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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1999-08-18 CEAC MINUTES• • • 1. CODE ENFORCEMENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES August 18, 1999 Call to Order. The regular meeting of the Englewood Code Enforcement Advisory Committee was called to order at 6:34 p.m. by Chair Allen in the Community Room. Roll Call Present: Ex-Officio: Absent: Allen, Carlston, Fischbach, Hambleton, Hansen, Roth, Stankorb Flaherty, Garrett, Lynn, Wicks Boyer, Gomes, Johnson 2. Approval of Minutes. MEMBER ROTH MOVED, AND MEMBER STANKORB SECONDED, THAT THE MINUTES OF THE JULY 21, 1999, CODE ENFORCEMENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE BE APPROVED AS READ. Ayes: Allen, Carlston, Fischbach, Hambleton, Hansen, Roth, Stankorb Nays: None Absent: Boyer, Gomes, Johnson The motion carried . 3. Public open forum. Waived. 4. Old business. The committee discussed National Night Out and the block party that had been held Friday , August 6. Chair Allen asked if anyone knew the point of the block party and was informed that it was a Neighborhood Watch issue. Lieutenant Wicks advised that Nancy Peterson felt that it went extremely well. Assistant City Manager Flaherty advised that Nancy Peterson would have a video at the Block Captain's meeting on September 8 . Member Stankorb brought up the issue of Code Enforcement adding a parking officer. He felt that it was an issue that should be discussed if the committee wished to support this addition. He wanted to know what the procedure would be to show support to adding a parking officer. Wicks advised that the request was presently at the City Manager's level and that if the committee was to show support it probably should be in the form of a letter to the City Manager. He also stated that it should be done soon because the budget approval process was currently underway. Councilperson Garrett advised that the position was currently in the proposed budget for Safety Services. Flaherty advised that there would be a budget hearing. Member Hansen asked what the anticipated duties of the parking officer would be. Stankorb • ·- advised that this person was the one who monitored the parking meters, parking problems around the high school and Swedish Hospital where there are permit areas , and those kinds of things. It is one of the few positions in the city that generates more than enough revenue to pay the salary of a parking officer. He felt that if the other Code Enforcement officers had to assume some of the duties that it was taking away from time they had to do other things and the parking was probably not being monitored as thoroughly as it should be. Garrett advised that the businesses around Swedish were havi ng problems as well. Wicks advised that the proposal of the pos ition was i n antic ipation of a lot of vehicu lar traffic in July of 2000 when the RTD station opens . Stankorb menti oned that there is no parking lot at the light-rail stati on located on Oxford and that there would be a lot of parking problems as a result . Garrett adv ised that the Council was fairly supportive of creating that position. It was determined that a letter should be written to the City Manager with copies to members of the City Council recommending that this positi on be approved. MEMBER STANKORB MOVED THAT THE CODE ENFORCEMENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE SHOULD SUPPORT THE ADDITION OF A DEDICATED PARKING OFFICER AND MEMBER CARLSTON SECONDED. Ayes: Allen , Carlston, Fischbach, Hambleton , Hansen, Roth, Stankorb Nays : None Absent : Boyer, Gomes, Johnson The motion carried . Stankorb will write the letter to t he City Manager and provide copies to the City Council members by the end of the month. Code Enforcement Superv isor Lynn i nquired if anyone would be speaking in support of the issue at the City Counc il hear ings . Garrett advised that he would "put i n a good word " for t he committee. The hearings would probably be i n October. Mr. Brian Hambleton was i ntroduced and sworn in as a new member of the Code Enforcement Advisory Committee . 5. Graffiti ordinance update. Allen asked for an update from Member Roth. Roth advised that the ordinance passed. He stated that Christi na Estes of CRL addressed Council on the issue and that she brought the manager of K-Mart with her. Council passed the ordinance as it was written , so , basically, lock down is not necessary. Allen asked if there was a one-year time period to determine if it was working. Roth advised that that was pre t ty much up to the committee. There was no time limit written i nto the ordinance. The ordinance goes i nto effect 30-days after passage and it will be published in the Herald. Committee members may want to drop i n on the merchants, as time goes by, j ust to see how it's going , review the results and see if the merchants were abiding by the ordinance. It would also be wise to monitor any statistics obtained from the City as far as the trends to see how well it's working . The Education Subcommittee will address that issue. Allen wanted to know what CRL would be doing regarding signs . Roth advised that CRL was supposed to take care of that but that the committee should probably monitor it. The City will not be publishing the signs. There was nothing contractual , but, hopefully, CRL would be following up on their word. 2 • • • 6 . 7. Rewriting nuisance ordinance. Lynn advised that he had read the City code and that there were some holes in it and some things that had perhaps been changed inadvertently. One in particular had to do with the Nuisance Ordinance, Chapter 15, --"Weed Abatement." The old code allowed the process to be done in two steps . The first step was the Issuance of the Notice of Violation that said you had five days to take care of it. The second step, if it wasn't taken care of in that five days , was to place another notice, that gave the homeowner between five and ten days , typically specified at five days. Essentially the city assumed control of a person 's weeds 10-days after the problem was discovered and that worked very well. There is a contractor with the city who usually cuts the weeds one to two days after notification. Therefore , there was about an 11 to 1 2 day turnaround on a property. Now, there is a seven -day Notice of Violation . If the property is not cleaned up in the seven-days, t he city is then obligated to i ssue the property owner a 30-day notice to take care of it. After that 30-day notice, the city can cut the weeds. This is just one of the issues in the Code that's a problem. Weeds had never been discussed by the Code Enforcement Advisory Committee specifically. Lynn will prepare a list of Code Enforcement issues and forward it to the Ordinance Subcommittee so that research can be done , then brought up at a Committee meeti ng. Further discussion ensued regarding Nuisance Ordinance t i me frames. Lynn also explained some of the other problems with the Code such as the Code Enforcement officers ' lack of right of entry, no ordinance concerning composting or compost bins , no definition of what constitutes a lot and what the responsibilities are for the lot . Code Enforcement responsibilities. Lynn distributed the list of Code Enforcement responsibilities dated August 12 and advised that the list would expand somewhat . He also distributed the July Code Enforcement Monthly Activity Report and took a few moments to explain the issues and answer questions. 8. Subcommittee appointments. Member Gomes had advised the recording secretary via telephone that he wished to be on the Ordinance Subcommittee. Member Carlston advised that she wished to be on the Education Subcommittee. Member Hambleton advised that he would like to wait until the next meeting to chose a subcommittee. 9. Subcommittee reports. Ordinance Subcommittee -nothing to report. Operational Strategies Subcommittee -nothing to report. Education Subcommittee -has prepared an article for the Citizen, is continuing to try to determine how to recognize various properties for the Mayor's Award recognition. As a subcommittee they have determined that this could be a difficult thing to do and welcome suggestions . 3 • • • 10. Topics for September meeting agenda. Hobby/Derelict vehicles. 11. Adjournment. MEMBER STANKORB MOVED, AND MEMBER HANSEN SECONDED, TO ADJOURN THE MEETING. Ayes: Allen , Carlston, Fischbach, Hambleton , Hansen , Roth , Stankorb Nays: None Absent: Boyer , Gomes, Johnson The motion carried and the Code Enforcement Advisory Committee meeting adjourned at 8:05 p.m. --flecording Secretary 4