07-22-2019 Council Work Session Packet

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CITY OF ORONO MEMORANDUM DATE: July 19, 2019 TO: Dustin Rief, City Administrator FROM: Jeremy Barnhart, AICD, Community Development Director RE: Code enforcement staffing request Staff believes the level of code enforcement attention that we can provide is not meeting the expectations of members of the city council and Orono residents. Residents' desire and demand rapid response in the form of inspection, information to the offending property owner, and ultimately, the correction of behavior. Lately, it seems that there has been more of a desire to see punishment in the form of fines or similiar. The City Council has established a policy of being complaint based, staff does not patrol, or look for violations. Our code enforcement process includes upon receipt of a complaint, an inspection to determine if a violation exists, then research of the code and a letter sent to the property owner, which requires a follow up inspection 3-10 days later. (The variance of time is based on code and statue requirements, based on the infraction.) This follow up inspection either results in forwarding the case to the prosecuting attorney, or a response to a request for more time, which in turn requires a follow up inspection. Staff has a goal of 8 hours per week between the Building Official and Community Development Director for code enforcement activities. This goal is subject to work load influences. The three packet weeks per month reduce the Community Development Director's available hours; summer weeks are historically busy building permit review with heavy complaint periods. In May and June of this year, staff averaged 13.1 and 10.5 hours per week respectively on code enforcement. While improving, the current model is not meeting the needs of Council members or Orono residents, or goals of staff in terms of response times and ultimate resolution of a case. This perception is based on the complaints I receive from aggrieved parties. During heavy work load periods, follow up inspections or letter writing falls in priority, resulting in longer resolution times. The Council is asked the following: Is the complaint based code enforcement policy consistent with Council goals? Are the current response and close time matrices (discussed below) meeting Council expectations?