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City Council

Special Session on Trash Can Fines.

Resolving a trash can complaint in the city takes about three months, and violations end up in magistrate court. This week, a council member led a meeting on proposed fines meant to speed up clean-up. They're also meant to end reliance on the court. Meanwhile, the mayor's draft budget includes money to hire more inspectors.

Written by Chris Maury

Councilman Charland led a meeting focused on the proposed fines with Eric Contakos, Inspections Supervisor - Department of Public Works, detailing the current enforcement of trash can rules:

  • Approximately 3-month turnaround time from initial complaint of rule violations to resolution
  • After inspection, violations are referred to the magistrate court for a hearing in front of a judge
  • Approximately 9,000 case files from 15,000 inspections in the last year
  • 13% of cases resulted in criminal complaints

Based on this week’s meeting, the goal of the proposed fines is to reduce the turnaround time from complaint to clean-up and remove the dependency on the magistrate court system. Also mentioned, the mayor’s draft budget includes funds to hire additional inspectors.

Councilman Charland also mentioned that the legislation will incorporate feedback from the previous session: tickets will include information in multiple languages.

Connections to this story

Local issues:
Pittsburgh's litter problem
Topics:
Environment & ClimateInfrastructureEnvironment & ClimateInfrastructure
Governments:
City Council
Public meetings:
City Council · October 1, 2024

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