for all of you
and some of, uh, some of the colleagues,
but speaking with other my colleagues,
we have the same concerns.
So that, um, know that we can continue to work together,
um, no differently than we do on any everything else.
And know that before we did this, um,
if you put in a tree trim, it could take up to three years
to get done for a tree trim.
Literally, you, you, you might not believe that, um,
because, um, it was literally two
to three years to get a tree trim.
So it's, we're we're, we're on our path.
Like I said earlier, we're gonna hit 180,000
within the two year period.
Um, know that we'll work with you.
I just asked, I've said this a couple times,
that if you're getting those calls,
if you're getting those calls, have your ward soup soup,
go take a look at it and just make sure that
that tree is hitting the, have the ward soup look at it
so then we're not wasting resources.
Exactly. Um,
and know that we'll work with you if you have an area
that is just overgrown.
We're running across trees
that haven't been trimmed in 50 years,
that never been trimmed.
So, um, if you have an area that's your
pressure point there, we'll work with you on that.
Know that I'll,
I'll go ahead and share that with you.
Um, and I just wanna echo what, um,
alderman Vasco said about the cars.
We don't have these individuals who have sort
of a car dealership based on the streets,
and they take all the parking spot they sit there
for, for a long time.
I've been having two critical locations in my ward where
I feel like I can, I have done everything I possibly can
with what the ordinance says,
but I think I will be supporting that ordinance
to change things.
Because at one point, um, you know, your staff was out there
with me and the 17th district as well.
There were 30 cars parked between two streets,
and it just saturated the whole parking situation.
But, um, I hope we can change things, um,
because these cars need to get towed.
The only way they're gonna learn is if their cars get towed
and they gotta pay for, for, for those fines.
Well, I'm, we're all in on that ordinance conversation.
And Le Coco will definitely, we'll, we'll put a,
a plan together with, um, police and,
and, uh, BACP Mike with police and BACP.
And, uh, we'll, we'll try to get
that situation better for you. Perfect.
Thank you. Thank you, chairman.
Thank you. Uh, two things for you.
One, uh, alderman Quinn has an
innovative solution on tree trimming.
You should talk to him and
he'll probably help you out with that.
Uh, second, uh, if LRB, I'm sure they are listening, uh,
if you could walk and prepare an ordinance for, um,
the change needed for the, uh,
for sale sign for sale vehicle, um, parked on the street,
not sure if that's needing a exact sign
or maybe some language that talks about
one reasonably to believe that this is a vehicle for sale.
Um, and I don't know what that looks like,
but you guys are the lawyers
and they should be able to figure that out so that we can,
uh, process that, uh, particular ordinance,
because I think many of us have the same challenge
and problem as it relates to, uh, curb stone in, in, uh,
certain, certain areas of the community.
So, uh, alderman Bill, followed by Alderman Mosley.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Commissioner.
Hello, sir. Alright.
Just got a couple of quick questions for you.
Um, how many total positions do you have in your budget
Total positions? 2190.
21 90 21 90. How many vacancies?
Uh, 97 91.
Okay. Is that predominantly the vacancies that you have,
is that for summer or temporary help,
or No, that's, are those just
Full-time Positions? Full-time?
How many of those positions have been open
for more than 12 months?
Uh, I, I, I mentioned earlier, uh, so you know,
we've hired over 600 people in the last two years.
Mm-Hmm. Um, close to 300 this year.
And that doesn't include another 340 that we hire through,
um, uh, our two hour program for Snow.
Mm-Hmm. So you're looking at almost 900,
over 900 people we've hired in the last two years,
but I, I'll focus on the 600.
And out of the 600 we lost 140 as far
as this department's concerned.
Um, our department, as far as the hiring aspect
of it has been, we've been, we're in real good shape.
So I said to, to the question earlier,
they said nine months, uh, I'd have to get you
that number through the chair.
Okay. Um, and what's your total budget again? I'm sorry?
What's your total budget?
3 52. 352 million.
And I'm sure you cut your 3%
that the administration asked you to trim outta your budget.
What their what?
Just wanna know what that, what your 3% cuts entailed.
That, that's the change right there, right?
Yeah, the change $369,000.
Okay. Does that equate, that doesn't equate to 3%.
No. Okay. So you didn't outta your department,
you did not cut 3% across the board?
Well, they, uh,
I'm gonna let managing deputy please. Eric Colon,
The number guy Managing Deputy Eric Colon.
So we did have some cuts, sir.
We had 31 vacancies that we cut outta there,
and we, we cut some sections throughout the department,
but, um, there's just, um,
salary schedules changes for next year.
So that kind of drives the, um, uh,
the budget back up again.
Mm-Hmm.
Okay. So you're saying you,
it is gonna drive it back up past the
3%, or are you gonna, you gonna cut? So we,
We've made some cuts and then, um, like I said, with,
with cutting 31 vacancies
and then cutting some things out of our non-personnel, um,
just the scheduled salary increases kind
of drives it right back up again.
So, yeah, it only, it only came out to about less than 1%
that we cut for this for next year.
Okay. All right. Mm.
Well, commissioner, as you know, I mean, we're all suffering
with, with budget problems.
If you had to trim some more, I'm not saying
that you all have a lot of fat in your department,
but if you had to trim another 7%,
where do you think you would look to trim that?
If, if you had a charge
to trim another 7% outta your budget?
I would definitely have to continue to work with the team
to, to be able to pri provide that number.
I mean, we're at a level of service that people, um,
are expecting to see, um, every
year over year.
And to, um, be tasked
with cutting positions.
That would be a, a definitely working
with the team to get to that point.
Because if we're talking 353 million,
you know, you're looking at,
you're talking about another 25 million fair to say, um,
that would definitely be something
that we'd have to that mm-Hmm. We'd have to get
Together. Well, I mean, just know,
I'm not talking about laying off,
I'm talking about maybe continue to go
after some more efficiencies and, and eliminating, uh,
or even putting on a shelf some of these open positions
that you may have that haven't been filled in a while.
Understood. Uh, we're, we're in a,
a reference Tommy, 'cause he's got the 30 years,
I'm at the 25, he's got the 30 plus years.
Um, if I go back to John Tulley and,
and showed him the books and people that came
before me, we're in a great, great place
as far as delivering service.
I can't sit here and, and make reasons
or excuses on why we can't get something done.
Because the efforts that have gone into training folks, uh,
as far as the laborers and,
and the labor force training folks, as far
as the effort into the, the equipment
and stuff like that, we've been given those tools
to actually do our job.
So, um, to get into
figuring it out, that's what we do.
We figure things out. So if we're, if we're given a, a,
a a proposition that this is what we have to do, um,
we've, we're, we're in a position
to make tough decisions sometimes.
Okay. No, I get it. Well, I know that, you know, some
of my colleagues have done it
and, you know, we're, we're looking to do it as well.
'cause I know that, uh, you know, some
of my colleagues along with me have a bunch of vacant lots
and, um, you know, with you all having limited equipment,
you know, we are looking at purchasing some equipment,
but we have to figure out, um, how we pay the personnel
to operate the equipment to kind of assist you guys,
you know, with doing the heavy stuff.
But we can kind of try to do the day-to-day stuff
to keep some of these city lots, um, kind of cut down.
Um, but I will tell you one of the biggest problems
that really make a community look bad is the tree line
vegetation that you guys can't get to.
We gotta figure out a way to get manpower to be able to,
you know, get to these tree lines.
'cause even some on some of the mains, you know, it's tough.
Um, and, you know, you have to do that by hand.
You know, so whatever we can do to help aid and assist.
Um, but, you know, I love the department.
You're a great guy. Got a great team in place.
And, uh, you know, you, you're one of the, the, the cream
of the crop when it comes to commissioners in this city,
and I appreciate everything that
you do. So thank you. Thanks
For the kind words.
Thank you, Al. Bill, sign you up for the 302.
All right. Uh, ultimate Clay,
Thank you so much, chairman.
Good afternoon. I just wanna say thank you so much
to the entire team.
Um, my experience has been amazing working
with Streets and Sanitation.
I wanna give you all, uh, your proper kudos for that
because we deal with some complexities
that not a lot of people understand.
We changed the route on the Chicago Pride Parade
this year, and all of you were hands on deck.
