City Manager Letter

In response to Awaiting Report Item Number 08-109, regarding a report on the progress of addressing rodent complaints, Public Works Commissioner Lisa Peterson reports the following:

The City has numbers on rodent related requests for service since 2004. Below are numbers which reflects all information entered into the City request tracking system by all departments since 2004.

Since 2006, the City has significantly expanded its outreach and has been encouraging residents to call or email the City with information of rodent sightings in order for us to better track rodent activity.  Information has been reported to the City via phone call, email and the web since 2006.  Since 2008, ISD had been using CRS in a more detailed manner to track specific sanitary violations and work orders related to rodent control.

In 2008 the Interdepartmental Rodent Task Force expanded to include community and institutional partners who share interest and concern about rodent activity in Cambridge.  The group includes three residents and managers from Harvard and the Cambridge Housing Authority who joined staff from Inspectional Services, Public Health and DPW.  This group examined and evaluated activities and changes in local oversight authority, public outreach efforts, pilot-testing of specific interventions, evaluation of regulations, and municipal campaigns. From this process we have arrived at a list of activities that the task force feels should constitute the focus of the City's efforts going forward. The top priority is the improvement to site cleanliness and sanitation through the regulation of dumpsters. Other priories include improvements in areas of education and publicity, developing  a campaign to improve resident responsibility and assembling resources that are available to homeowners, training for property managers and others, enforcement, and evaluation.