Speaker 3: Thank you. Docket 1005. Councilors Edwards and Bullock offer the following petition for a special law regarding an act relative to Boston and non criminal disposition of fine.
Speaker 2: Thank you. The chair now recognizes the District Council from East Boston Councilor Lydia Edwards. The floor is yours.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much. I think every single one of my colleagues have heard it before. There's an abandoned building. The there's a absentee landlord. There's all of these things happening. They're not taking care of their property. It's become either a blight or an annoyance or things from that property is impacting them. What are you doing about it? And I goes out there and gives them ticket after ticket after ticket and still nothing changes. What we're finding and what I found in East Boston many times is that people just pay those tickets and they just pay them and move on and leave the blight there. And for us to all be frustrated or some of us to actually clean it up for them unless someone gets hurt. And that's the only time that people have come in and been forced to deal with it, at least in East Boston with a lot of. The issue that we are dealing with is that if punishment doesn't do anything, if the fines aren't impacting them, then we need to do something about the fines. And the way this works is we have to do a home repetition. Now, this is a formal petition that would that would allow for the city of Boston to consider a fine increase, up to $3,000 per violation. Currently, it's $300. And oftentimes, again, if you're a rich developer and you have or you're just waiting for someone to purchase your property, that's cheap. So I'm hoping that you will support me and say we again, Boston need to take control of this conversation and we as Boston, if you decide what is the appropriate sweet spot to encourage or force or demand of developers or whoever who refuses to take care of their property to, well, take care of their property, what's that sweet spot? So that's what this whole competition will do. I look forward to a robust conversation about that. Again, a lot of this is just bringing some of the local municipal concerns and issues in the hands of the people who have to deal with them every day. Thank you.
Speaker 2: Thank you. Senator Edwards. The chair now recognizes the district councilor from Beacon Hill. Councilor Bach, the floor is yours.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Mr. President. And thank you to Councilor Edwards for her leadership of partnership on this. As she stated, this would give Boston the authority to increase municipal fines from $300 to $3000. And I think that that current low limit, as Councilor Edwards says, it really encourages certain actors to just blow off the municipal fine . And and, you know, and we've all heard the frustration from our constituents. You know, many of these bad actors will go as far as to sort of just incorporate a certain number of fines into their financial planning and wait until it's actually until it can be judged to be profitable for them to make changes and fixes some things instead of improving conditions for Boston tenants and neighbors. And I just think that, you know, it's really important in a city where, frankly, there are larger and larger capital holders, right? Like you've got things that maybe it used to be that the property on the street was owned by an actual person. Now it gets swept up into some real estate trust. It's anonymous. It's hard to track. The reality is, the bigger those entities are, the more this low level fine means that it's just not meaningful to them. So this home rule petition would only raise that ceiling. It wouldn't, in fact raise any fines. In order for us to actually raise any municipal fines, there would be to be deliberation by this body and an amendment of an actual existing city ordinance. This is about asking the state to give us the permission to to raise certain fines to that level in order to better get the attention of some of these larger capital holders. And I think for quality of life in the city and being able to really induce people to change behavior when it's affecting a whole neighborhood, it's an important tweak. So I look forward to discussing it with colleagues and residents in a hearing. Thank you.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Councilor Buck. I think before I can concentrate and the chair recognizes Councilor Edwards, the floor is yours.
Speaker 1: Thank you. I completely forgot to excuse me. I had unfortunately forgot to add Councilor Braden as a third party to ask to waive Rule 12 in order to add Council President as a third co-sponsor.
Speaker 2: My Councilor Edwards and Councilor Box seek suspension of the rules and the addition of Councilor Braden as original co-sponsor. Seeing no objection, she is hereby added and Councilor of the District Council from Brighton is hereby recognized.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you. Countries Edwards and Box for including me in this as an original co-sponsor, the current maximum fine of $300, which the city imposes for violations of ordinances, bylaws, rules and regulations is applied regardless of the size of the offender, whether they are an individual, a property or business owner, or a large corporate corporation. The current scale of fines may be significant enough to deter individuals from committing repeat offenses, but the current capital fines leaves big time chronic offenders undeterred from racking up and accumulating fines, rather than taking tangible action to remedy the violations to begin with, it's almost seen as the cost of doing business in Boston . We must level the playing field between individual residents who may be one off offenders and the larger scale repeat offenders who chronically take advantage of the system.
Speaker 6: This proposal is.
Speaker 1: Crucial in that it would not increase current $300 fines. It would it would not increase current $300 fines to 3000 for allow the city through our body and public council hearings the ability to propose and consider specific increases in the future. This is an important and crucial step towards a more equitable system where we can better hold chronic offenders accountable to paying their fair share and leveling the playing field for all in our city. Thank you.
Speaker 2: Thank you. Councilor Braden. The chair now recognizes the District Council from South Boston. Councilor Flynn, the floor is yours.
Speaker 0: Thank you, Mr. President. And thank you to Councilor Edwards and our colleagues for the important work on this proposal. I had a discussion earlier with Councilor Edwards, and one issue that we've been dealing in South Boston and other locations around around the city of and partnering with the council clarity is the house parties that continue to take place throughout our neighborhood. And we want to see about increase in the fines so residents can sleep at night because these parties continue until 3:00 in the morning. So it's about quality of life, as is Councilor Balkan counsel Braden said. So maybe we can partner with Councilor Edwin Edwards with the Friendly Amendment to also discuss the same the same issue. Thank you, Mr. President.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much. Councilor Flynn, is there any further discussion on docket 1005 saying none. One of the councilors wish to add their name. Madam Clerk, please add. Councilor Arroyo. Councilor Baker. Councilor Campbell. Councilor Fire City Councilor Flynn Councilor side B George Councilor me here please have a chair name and Councilor Will and Doc at 1005 shall be referred to the Committee on Government Operations. Madam Clerk, would you now please read Docket 1006?
Speaker 3: Thank you. Docket 1006 Councilors Arroyo and Maria offered the following resolution recognizing September as suicide prevention and action month in the city of Boston.
Petition for a Special Law RE: An Act Relative to Boston and Non-Criminal Disposition of Fines.