Melrose Admits 'Glitches In Our System' After Brazil St. Crisis

MELROSE, MA — Twenty-eight days after the Brazil Street sewage backup, Mayor Gail Infurna's administration for the first time spoke at length about what it knew, when it knew and how it responded in the aftermath of the disaster that has had Melrose officials on their heels ever since.

Among the biggest revelations was Mayor Gail Infurna confirming she had been hospitalized the morning of Thursday, June 20, the same day DPW workers inadvertently caused an overflow of waste and filth that rushed into four Brazil Street homes. Infurna remained in the hospital until the following Monday; she did not say why she hospitalized.

The Infurna administration's speed and clarity - or lack thereof, according to affected residents - in responding to the issue was in part what sparked one of the worst public relations crises in recent Melrose history.

"Had I been in my office that day I would have been on the site as soon as I heard what had happened," she said to the Board of Aldermen. Thursday night's Appropriations Committee meeting was called so her administration could answer the Board's questions.

"This was an unusual event," Infurna said in her opening remarks. "It had all the elements of the perfect storm."

>>>Read: Residents Sound Off In Front Of Mayor Thursday Night

Infurna also said the city has so far paid about $40,000 from the sewer fund - $15,000 for hotel stays and $25,000 for cleanup and restoration of the homes. The Melrose Emergency Fund paid for $200 Target gift cards to help the families with immediate needs, Infurna said.

Infurna spoke in front of a standing-room only crowd that spilled out of the aldermanic chambers. Earlier in the evening, residents vented about Brazil Street and other similar incidents.

During the Board's grilling of the administration, officials denied requests by two aldermen to have an independent specialist come in and certify the affected homes were safe to move back into. Health Director Ruth Clay said she spoke to the Department of Public Health, which said there is no way to test for air toxicity and bacteria like there is for, say, mold.

The administration — particularly Clay — has come under fire for sending families back to residences the habitants said were unlivable and hazardous. The only house that currently has Clay's approval to be lived in is home to a couple and their 5-year-old daughter; the woman who lives there told Patch there were dozens of roaches there right before moving back in.

Ward 5 Alderman and Brazil Street resident Shawn MacMaster pressed the administration on the issue in what was the tensest moment of the night. At the end, he asked whether Clay would be comfortable having her children or grandchildren living in those homes after just a visual inspection like the one residents said she quickly gave.

"Yes," Clay responded.

Alderman Scott Forbes later joined MacMaster in his request for an independent check.

Clay also defended her inspection of the affected homes, as well as the green light she gave for residents to move back into two of them. As of Sunday, one of those homes still had sewage in the heating and cooling system under the living room floor - she had already rescinded her approval for that home. The city said Thursday night they are still paying for a hotel for the couple that lives there, the third extension they have given after telling the couple they only had until a certain date.

Some other things that came out of Thursday night's three-and-a-half-hour meeting:

• "How we responded to Brazil Street will be reviewed by every department in the city," City Solicitor Robert Van Campen, acknowledging "some glitches in our system."
• In response to a question from Alderman-at-Large Monica Medeiros about how the city is not fully responsible for the situation considering it is the utility provider, Van Campen said Massachusetts law affords the government sovereign immunity in such cases. "If there is no evidence of negligence or recklessness or there was no prior notice of a defect, then under that statue the municipality or public employer is not held responsible," he said.
• DPW Director John Scenna opened with an apology to affected residents. It's the first public apology the administration has made.
• Scenna said the camera that could have been used to scope the pipe in advance and possibly help avoid the backup was approved to be purchased in June, but the DPW does not yet have it. He also said that with the camera, protocol could change on how DPW treats such backups.
• Scenna called for the city to continue investing in the sewer infrastructure, calling it an "ongoing issue."
• Aldermen MacMaster and Mike Zwirko pressed the city on why communication was so sporadic in the immediate aftermath of the blowout. City officials said there were "communication gaps." The city admitted that in retrospect, some things done Friday should have been done the day before.
• MacMaster, who has been the most critical of the administration in the aftermath of the blockage, said the first substantive conversation he had about it with officials was a phone call with Scenna more than 12 hours after it occurred.