There's not one person that I don't think I touched
that didn't say, yep, I got that covered.
Yep. We're working on that
and convening these meetings with
so many people in a room can get overwhelming.
And you all made that a very smooth process.
So I just wanna say thank you.
Wanna give a huge shout out on the record
to my board superintendent Ron Lazar from the 10th Ward, um,
because that man saves my life.
And you all have good employees that understand this job
who come with more than just a typical knowledge of
how to throw away some garbage.
So thank you for that. Um, a couple of questions that I have
for you that we've seen in my neck of the woods is, um,
the protected bike lanes, right?
So as we're trying to create infrastructure
to save pedestrians who like to bike, uh,
we are creating these protected bike lanes,
but then the leaves fall, right?
And we have another bucket that we are trying
to wrap our arms around of who's responsible
for cleaning up these protected bike lanes.
Cole, can you speak to that a little bit, please?
Sure. Um, we work together on everything we do.
Um, know that it's not just an issue for leaves,
it's an issue for litter, it's an issue for snow.
Um, we used to do Lake Street
before they had the productive bike lanes
and they'd push it, we'd push it.
And so we worked together with Commissioner Carney on that.
They do have smaller sweepers, um,
that do go into those areas.
But again, if there's an area of a bike lane
where we can get in with our sweepers, we'll take that.
If you're saying who holds responsibility to that,
I'm sure Carney will sit up here and,
and take responsibility for that.
Okay. Uh, when you see 'em.
But know that we're all into this together.
Um, we don't just pass it up.
If we can get in it
or get at it, we're gonna, we're gonna help out.
Um, but it is a team effort.
Um, we, we, we have to talk in regards of snow on
where they put these productive bike lanes
because our, our plows have to be able to get through there
and, and make those turns.
Um, so it's, it's always a team effort. Yeah.
So, um, I hope that answered your question.
Yeah. I would just love to see, um,
as you're creating the schedule for street cleaning
for next year, if we could potentially just carve
that into it as much as possible.
I know you all try to get it as you go by,
but having an intentional schedule,
I think just helps my constituents, uh,
know when is gonna get cling.
Right. Because, uh, other than that, Ron's gotta go do it.
So I wanna make sure that there's just a consistent basis
that we can put in front of people.
Um, also, how do you work with
the parks department when it comes to homeless encampments?
And I apologize if you already answered this question,
but given my neck of the woods, I wanna make sure
that we're being transparent with
how we work together and clean it up.
As far as how we work with 'em, we post, that's,
that's our aspect of working with them, is we post out,
throw it it over to, uh, Deb, the Lopez, uh,
deputy over street ops that works with that, um,
group hand in hand.
Hi, Debbie, Dale Lopez, deputy Commissioner.
Um, we work closely with Park District
and Department of Family and Support services.
We do post for them.
And in the event they would need help with cleaning,
they would let us know when we would assist them in
that aspect of it, um, with the Department of Family
and Support Services being the lead on those.
Got you. So you all do not have any authority to go
and just remove a tent
that could potentially be left in the parkway?
No, we do not. That's, uh, we can't enforce the law.
We don't make that determination.
We rely on, um, our collaboration with Park District, uh,
Chicago Police Department
and Department of Family Support Services
to make the determination that
that tent is no longer being used.
And then they would tag it
and let us know ready for removal.
Got you. And that process is basically,
you all tag for them.
You put out the warning signs that they have a week
to come clean up the site within a week.
If they do not come and clean it up,
you're back within seven days
and actually getting the okay to clean it up with DFSS?
Correct. For the cleaning? Yeah.
We post the seven day cleaning,
the tent posting is a separate posting that Department
of Family Support services or the Chicago Police Department
would put on the tent
after they determine the tent is not being used.
And then if, if the client comes back
and takes the tent back, we then have
to start the process all over again.
We can't take it, obviously, if someone's in there.
Got you. Um, my, one of my last questions,
and Deb, I wanna get us more than one, uh, streak cleaner.
One, uh, power washer. Okay.
Do y'all know how many power washers we have to split
amongst 50 wards?
You got a power washer?
We have one. We have a power washer. Okay.
For the entire city of Chicago.
So just imagine what happens
when some feces is on the ground.
Okay. Um, so I'm advocating for a better, a,
a more power washer code.
Put that on the list. I'm sorry, bill. We need that.
Um, last
but not least, how many garbage trucks
do we have outta service?
That varies. Um, we put up 291,
uh, refuge trucks.
We have refuge trucks in the loop.
We have, um, basket truck.
I mean, that varies.
Okay. I would love,
and you don't have to answer it right now, I would love
to get that answer through the chair if possible.
Um, and I'm only asking this
because at any given time, I feel like we have a plethora
of garbage trucks that are outta service.
Um, you all pick it up, you all still come and get it,
but it makes it, it pushes things back sometimes.
Um, and then we're the ones
that's getting the calls about overflowing trash
cans, et cetera, et cetera.
Um, so I would love to, to get that number, um,
to see if there are any trends that we need
to be looking at when it comes to our, our fleet of garbage.
We, we can't afford to be down two trucks,
and if we're consistently down 10 to 20 trucks,
that plays a major role.
Um, so I would love to get that through the chair. Okay.
Understood. That's all I got for you. Good people.
I appreciate it.
Thank you. Ottoman Clay.
Um, you have your own power washer. Oh, okay.
I'm just, just asking. Okay.
Alderman Harris, followed by Alderman Curtis.
Thank you. Thank you, chairman.
I'm not gonna ask any questions 'cause I've been in
and out all day and I, uh,
I know my questions have been answered a billion times,
but I, I do have to acknowledge what a fabulous job you do
for the city of Chicago
and, uh, in many cases doing things
with fewer resources.
So you're appreciated, commissioner, for everything you do.
You got a fabulous team over in that box, man.
They some fabulous people.
Um, and so I love each and every one of them.
Um, and I could not be a alderman without the help
and extension that everybody in that box gives me.
So a big shout out and a big thank you to you all.
I love each and every one of you
and really wanna say thank you.
'cause Streets and Sands is that department
that works 24 hours a day and is often, um, seen,
but never appreciated.
So you are appreciated today for everything that you do
to make the a four a better place
and the entire city of Chicago.
With that, I gotta do a shout out to my superintendent, um,
and say he the man, uh, he works, uh,
takes my calls at crazy hours.
Y'all know, former superintendent gets in me, uh, Tommy no,
uh, for gets in me and I be calling people at 10
and 11 o'clock at night with my problems.
So, um, I thank you all again
and I wanna thank, um, Bakari Myers
for being a great ward superintendent.
And, um, if there's department that shouldn't be cut,
streets and Sands, can't figure out how
to do it on any less than what you do it on.
You are a integral part of what makes Chicago great.
Um, and so as we're looking at our budget, I'm pretty sure
that all our colleagues kind of feel the same.
That, uh, we need to make sure that the resources, um,
are there for us to continue
to be a great city. Thank you, chairman.
Thank you very much for the kind words.
Thank you, chairman, uh, Altman, Curtis,
fellow Alderman, uh, Coleman.
Thank you, uh, chairman. Uh, good afternoon.
Uh, Mr. Cole Staler.
Uh, it's funny to see you in a suit up there, man.
'cause you're a boots on the ground guy.
And, uh, you know, it's funny seeing you in a suit,
but, uh, I have to echo everything that, um,
uh, chairman Harris said.
I mean, I love you guys. We talk all the time.
I'm still a part of the family.
I talk with y'all all the time. So man, we all good?
Uh, I do, I do just have just two things, two things only.
Uh, one is, and
and I always wanted to do this, even I when I was Lord Soup,
is, is there ordinance,
and maybe we should have had someone from the law department
to a answer that question, or,
or how is it written that give the
powers to the war soup to write
the sanitation or, uh, uh,
write the sanitation, um, citations.
What I'm asking is, is there a way where we could
like cross some of those, uh,
citations with, I don't wanna say other departments.
I don't wanna write parking tickets or anything,
but maybe, maybe, uh, department,
maybe, uh, public way
or, uh, maybe public way citations,
or I have people parking on the grass
and I then I have to call the public way inspector.
And then they were short of people when I have my
war soup right there.
I'm just giving like some examples.
