City Council

City of Salem, Massachusetts “Know Your Rights Under the Open Meeting Law, M.G.L. c. 30A ss. 18-25 and City Ordinance Sections 2-2028 through 2-2033.” The City Council Committee on Public Health, Safety and Environment co-posted with the Committee of the Whole______________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________ met in the Council Chamber on _May 5, 2025__________________ at ______6:00_______P.M. for the purpose of discussing the matters(s) listed below. Notice of this meeting was posted on ___ April 23, 2025_ at ___ 10:59 AM__________________________________________________________ (This meeting is being recorded) ATTENDANCE From PHSE – Cohen (Chair), Jerzylo, Stott. From COW – Morsillo and Varela (zoom). From the city staff - City Solicitor, Renard, Building Commissioner, inspectional Services Director Orfanos and DPS Director Jodoin. ABSENT WERE: From PHSE - Davis and Harvey #163 Snow Removal Practices, Polices and Challenges for the City, as well as enforcement, and a review of existing ordinances and related fines. 40U State Law - Section 5: Sidewalk snow and ice removal; penalties for non-compliance; standards for clearance. A municipality shall by ordinances and by-laws provide for the removal of snow and ice from sidewalks within such portions of the municipality as they consider expedient by the owner of land abutting such sidewalks. Such ordinances and by-laws shall determine the time and manner of removal and shall affix penalties, not exceeding $200, for each such violation. Such ordinances and by-laws shall be specific as to the width of the area to be cleared and the standards for clearance. Discussion – Stott – In March, I put an order into the Council to do a review of the snow removal practices and fines for the past season. We also want to listen to ideas and/or solutions as to how we can improve these practices. It wasn’t necessarily a snowier season but there were a lot of smaller snowstorms that wreaked a little bit a havoc on snow removal and caught a lot of people off guard. So, I wanted to do a recap of best practices and fine tune or get ideas from others. I know that in Ward 6 there are some problem properties that create some frustration every year. One that I will call out as an example is the Public Storage at the corner of Boston & Bridge Sts. It is cheaper for them to just pay the fine rather than getting a snow removal company to clear the snow. I want to discuss the possibility having a different tiered system of fines for residential versus commercial properties. I want to get the data on how much we are fining, how much is being reported and hearing from my fellow colleagues and the city staff on any ideas they may have for giving this a little more teeth. I did get some information from the city solicitor on some ways we could improve things. I am hoping that Ms. Orfanos, from the building dept., can provide us with some information about the number of tickets that were issued this last season along with how many were paid, how many repeat offenders, how much your staff handles the ticketing process. Is it all based on complaints that are received by your office? Also, any additional feedback would be great. Orfanos – We issued 117 snow tickets whether it was ice, snow removal or snow being thrown from one property to another. There were $3,425 tickets issued and $2,205 have been paid, but we still have $1,135 that are outstanding. We have $275 that were abated. I don’t have the info about repeat offenders. Our system doesn’t track that, but we are going to try going forward to keep track of that info. We are taking pictures when we ticket so if the property owner appeals the ticket, we have that proof for our enforcement. The tickets are $25. It takes a lot of time, but we are trying to make the streets safer, so we don’t mind doing the work. I think we should raise the fees, so they feel the pressure to get the snow/ice removed. Stott – Just a followup. So, it is $25 for the 1st offense and $100 for each subsequent event? Orfanos – It is $50 for each subsequent event. Stott – Do you know how many of the fines were 1st offense and how many were subsequent events? Do you not issue as many subsequent fines? Orfanos – We do especially if it is considered a dangerous property. If it is near a school or at intersections. We go out each day and check to make sure they are clearing the snow/ice and continuing to fine if they aren’t in compliance. We usually start with a warning and if they don’t clear then we will issue a ticket. Stott – How does the abatement process work? Orfanos – We have the new 40U tickets (Municipal fines ticket) that are issued, and we have a new hearing officer. If they appeal the ticket, it will go to the hearing officer and depending on the situation, they determine whether or not the ticket will be abated. It could be an elderly person or maybe the person couldn’t get to it, or it isn’t their property anymore. It is up to the hearing officer to determine whether to abate the ticket. If the ticket is