Despite Aldermen Push, Mayor May 'Stick To' Brazil St. Decision

MELROSE, MA — Mayor Gail Infurna said she is willing to have further discussions about independent inspection of Brazil Street homes damaged in a massive sewer backup, but without new information will "stick to" her decision not to have an outside expert evaluate their condition.

Her decision, which she told Patch in a Friday afternoon interview about the Brazil Street response, comes less than 24 hours after the Board of Aldermen passed a resolution imploring the city to provide a specialist to inspect the homes and extend residents' hotel stays, the last of which ended this week for people whose homes have not yet been cleared.

While the resolution is non-binding, Infurna now stands in direct opposition to the city's legislative body, in addition to mounting public pressure, though she said a potential compromise could be had.

It remains to be seen what a compromise might look like. Infurna's administration has said there is no state standard of testing for unsafe levels in this instance, something the Department of Public Health confirmed to Patch, and a test would be unnecessary.

"I am torn about this whole idea of this testing, and I wish we could just keep on educating people and I wish they could understand it all," Infurna told Patch Friday. "But I don't think until I can sit or my team can sit with [Alderman] Shawn [MacMaster] and really have a conversation can we ever come to anything."

It might be some time before that conversation takes place. Infurna said Friday MacMaster, the Ward 5 Alderman and a Brazil Street resident, has not returned her messages since mid-July when he informed her meeting wouldn't be productive; MacMaster responded later Friday by saying Infurna's administration has only requested speaking after pressure from the media and public, and he has no plans on meeting until Infurna reconsiders her position on the independent investigation.

"The mayor’s two, hard-boiled requests to meet occurred only when she found herself in the hot-seat; by no means were they driven by a genuine desire to collaborate," MacMaster told Patch.

Infurna acknowledged she doesn't necessarily see a meeting leading to an independent investigation. She said she'd invite MacMaster and a company in that field to a meeting, but "if we're coming up with the same answers that we've been coming up with before, that there's no way to really measure this ... I'm going to stick to it."

When asked why the city would not just commission the investigation to give peace of mind after Infurna said earlier this week how she empathized "with the fear and uncertainty the residents may be feeling," Infurna said it had nothing to do with money.

"Because it won't allay their fears," Brigid Alverson, Infurna's assistant, said. "In the absence of scientific evidence as to what are the safe and unsafe levels of these — or if any level is safe or unsafe — all we're doing is risking increasing their anxiety if they see something that they think is dangerous but it's not, or giving them a false sense of confidence if they see something that is OK and is not. There's no point in doing a test if there is no meaningful result to come from the test."

That's not what a Brazil Street resident with a Master's in Public Health from Harvard said at Thursday's meeting.

"When the DPH in Boston is saying there are no reference values on how to assess those homes, that only means that there are no reference values," Pedja Stojicic, a physician, said. "It doesn't mean those homes are safe for living."

Thursday's meeting was the latest in what has become a familiar scene in the aldermanic chambers: Three television news cameras crammed with some 20 attendees to hear aldermen and residents express dissatisfaction with how the city has responded in the wake of the June 20 Brazil Street sewage backup that ruined four homes.

Infurna said she nor any of her administration were invited to the meeting.

The resolution passed with one dissenting vote, which came from Alderman John Tramontozzi, who said he could only support part of the resolution but offered an amendment that would see the parties work through insurance companies to find a solution. The amendment failed to pick up a second supporter.

The attendees — mostly made up of Brazil Street residents, including some who were displaced — expressed disappointment in the city's refusal to provide an independent investigator.

"It is not a place that I want to be anymore," Julie Salvato, who was with her 5-year-old daughter, told the aldermen. "I don't feel like it's safe. I don't feel like it's happy. I don't want my daughter there at all. We are the house that has been told it's habitable; we have no floors, we have no walls, we have nothing."

Health Director Ruth Clay declared Salvato's home habitable in late June; the city paid for a hotel until July 8. Clay had cleared another home at 12 Brazil St. before learning there was sewage in the heating and cooling unit beneath the living room floor that still remains there; she revised her decision when she found out.

Clay cleared another home pending the installation of a toilet; the elderly resident who lives there has not yet installed it. MacMaster said the man has been using public toilets.

Work still needs to be done at a fourth home, the residents of which — including three young children — are living with a family member. The residents refused the city's offer of a hotel.

Infurna told Patch Friday that she continues to stand by Clay, and when asked if she had plans to ask for Clay's resignation in the wake of criticism of her inspections of the affected homes, she said, "none whatsoever."

Infurna did, however, say that the building inspector will accompany Clay on similar home inspections going forward.

The administration's refusal to provide an investigator to clear what cleaning and restoration company ServPro deemed a Level 3 Contamination had aldermen scratching their heads Thursday night.

"I think that using standard operating procedures for an incident that makes national news is insufficient," Alderman Kate Lipper-Garabedian said. "Based on my own empathetic feelings on this, the work that we heard has been done and some obvious glaring omissions that occurred during it, there does not seem to me to be any reason why we wouldn't be as aggressive as possible in ensuring that our neighbors feel confident to return to their homes."

Alderman Scott Forbes questioned the administration's wisdom.

"Wouldn't the city want to have additional information to help them make a well-informed, common-sense decision?" he asked. "Not only to make sure that the homes are habitable but to provide peace of mind to the residents that are affected."

Forbes also was flabbergasted that one home was initially cleared despite having sewage trapped beneath the floor.

"What are we doing? The truth is that 12 Brazil St. never should have been cleared for occupancy in the first place," he said. "If we simply walk in, peek into rooms, do the eyeball test and simply check the box, is this the standard that we want to have when clearing a property that was labeled a heightened category 3 sewage backup? I don't think so."

Alderman Robert Boisselle also supported the resolution, but cautioned against letting a "comprehensive" investigation get too far and questioned some specifics, like who would perform and oversee it.

Mayoral candidates chimed in as well.

• "I don't feel enough compassion was shown and there was a lack of on the ground presence the day it happened and the many days following," Alderman-at-Large Manisha Bewtra said.
• Alderman-at-Large Mike Zwirko said he hoped the resolution would get city officials and affected residents in a room and hash out how the city could do right by them.
• "This is a situation where I think we should be going above and beyond," Alderman-at-Large Monica Medeiros said. She continued, "To me, [the resolution] is simple, it's the right thing to do."

The city had paid $13,441 on lodging for all affected residents as of Wednesday. That money came from the Sewage Fund, and the city believes insurance will reimburse much of it. Patch learned the city's Emergency Fund has more than $170,000 in it, but only $800 of it was tapped for gift cards for those affected.

"As Mayor, I must balance my desire to help these residents with the need to be prudent with public funds," Infurna said in a memo Wednesday. "We have insurance precisely to deal with cases such as this one, and that insurance limits what we can and should do. If we provide assistance over and above what our insurance company deems appropriate, we not only defeat the purpose of having insurance but we would expose the taxpayers of Melrose to potentially uncontrollable costs."

As the calendar flips to August, residents are still without a place to call home. Some, like the newlyweds at 12 Brazil St., have been told by their landlord they should start looking for a new place to live. Some, like Salvato, are living in a shell of a home.

"I love Melrose, my whole family has, and we believe it's a great city," Linda Philpot, who has lived on Brazil Street for decades, said at Thursday's meeting. "But seeing this, how it's been handled, doesn't make me proud."