District 6 Councilor Giovanni Recupero regularly files motions aimed at helping the working class and senior citizen residents of Chelsea catch a break.
At Monday night’s meeting, Recuperon presented a motion asking for a subcommittee on conference meeting with the inspectional services department and city solicitor to discuss enforcement issues for landlord violations at rental properties.
In addition, the council supported a motion to hold a subcommittee meeting to discuss strategies in relation to a potential home rule petition to establish a means-tested senior property tax exemption program for Chelsea residents.
Recupero said he wanted to meet with the inspectional services department because he was concerned that there are property owners in the city who are fined for various violations but continue to commit the violations.
“They get fined, but they still do the same thing, so it doesn’t matter if you fine them or not,” said Recupero. “I want to find out exactly what the city can do, can we have a better enforcement system than we already have in place? I feel sad for the poor people who cannot defend themselves, they have to come to us; I want to make sure that we do the right thing by them.”
Recupero said he understood the senior property tax exemption would have to come through the state legislature, but said he wanted to see what the council could do to help expedite the process.
The councilor noted that the city gives tax incentives to big businesses and that he would like to see the same kind of program offered to senior homeowners in the city.
“They should not have to worry about being kicked out of their house because they cannot pay their taxes,” said Recupero.
District 1 Councilor Todd Taylor said he supported further discussion of the issue in subcommittee.
“I think that whenever a poor community like Chelsea needs to look at mitigation factors, with all kinds of rising costs for our residents, I don’t think it’s a bad idea to look at it,” said Taylor. “The councilor is right that we cannot do it on our own, but we can certainly discuss exactly what the home rule petition will be and ways and strategies in order to get it through the legislature.”
Taylor said he is generally in favor of further discussion of motions in subcommittee because it gives the council more time to review important issues in the city.
Councilor-at-Large Leo Robinson said he supported further discussion of the motion, adding he had questions about who would pay for the property tax exemptions.
“Other homeowners and condo owners will pick up the slack for whatever discount that seniors get,” said Robinson.