not paid, then it will become a lien and that is why we adopted the 40U ticket. That way there is some consequence on the property owner if they don’t comply with our ordinances. Rennard – Just to clarify, we just started to issue the tickets under the 40U State law. So, the ones from last season were not issued under 40U but going forward they will be issued under 40U. The good thing about 40U is that they can be liened. The bad thing is the fines must be uniform throughout the zone so residential and commercial would have to be fined at the same rate. Morsillo – Do you have a breakdown of how many are commercial versus residential? Orfanos – I did not break them down. Morsillo – Is that easy to do? And you don’t have a breakdown of repeat offenders? Orfanos – We would have to look at the addresses of where it was issued and determine if it was commercial or residential. I can tell you some of the repeats – Public Storage, Walgreens, Burger King, Morsillo – Did you do a lot of fines for the ice? Orfanos – Yes. And people would tell us that their sidewalk was clean, and we would show them the picture to prove that it wasn’t clean. We would show them a picture of what it should look like if it was clean. Morsillo – Do you have a policy in your department that if there is another snowstorm, that you check those properties that didn’t clear before to make sure that they are cleared, especially the commercial properties? Orfanos – We are going try to set up a system so we can flag those that are repeat offenders and those that appealed. Morsillo – If we attach a lien for unpaid tickets, what is that process and how does that affect them? Rennard – It would be included in their tax bill. I am recommending that we double the fines, so first offense would be $50 and subsequent would be $100. Now that we have a full building staff, we can be more proactive and go out and check properties and issue subsequent tickets if needed. We have our own hearing officer now that will have the data. We can also set up a database to better track the data and then revisit it next year to see how we did. Cohen – I think the corner of Lafayette and West Ave. was a repeat offender. Before we consider increasing the fines, I would like Director Jodoin to talk about what the city is doing. C. Harvey was not able to make it but expressed concern about what the city is responsible for clearing like the parks, etc. I know that you have a priority list, can you discuss how that is done especially if you are short staffed? Jodoin – We set up priority list of sidewalks that we clear. Our highest priority we are targeting sidewalks near schools. We have a dedicated employee that goes out during storms and works well into after the end of the snowfall to clear the snow. Then we focus on the medium priority, which are sidewalks near parks and other areas that are mainly traveled for school routes. Sometimes those take into the 2nd or 3rd day after the storm to get done. We end up treating and plowing the majority of the sidewalks within 6 hours of the storm. Jerzylo – I know that you did a good job on Memorial Drive once you were notified. You treated with something that was blue that seemed to work well. Jodoin – That was Calcium Chloride. Stott – I appreciate that you were able to clear the bike lanes and keep those as a priority just like the streets. Can you explain the notification process? It is a little confusing for the public, because if it is a public property, then they are supposed to email snow@salem.com, but if it is a private property then they are supposed to inform the inspector’s office. Jodoin - Any snow communication should go to snow@salem.com. DPS and the building dept constantly monitor that so it won’t get lost. Cohen - I just want to mention that the building inspector did nod her head that they are monitoring this email as well. Stott – Why aren’t we using C click fix? It seems the email would be more difficult to track issuing tickets and repeat offenders. Jodoin – The email is easier to respond to during a snow event. C click fix is kind of muddled, it may not be seen right away, or it gets assigned to someone, but the email is a single form, so it is easier for us to use accurately. Stott – Some of the feedback that I have received is that you send it to snow@salem.com and you hearing nothing in response. I think that having a snow category in C click fix, would work better so there can be a quick reply so I think you should look into that again. It can be frustrating to send an email and get nothing in reply but with C click fix, you can track it whereas some are emailing multiple times because they are impatient. So that is the benefit that I see from using C click fix. I would love to see data regarding what complaints are coming into the city. Varela – What is the timeline between the end of the snowstorm and the start of enforcing the clearing of sidewalks. I have repeat offenders in Ward 7, one of which is the Marblehead Water Dept. that has about 200 yards on the frontage of 1A that is consistently