Agenda - Council - 03/25/1986 - Laserfiche WebLink

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I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I~U ISAN CE ORDINANCE REVI~ OF ENFORCEMENT PRACTICES By: Dave Hartley, City Administrator Bill Goodrich, City Attorney 15 min. Background: ~e current practice for enforcement of nuisance violations within the City of Ramsey is that when a complaint is received, City Staff will investigate the complaint and if warranted, begin the prosecution procedure outlined in enclosure (8). These practices do not necessarily assure that the nuisance problem will be abated, but rather the property owner of the nuisance will be either reprimanded (by the Court) or penalized. ~he City Council and the City Staff has recently been criticized for these practices in that they do not result in the abatement of the nuisance. At the last regular Council meeting, it was suggested that the Council and Staff give careful consideration to the rigorous enforcement of the nuisance ordinance. ~is leads us to the question: ~o we want to prosecute abusers of the nuisance ordinance or do we want to abate the nuisance? Observations: ~he process currently used to enforce the nuisance ordinance is costly in terms of time and pay back (abatement of the nuisance). There are two basic principles of law that make this process lengthy and s~uetimes ineffective. ~hose principles are due prooess and property right. Generally stated, the enforcement of the nuisance ordinance cannot begin until the individual is notified of the problem and given an opportunity to correct it. If the individual does not comply, then he or she must be given an opportunity to be heard before the Court, and traditionally the Court will extend the opportunity to the individual to correct the problem. ~he principle of property right oomes into play in the instance where the City Council may have the authority to abate the nuisance and assess the property c~mer for any related costs. If such abatenent is undertaken, the City must respect the fact that the items identified as junk remain the property of the individual and the City becomes a custodian of those items (of unknown value). It is clear that the current practices for enforcement of the nuisance ordinance are not the most effective. Bowever, they are measures of the last resort. Another shortfall of the nuisance ordinance as a means for "cleaning up" our community is that not all unpleasant situations can be identified as a nuisance under the nuisance ordinance. 91~erefore, the objective of having an attractive, well-kept omm~ty are not met. l~a~ndati, on: ~here are other ways of achieving the goal of having an attractive, well-kept con~uunity. Here are some suggestions/recommendations for discussion: