Ordinances & Rules Advises Abolishment of Public Utilities Panel
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Ordinances and Rules subcommittee on Monday voted to recommend the abolishment of the Public Utilities Advisory Committee.
According to City Solicitor Stephen Pagnotta, this would mean deleting Chapter 18 1/2 of the city code that established the panel.
The committee, which is not currently listed on the city's boards and commissions roster, is intended to advise the commissioner of public utilities on all matters under its jurisdiction including sewers, water, solid waste, and resource recovery.
There is no indication of how long the committee has been dormant.
The vote was brought on by Ward 1 Councilor Kenneth Warren's petition requesting that ordinance amendments are drafted to reflect the abolishment of the Public Utilities Advisory Committee.
It was unanimous with Ward 5 Councilor Patrick Kavey and Ward 6 Councilor Dina Guiel Lampiasi absent.
"This relates to the water-sewer rates and other utility issues, and they don't even have a membership on that board," Warren said.
"So it seems sort of ludicrous to have a board that we don't use, we don't put memberships online, so we might as well abolish them, so I think that makes a lot of sense."
He later added that as it stands, it indicates that all matters regarding water and sewer rates and other utilities must go through the commission.
Councilor at Large Peter White said he had spoken to Commissioner of Public Services and Utilities Ricardo Morales about the petition and he had no present issues with it.
The committee also tended to a few unfinished agenda items that were tabled in the fall.
Ward 7 Councilor Anthony Maffuccio submitted three petitions based on recommendations outlined in the city's 2018 Efficiency Study: to implement a dispatch fee in emergency medical services provider contracts, to follow code enforcement and improve rental housing safety, and to increase and enforce false alarm fees within the Police and Fire Departments.
He explained the petitions as efforts to raise revenue.
White asked Maffuccio if he had consulted with the administration about the petitions based on the 4-year-old study and he said he had not.
In a 2-1 vote with Warren opposing, the committee passed Maffuccio's petition to recommend the implementation of a dispatch fee in EMS provider contracts.
After conversations with Building Commissioner Jeffrey Clemons and Director of Public Health Andy Cambi, the petition on code enforcement and rental housing safety was referred to the city solicitor.
The petition on false alarm fees was tabled.
Fire Chief Thomas Sammons explained that only about one percent of the calls made to the Fire Department are false alarms. There was no metric for the Police Department.
"We don't charge for false alarms at this time and it's this is actually a little misleading, it says 11 percent of our calls are false alarm calls," he said about the study.
"If somebody burns toast or popcorn and we respond, everything worked properly so it's not a false alarm, so what's a false alarm would be where it's a malicious activation or something like that or is the same issue time and time again that draws us out. So it's actually, for the Fire Department anyway it's actually much lower than, much much lower than 11 percent."
Tags: ordinance & rules ,
