* WARNING: THIS IS AN UNOFFICIAL, INTRODUCTORY COPY OF THE BILL.
THE OFFICIAL COPY CONSIDERED BY THE CITY COUNCIL IS THE FIRST READER COPY.
INTRODUCTORY*
CITY OF BALTIMORE
COUNCIL BILL R
(Resolution)
Introduced by: Councilmember Welch
A RESOLUTION ENTITLED
A COUNCIL RESOLUTION concerning
title
Lead Abatement Review Commission
FOR the purpose of respectfully requesting that the Mayor appoint a Lead Abatement Review Commission to throughly evaluate the City's current lead abatement efforts, make recommendations to address any deficiencies in lead abatement reporting or practices, and establish a mechanism for providing regular annual reports on the City's lead abatement efforts to the City Council and the Mayor.
body
Recitals
Poisoning from lead in lead based paint continues to be a scourge affecting far too many young people in Baltimore City. Exposure to even small amounts of lead paint dust can lead to life-long disabilities. Although lead paints are no longer used in residences, dust from paint applied decades ago is still present as a threat in parts of the aging building stock throughout the City.
Baltimore has wrestled with this problem with varying degrees of success for many years. Great strides have been made in reducing our children's exposure to lead. Early on in the fight against lead paint poisoning, the City's lead abatement effort was so successful that it was hailed as a model for how to address the problem nationwide.
Unfortunately, over time, this early success faded - and earlier this year the Health Department was ruled ineligible to receive any Federal lead abatement funding. In an effort to regain eligibility for these vital Federal dollars, the lead abatement program was subsequently transferred to the Department of Housing and Community Development.
Simply moving a program deemed ineffective by Federal regulators from one agency to another, without more, is unlikely to be enough to restore Baltimore's lead abatement program to its original levels of effectiveness. In order to maximize the returns the City sees from its lead abatement efforts, fresh eyes are needed to take a good, hard, sustained look at the City's entire lead abatement program - from project choice and implementation, to performance measurement and reporting to outside funding sources - in order to throughly evaluate where the program may be falling short and where it has successes that can be built off of.
A Lead Abatement Review Commission should be established to perform this evaluation. With an eye toward existing local, State, and Federal guidelines, this Commission should review the reporting practices of all agencies involved in lead abatement and establish an annual reporting of such practices. It should assist in remedying any deficiencies it or other State or Federal agencies find in reporting on an ongoing basis; and it should help with the development, review, and assessment of lead abatement practices for the City. The Commission should report on its findings to the Mayor and City Council, as well all agencies involved with lead abatement efforts, with recommendations for ensuring that the City can address the ongoing lead paint poisoning problem in the most effective possible way.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF BALTIMORE, That the Baltimore City Council respectfully requests that the Mayor appoint a Lead Abatement Review Commission to throughly evaluate the City's current lead abatement efforts, make recommendations to address any deficiencies in lead abatement reporting or practices, and establish a mechanism for providing regular annual reports on the City's lead abatement efforts to the City Council and the Mayor.
AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution be sent to the Mayor, the Health Commissioner, the Housing Commissioner, and the Mayor's Legislative Liaison to the City Council.
dlr 11-2451~intro/08Jun11
ccres/LeadAdvise(2)/tw
dlr 11-2451~intro/08Jun11
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ccres/LeadAdvise(2)/tw