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Back in 2010, Wayne Bergman, Supervisor of the Code Enforcement Division said:
Code Compliance staff is comprised of 9 employees and includes an Interim Code Supervisor, 2 secretaries, 5 zone inspectors, and a permit / licensing technician. We are hiring two additional
inspectors to be paid by the recently awarded JAG grant.
These two new inspectors will assist the PBSO in targeting properties involved in criminal activities. We are currently understaffed in the field, with 1 open Code inspector position and another soon to be open inspector position.
Wayne Bergman gave a speech at a TRNA meeting in 2010 where he stated that the department was only reduced by one by former city manager Susan Stanton who had to take austerity measures. To make a long story short and one I have been harping about for years, the Code Enforcement Department under Susan Stanton ended up increasing its code officers in the next fiscal budget. There were seven budgeted code officers for 2010/2011 budget. We presently have seven code officers in the city, the same as in 2010 but we have an increase in management by two.
The Code Department was NOT GUTTED, as Scott Maxwell enjoys telling everyone and even reporters get on that bandwagon and take this as gospel. It makes for good reading. Politicians have to blame someone other than themselves and reporters just seem to report what city hall tells them.
Kevin D. Thompson said, when writing about our code enforcement department and a particular case,
"...crystallizes one of the many ills of a division that has been rocked in recent years by an unwise dismantling by former City Manager Susan Stanton." His article...
Shame on Kevin Thompson. You are not a reporter. Reporters research and get both sides of a story. Any reporter worth a damn would have contacted Susan Stanton or looked at prior personnel records for our code dept before they printed this trash.All Thompson is is a mouth piece for Lake Worth city hall.It's a shame,because the Palm Beach Post is doing some excellent journalism on critical issues here in Palm beach County.
ReplyDeletelots of comments on Kevins article. Dan T seems like the only smart one out there..........
ReplyDeleteIgnorant people will always believe the hype without actually looking into things for themselves. The commission likes to play the blame game, their pathetic! Without code around this place would look like the wild wild west. Everyone that gets spoken to by code is a picked on targeted victim...right???!
ReplyDeleteYou would think Kevin being a reporter would do a little more digging for his articles than just going off what a complaining citizen has to say.
ReplyDeleteAll these complainers are like prison folks. Oh why are you in jail? Response: What are you talking about im innocent?
ReplyDeleteJust fix your issues and move on with your life!!
i for one am happy in my code guy, he does a great job and i see a big improvement where i live.
ReplyDeleteLynn,
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think of our code officers?
As far as I know, they are doing a good job. They have so many outstanding cases that it amazes me they can do it all. Just look around LW...slum and blight everywhere. How does anyone solve all of that? The city is trying with more ordinances giving them more clout to do their jobs. Worst first was the vote as I recall.
ReplyDeleteeveryone has a different opinion of what worst first is then when they decide and a citizen goes against it then turn on code like a rabid pitbull. Our own commission is so two faced its pathetic.
ReplyDeleteworst first should be defined so that people can't complain about which slums are getting the most attention. It is not that hard to define worst first, you take the top 10 most important health and safety issues and a worst first property would have at least 5 of them.
ReplyDeleteDead grass if that is the only issue should not warrant any action if the City is really serious about worst first. Problem is the City Code dept. isn't serious about worst first, rather they are more interested in closing cases. Guess which cases are easier to close, things like grass.
Worst first depends on the property location. Each area has different problems and different Officers addressing them. I take alot of care in my yard and my neighbor can let theirs look like crap and thats ok? I think not! I love our code dept. Theyre doing a magnificent job and we are lucky to have them. Everyone thats complaining are people who are in violation of one or more city ordinances. Also so many houses have been boarded by codes actions. Keep up the good work
ReplyDeleteCode is dammed if they good dammed if they don't, they r stuck in a no win situation. The mayor & commissioners are quick to use them as a scapegoat but in the end by contradicting themselves it makes them appear two faced. No matter how much good they do it will never be enough, sadly .
ReplyDeleteRocked in "recent" years? What's recent? These guys have been in for nearly 5 years with maxwell being in forever it seems.
