1A, Community Livability - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

required inspections. In addition to the Code Enforcement Officer, the Building Official, City Planner, Community Development Director, and other administrative staff contribute to code enforcement efforts as necessary. As part of the City's contract, the Ramsey County Sheriff is also responsible for enforcing the City's regulations. Their services are particularly needed during after regular business hours and on weekends. Additional conversations with the Sheriff s office may be needed to ensure that the City's regulations are being enforced, and residents need to be educated to know that they are able to call Ramsey County during non-business hours. Staff is in the process of contacting other cities of similar size to assess their code enforcement staff resources. Each of the cities adjacent to Arden Hills has a full-time code enforcement officer. The remainder of this report outlines the options available to the City to address the code enforcement concerns addressed by Council, the focus group, and members of the community. In moving forward with this project, the primary goal of staff is to gain compliance and improve community livability. No single approach is likely to resolve all code enforcement issues facing the City, and the costs and benefits of each tool must be weighed. A combination of education, reviewing existing regulations, and providing more substantive enforcement tools is necessary to make the code enforcement program more effective. Despite any cities best efforts, problem properties are still likely to exist. Finally, this report also includes a section on how complaints are received and processed, which is integral to the code enforcelnent process. Enforcement Tools and Cost Recoverv Citations (Civil and Criminal) The City's existing regulations allow for the use of civil and criminal citations. The July 31, 2008, letter from the City Attorney outlines the legal background and process (Attachment B). While both types of citations are available as a tool for code enforcement, it can be cumbersome to use because quick results are rarely achieved in the legal process. As noted in the City Attorney's letter, the civil citation process may take six to twelve months and the criminal citation may take six to nine months during which time the violation may remain unresolved. Additionally, the City incurs costs for staff time, attorney's time, and court costs, which may not be recoverable even if the City wins the court case. Due to the time and potential cost of issuing a criminal or civil citation, staff works with property owners to obtain compliance and avoid this process where possible. City of Arden Hills City Council Work Session for October 20~ 2008 I IAhdocs 1 \ah\AHdata\PlanningICommuni(v Development\Communi(F Li\:abili(vIA1emos\/ 02008 - CC IVlemo - Community Livabili~y.doc Page 4 of]2