REPORT TO THE CITY COUNCIL
September 19, 2019
FROM: MIGUEL ANGEL ARIAS, Vice President
City Council Offices
SUBJECT
Title
BILL - (for introduction) Amending Sections 1-308 and 11-307 of the Fresno Municipal Code relating to Code Enforcement administrative citations and serial violators.
Body
RECOMMENDATIONS
It is recommended Council approve changes to the FMC to address code enforcement serial violators and streamline the citation and compliance process.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
There are property owners, largely of residential rental properties, who the City finds in violation of health and safety, and nuisance and blight, regulations at many properties each year. Code enforcement personnel are constantly finding violations, issuing a notice and order each time, and the those violations may be corrected, yet many more properties with violations come to our attention, as well. The City has, in effect, become the de facto property manager for these properties. This consumes an enormous volume of City resources, just to get the property owners to do what they should have done without City involvement.
Also, the process of issuing a notice and order, allowing time to correct certain types of violations, then having to re-inspect and only then issuing a citation if corrections are not made, is not as efficient and effective in deterring property owners from allowing illegal conditions to exist in the first place as it could be. While state law requires the City to allow a reasonable time to correct certain building code types of violations, the new proposed process would provide that, but also start the process and treat the citations as a "fix it ticket." The citation would be issued upon finding a violation, and then the burden is on the property owner to make the corrections and either certify compliance (if that is easily determined) or call for an inspection. If compliance is found, then the citation is dismissed. If not, then the citation becomes final,...
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