Council Member Simcha Felder testified before the Department of Sanitation (DSNY) today, encouraging DSNY to adopt rules to enforce the recent state law banning the distribution of unwanted advertising materials, such as circulars and menus, and asking the Commissioner of DSNY to direct enforcement agents to issue violations based upon their own observations in addition to complaints made by homeowners by signed affidavit.

“The matter of importance today is that we give our enforcement agents the tools necessary to enforce the law and impose fines,” testified Felder.  “Moving forward, it will be incumbent upon the Department to direct enforcement agents to issue these violations based upon their own observations and to do so with vigilance.”

The Department’s proposed rules would require homeowners to submit a signed, notarized affidavit in order to make a formal complaint against anyone who distributes unwanted materials to a building with a sign posted indicating that tenants do not want to receive such materials.  The rules also provide for enforcement by Sanitation agents who observe violations, which Felder stressed today will be the key to compliance, adding that DSNY should work with 3-1-1 to take neighborhood-based complaints to direct agents accordingly.

“New Yorkers put up with a lot of nonsense, including the double-whammy of getting hit with Sanitation violations for unwanted junk left by advertisers and often getting hit with a Sanitation fine for that same junk,” Felder said after the hearing.  “It will be nice to have a system by which homeowners can file formal complaints, even if there are some hoops involved.  But what’s much more important is that those same enforcement agents who come around issuing tickets for dirty sidewalks and dirty areas be on the lookout for circulars and fliers left at homes where the owners have done their part by putting up a sign saying that they just don’t want the stuff.”

Following today’s hearing, DSNY may approve the proposed rules after 30 days.  Fines for violations will be $250 per advertisement.

Testimony by Simcha Felder Regarding Proposed Rules on Unsolicited Advertising:

It has been a long road to get where we are today.  I want to thank the sponsors of the State Law, Senator Padavan and Assemblyman Weprin, as well as Commissioner Doherty and the entire Department of Sanitation.  I also want to thank Carmen Cognetta, attorney to the Council’s Sanitation Committee, for his counsel to me on the complexities of this issue.

The bottom line today is that the lawn litter bill has been in effect for more than a month and it needs to be enforceable.

Some people may testify today about some of the problems with the Department’s proposed rules, problems stemmed from their struggle to protect both the Bill of Rights and the rights of property owners, which is quite complicated.  Indeed, the proposed rules require homeowners to jump through hoops to make formal complaints; and the effectiveness of these procedures will need to be monitored and improved upon accordingly in the future.

However, the matter of importance today is that we give our enforcement agents the tools necessary to enforce the law and impose fines, which these rules, in fact, do. 

Moving forward, it will be incumbent upon the Department to direct enforcement agents to issue these violations based upon their own observations and to do so with vigilance, both seeking to catch violations in the act, and to observe materials already distributed in violation.

Additionally, it is incumbent that the Department work with DoITT not only to make complaint affidavit forms available by 3-1-1, but to take general complaints that distributors are hitting certain blocks and neighborhoods and to respond by directing enforcement agents to these areas, as it would with any other litter or dirty area complaint.

Without these administrative measures, all the laws and rules that we pass and all of the affidavit forms taxpayers notarize will largely be ceremonial and will only chip away at this problem.

Again, I am thrilled that we are finally within reach of an enforceable lawn litter law.  No one is going to say the proposed rules are perfect.  In my years of advocacy on this issue, Constitutional issues have proven perfection elusive, if not impossible.

What is most important now is that our Agents have the ability to enforce the law and that we, as citizens and elected officials, hold the Department accountable from here on out for such enforcement.