Mayor John Delaney
is considering doing away with the volunteer boards that determine
fines for city code violations because he says he can't find enough
people to serve on them.
"It was an experiment that I thought was a better concept, but it
just hasn't worked in a city this size," Delaney said yesterday.
City Councilwoman Suzanne Jenkins wants Jacksonville to emulate
Charleston, S.C., and its Livability Court that sets aside two
Monday mornings a month to handle cases of overgrown lawns, trash
laden lots and unsafe buildings.
Delaney says he has considered having a retired judge or lawyer
hear cases devoted to the code issues. He cautions that making a
local comparison to Charleston -- a city with about an eighth of the
population and the land area as Jacksonville -- is a stretch,
especially with Charleston's historic nature and strict code for
older buildings.
Still, Jacksonville's current system has its share of problems,
according to an audit issued Tuesday by Council Auditor Bob Johnson.
The audit found the city hasn't collected $6.2 million in
outstanding fines and that poor record keeping makes it difficult to
track when code violations are fixed.
Delaney said the switch from volunteer boards would in no way fix
all the problems but could be one step, and Jenkins says property
owners would take a court more seriously than a volunteer board.
Johnson recommended better training for code enforcement officers
and a more efficient system to track complaints, and the department
is planning to begin a new training course Oct. 1.
Fines are issued by the city's six Municipal Code Enforcement
Boards, volunteer committees that are supposed to have seven members
each. Delaney in 1996 went from one municipal code board to six, at
the request of neighborhood groups. The idea was to spread the
workload and have, for example, Westside residents hearing Westside
code issues.
The audit showed none of the boards are at capacity and only one
of the six met bimonthly as required last year between July and
December. Of the 42 slots, one-third of them are vacant.
"That's the hardest one [board] to fill, without a doubt,"
Delaney said. "There is no second place."
There are different ways to alleviate neighborhood eyesores, but
the goal is to have a lawn mowed, a house painted or a porch fixed
before it comes before any formal body, be it a code board or a
judge, said John Curtin, director of the city Neighborhoods
Department that oversees code enforcement.
"We're not trying to get everyone in the city to stand up at a
hearing," Curtain said. "What we're trying to get them to do is fix
their blasted property."
If the system is changed, it's unclear where the cases would be
heard, exactly who would hear them and how much it would cost.
Jenkins brought up the idea of a Livability Court at a committee
meeting this year and has been discussing the idea with city
attorneys off and on for months. She says setting aside a day for
quality of life issues and not mixing them in with criminal cases
would give the barking dog and unkempt building issues the attention
they deserve.
"It sends a message to people who don't obey the law, but it also
sends a message to those who do, saying we respect them and we
respect their investment in their homes," Jenkins said.
Charleston's court began in January and has handled about 200
cases so far, said Michael Molony, an associate municipal judge who
presides over the Livability Court. Maximum penalties are a $1,050
fine and 30 days in jail, though Molony said he hasn't come close to
sending anyone to jail.
On Jacksonville's code boards, fines can be as high as $250 a day
per violation, Curtain said. The problem is, the city's recourse for
getting the money is by placing liens on the person's property,
which are only collected when the property changes hands.
Most of the people who get fined are either absentee owners or
people who can't afford to pay for repairs, let alone thousands of
dollars in fines, Curtain said.
"Most of the time you're trying to get juice from an orange
that's already been squeezed," Curtain said.
Delaney adds that the process is, by nature, slow because the
city has to take time to inspect the property, notify the owner and
give the person time to fix it, besides allowing time for hearings
and appeals, if necessary.
Only a handful of Jacksonville cases end up in court and those
that do rarely go to trial, said Judge Eleni Derke, administrative
judge for Duval County. Derke said the court is trying to schedule
all code cases on the same day to save time for code enforcement
officers, but added courts would need more space and staff to handle
more quality of life issues.
"I'm willing to try anything," Curtain said. "I'm just not
totally convinced that's going to do anything different than where
we're at."
Staff writer Matt Galnor can be reached at (904) 359-4550
or mgalnor
jacksonville.com.
