[Justin Tseng]: Real effort being put into this, and I think props have to be given to members of the community who've also really been pushing for this to get over the finish line. My question is about the penalties, the enforcement and penalties. Could you give us a sense, I mean, I have the language here, but could you explain to the public what those look like?
[Anna Callahan]: Hang on. Sorry, this copy looks very different. Let me just take a look at the copy that I have. Sorry for the short delay here. Okay, enforcement and penalties. City citizen removal of a public tree. So this is only public trees. This is like if you cut down a sidewalk tree, right? If you cut down a tree in a park, right? I don't know that anybody has ever done that. So but it says any person or entity damaging or removing a public tree without authority will be fined and the fines will be deposited in the tree fund. Enforcement shall be by the tree warden or the tree warden's designee or the police. Citizens may report damage or removal of public trees to the tree warden. Penalties. Any person who violates any section of this ordinance or violates any stipulation of a permit issued pursuant to this ordinance shall be fined and the fine shall consist of the cost of compensating the city for the cost of replacing the canopy that was lost. So there's a little bit more in there about how it's calculated, but that's essentially what is being talked about. But again, this is not for removing a tree on your property. This is only if you are chopping down a tree that is on a sidewalk or in a public park.
[Justin Tseng]: I just have a follow-up question. Let me, great. So I think the, from the section you read out, the fine is the sum of preparing the site, planting the young trees at the current, like whatever the contract rate is, the salaries and costs for the staff time of taking care of those trees. I wonder, so let's say there's an old public tree, it has pretty big coverage, but the site maybe isn't huge, and so the DPWPW, let's say maybe it's like four trees that would comprise that, four young trees that would comprise that coverage. But because of some space constraints or because of the soil or geography or something The city decides to plant just one or two trees in in place. Do you know if the if the fine would be determined by the number of trees of the canopy coverage or by how many trees are actually planted to replace that tree being cut down?
[Anna Callahan]: I don't know anything beyond the text of the ordinance, which was run by the DPW and by KP Law and others. But outside of what the text says, I don't. I can't answer that question.
[Justin Tseng]: I just think it's maybe something we should try to clarify, just in case those numbers are different from each other. I could see this being somewhat, I mean, I don't know enough about tree plantings to know how often that is the case, but if it does come up, I think perhaps it's something we could clarify.
[Anna Callahan]: So you're, if I may, you're saying in the situation that a large tree comes down, because it is pretty clear the compensation shall be calculated by measuring the canopy cover using recent aerial photography, determining the number of young trees that would have the equivalent canopy coverage, and then the sum of what you described. So what you're saying is if an old tree is taken down, but there isn't enough room.
[Justin Tseng]: Yeah, let's say for whatever reason, maybe because of soil health reasons or because maybe there are rocks on site. It's just kind of impractical to plant the number of trees that would make up for the total canopy coverage. I guess like the language in here, I could just see it being contested because I would guess that the sentence with the word summon it is the operative sentence of how the fine is determined. But it's saying planting those young trees, and those I think refers to the number of young trees that would have the equivalent canopy coverage. But then the second half of the find the sum sentence kind of suggests that we're really just looking at the number of trees that we end up planting in that place. So I think those two, I could see those two numbers potentially being different. And I just think maybe that's something we can iron out either tonight or get, even if we report out of committee to try to get Commissioner McIvern's input on just that hypothetical. But yeah, I mean, again, I really appreciate all the work that's put into this. This is, I think, gonna be really helpful for the city. Do you have a language suggestion? I think either... Let me take a look at it. I think there must be some suggestion I can come up with.
[Zac Bears]: All right, any other councillors have a comment on this proposed ordinance? Councilor Malayne.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you Councilor Callahan for bringing this up. I think this is great and certainly as we're seeing this kind of ordinance is needed more and more in terms of protecting our trees. I think the only questions I just had were just around the tree fund itself. And I'm assuming this is something that would be managed by, or I guess I should ask, is this something that would be managed by the DPW, by the tree warden? Is this something that people could donate towards? Like how exactly would the tree fund work? What would be its purpose? And who kind of would oversee kind of management budget of it?
[Anna Callahan]: Yeah, the tree fund is actually defined in this, and so I'll just read it for folks who may be listening in. An account established pursuant to this ordinance for the deposit of payments for mitigating tree removal in lieu of tree replanting. This fund may only be expended as a means of promoting a healthy tree canopy and will be applied to the cost of site preparation, tree replanting, and new tree maintenance. So do you mind re-asking your question?
[Liz Mullane]: Yeah, sure. So is this something that's like, is the oversight by DPW, is it oversight by the tree warden? Where would the budget or what would that look like in terms of what the needs might be for utilizing this type of fund? That is such a great question.
[Anna Callahan]: I will admit to being like these a lot of this has been so long in and out of committee and so let me see if I can find some information on that or I don't know if the Councilors have been here longer than I have because this was originally you know something from Councilor Morell. So if anybody else has a memory of that.
[Justin Tseng]: I missed your question.
[Anna Callahan]: It's about the tree fund and like under what department is that fund. Like who would manage it, is it DPW or is it?
[Zac Bears]: I think it's the tree, DPW and Tree Warden.
[Liz Mullane]: All of it, okay.
[Zac Bears]: Yeah, both Commissioner of DPW and Tree Warden.
[Liz Mullane]: Okay, it's a fundraising account. I'm assuming if people wanted to give towards it or something as well, or I think so.
[Zac Bears]: I think it's a special special special revenue.
[Liz Mullane]: Okay, great. Terrific. Yeah, great. Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Any further comments by members of the council or questions? Councilor Tsengeed.
[Justin Tseng]: This is just to go back to penalties. I've kind of created two, I think they're not the most artfully written sentences, but I think they convey both options. So the first one being, this compensation shall be calculated by measuring the canopy cover using recent aerial photography, such as Google Maps coverage or aerial photography. Actually, I feel like the second aerial photography is a little redundant. I agree. Reading out loud. We're using recent aerial photography such as Google Maps coverage or aerial photography. actually it's I feel like that the second aerial photography is a little redundant replacement trees at the current rate and salaries and costs for staff time for selecting watering and monitoring those trees so that would be that phrasing is for just however however many trees are used to replace it the second phrasing I have is based on canopy coverage. So it'd be likely a higher number. This compensation shall be calculated by measuring the canopy cover using recent aerial photography, such as Google Maps coverage, determining the number of young trees that would have the equivalent canopy coverage. the fine shall be the sum of the cost of preparing the site, planting that number of trees at the current contract rate and salaries and costs for staff time for selecting.