The Boston City Council has merged the Committee on Aviation and Transportation and the Committee on City and Neighborhood Services as the new City, Neighborhood Services Committee.
City Council Michael Ross has appointed City Councilor Sal LaMattina to chair the new committee as well as co-chair Ways and Means.
For the newly created committee, LaMattina and the committee will be charged with overseeing the delivery of municipal services to the city’s residents and neighborhoods in order to promote improved service delivery and cost reductions, including the activities of and provision of services to residents by communication, energy and water service providers.
“There are no more basic jobs of city government than the functions I oversee on Neighborhood Services,” said LaMattina. “We all want clean neighborhoods, working street lights, plentiful recreation opportunities, and timely snow removal. We also want to know that the city will respond quickly when there is an issue that needs attention. Those are the expectations people have of City Hall, and they are expectations we should strive to meet every day.”
LaMattina said he’d continue to strive for cleaner local streets through pilot programs like the Eagle Hill trash barrel program.
The committee will also concern itself with the infrastructure that facilitates wireless voice and data communications as well as the surface, air and water transportation policies of the city, including public transportation, operations at Logan International Airport, hackney and jitney licenses, traffic calming, highway connections, resident parking program, parking freeze, imposition of tolls, and the Central Artery/Tunnel project, including surface restoration and corridor master planning, including the planning for the Rose Kennedy Greenway.
“East Boston and Boston is a regional hub and, as a result, there are a multitude of transportation issues that we have to deal with,” said LaMattina. “What’s important is that we balance those with the quality of life of local residents. I think that people must be able to live here knowing that they can park near their homes, they can safely cross local bridges, they can count on the T to run on time, they can get a comfortable and safe taxi ride, and that tour buses aren’t sitting and idling on local streets. Those are some of the issues we deal with on this committee.”
LaMattina’s committee will exercise oversight with respect to Inspectional Services Department, Library Department, Office of Neighborhood Services, Parks and Recreation Department, Public Works Department, Registry Division, the Edward Ingersoll Browne Fund and the George Robert White Fund, the Boston Water and Sewer Commission, the Office of Cable Communications, Central Artery Environmental Compliance Team, Office of the Parking Clerk, Public Improvement Commission, Transportation Department, Veterans’ Services Department, and the Veterans’ Graves Division of the Parks Department.
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