Civic Group Blasts Sanitation Dept. For ‘Unfair’ Tix
Members of the Woodhaven Residents Block Association (WRBA) are frustrated over summonses that the Sanitation Department recently issued to business owners and homeowners along Jamaica Avenue during overnight hours, the civic group stated on Monday, Oct. 6.
WRBA President Martin Colberg told the Times Newsweekly on Tuesday the civic group has already received three separate fines in 2014 for trash dumped after business hours in front of their Jamaica Avenue offices. The most recent was a mattress left on their curb, he said.
The overnight fines have been a problem since at least 2012, Colberg stated.
The illegally dumped trash could be coming from other businesses or residents; “We don’t know who is doing it,” Colberg said.
Each summons for illegal dumping-putting trash out on days when it’s not collected by the city or private companies- carries a $100 fine, which triples to $300 if the penalty is not paid by the court date, or a representative does not appear to contest the violation.
Colberg and WRBA members are fed up with what they call an unfair practice on several levels.
If, for example, a business closes at 7 p.m., and trash is piled up in front of the location afterhours, Colberg and the WRBA feel it is wrong to immediately give a summons.
Recent violations have been handed out at 1:05 and 3:30 a.m., the WRBA noted, leaving no opportunity for members to clear the sidewalk or avoid a violation, as they have long gone home for the day.
The trash is additionally cleared by the time the office reopens in the morning, and sanitation officials do not photograph the violations, leaving “no proof anything was there,” Colberg said.
“The next thing you have a summons,” he said, with no time allowed to clean up the property.
To address the continuing headache, the WRBA has sent a letter to Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia asking that this practice end.
Instead, Colberg urged that a warning be issued prior to a fine, so businesses are not saddled with the costs or lost business hours used to appear in court.
Previous efforts to seek some relief from sanitation officials have been met with no changes, the WRBA noted.
“We really want to see this practice ended,” Colberg said. “A warning would give us time to react, I think that would be a better way.”
Last year, as public advocate, current Mayor Bill de Blasio wrote a letter that asked for the overnight ticketing be stopped. He suggested the rules be changed to mirror snow removal; that a business owner cannot be fined in the middle of the night for snow that had just started falling, the statement noted.
Colberg sees the issue as not just confined to Woodhaven or parts of Queens either.
“If it’s being done to us, how many people city is it happening to?” he asked.
