L.A. councilman calls for quicker cleanup of human waste

Los Angeles Councilman Bill Rosendahl said Thursday that he plans to convene a working group of agencies to prevent or better respond to incidents of human waste dumping like the three that occurred in Venice recently. Rosendahl said in a statement that the fact it took several days for the waste to be removed in Venice was “upsetting.”

The group would include city and county health and law enforcement authorities. They would be charged with developing a quicker and clearer process for reporting, responding to, cleaning up, investigating and prosecuting such incidents.

In addition to Rosendahl’s office, the group would include the Los Angeles Department of Public Works, Los Angeles County health and sanitation officials, the Los Angeles Police and Fire Departments, and the offices of City Atty. Carmen Trutanich and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

“The dumping of human waste onto our streets is reprehensible and should never happen,” Rosendahl said in a statement. “But if it does, it must be cleaned up immediately. It should take one call to any agency to get action.” Rosendahl said that when an agency gets a call regarding the dumping of human waste, a notification alert should be sent to a range of responsible agencies to ensure a coordinated response.

-- Martha Groves