So is there a way,
or have we ever thought about other things that
sups could write citations for other than just
sanitation issues?
To answer your question, yes.
There, there's things that we do look at,
but then we also look into, I can talk about a lot
of things in this department,
but when it comes to towing, I always look to Le Coco
because there's so many laws involved
with taking people's property.
Um, basically, so I always tap on that 30 years
of experience, and I always pause
with that too, for safety factors.
If you're not doing that every day
and that's not your kind of jam,
and you got that sense of doing your job every day to put
that ward superintendent in that position to
where they're not accustomed to dealing with that person
that's coming out and going, Hey, that's my car.
And, and just being real comfortable with that, that's
where I always kind of give pause.
Um, because we can get there, we can get there
with Le Coco's group, his group's on every day, every day.
Um, but I hear what you're saying loud and clear.
I want you to understand that too,
Right? I mean, 'cause
I mean, you know,
because you, you know, you have a vehicle parked on a,
a grass and you got oil leaking from that vehicle
and you know, it just doesn't look right.
No. That steps through Alderman Irvin, chairman Irvin's,
uh, ordinance, uh, alderman Mitchell has jumped on it.
We worked with Le Coco and the law department Mm-Hmm.
To where I, I know you had the one
where parking in the, in the front yard.
I, I believe it was going over. Mm-Hmm.
So we've really made strides in that ordinance, um, to,
to now we're gonna see a positive to where it's easier
for us, um, because it's, it's on the books
and we can go back to
that lot without starting the whole process over.
Uh, Leco talk on that one a little bit more. Puja
Le Coco's Traffic Services,
I do believe your ward superintendent, some of them are able
to write tickets on vehicles
but not write tow cases on vehicles.
That's the issue I think you're talking about. Correct.
Uh, correct. Correct.
They are, we have to call Department of Finance. Right?
They, well, the, no, I, I do believe the ward
superintendents are able to write tickets on
vehicles, if I'm not mistaken.
Okay. Yeah. Yeah. We have to look
At that. So, well,
we could, we could look into it
and see what your ward superintendent has it done.
But as far as writing tow cases up for vehicles,
there's a lot of complicated stuff
Involved. Well, they don't have to be tow
cases,
just giving them a citation to let them know
that it's not allowed.
Basically just a citation.
So basically a parking ticket basically. Yeah,
Basically. Yeah.
Uh,
and the other thing was something that, uh, I just
was hearing a lot of other ALS talk about, even, uh,
alderman Clay just mentioned, uh, about the garbage trucks.
Uh, and, and you may get calls
or emails downtown where they talk about, uh,
when you cycle, and I know this goes back years when,
when we used to weigh raw garbage
and we wanted that best weight, and, and, and,
and so, you know, we had to kind of squeeze that truck.
And so we getting a lot of complaints now about,
basically when they cycle that truck, the liquid
that's in that truck goes right on,
on the ground in the alley,
and people complaining even if, if, if it don't smell,
they're gonna say it smells and they have to get the bleach
and the, all of that stuff to go and clean.
So I was just trying to eliminate that.
Is there anything we could do to,
We're gonna continue to work with your office,
we're gonna continue to work with the Ward soup,
get the sweeper over there to try to address that. That's
What we've been doing. Yes.
We've, we've talked with, um, fleet,
they know it's an issue.
We've talked about it a couple times today earlier.
It's a, it's a, um, it's a gasket.
It's a, it's a, it's a plug, you know, um, you've been
behind, yeah.
Those garbage trucks, I know where that,
that plug works really well.
And if it rains and they're dealing with
that slush, you know, the whole route.
So we know it's part of the business.
We know that when it rains,
we're gonna get those complaints,
but we continue to work with Fleet
and have a great relationship with them to get,
get through those times.
We know it's a, a, a pain point for the officer. Right.
So I, I appreciate everything that,
that streets and sand does.
I, I, I told the mayor at the beginning of his tenure that,
uh, we have to protect, uh, uh, our bloodlines and streets
and sanitation is one of those bloodlines that we have to,
uh, make sure we maintain, uh,
and protect, uh, at all costs.
Um, is,
and it is, it is very important that, uh, we continue
to keep our services up, uh, with Department of Streets
and Sanitation and all the departments.
So I thank everyone over in the box.
Love you all guys, guys, uh, thank you also, uh, Mr.
Chairman Stallard, and, uh, I'll see you
and talk with you very soon.
Thank you. Thank you.
Altman Curtis, uh, almond Coleman, followed by AUT Gardner.
Thank you, chairman. Commissioner, you haven't turned red
yet, so I'm wondering, let me see if I can try.
Gloria. Let me see if I can try to get 'em a little bit.
I'm just kidding.
Turn working. I just wanna commend, uh,
the new rat lady, Gloria Pittman, the rat lady,
the road lady on her, uh, on her move.
Now, will, will Deputy commissioner be doing, uh,
rodents and weeds?
Well, she's gonna help because she's, she's become
the expert, um, on making us better.
Um, so, um, we're gonna get support. It's okay.
Weeds has been a labor of love. Okay.
I mean, it's, it's Tommy, myself, uh, Gloria.
I know. Yeah. But yeah, so I, I question that
because in the summer for Wards like myself, Alder Woman,
Taylor, and Scott, when it comes to weeds, uh, we've got
to do something different for 1624
and 20, especially for the boundaries of south
of 59th Street.
Uh, in my case, we've gotta get some more weed cutters,
possibly some more weed firms, some more cutting firms.
But what has been going on
for the last five years, we've gotta do better.
Okay. Um, Deb James, uh, Mr.
Higg, bottom. James Sheen, uh, my secret sauce weapon,
tj, I can't thank you all enough.
Uh, I have one of the best sweep Sweeper Street sweepers,
and that's Darius Jones.
But let's talk about, um, trees don't plant no trees in 16.
Okay. Letting you know Now, if you plant 'em, I'm
Inglewood will cut them down
and I'm gonna bring them to 53rd and Western.
Okay. All right.
Um, SBC waste, I've been noticing these trucks, uh,
they are not doing a good job, uh, in terms of, um,
the debris for the small businesses,
uh, they're not picking up.
So I don't know if there's any, if we're tracking these
outside firms that are supposed
to be doing the garbage pickup with BACP,
but I've been having some problems rodents down Western
and SBC has been SBC waste.
I'm seeing their trucks more and more often.
They are a problem on the Southwest side.
No, Chris, is that, does that ring a bell?
That waste company SBC, Chris Ove, deputy
Commissioner, Chris ve, uh, they are, yeah, sir.
Licensed Waste Haul in the city. SBC Waste Solutions.
Mm-Hmm. Um, so we can definitely message them about, uh,
some of the cleanliness in
and around their services in, in the ward for sure.
Um,
Yeah, there's overflow debris
and when small businesses, you know,
when they're taking advantage of small businesses, right?
Then I'm calling you all
because the neighbors, especially when you have a street
like Western and Artesian, the neighbors are complaining
to me and they're, you know,
and the business is saying, well, I've got this.
They're not coming to pick up.
I've even noticed that, uh, their carts for some of the, uh,
larger residential buildings,
you'll see their carts in the middle of the street.
So that's a bad actor.
And I would like for us
to be intentional about holding firms, like
specifically them accountable for the lack thereof.
If they're supposed to be picking up waste,
then they should be picking up
Waste. Yeah, I did. I definitely
will work with your office
to identify those locations.
Okay. Especially for that company.
Okay. Um, on the
tools for our ward soups, what are we doing in terms
of technology on assisting them?
And I, I've gotta go back to 16, 20 and 24, right?
What's another way? I know we have our Fs i
that are amazing, we get one.
But what can we do around technology to
help break down?
I don't know if we're using the best human capital personnel
time for writing up these tickets.
If we know that these va these lots are vacant,
why do we have to send them out
if they haven't been touched?
They're owned by the city.
Why are we spending days and weekends writing up tickets?
We already know they're, is that the best use
of human capital?
I'm gonna throw that to Gloria.
Um, so we have made strides.
It used to, the amount of vacant lots really
hasn't changed much over the past 20 years.
And we literally used to write it by pen and triplicate.
Um, so we have made strides, but I'm gonna talk like Gloria.
