Note: Check updates on our efforts on Intro 873 here.
I was about to write something that looked back and puzzled over how bed bug bills (both the bold and the timid) go to the Consumer Affairs Committee to die, like this one and this one and this one.
But, while at the Council’s website, what do I find? I scarcely credit my eyes, but there’s a new bill just introduced on November 19. (Nope, nobody tells us anything. That’s something, isn’t it? But we’ll talk about that another day.)
Anyway, this time? Buh-bye Consumer Affairs, hello Health.
This time, what will you do?
Before we go further, can I ask a simple question?
Will you consider:
- picking up the phone?
- writing a letter?
- both?
Because, if you are not willing to do any of the above, can you honestly complain? Rail against the apathy of our city? Against the ignorance of your neighbors and your landlord? Can you continue to declare, with some indignation, that we need more education and more awareness? Can you, in short, whine? (I’ve done my share.)
I hope you will think a good bit about what you will do. This is your city, our city. You don’t want bed bugs, I’m positive of that.
Of course, I’m not above begging you.
If you are a New Yorker and this matters to you, now is when it counts.
The bill
So, the bill, intro 873, is a bit strange, you will see. Gone is any ambition for inter-agency cooperation, for a task force. Forgotten are the woeful mattresses. This bill targets one particular department, but it happens to be the right one.
It has 14 sponsors.
Check it out:
Int. No. 873
By Council Members Brewer, Barron, Comrie, Dickens, Eugene, Felder, Gerson, Gonzalez, James, Koppell, Liu, Nelson, Sears and Weprin
A Local. Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to requiring the department of health and mental hygiene to establish a bed bug technique training program for pest control.
Be it enacted by the Council as follows:
Section 1. Chapter 1 of title 17 of the administrative code of the city of New York is amended by adding a new section 17-194 to read as follows:
§17-194 Bed bug techniques training program. a. The department shall establish a program to train exterminators in the proper techniques to eliminate bed bugs. Upon successful completion of this program, the exterminator shall be considered trained pursuant to this provision, in the proper techniques of bed bug extermination.
b. The department shall establish a program to train property owners in the proper techniques to eliminate bed bugs and to prevent the transfer and spread of any bed bug infestation. Upon successful completion of this program, such owner shall be considered trained pursuant to this provision in the proper techniques of bed bug extermination.
c. Any training programs developed pursuant to this section shall include, but not be limited to, identification of bed bugs and understanding their life cycle, inspection procedures to identify infested areas and furnishings, techniques to prepare infested sites for containment and extermination, encasement techniques, and proper techniques for the moving and disposal of infested furnishings and materials. Any training program should also provide instruction on which techniques and pesticides are inappropriate for bed bug elimination.
d. The department shall make available on its website general information on bed bug awareness, infestation and control.
e. The department shall ensure that a toll-free hotline number, such as the 311 citizen service center, shall be made available to the public for any person seeking to report an incidence of bed bug infestation or to request information on bed bugs.
f. A list of exterminators trained pursuant to this section shall be made available to the public on the department’s website, upon request by calling the 311 citizen service center, and upon request in person at department offices to be located in each of the five boroughs, as determined by the department.
§2. This local law shall take effect ninety days after its enactment, provided, however, that the department of health and mental hygiene shall take any necessary actions to implement this law, including the promulgation of rules, prior to such effective date.
Thoughts? Ideas? And tell me you noticed the hotline!
Below are links to the sponsors and the committee members. If you live in their districts, well, you don’t need me to spell it out, do you? And if your council member is not on the list of sponsors, will you call and explain exactly what you want them to do?
Just off the top of my head, neither Diana Reyna nor David Yassky are on this list. And we know their districts are heavily infested. And Peter Vallone? You see how we can go on and on.
It’s our city and we’re all in this together. Our neighbors and our co-workers are struggling with bed bugs; our elderly parents and grandparents are vulnerable; our kids are exposed. It’s no longer enough to say that this or that bill was co-sponsored or to acknowledge the complex issues. It’s time to get things done.
The sponsors
Charles Barron
Gale A. Brewer
Leroy G. Comrie, Jr.
Inez Dickens
Mathieu Eugene
Simcha Felder
Alan J. Gerson
Sara M. Gonzalez
Letitia James
G. Oliver Koppell
John C. Liu
Michael C. Nelson
Helen Sears
David I. Weprin
The Health Committee
Joel Rivera – Chair
Maria del Carmen Arroyo
Maria Baez
Inez E. Dickens
Helen D. Foster
John C. Liu
Michael E. McMahon
Rosie Mendez
Helen Sears
Kendall Stewart
Albert Vann
And hey, can we say, hearing! I promise you it won’t happen unless you—yes, you—make it happen. Remember, all the other bills, going back to 2005, have died. Died dead, dead.
So, what will it be, NYC?
Find your NYC council member here.