Res. No. 1024 Title Resolution calling upon the appropriate Committee of the Council of the City of New York to hold hearings on the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's expansion of the Bushwick rat abatement program to neighborhoods in the South Bronx, Manhattan and Brooklyn, and further calling on the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to expand the rat abatement program to apply throughout the entire City of New York. Body By Council Members Foster, Avella, Clarke, Comrie, Gennaro, Gentile, Jackson, Koppell, Lopez, Quinn, Sears, Stewart, Vann and Serrano Whereas, On August 14, 2003, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and New York City Department of Health and Mental Health (DOHMH) Commissioner Thomas Frieden announced the expansion of the Bushwick rat abatement program in various neighborhoods, including Concourse Village, Melrose and Highbridge in the South Bronx, East Harlem in Manhattan and additional areas in Bushwick, Brooklyn; and Whereas, Initiated in 2001 and funded by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Bushwick rat abatement program targeted a 48 block area in Bushwick, Brooklyn; and Whereas, As a part of the Bushwick rat abatement program, DOHMH conducted extensive public outreach and education regarding rat abatement strategies, aggressively inspected nearly every property in the 48 block area, conducting exterminations where necessary, and provided landlords with rodent-proof garbage receptacles; and Whereas, DOHMH has deemed the Bushwick rat abatement program to be highly effective, as it has resulted in a 40 percent increase in property owners' compliance with City rat control laws and regulations; and Whereas, Because the Bushwick rat abatement program has been such a success, DOHMH and the Bloomberg Administration have decided to expand the program to other areas with high rodent infestation rates, including the Concourse Village, Melrose and Highbridge neighborhoods of the South Bronx, East Harlem in Manhattan and additional areas in Bushwick; and Whereas, According to the New York Daily News, as a part of the expansion of the Bushwick rat abatement program, the Bloomberg Administration plans to spend an additional $1 million to abate rats through increased inspections and exterminations, public education and the distribution of 8,000 rodent-proof garbage containers(Mike Won't Call Truce in Rat War, New York Daily News, August 17, 2003); and Whereas, As a part of the expanded initiative, DOHMH plans to perform more than 150,000 exterminations and inspections by the end of Fiscal Year 2004; and Whereas, During the August 14, 2003 announcement, Mayor Bloomberg named Susan Kupferman, Director of the Mayor's Office of Operations, as the head of the City's Task Force on Rodent Abatement which focuses on, among other things, best practices for rodent abatement and resident, community and landlord education, prevention; and Whereas, Since the rat abatement program in Bushwick has been such a success, DOHMH should expand the strategies of that program to all neighborhoods in the City of New York; now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the appropriate Committee of the Council of the City of New York hold hearings on DOHMH's expansion of the Bushwick rat abatement program to neighborhoods in the South Bronx, Manhattan and Brooklyn, and further calls on the DOHMH to expand the rat abatement program to apply throughout the entire City of New York.