Um, talk about the, the advances that we like
to tout, um, in that tough area of, uh,
of concern for us.
Thank you commissioner. Deputy
Commissioner Gloria Pittman.
So three years ago we started using, uh,
a we cutting application.
That helped us out tremendously, as the commissioner said.
So we've advanced the application to now
where the war superintendents will not have to go out
and write the city lots up only
at the beginning of the season.
And then after that, we're able to enter the city lots
automatically in, in a, in a cycle.
And so we tested it this past season. It is up and running.
It does work. And so we will continue to use that system.
However, on the private lots, um, which
in the 16th ward,
I believe you have more private than you do city.
Um, they still have to go out
to write the tickets on those lots.
Oh, for sure. For sure.
And then sometimes maybe an owner,
but again, I, I also question
how we're sending out the violations.
You know, we've found people in Shanghai, so
that's a problem that we just have to have to deal with, uh,
coordination with street, I'm sorry, with tree trimming,
street cleaning and weed cutting.
Have we ever considered coordinating
these three efforts?
Oh, what, what we said is when
the tree trimmings going on, they have blowers,
they have brooms, they have shovels.
They're supposed to leave that location clean.
That's, that's number one.
Number two, they're only hitting that one block
in your ward on that day.
For the ward superintendent to know where
that block is, is important.
So they can tell if it is an issue where
you need additional help.
So to send that sweeper over to that block
and hit that block, um, because all the cars are removed.
So that's a, that's a layup for us
in order to get that done.
Um, a sweet street sweeper has time to do
that at the end of the day.
Um, that's, that's not a big ask of what you're doing.
And then you mentioned a third thing you wanted
to coordinate that I missed.
Weed cutting. So weed cutting. Yeah.
Tree trimming, street cleaning, weed cutting.
Like they should, you know,
if one is gonna come, the other's gonna come.
Why do street cleaning when trees are, you know,
the grid is getting ready to happen.
Well, hopefully. As far as the,
No, just some Things. No, we
Cutting. Could make sense
why clean the street
and weed cutting is, is coming on this day,
but we've got our street cleaner the day before
and we can just have save him for when tree trimming
and weed cutting is done.
The weed cutting, they're, they're, they're cutting.
Is one crew cutting about 30 lots a a day?
Uh, yes, depending on the vendor between 30
and 50 lots a day,
Depending on the vendor.
And as you know, I have a vendor
that I'm not satisfied with.
Understood. Because they're not doing their job.
Uh, trees on privately owned lots.
Uh, I have found that to be a public safety issue.
And while Malcolm Deputy Commissioner Whiteside has been
as helpful as he can, um,
and sheen, thank you for stepping in,
but we've got to do something different.
And I understand the laws, the law,
but when, when my resident sends me a video
and four shooters can hide behind the trees
and the weeds in an alley, I don't wanna hear.
This is on privately owned. I want that tree down.
Commissioner
Superintendent, okay.
Head superintendent in charge.
So when there's a public safety
and when shooters are hiding behind trees,
that is so problematic.
And I cannot come to my, my, my homeowners
and my residents saying, well, we can't get the tree down
because we don't know where the owner is.
It's privately owned. We don't know who to, who to
send a ticket to is not an exception.
Okay.
Public safety is friend of mine for us too. Okay.
Thank you. And abandoned vehicles.
I know we're doing the seven days.
Is there any way we can drop that seven days down to a, uh,
a minimal, maybe 24 hours or three days?
What we have found in 16, uh, one abandoned vehicle had, uh,
had firearms, had catalytic, stolen, uh, converters,
and they had somebody on the block watching the car.
And thanks to my ward suit, we were able to capture it.
But this is why, you know, they threatened his life.
I'm gonna throw it to Leco Mike.
A I know we talked about it,
but, uh, your colleagues have mentioned earlier
all the women in regards to bringing that number down.
Mike, can you just again, reference what your answer was?
We have to change the Mike Koco traffic services.
We'd have to change the ordinance older woman to get
that done through the law department.
That will get it done. But I could also work
with your office to do any kind of toll missions
to help alleviate some of the issues you have in your ward.
Can we change it tomorrow? I wish we could change it
right now, to be honest with you.
Okay. I'm in a, I'm in a business of towing.
Mike here. Where's Mike? Mike, can we change this?
Can we change it while you're taking note? Okay.
Thank you Chairman. Just one last, I guess comment.
How, how is it going with our brothers
and sisters over at 10 0 1?
I know. I think we were in a negotiating.
Are we almost, are we done
Their contracts? Their
contract's done. 10 oh one's contract's done.
Okay, great. That's all for me.
Thank you. On Curtis.
Yeah. I I just wanted to, uh,
I ju let me ask that question first.
May I put my superintendent hat on
and a answer her question about the, uh, she,
'cause she asked about why is it that, uh,
the street sweeper will, will, will sweep on a Tuesday,
but they come and cut on a Wednesday, basically.
Right. But that's that.
And and the answer to that is
because you're gonna get your street sweeping calendar
way before the season start, and that's, it is done.
But, but your we cutting is not pre-scheduled, basically.
Correct. Uh, deputy Commissioner, uh, Gloria Pittman,
The we cutting the, we cutting services are entered
by the war superintendent.
So we're basically first in, first out.
And it doesn't always mirror the schedule.
However, um, the contractors are due
to leave the spaces in, in good repair as well
as the sweeper is able to go into the areas
because the war superintendents do know the sweeper is able
to go into the area to tidy up if necessary
after the weed cutters have gone.
But the weed cutters are due
to leave it in good, in good repair.
Okay. Uh, alderman Gardner?
Yes. Thank you, chairman.
Um, and thank you commissioner
and all your staff, uh, for everything that you guys do.
I sincerely mean that.
Um, I know you were here a little while ago meeting, uh,
a few weeks ago or a month ago, uh, after the DNC,
but, uh, I, I didn't have the cha have a chance to say, uh,
when my wife and I were leaving the DNC, uh, we were trying
to get an Uber, and we couldn't do it in that area
that they had designated for, for pickup.
And we had to walk to Ashland
and, um, it, it was fairly late,
but I, I remember getting to Ashland
and all the people from Street
and Sanitation were out there in Oz Park
and all around, uh, underneath the l on Lake Street.
And they were working, they were working real hard.
I mean, so it just, it goes to show that, you know,
when nobody's looking, somebody's looking,
and it just, it, it makes you very proud.
I know I mentioned that a little bit to you.
Uh, but kudos to you.
Kudos to everybody on Street and Sanitation.
Um, all the people who are in the box there today.
Um, and I, and I don't wanna, you know,
start rattling off names.
Um, but I would be remiss if I didn't name a couple people
like Greg Wagner, James Sheean, uh,
deputy Commissioner Whiteside, uh,
deputy Commissioner Johnson, pat Sanders, Dan Gonzalez.
It goes on and on and on. You guys have, are, are excellent.
Um, even your secretary, Christina.
Christina iTunes, uh, Noel Gloria Pittman,
Debbie de Lopez, Louis edta.
Um, I can go on and on.
All the laborers, especially in Mayfair, all the work
that they do, men and women, they phenomenal.
Uh, very respectful and, and hardworking and diligent
and care about what they're doing.
And, and it doesn't matter if they live on the north side,
the west side, the south side, each of them are,
are equally vested.
And again, it just makes you very proud, uh, to see
that the work that they put in,
and you should be very proud, uh, of those individuals.
Um, how do we get you more manpower as far
as forestry is concerned?
And I'm sure my colleagues have asked you today,
and I'm, I apologize for being in and out
and if you have ans asked,
answered these questions earlier, I apologize.
But what could we do to help you?
We're, we're in, uh, as I mentioned, uh,
equipment was a thing.
We got 21, um, 21 towers.
We got three clams.
Um, we've hired 25, 25 tree trimmers.
Mm-Hmm. We've hired 25 tree trimmers when I
sat here three years ago, four years ago.
Um, and I said, you, the body asked me that same question.
I said, Hey, we got 14 crews. Mm-Hmm.
What do you think we can do with 14 crews?
I can show you what we can do.
If you get us to 30 crews, I can show you what we can do.
Um, and this body worked together to get us
to those 30 crews.
We're at 33 crews right now.
