HomeMy WebLinkAboutReg 2014-04-07 Item 2B - Presentation - 2014 Code Enforcement UpdateTO:
City of Tukwila
Jim Haggerton, Mayor
INFORMATIONAL MEMORANDUM
Mayor Haggerton
Tukwila City Council
FROM: Jack Pace, Director
DATE: April 7, 2014
SUBJECT: Residential Neighborhood Maintenance Resources
ISSUE
Fast and efficient effort to improve neighborhood appearance.
BACKGROUND
Over the past several months at City Council and community meetings, Tukwila citizens
have expressed a desire to see increased actions from code enforcement actions in
residential areas of the City. Staff also met with residents who expressed concern
regarding the poor condition of a number of properties in their neighborhoods and asked
for increased code enforcement activity.
DISCUSSION
As a result of citizen and Council comments, staff initiated an action plan that will
address many of the residents' concerns regarding their neighborhoods this year. In the
short term, (the remainder of 2014) staff will take three major actions:
STREAMLINE CODE ENFORCEMENT PROCESS
• Authorize code enforcement officers to immediately issue Notices of Civil
Violation when property owners fail to comply with an initial correction
notice.
• Reduce case processing time by shortened compliance periods
(specifically for repeat offenders who have previously been notified of a
similar violation), and give the City the ability to enforce abatement of fire
and public safety hazards in a shorter time frame.
• Initiate enforced abatement actions to encourage property owners to
remove dilapidated structures in residential neighborhoods.
• Monitor and periodically report improvements in neighborhoods to City Council.
• Create an abatement triage team with Public Works, Fire and Finance
staff, to review and prioritize projects and to identify the responsible lead
department for various types of abatement the City currently performs.
ADD TEMPORARY STAFFING
• Contracting a .5 FTE code enforcement officer who also works half-time
for another city, which is common practice. This would ensure current
code enforcement complaint response and service demands are met.
• Temporary re-assignment of the FTE administrative support technician as
an acting code enforcement officer. By re-assignment existing staff, this
will reduce the time needed to provide additional staffing to Code
Enforcement. This change is to allow the City to concentrate the
additional officer's time and effort entirely on the residential nuisance
abatement backlog.
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INFORMATIONAL MEMO
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Hire a temporary full-time administrative support technician for code
enforcement support and case processing.
Revise the rental inspection program to reduce code enforcement staff
time spent providing rental inspections, by placing the habitability
inspection and certification responsibility in the hands of the rental
owners.
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
This project will involve several divisions of City government, some City
funds, and community groups. Specific examples include staging a
community-wide "Spring Clean Up" project that would increase public
awareness of the need to keep private properties nuisance-free. The
effort would promote voluntary participation to clean up before summer
arrives with incentives such as access to large dumpsters in various
locations for the free dumping of yard waste and junk, and an opportunity
for free junk vehicle removal during the two-day neighborhood event,
FINANCIAL IMPACT
Implementation cost of the Residential Neighborhood Maintenance program is $100,000
NEXT STEPS
• CAP meeting - April 29,2014 - Briefing on the status of implementation of this
program and site visits explaining how the code enforcement process works
• From this experience, staff will identify long-term program improvements and
prepare a proposal for the 2015/2016 budget.
W:I2014 Info Memos-CouncilICodeEnforcementUpdate.doc