PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia City Council took aim at illegal dumping on a number of fronts Thursday.
Councilmember Cherelle Parker introduced a bill that could exponentially increase the fines for illegal dumping, by imposing separate fines for each item in a load that’s dumped.
It’s just one of the efforts to address a problem that many Council members say has grown worse over the past two years.
Council’s Committee on Public Safety used an exploratory hearing to gather testimony about ways to prevent illegal dumping.
Among those testifying was Nic Esposito, the former director of the City of Philadelphia's Zero Waste and Litter Cabinet. It was eliminated in budget cuts at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, though Esposito said it had been highly effective.
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“We were able to cut illegal dumping by 40%. In 2019, we had 35 arrests which is triple the amount in 2017 with a record high number of high level arrests.
Esposito said valuable partnerships were lost in the cuts, including effective surveillance that had helped prosecution succeed.
Councilmember Jamie Gauthier said she’d like to see the office restored, but administration officials made no promises. He said solving the overall problem would take a much larger investment than the city has been willing to make.
“The $2 million that Mayor Kenney has proposed to address illegal dumping doesn’t even scratch the surface of what we need to improve conditions in our communities.”
Gauthier said the problem is a racial justice issue, because communities of color are the most impacted.
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The committee also advanced a bill that would, in theory, spur the clean-up of abandoned vehicles by shifting removal from the police department to public safety officers who could make it a priority.
Public safety officers do not yet exist, and the police union has challenged the creation of such a position.
Frankford Community Development Corporation Executive Director Kimberly Washington urged the committee to find some way to get dumped cars off the street.
“Residents are making these reports, and it’s taking months to get any response,” Washington said.
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