Um, we're on pace
where we're gonna trim those 190,000 trees.
We're on pace. Where we're those 75,000 trees
are gonna be planted throughout the city,
um, in areas.
But we have slowed down on the planting part, um, due
to the fact that we wanna get 'em to, into places
where they're needed and wanted.
Sure. Um, so we're not just randomly planning.
So as far as forestry, um, it was, Mel mentioned earlier
that Malcolm's, this is his last budget hearing
after 37 years on the job.
Congrats. He's leaving, he's leaving with a,
he's leaving us with, uh, we're in a pretty good place
as far as forestry, um,
from the three years ago where we were.
And again, as I mentioned earlier on, my thanks to this body
and the administration on getting us what we need
to actually do the job, because I don't have any excuses.
I have to take the issues with, um, that y'all present
to me in regards to the weed cutting in regards
to these issues that you have.
And it's, it's this team here that we're gonna figure it out
and try to get it done and, and make things better.
Okay. Thank you. Um, yeah, I mean,
if we were a football team, uh,
your department would be the offensive line.
And you guys are doing the grunt work
to put us in the end zone, so to speak.
And, uh, we are, we very much appreciate all the work,
all the grit that each
and every person on your department gives us.
And, uh, thank you for your service to the city.
Thank you very much. Thank you honor. Gardner Alman.
Mosley, thank you so much, Mr. Chair.
Uh, commissioner, I have to say thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Uh, with your department
and all this help, we are really
creating a better 21st ward.
I mean, uh, you, uh, Rachel always opens the door for me.
I get to see Eric and Lou and get to work with Tommy
and Gloria and Debbie, those high lifts.
And I mean, we can go on and on and on.
And even in the division, Rob
and Curtis are, are phenomenal.
Um, I want to ask you about, um, when we talk about
the litter issue, is there a way that we can use 3 1 1, uh,
to capture folks in the act of littering,
whether it's from cars or fly dumping or so forth?
My my residents are really anxious to be partners in this
and share information, uh, from their ring cameras and all.
Yeah. As far as the fly dumping, you know,
and I'm talking about when I mentioned fly dumping,
I'm talking where I gotta send a front end loader.
I gotta send a semi to go pick that up.
We do about 5,000 of those jobs a year.
The number always seems to stay on 5,000.
Um, of the 5,000, half of 'em
are in six wards, uh, throughout the city.
So 2,500 of those requests come from six wards.
So we, we know where the problems are.
We wanna look into cameras that can help capture this
because ours, ours are old.
So we wanna look at options at that to, to do what,
what you're talking about.
I really, and I mentioned Alderman Moore's name a couple
times today, that litter campaign.
Uh, I'd love to, um, really ramp that up somehow some way.
And then we have, um, uh, I mentioned your signs,
you know, any way we can get that message out,
uh, to try to do that.
But to answer your question, as far
as is there a me mechanism in line for a resident
to see somebody throwing, um, garbage out the window
as I tell my wife
and my kids, you wanna kinda, you wanna kind
of leave that one, um, without engaging in
that type situation.
Um, so I don't know that there's, uh, a mechanism in place
for someone to self-report somebody throwing.
I, I, I don't believe so.
Um, because if there was, we would definitely know about it.
Um, because we see it all the time.
I mean, you know, I I, if I get on on 99th
or if I get on eight 83rd,
or we get on on anywhere,
you're gonna see if I travel any ramp from the Kennedy
to the Eisenhower, to, to Ford anywhere, to Ryan,
you're seeing people pitch stuff out the windows if there's
something we can do.
Uh, there, he's, he's passing me, keep Chicago clean.
Um, just, we, we wanna get that message out
and I'd love to be a champion for it.
I had Courtney Bryson, um, who meets with people in Mm-Hmm.
In alderman's office. The, the coolest picture I saw,
she was literally sitting a couple weeks ago in front
of kids that were three years old, two years old,
that were sitting there at a, at a pre pre-K
and just getting that message out of, of littering,
stop littering, stop littering, stop littering.
So I, I think if we use kids to help get that message out,
um, I mentioned earlier, I don't wear,
we didn't wear seat belts when we were kids.
I can't get in a car without my kids going
put on your seatbelt, you know?
And they all went to CPS
and they learned driver's ed and CPS.
So I think we got that a great opportunity
with this administration to, uh, tap into
that resource at CCPs to help us get our message out
with Alderman Moore's efforts and your efforts.
Everybody's, um, if I can use everybody's platform to
stop the littering, that would be,
uh, that would be awesome.
Got it. And so I would suspect it's the same thing for,
uh, people not picking up
after their dogs in terms of self-report.
Okay. Um, well, we talk about, uh, abandon properties.
Um, you know, it is great when we can get safer
and so forth, but my ward just seems to be one of those
where the vacant property next door,
the overgrowth in the back, is really
negatively impacting the quality of life.
Um, what, what can we do there in terms of,
We'll continue to partner with you.
Um, they mentioned earlier, we'd love, love to, um,
get these banks and these folks
that own these vacant properties.
'cause they're the fines.
Just don't touch them, um, the way they need to touch 'em
to grab their attention.
Um, so I would love to be part of that conversation to
better that vacant property, um,
responsibility on these banks
and these large entities, um,
that buy up these properties and just sit on 'em
and don't maintain 'em.
So I, this
and this department would love to be part of that process.
And I think that goes right into my next question
around like, wildlife, right?
Because that becomes the breeding ground for possums,
raccoons and so forth.
Um, love the talk earlier
that was happening about residents just replacing their cans
to eliminate that food source.
Are there any other ideas
that your department is thinking of?
I know this is a challenge because wildlife have rights now.
Uh, and that's limited, uh, your department's hands
and what can be provided as a city service?
Um, a again, you, you heard what we all heard today, and,
and there's things that we constantly gotta look at.
If I, if we can get people
to stop throwing garbage out the window.
'cause it tends to be the half eaten food, um,
that ends up out there.
That's a source. If we can get folks to pick up
after their dog when they walk their dog,
we're, we're halfway there.
We're halfway there. It's, it, people don't believe
that It's really that simple.
It's really that simple. It's almost like I gotta do a a,
a TikTok or a,
or a Instagram putting a a a pile of dog feces there
and putting a stake down on the, on the thing and,
and let the, let the rats go.
They're gonna go for that dog feces
until I think people see that.
Maybe they'll understand that. Picking up after your dog.
I, I know there's elders out here that put signs up,
please pick up after your dog.
We're begging people pick up after your dog.
I mean, my wife walks the dog around the park.
She's got two bags. I bring three.
What are you gonna do if the dog has to go three times?
You know, bring three bags to pick the, pick the stuff up.
You know? So if, if we can get support on that,
get just helping us get our message out, that would be,
that would be, uh, instrumental. Yeah.
I mean, you got a partner in 21 there.
Um, I, I wanna shout you all out,
because November 11th, when the city was off, uh,
the 21st Ward experience where a car was stripped of a lot
of parts and wheels and so forth,
and just dumped on our streets, and you
and your team were able to move into action
and get that car taken the same day.
I want to echo some of the things Chair,
Oman Dow spoke about, uh,
with the cars on vacant lots and so forth.
Just, I, I know Mike, there's a process, uh, that we're,
we're working through, but if we can shorten that,
'cause residents are really expecting, uh,
a quick turnaround.
Um, and, and then just want to ask for help on,
um, street sweeping.
Uh, I know I keep coming back and trying to fi figure out.
Kelly has been helping us with our map, trying
to get it better and so forth.
But it's just a very, very large ward
that I've not been able to come up with a, a,
a great solution on there.
And then lastly, um, we'll just say, really thank you.
I heard about the bins as well on, on Streets,
so you answered my question around that.
Can you talk about, um, what your department does
around mosquitoes every season? Around
What, I'm sorry. Mosquitoes.
Mosquitoes. Oh, The West. Now
What we've done in the past is, I know public health,
they set out the traps.
They set out the traps,
and if they get a hit, if they get a hit,
a private company comes out and they'll spray.
What we ask for the, the ward superintendent to do
is to meet them out there
and just go through the area with them just
to make sure the area's getting hit so we can report back
that, Hey, this got done.
Um, it used to be a whole bigger, um, process,
um, where they'd spray the whole city
and I partook in that process.
