Englewood’s newly adopted code enforcement philosophy means
tickets can be issued to repeat offenders if the violation isn’t
corrected after the expiration of the initial seven-day notice
period.
“This is a move to speed up enforcement of repeated code
violations,” Englewood Police Chief Tom Vandermee told the city
council at the March 24 study session. “Currently, the code
enforcement officer provides the notice of violation, which
provides the resident seven days to correct it. If it isn’t
corrected after seven days, the officer posts the property, giving
the resident an additional 14 days to correct the violation. If it
still isn’t corrected, the officer can issue a ticket which
requires a court appearance. The new procedure shortens the time
when a ticket can be issued to repeat offenders.”
The news was generally well received by the council
members.
“This seems like a step in the right direction,” councilman
Randy Penn said. “I am glad to see the effort to take steps that
will help clean up Englewood.”
Councilwoman Jill Wilson agreed.
“This seems like the steps to speed up the code enforcement
process we have been looking for,” she said. “I certainly feel this
is a step in the right direction.”
Vandermee has the authority to make the policy changes because
code enforcement is a division of the police force. But he said he
brought the information about the new philosophy because of
councilmembers’ interest in seeing positive changes in code
enforcement.
The police chief said the new procedure that will be put into
effect in early April to clean up the city was developed and
refined as a result of long discussions about the issue with
members of the council and members of the code enforcement advisory
committee.
To further strengthen code enforcement, Vandermee said police
patrol officers will be asked to note and report code violations.
He said it means Englewood’s 50 police officers will be more active
in the code enforcement process and adds 50 additional pairs of
eyes that can spot and report code enforcement issues as they
travel around the city.
“Also, the city is divided into three police patrol districts
and we will use the same district boundaries for code enforcement
with a code enforcement officer assigned permanently to one
district,” the police chief said. “That will make it easier for
patrol officers to get code enforcement information to the right
officer. Our fourth officer will handle complaints and reports
called into the code enforcement office. We feel this will provide
quicker response to code violations.”
When it comes to enforcement, Vandermee said the Code Trax
computer system is a valuable tool for the officers because it
contains a complete code enforcement history for every address in
the city.
He said the new policy does nothing to relieve code enforcement
officers of their discretion on whether or not a ticket should be
immediately issued after the seven-day notice period.
“Our officers will make personal contact with the people before
issuing a ticket,” the chief said. “There may be physical or
economical reasons the individual is unable to correct the
violation. In those cases, we’ll do what we can to help the
resident take care of the problem.”
Councilwoman Jill Wilson said she was impressed by the city’s
brochure about code enforcement and urged staff to find a way to
get that information to residents.
“We are reviewing the brochure and narrowing it down to the
information that has a direct impact on our resident,” said Mike
Flaherty, assistant city manager. “We are checking on the costs to
see if we can go forward with our plan to create a information
sheet that we will attach to ‘The Citizen,’ our newsletter that is
mailed to every resident in Englewood. It will go out in the mail
in May.”
Code enforcement has popped up as an issue for city council
discussion for more than a decade. Twenty-one percent of residents
who filled out the 2007 citizen survey listed run-down buildings,
weeds and junk vehicles as the second worst problem in Englewood.
Twenty-three percent listed drugs as the major problem in the city.
Residents regularly raise questions about code enforcement at city
council meetings.
The city council has been working with Vandermee and the code
enforcement advisory committee to try to find ways to improve code
enforcement.
On Feb. 25, Vandermee and police commander Sam Watson discussed
code enforcement with the city council.
Watson, who supervises code enforcement, said the officers spend
their time following up on complaints or on patrol checking for
violations.
The process keeps code enforcement officers busy. Last year,
they issued code enforcement notices for about 9,000
violations.
“Fortunately, the vast majority of Englewood residents are
cooperative and make the job easier,” Vandermee told the city
council Feb. 25. “About 96 percent of the residents who receive a
notice of violation corrected the problem within the seven-day
window. There were 117 cases that didn’t correct the violations and
were issued summons to appear in court.”
But councilmembers Penn, Wilson and Bob McCaslin all agreed they
still saw far too many obvious code enforcement violations when
they drove around the city. Vandermee and Watson said they would
look at ways to improve enforcement.
“Actually, this got its start in January at the council
goal-setting session when I think every councilmember stated code
enforcement and the associated quality of life issues were of major
concern to them,” Vandermee said. “That prompted us to take a look
at our goals and align them to address the same issues.”
He said he felt progress solving the problem was hampered by the
length of the process necessary to punish chronic
offenders.
“So we worked with our staff, the council and the code
enforcement advisory committee to come up with a system that would
speed up the process for dealing with those who repeatedly violate
the law,” Vandermee said. “We feel the changes we are making will
make us more efficient as we use the system to better serve our
needs when it comes to dealing with chronic offenders.”
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