http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20150313/NEWS02/703139939
Springfield board seeks action on blight issue
By Susan Smallheer
Staff Writer | March 13,2015
SPRINGFIELD — Does Springfield need a code enforcement officer?
Springfield Selectman George T. McNaughton thinks so.
McNaughton urged his fellow Select Board members to consider either creating a new position in town government or assigning the responsibilities to another town employee.
McNaughton said the town needed to crack down on scofflaws, whether it was cluttered, garbage-strewn properties or blighted homes, or other public “nuisances.”
“We have the ordinances in place, they’re just not being enforced,” McNaughton said.
He said if the town got serious about code enforcement, it would send a strong message to scofflaws and the problem could eventually resolve itself in large part.
McNaughton said the code enforcement officer might have a busy time early on, but it would eventually lighten.
“It doesn’t need to be every day,” he said. “Maybe once a week?”
Selectman Walter Martone said he supported cracking down on violators, but he said funding had to come from the existing budget.
Penalties from the violators might help fund the position, he said.
“We need to be heading in the direction of zero tolerance,” Martone said.
Town Manager Tom Yennerell said he would come up with a plan and code enforcement would be the responsibility of the town office, not the police department.
Yennerell said most code violations were under the zoning regulations and the town did pursue violations.
But issuing citations to court is a new suggestion, Yennerell said.
“Who’s going to enforce and issue citations?” asked Select Board Chairman Kristi Morris.
“It’s a new spin on it, and I’m willing to give it a try,” he said.
Yennerell said he would have a proposal for the board in April.
Bill Kearns, the town’s zoning administrative officer, said he liked the idea of a citation. “I think it’s a good idea. It gets people’s attention quickly,” he said.
But Kearns said the local ordinances include a link to state law that allows the town to levy fines and citations, and clarification was needed in the ordinances.
Martone was not in favor of waiting. “I’d like a little more sense of urgency,” he said. “What can we do now?”
YES! I would gladly pay more in taxes for this. Hope springs eternal after all. This is only a plus for Springfield property owners.
ReplyDeleteImproved processes are all that are needed, not more government employees!
ReplyDeleteRather than hire someone to pursue the noncompliant, simply revise the property tax code to have higher taxes on properties that do not meet acceptable standards. Owners will find it to their benefit to keep their property up to snuff.
ReplyDeleteWho does the enforcing of the town code now? By code does it mean just the towns ordinances and regulations? A true Code Enforcement Officer would have to know all the applicable state codes i.e. building, electrical, plumbing, etc.
ReplyDeleteThe information given to the public is very vague and needs to be clarified so that the average citizen can understand what the Selectmen really want done.
11:48, please don't wait for your taxes to go up, just rush down to the town office with a generous check (or two, or three) made out to the Town of Springfield.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 9:40 , the principal intended aim are the property nuisance provisions of the Town Code. The current problem is they are not being enforced by anyone. This area is a gap between the zoning ordinance regulations and the health code regulations. The reasons given for non police enforcement is that the police are reluctant to call themselves away from crime enforcement, traffic details, etc. for this type of action. The prior Town Manager also questioned the wisdom of tying up a uniformed police officer in traffic court for half a day prosecuting civil trash and debris violations. The concept is a part time person, like one day per week, who issues citations and attends to their prosecution. The person would also report observed zoning violations and health code violations observed to the zoning administrator and health officer. The current suggestion is that the officer report directly to the Town Manager. Several citizens have come forward to act as volunteers. The aim is to clean up the really bad sites, not harass the citizens over nit picky stuff.
ReplyDeleteGeorge,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the quick reply. Your answer is what I thought you were going to use a CEO for but the title confused me. Maybe I missed it while reading the "SPRINGFIELD TOWN ORDINANCES AND REGULATIONS" where it says "CODE", but it doesn't pop out at me when I go there. Ordinances and regulations do fall under the title as "code" in most town literature but it doesn't seem to appear anywhere in Springfield's.
Not that what I'm saying is a big deal, but for the average citizen who might want to look up the Springfield's "code", I don't believe they will find it on the town website.
As I said before, a true CEO is more than just someone who comes off the street and can enforce them. There is a lot of education and on the job training with that title.
BTW George, you are probably one of the best and most knowledgeable selectman that I have been witness to in all my years of being involved with town government. You get involved with the citizens and are willing to listen to their recommendations and concerns. Springfield is lucky to have you.
Anonymous 8:42 AM, yes the title is a bit broad for what the intent was, the intent is rather narrow, not even covering all of the nuisances. There will need to be some education, but not as much as would be involved for many enforcement officials, since the property nuisance provisions in the Town Code are pretty straight forward. The main education would be how to fill out the citation forms correctly, and how to prepare a case for traffic court. Some additional training in recognizing zoning violations and health code violations would be helpful -- but in those cases he would just be reporting his observations to the Zoning Administrator or the Town Health Officer. I do not want this person to him or herself become a nuisance by issuing technical or nit picky citations, I think we have all seen the really messy areas and lots which are the target here. The most important qualification for the position would be a heavy dose of commonsense.
ReplyDeleteThank you again George.
DeleteMy recommendation would be to write a policy and procedure as to the Scope and duties of the CEO. This will take some real thought as to the content because there will always be questions as to legal aspects of the policy.
The mission and objectives need to be clear and concise.
1, Write mission
2. Objective/s are set
3. Policy is developed
4. Procedures to carry out policies
Then the most important aspect of this would be the training of who will do the job.
If the law enforcement officials (police) were to do this job, nothing would have to change. But when you get someone just to get the job done and hope he/she did it right, it can lead you down a path that you might not want to go. The name "Bishop" come to mind.
Just be careful and cover all your bases...which I'm sure you will do.
I laid out a fair amount of this in the report which the Selectboard and Town Manager had at the meeting. The concern with the police doing the job, is they haven't been doing the job -- for the reasons stated, and it may not be worth the effort and cost of trying to get it so they feel good about doing the job. So the concept was to cut through that to get the job done -- at the meeting the Town Manager indicated he favored having the officer report directly to him rather than have it be a police position, and I tend to agree with that. He is supposed to review the "discussion draft" which I submitted and it is to be on the agenda again for the second meeting in April. My fear is that if we try to do it with existing positions, that we will spend an inordinate time on fine tuning policy and never actually get much done. The community really wants something done.
DeleteGeorge,
DeleteThank you and good luck.
didn't think there is money in the budget for a new position
ReplyDeleteI've probably said enough on this issue but there is one thing that if I understand the chain of command for the police dept, it goes like this:
ReplyDeleteSelectmen...Town manager, Police chief.
So, that being said here is what needs to be done:
1. Selectmen direct town manger to tell police chief to organize and write a policy for one of his patrolman to be the new Health officer/patrolman.
This new health officer/patrolman will allocate his time between both positions.
Education for this new position will be the health officer/patrolman responsibility and he will become familiar with all aspects of this new position.
The heath officer/patrolman could start his new job immediately and over time get what else is needed by working with the police chief.
I know there have been discussions about the chief not wanting to do this, however he needs to be directed to get the job done.
This is too important to not get this done.
George,
ReplyDeleteI feel that the title of this position should change to "Health Officer".
A title by the name of "CEO" is not really appropriate for this position for what you want to accomplish. You have a better chance of the citizens listening to a "Health Officer" than a "CEO".
You can do what you want but if you research the difference of the two titles you will see that most towns separate the enforcement of the two titles.
During public input it will much easier to explain a "Health Officer" position than a "CEO".