But, um, they're, they're now planting traps
to see where they get that hit.
Um, we ask people to close your lids on your garbage cans,
you know, so you don't have that, um, place
where the water can build up, dump your buckets, you know,
those are all areas where mosquitoes can breed.
So, but as far as our take on that, it was that, as far
as what we do is we'd ask your soup to go out on that night
and, and drive at dusk.
You know, it's, it's usually three hours.
It's usually like a three hour process.
Uh, when we get that call, we answer the bell.
Right. And lastly, we'll just say thank you, uh,
for working and, and making resources available.
Um, when we're able to partner with the state to try
to clean up our expressways interests and exits.
Um, we've had a limit li Limited success in the 21st floor,
but looking forward to building each year, partnering
with those signs and so forth.
Uh, so thank you for having your team out on the frontage
road as we get the state on the ramps
and so forth, to really meet residents expectations.
And looking forward to bringing in my Cate and Ottawa endow,
and even the West side as well, to see
how we can do something better across the city.
Thank you. Thank you, chair.
Thank you. You've been out west? I've been out west.
Oh, okay. All right. Just check in. Okay.
Uh, I think we have exhausted our list.
Any, um, I'm sorry. Alderman Knon.
You, you were hanging back. I couldn't
see you behind Rodney there. No,
That's okay. Thank
you, director. And thank you so much.
Commissioner Stallard. Um, honestly,
I came with a list of questions.
They've been answered through the day,
some quite a few times, so, um, I won't go back through,
but I, I just wanted to say thank you to you, your team, uh,
alderman Curtis said it well,
but you, you're all the bloodline.
Um, you really, really help us in our, our wards, you know,
in our ward, it's, um,
superintendent Marty Casey really just makes my job
so much easier in residence, quality
of life, so much higher.
Um, and in the box, of course, of course,
deputy Commissioner Whiteside, you know,
James Shean, Luis edta.
Um, Gloria Pittman, very excited to work with you as we,
we love rat abatement.
We're obsessed with rat abatement in the 43rd Ward.
Um, uh, we've done a good amount of toing about rat issues,
commissioner, and I'm happy to help on garbage issues too,
because it's fascinating how fascinated residents are
by, by these issues.
And I think it really strikes a chord.
Um, I just wanted to mention one thing.
Um, uh, just
because, uh, many of the public commenters now,
hours ago in, in the beginning of the meeting, brought up,
um, the bird issues that are potentially related to
our rat abatement.
Um, and, and just so you know, an FYI,
we looked into funding a pilot program in our ward for the,
um, rodent contraceptive program that they brought up.
And we're still looking for funding.
We were told that through our menu budget,
we would not be able to fund that.
But that is something that I'm very motivated, um, by, uh,
especially because of the, um, potential, you know, loss of,
of some owls, which we just, we can't lose.
So that's something I'm excited to work with your team.
I heard from you today that you're very open
to alternatives, uh, related to abatement.
So we'll plan more meetings with you.
You've always been very open to meet with us.
One-on-one, which we, we really appreciate.
And, um, I'll close out there.
Sorry, no questions, but I'll get off my soapbox
and just say thank you to your whole team.
Thank you. Thank you. Nuon. I Lopez,
Thank you. Uh, thank
you chairman. Commissioner, good to see you.
Thank you for, uh, for the word that you do.
I wanna give a special thanks to our superintendent
of the 25th board.
Um, Maria Gallo's a phenomenal work for the department.
So I wanna thank all you all you
and the, all of you and the people in the box.
Um, I think most of the questions
that I had have been already, um, answer, uh,
do think in terms of just, uh, uh, just for the budget,
you know, in terms of the over time, um,
what do you see potential, uh, potential savings?
I know that we, we talking about festivals
and other things that maybe, um, are not, uh,
urgent needs for the city, right?
I know, like in, you know, in terms of police department
over time, you know, I know that you cover a lot
of the festivals so far.
Um, how do you see the process where maybe we're able
to make some savings here in terms of just overtime alone?
Um, many, any recommendations, things that you see where,
um, 'cause I know that overtime has gone over,
you know, year after year.
So maybe some of your thoughts about that issue.
I know every, most of the questions have been covered,
but I, I just was curious about your thoughts.
Yeah, I, when it comes to our department, it's,
and our overtime, it all goes back to public safety.
Um, I've mentioned five times today
that, hey, it's gonna snow tomorrow.
You know, um, 60 degrees
yesterday, it's gonna snow tomorrow.
Um, storms, we're seeing storms
in Malcolm's 37 years.
He said this year was one
of the worst storms he's seen in the last 20 plus years.
We've doubled our tree emergencies this year,
and that's why I say it's so important for us
to get our tree canopy under control to try
to minimize that as well.
Uh, I think we'll see that benefit.
Um, as far as events, again,
we do the cleaning aspect of it.
People are celebrating, people are having a good time.
But a, a big, um, aspect of that is public safety.
Again, we're there to protect people
from other people that wanna do bad things.
Um, so our overtime is really driven by
good problems because the city's open.
I, I mentioned earlier today,
we did 2,600 movies this year.
Um, events, we did events and the movies
and the TV is coming into play that we're part of.
We do a lot of our stuff on straight time.
It's just part of the business, you know, street operations
and traffic services.
It's done on straight time.
Um, just the other day, um,
we saw somebody at eight 30 at night pulling down signs
that's not on overtime.
They're, they're working traffic services.
So we adjust our manpower to that.
Um, we put from
five drivers overnight in the loop during the winter, uh,
during the summertime, we'll have 25 in there
during the winter to try
to minimize those costs in overtime.
Um, but a lot of our, the majority
of our overtime is either related
to garbage pickup on a holiday week
where we gotta make up those two days to pick up
to 625,000 households.
Public safety for these events, you know,
where we're blocking, we're protecting people from going,
uh, into these locations.
Um, and, and events to, to clean up.
So, I, I, I don't want you to think that I danced
around your question, but just know that
ours is mostly public safety when it comes to our overtime.
We, I, I'd like to say we're gonna get no snow this year.
I'll never make that mistake by your place again.
Uh, I'd like to say we never get snow, you know,
and we, we don't have snow for, for, for,
but that's not a reality.
And those are all costs that I'm gonna have
to put out trucks tonight, um, overnight.
They're gonna have to hit those bridges and overpasses
'cause it's gonna get right to 31 degrees
and that, that dew point
and those, there's no treatment on there.
And it's the first snow and people are gonna see it,
and they just, they can't adjust from
65 to there.
So, um, it's driven by events over time
and safety, public safety.
Thank you. Uh, thank you, commissioner. I appreciate it.
I think that, um, we appreciate the, the work that you do,
especially when you're, uh, when it's weather related,
when the things that are, you know,
that are critical for the, for the city.
Um, you know, for one, we like to see how, you know,
for special events and other ways the field, like companies
that perhaps can reimburse for the work that the city does.
Just because, you know, we see already you're losing like
58 positions, right?
We wanna make sure that, um, you know, the work
that you do is not constrained
because of all the things maybe we can reimburse.
Finally, I think most of the questions are right abatement,
like you mentioned about, uh, tree cutting and all that.
I, I, I really appreciate the work.
Uh, you're very diligent in terms of responding,
and I think that collaboration
with local elder other offices I think is
important to prioritize.
So I think you covered most of the questions in other,
there was a, a little bit about, um, we cutting
and some other, um, enforcement per se.
What, is there anything that can be done?
I know that, you know, sometimes we talk about lots and,
and other, um, and other properties.
And my concern is always with seniors
of low income families, people who are struggling versus,
um, companies that are honestly, sometimes they don't mind.
They, they just got the big pockets.
They can just keep paying the fines and fees.
So is there anything around equity that where we can,
you know, help those struggling versus, you know, those
who seem to be my opinion, even recurring offenders,
you know, that just have deep pockets that keep paying
and maybe there's anything there
to be a little more equitable in, in terms of enforcement.
The rest, I do think, as I said, in terms of the department,
I, I tell you, you have a great superintendent.
Um, just in terms of, you know, tough times.
I, I always advocate for working people in the department.
These are all workers and also the taxpayers,
not necessarily the big companies that sometimes, uh,
honestly, those fees don't even pay
their attentions often time.
