It was, Councilor Maureen Feeney recalls, complete pandemonium: Last summer, somebody opened five hydrants in the area around Norton and Bowdoin streets and the area became an instant disaster zone: Basements were flooded, backyards washed out, cars damaged and some little kids were sent tumbling down the hill because of the force of the water. Thank God a fire didn't break out in the area at the time, she says.

Never again, Feeney and fellow Dorchester Councilor Charles Yancey vowed today. Although the Boston Water and Sewer Commission is installing supposedly more tamper-proof locks on the hydrants in the area - and buying special wrenches for firefighters to use to open them - the two councilors said at a hearing today they want fines and even possible jail time as cudgels to go after kids who open hydrants during the dog days of summer.

There's just one problem: The Boston Water and Sewer Commission owns the hydrants and says it is completely independent of city government and police have no authority over its hydrants, not even to arrest or fine people who open them illegally. Only commission employees can legally go after vandals, commission attorney Bonnie Gottschalk told the two councilors.

Feeney asked if the commission had ever actually gone after an individual for opening a hydrant. Gottschalk acknowledged it had not - by the time any BWSC workers in the field report a problem to commission headquarters, the miscreant is long gone, she said.

Still, BWSC officials vowed to work with the city to figure out an answer - likely in the form of a "special order" under which the commission would authorize Boston Police to do something about hydrant openers. The commission and BPD came to a similar understanding in 1990 to let police go after people dumping used motor oil in catch basins.

"Let's get this thing resolved," Tom Bagley, deputy director of communications for the commission, said. "Whatever we can do, we'll do it. ... These people cannot go through another summer like that."

Feeney proposed $300 fines and a possible one-year jail sentence. BPD Superintendent William Evans said his officers would be more likely to try to convince kids - through their parents - to stop opening hydrants than to arrest them, but that it would be good to have more severe punishments available just in case.

Boston Transportation Commissioner Tom Tinlin wants to increase the cost of parking violations outside Boston Proper to reduce the number of motorists he says now tie up neighborhood parking spaces all day because current tickets cost less than a day in a downtown garage.

Tinlin wants to increase the price of a parking violation outside the city core from $15 to $25. He told a City Council committee today that the current $15 fine "would be the cheapest garage in the city of Boston." Parking tickets downtown and in nearby areas, such as the North End, would not increase

He said an increase would raise an extra $600,000 a year, based on the number of tickets issued last year, but that the goal is to change driver behavior, not raise more money.

Councilor Charles Yancey (Dorchester) said the city should really wait to increase fines until the economy improves and said it should do something about what he said was a large number of city and state police cars illegally parked in the area around Dorchester District Court.

Tinlin said the issue is that "people are gaming the system" by parking where fines are lower than garage rates and that his staff would look into the court-area issue.

He added that the new fees could go into effect sometime next month, after neighborhoods are notified.

Joel Brown has the schedule.

Boston police have cordoned off the area in front of the BPL facing Copley Square and closed that block of Dartmouth St. because of a suspicious package, which looked to me like a black canvas briefcase leaning against a trash can.