L.A.'s mayor orders report on illegally dumped trash
Excerpt: "We're not arresting anybody," said Councilwoman Janice Hahn, who represents Watts, where alleys are frequently illegal dumping sites.
"We need some sting operations."Hahn and Councilwoman Jan Perry, whose district has the heaviest amount of illegally dumped trash, said they believed that more enforcement operations need to be targeted in their areas.
"I'd be completely and absolutely supportive of . . . more aggressive enforcement," Perry said. Gary Harris, who oversees enforcement for the Public Works Department, said that his investigators try to spread limited resources evenly in all council districts where illegal dumping occurs.
But Harris said Monday that the city has applied for a $500,000 state grant to set up a special enforcement zone in South L.A. The funds would pay for prosecutors, additional cleanup and overtime for his investigators to stake out problem alleys, Harris said.
He said that budget cutbacks, in part, have resulted in a 40% reduction in surveillance operations in the last two years. Perry said Monday that her office was planning to fund cleanup operations from a separate $500,000 grant from the city's Community Redevelopment Agency. Perry said residents have to be more vigilant in reporting illegal dumping. "They have to be aggressive and assertive to get the system working for them," Perry said.
Both she and Hahn said they urge constituents to call their offices directly, rather than rely on the city's non-emergency number.
Perry's council office can be reached at (213) 473-7009. Hahn's council office number is (213) 473-7015.
"We need to let people know that dumping will not be tolerated in our neighborhoods," Hahn said.
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Isn't the purpose of "One Call to City Hall" to create less confusion in reporting constituent issues like "illegal dumping"? Maybe the 3-1-1 staff and the Public Works Department should work together to figure what is causing the bottleneck. In lean times money isn't always there to solve such problems.
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