So that's all my question.
I don't know if you have any thoughts or feedback on that.
Uh, we're, we're, we're all about equity.
Um, it, it came out through us trimming trees.
You know, that was one of our greatest examples that came,
that they've actually highlighted that people didn't call
to get their tree trimmed and they didn't.
So any way we can look at making things more equitable,
we're all for, um, uh,
and we'll participate in those conversations
and, uh, try to move those needles to make things better.
Thank you, commissioner. Welcome.
Any kind of conversation with the controller, anything like
that, just to make more equitable,
especially in terms of enforcement.
Again, I do appreciate your department
and all the hard work that everybody in the department
does. Thank you, commissioner. Yeah.
And to, to touch on your point,
we're we wanna have conversation with folks.
So if somebody's living in that building,
we wanna knock on that door.
We wanna leave that sign hanger.
We don't wanna just go right to enforcement.
So it's for four people that live in those houses
where there is an issue.
And you can learn a lot from having a conversation.
Absolutely. Thank you, commissioner. Thanks.
Thank you. Alderman. Uh, Alman Moore,
you had, you had another question, sir? Yeah,
Uh, real quick.
Um, SBC Waste Solutions, I think they're out of broad view.
Um, and this may be more of a, um, BACP question,
but I'm sure you all keep tabs over.
Are they licensed?
Do we keep track of people that's totally licensed?
Uh, uh, haulers in the, um, waste haulers in the, um,
in, in, in the, in the, um, our, in our city?
'cause there's some concern about
whether they're licensed or not. No. That,
That Alderman Coleman point of clarification,
that's the same company that you brought up?
Correct. Okay.
So we're gonna, crystal Vey is gonna look into that
and we're gonna report back to the body.
Okay. I didn't know if she brought it up. Okay. Thank you.
Um, also, um, uh, just wanna say,
um, thank you, um, commissioner,
you have been the lead on the Keep Chicago Clean Ordinance.
It's, it's your efforts. And, um, it's somehow I was waiting
for, um, some information to come back from, um,
the departments and, um, commissioner Tovar did her part.
My staff missed it, and I'm gonna own that.
And we got, she gave us some numbers at least,
but I gotta sit with her to see what
that annual amount it is.
She broke it up more on an hourly basis.
So I need to sit with her to see what that annual is
so we can continue to move on it,
because I have no doubt that it's going,
it will have a great impact.
So I want to thank you for your leadership, um, on that.
And, and, and, and our, um, committee chairman Maria Hadden
for making sure, you know, that it got heard
that it got pushed, and I think we can get through on it.
So it's on me to make sure I get with Commissioner Tovar
so we can, um, continue, um, to move on that, um,
in a positive way.
No, thank you. I, I can't, that's one of my, one
of my things I'd like to, uh, really bring forward
and champion is, um, we can do it.
I mean, literally when we worked together, meaning this body
and the administration and the departments,
nothing but good happened.
Um, we saw it with DNC,
how we all came together and worked together.
Um, we saw how clean we got the city, we saw
with the state, how they worked with us.
Uh, uh, you know, when we worked together, we're, we're,
uh, we can do some good things.
So I, I, I think that's not a hurdle that's too big
to try to get the city cleaner.
Everybody talks about when they come here,
I'll clean the city as they can't believe it,
but I want to get those far reach areas, areas
that some may not see.
Absolutely. I want everybody to enjoy that benefit.
And, and, and, and I hear the same thing.
I had, um, some family here just, um, last week,
but even people that, you know, they always constantly say,
Hey, Chicago's nothing like I thought is clean.
Um, and it is when you get into the downtown areas and, and,
and, and compared to some, some other cities,
even our neighborhoods are.
But we gotta do, you know, just work together.
And it's not streets and sand problem at fault at all.
It's a, it's a, it's a habit, um, in terms
of people having habits and changing those, um, habits.
So, um, just appreciate your efforts on that.
And then my last thing is the, the, the trees.
'cause I wanna make sure that we are, um, working
efficiently and, and,
but I guess it's, I guess it's no cost on the terms
of the, I hope it's no cost.
If the, um, private contractor has to go back,
if they plant trees that people don't want to pull them up,
are we paying for that extra cost or No?
There's some areas where we do,
and then there's some areas where we don't.
So, to, to answer your question,
I think there was 64 64 trees this year where we,
there was an issue.
We look into that issue constantly. Mm-Hmm.
Because we're getting into, again,
we had the advantage and the, the, um, of backlog
of people just wanting their trees
where they were waiting for three years.
So that's why we kind of, we didn't slow it down,
but we're taking a real strong look at it
because we don't wanna run into what you're talking to.
We got two years to plant 13,000 trees, right?
So it, it, we've planted 20
something thousand trees last year.
Those were people, I want the tree,
I want the tree, I want the tree.
So now we're taking a, a, a finer look, uh,
using a brighter, stronger lens to look at that.
So we don't run into that situation
that you're talking about right now.
Okay. Is there mistakes out there? Yes. Yes.
Do the, does the contractor acknowledge those mistakes? Yes.
Are there areas where neighbors are putting in trees?
I know your name, I know your phone number.
I'm calling in and saying, I'm David Moore and I live here
and here's my phone number.
And they're putting that sign out there and,
and that person's not replying, and that tree's going in
and we're dealing with those issues.
So those are things we're dealing with a spouse,
the spouse wanted it, the other spouse didn't did it.
Right. You know, so we're, we're getting into those issues.
These are good issues.
Again, uh, of the 56,000 trees we planted,
those issues are smaller.
Uh, we do run into with concerns from ERs, um, on
vacant properties, running, running the line.
You know, we're, we work with cdot,
so we hear everybody loud and clear,
and we'll continue to work with the team.
All right. Thank you. Thank you
chairman for that round two.
Thank you. Did Lori Lipson put you up for that?
He'll be in my ear on something,
but I can't tell you. Oh, okay.
All right. Because she maybe miss my, uh, my under, so,
uh, but it's all right.
We got it. Uh, any other questions? Any other questions?
Any other questions? I got two things for you.
Uh, one man versus two man trucks.
What is our natural number of one man vehicles?
Uh, one man trucks. And are we, uh, above that number?
Um, we comfortably say out of the 2 91,
and I'm hoping Tommy's shaking his head yes.
Um, we say that 70 routes have been designed to
where it can be one person trucks.
Tommy, would you agree on the 70? Yes.
So we are in a position of where we're under 70 right now,
where come December we can get that number down to zero.
But we know there's a bigger benefit to use that,
those resources to get them out into these streets
and get these areas that need to be cleaned
and have them work with quality of life to try
to get these alleys that are overgrown, pair them up to
where we can utilize it in that form.
Okay. So, so then we pretty much,
you guys are theoretically fully staffed in, uh, sanitation
as it relates to garbage pickup on a daily
Basis. We're in a great
position. Okay.
Um, the other item,
and this is, you know, I, I don't know,
generally you all have
two person crews doing rodent control, um,
in, in alleys.
Uh, however, there are some instances where like downtown,
you all have a one person crew guy
or a lady with a truck picking up garbage.
What is the feasibility of turning your rodent control crews
to a one person operation
where the individual drives himself to
or herself to the alley, does their business,
and then, uh, you know, goes along
To, to put people in an alley, um,
by themselves every day?
Um, I would challenge, uh,
that just due to a one's working, one side,
one's working the other, um, you're there with them.
Um,
Okay, let me then, let me stop.
My impression and understanding was that the person
that is driving is just driving.
They're not, they are, they
No. Understood. Okay. Understood.
But just them being out there, we, we, we ask
and hope that they're working as a team
and identifying things
and going, Hey, here's your holes over here.
You know, we're not just saying, Hey, drive.
And, and you know, we're, we're asking for
that team effort out of that, out of that bureau, um,
to help identify.
We have some great drivers, um,
not saying they're doing laborers work,
but they're out there to, um, uh, assist in that endeavor.
And, and like I said, I, I think we need the 25 crews
to get in every ward every other day.
I'm gonna say that, and then I'm always open
to look at these other alternatives to try to get better.
Okay. Um, the other point, uh, were, were we able
to recover any overtime from these, uh, storms through our,
uh, duties, disasters that we've been going through?
