Boston council presses city on weekend rat inspector gaps and leptospirosis risks

BOSTON — March 16, 2026 — Boston City Council panel challenges city over rat inspector staffing and leptospirosis preparedness. City Councillor Edward M. Flynn, chair of the Committee on City Services, convened a March 16 hearing on docket 0281, grilling city officials on whether Boston's 14 licensed pest control inspectors — who responded to 6,212 rodent complaints and conducted 1,161 proactive baitings last year — are sufficient for a major city. Dr. Katherine Himelstein of the Boston Public Health Commission told the committee that the last confirmed leptospirosis case in Boston was in 2021 and that no cases have been reported in 2026, with roughly one case every three to five years. Flynn pushed back against administration testimony defending on-call-only weekend coverage, saying "I'm going to respectfully disagree with you — I stand by my position that we need to have inspectors on the weekends," and committed to pressing for increased pest control and public health funding in the upcoming city budget process. Luke Hines of the Operations Department and John Ulrich, Assistant Commissioner of Environmental Services, defended the Boston Rodent Action Plan's four-pillar approach but committed to a Chinatown community walkthrough with Flynn in April and to providing neighborhood-level 311 complaint data.