February 7, 2018
By: 2
Smithville Aldermen have become frustrated with the lack of enforcement of the city’s property maintenance ordinance and want things to change immediately.
For months, Alderman Danny Washer has called for the city to force those with unsightly and unkept properties to clean them up or be subject to civil penalties. Now Aldermen Josh Miller and Shawn Jacobs have joined Washer in calling for enforcement.
“I don’t see why this has taken so long. It is completely unacceptable. I am not blaming anybody but somebody is responsible for taking so long to come up with a resolution,” said Alderman Jacobs during Monday night’s monthly city council meeting.
“Last year we had one (location in particular) and three different times they put mattresses, couches, and chairs outside and we sent an officer over there to talk to them. They cleaned it up and two weeks later there would be another set out there. It went on just about off and on all summer. That’s just one street. I know there are property values that have dropped simply because of that,” said Alderman Washer.
“I had a lady come in the office to pay her water bill last week and she named me two properties, one on Forrest and one on Earl Avenue of garbage and junk laying outside and asked me “what can you do”, added Mayor Jimmy Poss.
The city’s existing property maintenance ordinance provides for enforcement stating that “It shall be the duty of the Building Inspector of the City of Smithville to serve notice upon the property owner of record in violation. The property owner shall be notified in writing specifying the nature of the violation, specifying the corrective measures to be taken, and require compliance within not more than 30 days. The notice may be served upon the owners of the premises where the violation is located by:
Posting notice in plain view on the property in violation, or sending notice by mail.
The date the notice is posted or received by the offender shall serve as the beginning of the specified time period allowing for corrective action.”
The ordinance further states that “Failure by the property owner to take corrective action to bring the property within compliance shall constitute a violation and be a civil offense.”
“Any person violating this chapter shall be subject to a civil penalty of $50 for each separate violation of this chapter. Each day the violation of this chapter continues shall be considered a separate violation,” according to the ordinance.
In recent months city officials were to have contacted MTAS (Municipal Technical Advisory Service) about crafting a new ordinance with stricter enforcement provisions and penalties but nothing has yet come of that.
During Monday night’s meeting, Alderman Miller said he contacted officials at the City of Sparta to inquire about how they deal with property maintenance.
“This is what I was told. They don’t go out looking but they act on complaints. The building inspector does it there. He goes out and confronts the homeowner. When he confronts the homeowner, he gives them 10 days to clean their place up. If its not cleaned up in 10 days they are cited into court. My question was what if it’s a renter?. They told me that they go on the tax card and they send that person (landowner) a certified letter and when they get the receipt back they have 10 days. Then if its not cleaned up then the homeowner is cited into court. They have very few people who ever get to court because they (violators) don’t want it to go that far. But if it (violations) continues they have the city to clean it up and they put a lien on their property. If they (Sparta) can do it, we can do it,” said Alderman Miller.
In the case of renters, the city could go in and clean up the properties if violators don’t comply and the landlords can be assessed a tax lien to recover the city’s costs, but City Attorney Vester Parsley said those landowners must be given due process.
“A majority of the people we have had problems with in the past are out of state landowners. Some of the properties were even owned by corporations and we could not trace an actual person who owned it. We sent letters and got no response from any of them. You have to give the landlord due process before taking action against them,” said Parsley.
While the city has had the city building codes inspector to act as the enforcement officer in the past, it may choose to direct the police department to serve citations to violators in the future once a citizen complaint is made, notices have been issued by certified letter, and violators still refuse to clean up their properties.
The mayor and aldermen discussed having a workshop to possibly come up with amendments to the existing property maintenance ordinance. In the meantime, City Administrator Hunter Hendrixson suggested that the city start enforcing what is already on the books.
“If we get a complaint and if the city has to go in after a certain amount of days and clean it up (property) we’ll put a tax lien on them but lets enforce something now, issue certified letters and then a citation,” said Hendrixson.
The city’s “Minimum Property Maintenance Requirements” states that “no person owning, leasing, renting, occupying, including vacant lots, shall maintain or allow to be maintained on such property, except as may be permitted by any other city ordinance, any of the following conditions visible from any public street or alley:
Junk, litter and trash;
Outdoor nuisances dangerous to children, including but not limited to abandoned, broken or neglected equipment, machinery, or any appliance with a latching door;
Shopping carts in any front yard, side yard, rear yard or vacant lot of any property;
Dead, decayed, diseased or hazardous trees, or any other vegetation a majority of which (excluding vegetation located in flowerbeds, or trees, or shrubbery or existing hayfields) exceeds twelve (12) inches in height, or which is dangerous to public health, safety, and welfare, located in any front yard, side yard, rear yard, or upon any vacant lot”.