Supervisor Jake McGoldrick: Preserving Clean Streets

The City's budget situation continues to worsen as each day passes, with business tax revenues coming in at lower levels than expected and state government shifting responsibility for paying for state mandated programs to local governments.

This has resulted in many departments cutting back on crucial programs and we all are scrambling to preserve our most crucial programs. It is difficult to preserve programs from suffering some cuts during these times, but some crucial programs have been proposed for total elimination. Over the last few months, my office has worked very hard to preserve one of those programs.

The SF Department of Public Works' Environmental Control Officers (ECOs) are crucial to our ability to keep the streets clean in our neighborhood's commercial and residential areas. ECOs are charged with enforcement of litter laws and with abatement of neighborhood nuisances caused by the failure to abide by those laws. The function of ECOs is two-fold: they educate members of the public about their obligations under the law and they cite individuals who continue to violate litter laws. Both functions are crucial to the maintenance of the cleanliness of our streets.

Unfortunately, the Department of Public Works (DPW) is facing the necessity of cutting a significant amount from its budget in order to contribute to the balancing of the City budget. As part of DPW's efforts, it has decided that it must cut the ECO positions.

This decision was in part based on the fact that little revenue was coming into DPW as a result of citations by ECOs. In turn, little revenue has been generated by litter citations because the hearing system routinely dismissed cases or reduced citations. Even when citations have been upheld, the dispute process has allowed the contractor/arbitrator to keep a significant portion of the fine amount.

My office has been seeking a way to preserve the ECO function and keep our streets clean by making the ECO program self-funding. We have proposed several ways to address the problem.

First, we are holding committee hearings on the possibility of using a community courts system of appeals for citations issued by the Department of Public Works' environmental control officers.

Second, I have introduced legislation that would require that the City's share of revenues generated from citations written by ECOs be kept within DPW and limited to the purpose of funding litter enforcement and abatement.

Finally, I have introduced legislation that will allow the imposition of additional administrative penalties for violations of laws governing littering and the illegal disposal of trash. These administrative penalties will be returned to DPW when ECOs write citations for such infractions.

It is my hope and intent that these proposals will provide DPW with a revenue stream that will allow it to continue to employee ECOs to keep our streets clean. You have my pledge that I will do all I can to ensure that this happens.

San Francisco Supervisor Jake McGoldrick represents District 1.