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Page 2 <br /> 11/04/02 <br /> If the City Council wants to proceed in this matter, in addition to adopting the contract <br /> with paragraph six, the Council should adopt a Resolution to that effect, and the procedure <br /> should be as follows: the involved City staff person should inform the City Council that he or <br /> she proposes a criminal citation be issued, and the City Council then have a public hearing <br /> (without any involvement whatsoever from this Firm). Proceeding in that manner would <br /> properly separate the legislative and political process from the judicial process. Once a criminal <br /> citation is referred directly to this Firm, it becomes a judicial matter for court determination. To <br /> send it back to the City Council would be to substitute the legislative or political process with the <br /> judicial process. <br /> The reason for the addition of this paragraph is as follows. After the City Council's <br /> action to reappoint us, I met (as requested) with the Mayor, councilmember Kough, and Neal <br /> Beets. At that meeting the Mayor indicated that he did not want this Firm to prosecute any <br /> zoning code violations or community development criminal citations unless there had been a <br /> public hearing by the City Council and explicit direction by the City Council to proceed with a <br /> criminal citation. <br /> Philosophically, certain code violations sometimes are better handled through the <br /> administrative or civil process if possible. Obviously bringing people to criminal court for <br /> certain code and zoning code violations does immediately bring the parties into an adversarial <br /> position. Oftentimes it is better to try and resolve these matters with the property owners via <br /> other methods than criminal prosecution. Of course that does not mean that all matters can be <br /> handled civilly. A violation of the code or zoning code is a misdemeanor, punishable by $1,000 <br /> and/or one year in jail. Oftentimes a fine or jail time is not necessarily the remedy the City is <br /> looking for; rather, they are merely trying to get a homeowner to clean up his or her <br />