Have we put in for that?
I'm gonna look to, I don't believe we hit that benchmark,
but Malcolm Whiteside were, were we able to, uh,
recover any funds from the, uh,
federal government in regards to did we hit
that benchmark or ate?
I'm gonna ask you, did we hit that benchmark
through any of these storms?
I know the, I know the number's usually high.
Um, I know through snowstorms, we,
we haven't hit it at times,
but Lou, I'm gonna go to you first.
Do you know if we've hit that benchmark
last for the tree storms?
Hello? Oh, there we go. Uh, good afternoon.
Uh, Luis ELA first deputy, uh, for the storms
that we had here, uh, this time in July,
we did not hit that benchmark.
The only, uh, federal money that we received were
for the storms last year in 2023,
which was actually the flood.
Um, but it was not for the, um, it was not for the storms
that we had this past July.
We did not hit that benchmark.
We did work with the counties to try to get to that number,
um, but we did not meet that criteria that they had.
Wow. Okay.
Uh, and then, um, to, uh, one of the,
one the street sweeping.
Um, I know that some are, um, talk,
been talking about the street sweeping.
Uh, I do think that, uh, I like Alman Burnett's idea
of selling space on the street sweeper, or, or the plow
or having some naming contest
or community contest behind, uh, our local sweeper.
Um, again, I think it's, you know, we,
we always have a little comradery in, in,
in these communities, so I, I think
that would be a good idea if we can designate some
of our sweepers with, with some designs.
I know we do the breast cancer, we've done some
of our professional teams, but also advertising some
of our high schools and, you know, organizations
and things like that, I think would be a good thing.
And the final point is on the, on the recycling, uh, aspect.
I know Chris, uh, is, is always begging for, uh, blue carts
and, and trying to get us to do more recycling.
Uh, actually this is the first time that the four carts
in my complex were actually full matter of fact, they need
to be dumped as, as a matter of fact.
Uh, and,
and I think it's something
that's catching on with, with people.
And, uh, I think we,
we can do a better job marketing the recycling.
And another trick I, I learned from my,
my colleague is about using the garbage disposal to, to,
to try to get rid of as much wet stuff as possible using
that garbage disposal as well.
So again, on the recycling side, you know,
whatever we can do, uh, to boost those numbers
and divert that stuff from the, uh, from the, uh,
landfill stream, I think would, would be
good. Anything you wanna add to that?
Yeah, I, I'd love, thanks for that question.
And I, um, vice, vice mayor,
um, with the sink idea.
I think it's, it's, uh, a great idea in regards to,
but we did pass out those composters,
so thank you everybody for that.
'cause you can throw your food, uh, fruit, your vegetables,
your scraps in that, so that's a great thing.
But I, I, I wanna, uh,
alderman Mitchell brought up a point earlier in regards to,
and I, I understand it's been a topic of conversation
with this body in regards to recycling.
I really wanna say that there's Senate Bill
1, 5, 5, 5 out there.
I sit on the board for the state.
There's an opportunity for us
for our recycling program to be fully funded.
Um, there, it's out.
And I'm, I, I'd like to throw it over to Chris
because he can get the particulars on that,
but I'd really like to get that information out there,
because I know that's a strong conversation for this.
And I, I started the conversation with, we recycle 80,000,
80,000 tons of recycling.
We're gonna break a million tons of recycling, uh, this year
for the, since the Blue Card inception.
It may not seem like it's working,
but I want Chris to explain the Senate bill 1, 5, 5, 5
that the board that I actually sit on.
So, Chris Vey, can you just touch on that slightly?
Uh, deputy Commissioner Chris Vey.
Uh, so the Senate bill
that the commissioner's referencing is to develop
and bring to the state of Illinois an extended
producer responsibility law for, uh,
essentially for recyclables.
Uh, it would be the producers of those types of packaging,
uh, that would end up funding municipal recycling
programs across the state.
Uh, there's been five states that have entered it
and brought it to, uh, to law.
And those different states, I think the two
that are furthest along are Colorado and Minnesota.
Uh, the commissioner mentioned he sits on the advisory
council that is working with, uh, all matter of industry,
other municipalities to understand what the inputs, meaning
how much material is coming into the state of Illinois, uh,
what would be needed from those producers to help fund
municipal, uh, recycling programs across the state.
Um, but this would be a, a significant game changer in terms
of our budgeting and, uh, help fund our program, uh,
at least, uh, 50 to 75%.
Some states are looking at a fully funded
municipal recycling program.
So this advisory council, uh, has been meeting in, uh, 2024.
Uh, the goal is to bring on, uh, a consultant
to do a needs assessment in the state to determine,
and hopefully January of 26 would have, uh,
EPR here in Illinois.
And I, I guess Alderman Irvin,
maybe your four carts will push us over the top
to a a million tons.
Uh,
Well, I, I think that, uh, as, um, as, as we educate more,
uh, I think people will, uh, you know, take it on.
Uh, and especially, and I, I don't know the of the zones
and where you're getting your tonnage from
on the recycling side, uh,
and maybe directing some energy toward, um, education
and marketing in the areas where we're not.
Um, I think, you know, may, may prove,
'cause I, I, I know that there's a huge, um, area of, of,
uh, of places where we're not doing the recycling, uh,
at the rate I think we probably should be doing so.
But, um, again, uh, with that being all,
I just wanna thank everyone for the work
that you all are doing in the department.
Uh, we know you all are pretty much, uh, part
of the backbone that makes the city go, that makes us, uh,
look as good as we do.
Uh, I will tell you this, we've, uh, had, uh,
more compliments on the cleanliness, uh, of the ward,
and I think that's, uh, you know, attributable
to the work that you all are doing.
I want to thank, uh, Deb for, uh,
taking my emails at all hours of the day and night
and getting my daily, uh, high lift, uh, request.
Uh, and for my, for my, for my staff, uh,
getting all of that stuff going.
Uh, I, it is a great team.
And, and you all have been, I I think probably one
of the most innovative, uh, groups when it comes to doing
what you all do as a department,
what your departmental mission is.
So, uh, kudos to the ideas to do stuff.
Even though Tommy stole the idea from us on quality of life,
uh, we're going, we're gonna let him take that credit for
that one as he retires this,
this is your last hearing with us, I hear as well.
So thank you for your, uh, years of service, uh, to us, uh,
to the city of Chicago.
Again, uh, you guys have a great, uh, level of talent,
but what I am excited about is the next group of people,
I think, that are going to come behind you,
that you all have been training to, uh,
to take you all's, respective places.
'cause again, uh, you all are the backbone of the city.
I think that, uh, people don't realize
and understand the work that we do, uh,
coalesce with the work that you do.
All of us have, uh, have solid war superintendents
that go out and, and, uh, really take care
and meet the needs of the people.
Uh, while we did, uh, grid garbage, I think kicking
and screaming, uh, it does have its advantages.
I think we did the same with forestry,
uh, kicking and screaming.
But as we see, uh, the results, uh,
the results are there on the efficiency side, uh, I know
that we can, you know, we can figure it out.
Uh, we, we've had greater challenges that we figured out.
So I know that between, uh, garbage and tree trimming
and the basic services that you all provide,
that we will continue to innovate
and become more efficient, uh, in the process.
And again, uh, just thank you. Uh, thank you.
And thank you, uh, you, anything you guys wanna close with
Again, uh, thank you, uh, appreciate the,
the conversations we've had over the years.
Hopefully they get better.
Um, and, uh, we're here for you
and, uh, thanks for giving us, uh, all the kind words,
everybody, and the things we need to work on as well. Oh,
I, I have one question now, now
that Gloria is our rat czar, um,
who's gonna handle the weeds?
Did I, you did. Okay. My bad. You did ask that. Yep.
Oh, she gonna do it all? Okay. Mm-Hmm. We're, we're all in.
Okay. We're all in. Okay. All right.
I, I thought y'all might have had a free spot over there
for somebody, but nonetheless, uh,
we gonna get it all working.
But again, thank you guys for your, uh, for your work.
Uh, you all are excused,
but subject to recall, uh, as we get through, uh, as we get
through the challenges here, uh,
committee will stand at ease till tomorrow, uh, at 10:00 AM
I.