CC_Minutes_2007_1022 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

Parks & Recreation Commission co?~.tractors, getting estimates, monitoring work, approving bills, etc. Council has authorized one full time land use code enforcement officer, this staff performs mast inspections, inputs most of the data entry and writes most correspondence. Initiating mare abatement cases would require additional paid assistance. Question 3.) Just a note of concern: If a case file has been maintained all along, I am struggling to see why it needs to take an additional 45 days to get county court citation cases before the council. I need more explanation of this timing issue. Response: - Complaint cases proceed as follows; letter, letter, Administrative Ticket. If not resolved with the Administrative Ticket they then go before Council for a potential court citation (or abatement). At this point a public hearing must be scheduled and the property owner notified. Current policy is to provide a 30 day notice of the hearing date to the property owner. A few days are added for scheduling, composing and posting notices. Because council meeting dates are not weekly, the next available council date can be 30-40 days out. Therefore, a court citation can't be written for 30-45 days. - We have a repeat offense before us naw which involves a rental property with appliances, a couch and other household items left in the yard. It is a repeat offender. An Administrative Ticket was issued, however, the landlord did not pay, appeal or comply. Staff is now scheduling a public hearing before Council. Sending the notice today, the 18th, means the next available date, after the 30 day notification, is November 26th. This is 40 days out. - Recently, staff has been given direction to change and tighten some previous procedures. For example, if there are cases of repeat offenders, dropping one of the two 'friendly' letters and/or going directly to the Administrative Ticket. This was done with the case mentioned above, staff went directly to the Administrative Ticket. Question 4.) I'd like to consider just taking out the rigid 30-day requirement for coming to the council that we have, and allowing staff more ability to do compassionate enforcement up to a point where staff concludes it is no longer of benefit. Then quickly get the case before us to deal with. Response: - The 30 day notification is policy, not a code requirement for all cases. A 30 days notice is only required by code when the property is vacant, the owner unknown, and posting is necessary. Otherwise a IO day notice is required, with certified/registered mail. Due to the practice of refusing certified/registered mail delivery it became division policy to 'post' all cases going before Council, thus, the 30 day notification policy. - In March of this year staff proposed shortening the notification period to 10 days as per actual code wording, however, the then Community Development Director decide to retain the 30 day notification policy. Question 5.) As to possible staffing enhancements to deal with the seasonal nature of code enforcement coinciding with building season, per our recently adopted policy resolution we will need an analysis to back up a staffing request. (As a general note related to this, perhaps it makes sense to utilize an outside "efficiency expert" to provide a technical analysis of the situation that leads to the conclusion that more staff is needed in a particular area. That way, when a request for additional staff comes to the council, it has some good solid data behind it. Also, such a fresh, 3rd party analysis might suggest ways to optimize the use of existing staff that had not been thought of that could at least partially obviate the need for additional staff.) Response: - For informational purposes: Typically Code Enforcement efforts fall behind in the busy construction season of May to August. Many cities augment staff during these periods with intern/seasonal staff. Such a position in Roseville would cost approximately $10,000.00 per year (intern for 4 months). If there are any follow-up questions, please send them through the City Manager or the Interim Community Development Director. 2