not cleared after snowstorms. Orfanos – We can start enforcing 6 hours after the end of a snowstorm, but it depends on when it stops so if it stops at 3am then we would start enforcing in the morning. Morsillo – My big pet peeve is the routes to school and making sure that kids can get there. Part of that is being able to get to the walk lights. This was worse this year than most. It took a while for the city to get to those areas and cut out the snow so that the kids could get to those walk lights. This has been done better in the past but this year it was a problem. There used to be a bobcat that came out to do that. Why was it more of a problem this year? Jodoin – It depends on where it is. If it is a residential property, it is the homeowner’s responsibility to get the corners cleared. Morsillo – If the plow is coming and filling that area in with feet of snow, it is hard to tell the homeowner that it is their responsibility to clear it. Jerzylo – I also have a problem with the corners. Is there any way you can educate your plow drivers? I live on a corner and sometimes they are high and once it freezes over it is hard to clear it. Also, for elderly and disabled that can’t clear their own snow, is there a list of people that they can reach out to get the snow cleared? Orfanos – There isn’t a list, but my suggestion is that they should reach out to the high school. There are seniors that need community service hours. Cohen- I think the high school used to have a program, do you know what happened to that? Jodoin – I believe it was through the ROTC program at the high school. I don’t think they are offering it anymore, but I think that would be a good place to start. Cohen- The leader of the ROTC lives across the street from me so I will ask him. If the will of this committee is to double the fines, can we make a recommendation tonight or do we need to have a separate meeting to change the ordinance? Rennard – What did the order say? Stott - It did include the whole ordinance discussion, it said, meet to discuss current snow removal practices, policies and challenges for the city as well as discussion of enforcement and a review of existing ordinances and related fines. Rennard – If you make a recommendation tonight, then I can file it at the next meeting so the amendment would get on the agenda as a new item at the next meeting. Morsillo – Since it includes challenges, do you want to take a few minutes to talk about the challenges that you see or things that you are or want to work on or could use help on? Orfanos – During the storm, everyone is out doing the tickets, and it is hard because it is a big city, and we try to do as much as we can especially the ones that are near the schools. We could use some help with enforcement and issuing tickets, but we do our best. We can’t hit every street in a storm. The challenge is compliance so hopefully this will help. My question is if it is a repeat offender and they have a violation this year, can we issue a subsequent ticket with the higher fine next year or do we have to start with the 1st offense fine next year? Rennard – I will have to look at the 40U language. Jodoin – During and after a snowstorm, we are out there clearing the streets and sidewalks as best we can so any help with clearing the sidewalks including the opening to sidewalks and not throwing it in the street is helpful to us. Public comment – Lydia King – 4 Forest Ave. – I am in support of doubling the fines and I think that would be very popular with others around the city. It is the repeat offenders that is the problem. One of the problems that I have noticed is around older sidewalks where there might be a pothole, ice tends to form there, and it creates a slip and fall hazard. I know that is hard to do during the storm but maybe in between storms you could pay more attention to that issue. Stott – I have a question regarding the 40U. Is $100 the max for fines under 40U? Rennard – No, the max under 40U is $300. There are 2 ordinances, and the Chapter 40 is $300 max but the Chapter 85 is only $50 but that hasn’t been updated in about 100 years so I would be comfortable with following Chapter 40. Stott – But it must be for the whole zone? I can’t be different for residential and commercial. Rennard – Correct. Orfanos – That is each day. So, if you go with $50, then $100, then $300 per day then maybe that would get some of the commercial properties to clear the snow. Stott - I would make a motion for the city solicitor to draft edits for the ordinance to show an increase of fines in section 38.13, from $25 to $50, and $50 to $100, and the sections 38.14 to add subsequent offense language for $100. Seconded by Jerzylo. Motion carries 3-0. Motion to keep in the committee, seconded by Jerzylo. Motion carries 3-0. Cohen – To the department heads, can you get us the information that we have requested at your earliest convenience? Everyone is nodding their heads. Thank you. Rennard – Just to clarify, do you want this at the meeting on Thursday or the following meeting? On the 22nd?