City of Baltimore - File #: 07-0272R

• File #: 07-0272R
• Version: 0
• Name: Informational Hearing - Bureau of Vector Control
• Type: City Council Resolution
• Status: Failed - End of Term
• File created: 3/19/2007
• In control: City Council
• Final action: 12/5/2007
• Title: Informational Hearing - Bureau of Vector Control FOR the purpose of requesting the Commissioner and the Director, Bureau of Vector Control of the Baltimore City Health Department to report to the City Council on the operations of the Bureau, the status of outreach and educational rat abatement programs, and the efficacy of programs to control rat infestations throughout Baltimore City neighborhoods.
• Sponsors: Stephanie President Rawlings-Blake, President Young, James B. Kraft, Agnes Welch, Mary Pat Clarke, Edward Reisinger, Sharon Green Middleton, Robert Curran, Nicholas C. D'Adamo, Belinda Conaway, Keiffer Mitchell
• Indexes: Abatement, Rat, Resolution

Date	Ver.	Action By	Action	Result
7/16/2007	0	The City Council	Reassigned
7/16/2007	0	Committee of the Whole	Scheduled for a Public Hearing
4/23/2007	0	The City Council	Reassigned
3/22/2007	0	The City Council	Referred for a Report
3/19/2007	0	City Council	Introduced
3/19/2007	0	City Council	Assigned

* 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: President Rawlings-Blake


A RESOLUTION ENTITLED

A COUNCIL RESOLUTION concerning
Title
Informational Hearing - Bureau of Vector Control

FOR the purpose of requesting the Commissioner and the Director, Bureau of Vector Control of the Baltimore City Health Department to report to the City Council on the operations of the Bureau, the status of outreach and educational rat abatement programs, and the efficacy of programs to control rat infestations throughout Baltimore City neighborhoods.
Body
Recitals

A news report, in April 1994, quoted a Hopkins researcher as saying that there are probably more rats than people in Maryland. In Baltimore alone, there were 3,600 rat complaints logged in the previous year, an increase of more than 40% from 1991. A leading manufacturer of rodent traps and baits ranked Baltimore 8th among cities in its sales of rodenticides.

By 1998, the Director of the City's Rat Rubout programs reported that the problem persisted. There were 50 to 100 complaints processed by program staff each day, an increase blamed on the warm weather brought on by EL Nino. The number of complaints so overwhelmed workers to the point that it took a Rubout Truck and 2 pest-control workers a month or more to respond to them.

In February 2001, the City was making headway in the war against rats. Citizen complaints about neighborhood rats had dropped to 50 a week - far below the 600 calls a week the...