Farmington Council Looks At Nuisance Issues Again

FARMINGTON — City Council members at their July 8 meeting revisited a discussion held six months ago on whether to shore up the city’s nuisance ordinances that deal with overgrown yards, inoperable vehicles and other eyesores.

The council, at its January and February meetings, discussed amending the ordinances to provide for steeper penalties for violations of the city laws. Council members were asked to forward their comments about what they wanted to City Hall.

At the council’s July 8 meeting, Mayor Ernie Penn once again brought up the subject and asked aldermen to think about ways to improve the ordinances. He also suggested the council hold an informal work session to address the problems.

“It’s quite apparent that our current ordinances do not have enough bite to them,” Penn told the council.

Dan Ledbetter, public works director, said he is using a new system to keep track of complaints and said in the first week, he entered 65 cases into his computer. Most of these dealt with tall grass, trash, unmaintained yards and cars parked illegally.

With the new system, Ledbetter said he will be able to keep better track of repeat offenders.

“Once it’s on the list, they stay on the list,” Ledbetter said after the meeting. “Now, I will have a history based on the address and that will help create a citation.”

Looking back through old records, Ledbetter said he worked on more than 400 cases per year from the period 2005-2008.

Ledbetter said his first step when receiving a nuisance complaint is to leave a door hangar. If that doesn’t get any results, he issues a code violation form to the person, which looks like a “ticket” but actually is not a ticket, he said.

If the second contact does not work, Ledbetter said he then sends a certified letter to the offender.

Ledbetter said he believes nuisance ordinances with stiffer fines would help “get the point across” that people need to follow the ordinances.

Penn told aldermen that one idea would be to give Ledbetter the authority to issue citations to people who violate the nuisance ordinances.

Steve Tennant, city attorney, said the problem with that idea is that Ledbetter is not a law enforcement officer.

Po l i ce Chief Brian Hubbard volunteered that Ledbetter could complete a 100- hour course to be certified as a part-time law enforcement officer and that would give him the authority to issue citations and make arrests.

In response, Ledbetter wondered how this would work since he already wears a lot of different “hats” with his current job

Melissa McCarville, city business manager, said tougher penalties are needed for repeat violations.

“Probably 20 percent are repeat offenders. Those are the people we need to gear this ordinance toward,” McCarville said.

She pointed out that every year, city staff has to contact some of the same people about taking care of their property.

One example is vacant property along Southwinds Drive, McCarville said.

“Every year we have to ask them to mow it. We shouldn’t have to do that.”

Farmington has two nuisance ordinances, one that regulates inoperable vehicles and the other a property owner’s premises. A third requires all residences to have a domestic trash service set up with Waste Management. According to the ordinances, penalties for a person convicted of violating the ordinances can be a fine of $50 to $500 for each offense.

Sgt. Billie Virgin with the police department said her records show that police officers have issued three citations for unsightly property, inoperable cars or overgrown yards since 2005.

Ledbetter said he has a pretty good success rate with complaints but still has a small percentage each year that do not respond to him.

“Some people you never hear from,” he said, noting many of his problems come from rental property or property that has been foreclosed.