Scott Stringer is ratting out the city Health Department.
An audit by the Controller reveals the agency needs to rein in the city’s rampant rat problem, based on online and 311 complaints that poured into the system.
The number of pest complaints jumped to 24,586 in fiscal 2013, from 22,300 the previous year. In many cases, health inspectors didn’t follow through on their own protocols to combat the growing problem, the analysis found.
Pest control staff did not carry out inspections within an initial 10-day period in response to 24% of the complaints they received, according to the audit.
In 160 cases, no field inspection was conducted, and 14 cases still weren’t resolved as of March.
“This is a rat race we’re all losing,” Stringer said. “When people discover infestations in their homes and on their blocks, they expect a quick and effective response.”
He added that the Health Department isn’t “managing its pest control program effectively, even as the number of complaints about pests grew.”
Agency officials said inspections from 311 calls represent only 15% of the reviews they do, and the department proactively conducts the majority of checks.
Stringer’s auditors accompanied 10 health inspectors on their routes from July 2011 through April 2014. They found inspectors frequently didn’t add pertinent information about a scene into their database, and there were discrepancies between what they recorded and what auditors saw.
At three inspections, revolting rat remnants were found — including droppings, burrows, uncovered trash cans and a drainage pipe with a broken cover — but officials didn’t give the cases a “failing” grade.
The city workers in some cases padded the time they spent at scenes in their reports and failed to alert property owners to get rid of the rats — increasing the risk that the pests would multiply.
A Health Department spokesman said the agency “strongly disagrees” with the audit.
“We believe the auditors reached incorrect conclusions because they focused only on complaints,” he said, “while ignoring the fact that complaint response is a small part of the department’s overall approach to discovering where rats are present, notifying owners about how to respond and carrying out targeted efforts to exterminate and prevent rats from reemerging.”
