Rat-fighting dumpster proposal stalls out

City leaders have backtracked on proposed dumpster regulations meant to deter rat activity.

The proposal was up for discussion last Tuesday night at the Ordinances and Rules Committee. That’s where it stalled, as the committee tabled the matter. 

What’s next for the proposed regulations is unclear.

These regulations have been months in the making, as city leaders have been talking for a long time about what specific rules for dumpster use could keep rats at bay.

City officials had taken steps toward creating new rules that would do just that. Specifically, city officials proposed rules requiring Waltham dumpster owners to license their dumpsters annually, at a cost of $100 per dumpster. Additionally, they proposed rules for cleaning and servicing dumpsters as well as rules allowing the city’s Health Department to fine owners if those rules are broken.

Here’s the timeline of action:

The City Council in January first approved the proposed rules.

In response, Mayor Jeannette A. McCarthy and the Health Department sent a letter asking for changes to the document. Many of the changes were detailed in nature, such as requesting the word “licensee” be changed to “hauler” throughout the document, and updating section numbers.

City Council President John McLaughlin then sent the proposal back to the Ordinances and Rules Committee for discussion and deliberation on the changes sought by the mayor and Health Department.

That’s what brought the issue back to the table at Tuesday night’s Ordinances and Rules Committee, a subcommittee of the City Council.

Ward 9 City Councilor Robert G. Logan presented an updated version of the rules, with the Mayor and Health Department’s suggested changes included.

The Ordinances and Rules Committee spent nearly an hour debating the fine points of the changes, as well as the governmental processes needed to get the changes agreed upon and approved. 

Logan eventually made a motion to move the issue forward, seeking to send the amended proposal back to the City Council to take up again. 

The motion failed.

Logan contextualized the current status of this legislation, by emphasizing how much time it has taken to get the issue this far and how far it still has to go to be implemented. 

“Even though this has been before us for months and months and we have debated it, we’re basically back at step one. It still has to go out for a first reading, then it has to go to the Law Department for review, then it has to be advertised, and only then after it’s been advertised for 10 days can it have a second and final reading,” said Logan. 

McLaughlin motioned to table the entire proposal, saying, “I appreciate the work that the Ward 9 councilor has done on this. I am not ready to send this out. I think we need to have more discussion.”

The majority of the Ordinances and Rules Committee members voted for McLaughlin’s motion, with Logan being the only objection to that move. 

The vote to table the motion essentially sends the city’s attempts to more thoroughly regulate dumpsters back closer to the starting block.