SUBJECT/RECOMMENDATION:
Title
Overview of Code Compliance Program. (WSO)
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SUMMARY:
Planning and Development aligns with the City Council’s Strategic Direction of facilitating development of the economy through diversifying the economic base, increasing economic opportunity, and fostering community engagement. These goals are achieved by working with our citizens and business community to plan, build and maintain a vibrant, competitive, and livable Clearwater with an emphasis on professional customer service, education, and safety. A key function of that mission is to ensure that property owners maintain properties in compliance with community standards established in the Community Development Code and Code of Ordinances.
The Code Compliance Division is tasked with this function and is the largest division in the Planning and Development Department with a total of 17 FTEs and 0.5 seasonal FTE. The work of the Division plays an important part in maintaining the appearance, function, and property values of a neighborhood. Areas that suffer from deterioration, accumulation of debris, overgrowth, and other nuisances result in declining property values and create public safety issues. To achieve our goal of keeping Clearwater a safe, healthy, economically viable, and competitive place to live and invest, Code Compliance focuses on compliance through education, communication, and cooperation. The Division’s work is primarily managed through nine geographic zones with assigned inspectors that investigate complaints, as well as proactively identify violations. When complaints of a specific violation are investigated, inspectors will typically survey the entire street for that violation to ensure fair and consistent enforcement. Some of the most typical violations revolve around property maintenance matters such as overgrowth, peeling paint, mildew, debris, yard parking, graffiti, etc. Eliminating sign blight is also a priority with the goal of enforcing on illegal, non-permitted signage as well as snipe/roadside signage. Staff also identifies businesses that may be operating without the appropriate business tax receipt. When fully staffed, one to two neighborhood code sweeps may also be incorporated into the work program in neighborhoods that could benefit from more focused attention.
Residents who file complaints have certain expectations regarding the timeframe needed to resolve issues and residents with violations have expectations about how long they should have to comply with city ordinances and often these two views do not align. The typical process begins with a courtesy phase to educate the property owner and allow for voluntary compliance. If that phase does not result in corrective action, staff will move to a more formalized violation process and if that does not get results, the case will be scheduled for either a hearing before the Municipal Code Enforcement Board or issuance of a Notice to Appear to the Local Ordinance Violation Court (LOV). Depending on the type of violation, the outcome of an MCEB hearing will establish a date for compliance and a daily lien amount if the violation is not corrected by that date; nuisance cases may also grant staff the authority to abatement the nuisance.
Some of the challenges and frustrations that inspectors and residents alike face include required due process for owners (violators), lack of response by violators, lack of resources to remedy violations, older neighborhoods that predate current codes (e.g., lack of places to park to residential properties), and issues such as hoarding and short-term rentals, and the City’s inability/difficulty to foreclose on liens associated with homestead properties.
The Department is currently working on several initiatives to help streamline and improve the work of the Division. Some changes have recently been made in inspector training to focus on the key skills necessary for the job including the establishment of weekly task goals and a requirement for new hires to spend comprehensive time with different inspectors to ensure a well-rounded and thorough training. The Division is also working with the City Attorney’s Office to re-examine some notice requirements that have been lengthened over the years. Some progress has been made which will assist inspectors to move cases forward in a quicker timeframe.
The Department has also reinforced the importance of inspectors interacting with the public more often by contacting owners either through knocking on the door or with phone calls and continuing to attend neighborhood meetings. With the recent establishment of the Police Community Liaisons, there are also more opportunities for collaboration on difficult cases and with enforcement activities where safety is a concern. To further this initiative, the Division is creating door hangers to acknowledge properties that make significant improvements or ones that continually set a high standard.
When the Department was allocated additional staff in this past budget, staff was asked to develop metrics to track performance. At present current available reports do not accurately convey performance and staff is working with IT to develop more appropriate reporting to better track productivity.