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Home My WebLink About2008-06-18 CEAC MINUTES': • • • I. II. Ill . City of Englewood Code Enforcement Advisory Committee Minutes from the Meeting of June 18, 2008 '~ Call to Order The regular meeting of the Englewood Code Enforcement Advisory Committee was called to order at 6 :38 p.m . by Chair Hoagland. Roll Call. Present: Chair Hoagland, and Members Becker and Mosman. Absent/Excused : Council Liaison Wilson and Member Bleile. A quorum was present. Ex-Officio Members Present: Counci l Liaisons Mccaslin and Penn , and Staff Member Flaherty and Sergeant Contos. El Approval of Minutes Sergeant Contos corrected Item V.c. of the May minutes noting that snow violations, not weed violations, can now be sent to the Violations Bureau . Member Becker made a motion to approve the minutes of the May 21, 2008 meeting as corrected. Member Mosman seconded the motion. The minutes were approved. i~ Public open forum None IV. El New Business The Committee discussed cancellation of the August meeting because of the Democratic National Convention . ~ Member Becker made a motion to cancel the August 20, 2008 meeting. Member Mosman seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous. V. ~ Unfinished Business a . fl('!;\ 1~ Weeds The Committee discussed charging the cost of weed abatement to the property owner. • • • Such costs include: • Cost of time including an officer's salary for visits and revisits • Charges made by the ground services company which the City contracts with to do the abatement. • Fees and staff time to file a lien • 25 % overhead charge/administrative surcharge Mike Flaherty cautioned that these charges must be based on actual costs so as not to be construed as a tax. And, if abatement costs are charged back to the property owner, the City use consistent in enforcement whether the property is owned by an elderly person or owned as a rental/income property. It was questioned whether the 25 % overhead charge is sufficient to cover other costs. It was suggested the Committee bring something forward to Council for approval, which is normal procedure when charging fees to citizens. b. ' ...E Feedback on the Effectiveness of the Violations Bureau Chair Hoagland led a discussion on expanding the use of the violations bureau to include other nuisance violations. Presently code officers use the violations bureau when issuing tickets and collecting fines on snow and ice, dog tags , dogs at large, and traffic violations. Code officers can write one of two types of tickets for a violation. Either ticket, by pleading not guilty, can take the defendant all the way to court. In one case, the code officer writes a ticket allowing the defendant to plead guilty and pay the ticket at the violations bureau and not proceed to court or to plead not guilty and proceed to municipal court. The other type of ticket, at the discretion of the code officer, basically eliminates a stop at the violations bureau and the defendant must go to court. A memorandum from Tamara Wolf to Mayor Woodward was presented to the Committee noting a potential issue if the violations bureau is applied to weeds. "Snow violations generally will take care of themselves in Colorado in a very short time frame regardless of enforcement intervention. Weed violations, on the other hand, might remain an issue for many months to come if left unchecked. The ability to pay violations at the counter or via mail will remove any ability for the court to monitor or encourage compliance." Discussion ensued on ticketing, abatement, court enforcement, and ticketing subsequent violations. fifil Member Becker made a motion recommending to City Council that the City Attorney craft a proposal for a policy change including a fine schedule that would allow code officers to write a violations bureau ticket for weeds. Member Mosman seconded this. The voting was unanimous. The Committee briefly discussed decriminalization. It was noted that many nuisance items could be productively handled through the violations bureau . Council Member Penn advised that Chief Vandermee would like to maintain the current process to make sure it's working. Further discussion of decriminalization was tabled at this time. 2 • • VI. • c. The Committee discussed the process of Council Requests . It was noted that 'following the chain of command' in requesting information increases code officer efficiency. Council Requests are to be sent to the City Manager's office for processing. Council Member Penn Council requested that members of the Vicious Animal Task Force group be invited to the Board and Commission Appreciation Night. ·G Memo from Code Enforcement on snow removal procedures This topic was discussed under Item V.b. d. ~ Feedback from City Council on Altering the Abatement Process The Committee discussed changing the posting for weed abatement from 14 days to 7 days. Sergeant Contos noted that giving a property owner only 7 days to solve a significant problem may not be long enough based on the owner's circumstances such as health, fixed income, or extended travel. Sergeant Contos advised the Committee of a policy change on abatements. In the past, there were two types of postings. • One used for local property owners where they would be given a 14 day notice before abatement. • The other posting, which was used up until last week, was a foreclosure or absentee property owner posting and was only used for property owners who were out-of-town or banks that couldn't be reached . That posting allowed for continuous abatement after issuing one 14 day notice. The Code Enforcement department has now changed all postings for local owners and out-of-state owners to continual abatement. A property owner will receive one posting, and then be abated continuously until coming into compliance. Costs will be paid back through liens on the property. 1G Member Becker made a motion to support the policy change for continuous abatement after the first 14 day notice for all property owners. Member Mosman seconded this. The vote was unanimous. -Code Enforcement Monthly Activity Report Sergeant Contos gave a brief report on the monthly code enforcement activity. The number of low weed citations, which is down by one-third from last year, is attributable to the low precipitation this ye ar. However, graffiti has almost doubled from last year. Housing violations, such as no building permit, bad roof, or house in need of paint, were mentioned; these are handled by Community Development or Building and Safety, not Code Enforcement. 3 • • • VII. Since the introduction of the Patrol Officer Code Enforcement Referral program on April 2, 2008, Code Enforcement has received 120 police officer referrals - indicating the program is working! re Topics for future meetings • Feedback from City Council on adding violations bureau to weeds. • Other citations that can be added to the violations bureau process. • Discuss an exception to parking trailers in driveways where there is no back yard or side yard. • Memorandum on creating a shorter time line for repeat code offenders. • Guidelines from City Attorney regarding informal board meetings, e-mail correspondence between CEAC members, etc. • Introduction of new CEAC board members. VIII. 0 Adjournment Member Becker made a motion to adjourn the Code Enforcement Advisory Committee meeting. Member Mosman seconded. The meeting was adjourned at 7:52 p.m . Submitted by ~ ~ 4