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Vega proposes better enforcement of ordinances
Date: 8/9/2011
By G. Michael Dobbs
Managing Editor
HOLYOKE —Aaron Vega launched his reelection campaign last week with a very specific platform: make it easier to keep Holyoke clean.
The first-term city councilor has been working with the city’s Law Department to address the issues of ordinances that regulate activities that range form littering to over-flowing dumpsters to other quality of life issues. The city has been hampered by factors, he explained, in enforcing these ordinances.
There is a misunderstanding concerning which government entity — the Police Department, the Building Department, the Department of Public Works or the Board of health —should write the tickets, Vega told Reminder Publications.
“Who is in charge is the sticking point,” he explained. Frequently the tickets are not properly filled out and the violation is excused because of that.
He added that he is not criticizing any of those departments as he noted the police are busy addressing crime issues and the other departments have seen a decrease in personnel.
Vega would like to see a two to four person part-time task force established to address these quality of life issues. His plan would have these individuals go through neighborhoods looking for violations. They would then give the property owner a warning to address the problem. If upon a subsequent review, the situation has not been improved, they would return with a member of the appropriate city department to issue a ticket.
That ticket would then go before a part-time hearing officer to determine the fine and the outcome of the incident.
Vega believes a pilot program could be underwritten with a budget of $20,000 that could be obtained by cobbling together funding from the existing budgets of the city departments involved in the enforcement of the ordinances. The fines generated by the program could be used in part to fund it, he added.
Part of the problem, he said, is that residents are not aware that their behavior is violating an ordinance. He noted the example of someone changing his or her car’s oil in the street, which is not allowed. By giving people a warning first, that educates them about the existing ordinances, he said.
Vega would also work toward the registration of every dumpster in the city. Each dumpster would be clearly marked with a number that would allow easy identification by city departments investigating violations.
Increased recycling would also assist in the efforts to keep the city cleaner, he said. Right now, he explained not every public school recycles and they all do not recycle everything they could. He would like to see mandatory recycling for all buildings —public schools, all businesses and apartment buildings.
Vega said the city would benefit from the increased recycling monies it would receive and by having businesses recycle materials through the city program they could also save money as those that do recycle use a private hauler for that material.
