Mayor Michelle Wu indicated support for a rat czar hire in Boston, but said the creation of this new position may take a backseat to other pest-control strategies that are already underway in the city.
Designating an employee to oversee Boston’s pest-control operation, as proposed by City Council President Ed Flynn, is an “important” idea, Wu said, and one that is being discussed in the context of having a more coordinated approach to tackling rats and other issues that most frustrate residents.
“I don’t know that we are necessarily going to immediately create a czar position because we’ve been having lots of conversations about rodents and pest control in general,” Wu said Thursday after an unrelated press conference. “And we’ll continue working on that.”
These discussions have involved getting departments to work more closely together to target the root cause of the city’s rodent problem. Some efforts that are already underway include removing the rats’ food source, by more properly securing dumpsters, and encouraging developers to submit a rat mitigation plan for construction that involves digging into the ground, the mayor said.
These strategies differ from the ineffective approach the city has taken in the past, Wu said, which has been to set traps in areas where residents had complained rats were present.
“It’s barely putting a Band-Aid on the situation,” Wu said of this past solution.
Although not particularly forceful, Wu’s remarks on Thursday represented the first time she’s spoken publicly about her stance on the creation of a rat czar position in Boston, which Flynn first mentioned in an early April council meeting.
The mayor’s support could get the ball rolling on Flynn’s proposal, which would create an office of pest control headed by a rat czar. The idea, which Flynn said would be modeled after New York City’s pest-control operation, drew widespread support from his council colleagues at last week’s meeting.
New York hired its first rat czar last month, a position that pays $155,000.
Today, pest control is handled by a number of city departments in Boston, including inspectional services, water and sewer and public works.