ReplyDeleteI love your play on words. " There were seven budgeted code officers for 2010/2011 budget"
ReplyDeleteIntended to make the reader believe there were 7 code officers.
Code can be "gutted" in many different ways. Incompetent code officers reduced in number and increased workload.
It was GREAT that Stanton used "austerity" to cut the very oxen grinding our grain. But she did have a bloated "Office of Budget and Management". We used to call it finance.
All you have to do is read and comprehend what I wrote.
ReplyDeleteThe entire point of the story is, the city is not working with more code enforcement officers than we did when that budget was set and those two positions filled. On top of that, we have a heck of a lot more issues today than we did 5-6 years ago. Our guys are handling a lot more cases.
ya know what im so sick and tired of everyone poking at our code department. our officers are very friendly and have a huge case load. there is only 7 officers for the ENTIRE city! Give them a break and they don't physically pick up the trash, board the houses, mow the lots. they start the process which they are doing. as I drive around I c so many abandoned BOARDED houses. so good on them. what more does anyone want from them??? They are doing their job so just stop already! why doesn't everyone just stop complaining any c what the city can do to budget for more of them?? worst first depends on each of their areas of coverage. they aren't allowed to go in each others assigned areas so they are addressing what is considered worst first in their individual areas. sorry for my rant lynn im just tired of all the negativity surrounding our code people. It stems from the commission and trickles down to the public since our commission is spineless wannabees of supposed leaders.
ReplyDeleteI love this line from the article:
ReplyDeleteAino Lautsio is the kind of homeowner you want for a neighbor, the kind who takes pride in her two-bedroom home on Bryn Mawr Drive and who will do whatever it takes to make sure her property always looks like it should be featured on HGTV’s “Property Brothers.”
Is Kevin on Crack?????????? She has the absolute worst house on the block by far! He should really do some investigative reporting rather than having a article printed without the proper information.
Also how can her grass go dormant when its sand??? This whole article is a joke!
I just went back to the 2008/2009 Budget. We had seven code officers at that time.
ReplyDeleteevery time I email my officer he checks it out immediately. I have no complaints.
ReplyDeleteBut they only "budgeted" for seven in 2010/2011. Doesn't mean we had them or that they were effective.
ReplyDeleteThey group we have now is the most professional we've had in years. Mark Woods has a ton of experience. He is too caught up in the "letter of the law" in my opinion to think out of the box. Other communities "bend" the law to make people move quicker resolving their violations. Sometimes not even getting to the point of needing "proper notice".
Professional? Yes. Aggressive? NO.
If code is focusing on grass in college park yes that is a dumb priority and those code officers should be reassigned so they are focusing on worst first. We don't have enough officers for them to be hanging out writing dead grass tickets, redirect them to focus on what city leadership has said they should be focusing on and that is worst first or health and safety issues.
ReplyDeleteAnon @ 11:34am: How do you know if code hasn't already addressed those issues you are writing about and those properties are not in a open lien status? Also as Anon @ 8:38 said they cant go out of their zones. they are addressing the problems within there assigned areas. People need to wake up and stop the bitching.
ReplyDeleteif EVERYONE is so bent outta shape about our code staff messing with landscaping why doesn't the mayor, cm & commission send a official letter to code stating do not cite landscaping issues anymore???? there problem solved.
ReplyDelete12:40pm anonymous, the city cant legally send a letter stating do not enforce an ordinance. if a tax payer complains code has an obligation to write a case up regardless of unimportant someone else may feel about it. For that complainant that might be a priority for them. code is such in a poor spotlight at the moment and I blame the commission and mayor because they are throwing their own workers under the bus to save face with the public instead of telling the people who need to be corrected to suck up and fix your issue. theyre they really are. Really who throws their own employees out to wolves PUBLICALLY without looking at all the evidence??? Didn't Maxwell say that he could careless what the instead looks like as long as the "curb appeal" was met so I guess landscaping has nothing to do with curb appeal once one complaining lady stands up with a OBVIOUS CITIATION!!
ReplyDeleteThey do suck, City leadership has told us and them to focus on worst first, so that is what they should be doing. dead landscaping is not worst first. We don't have enough code resources to do worst first and respond to dead grass.
ReplyDelete