Friendly reminders
No one likes to be told they’re a ‘nuisance.’ With a friendly nudge that their property needs tending, some will respond in kind.
The Editorial Board
Thu, 23 Jan 2020 05:00:00 GMT
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Deciding to approach citizens courteously over violations of the city’s nuisance regulations is a smart move by the city of Toledo.
The city’s Division of Code Enforcement is beginning a new practice of giving homeowners a friendly reminder of the law, a nudge, if you will.
If an inspector sees trash in a driveway or a vehicle or boat illegally parked in a yard, grass growing a foot high, illegal signs, graffiti, improper bulk refuse set out at the curb, or structural issues, the first contact with the homeowner will be a courtesy notice.
Residents who receive these notices will be given a week to correct the problem and be told that an inspector will be back at the end of seven days.
If that doesn’t work, then the usual procedure of issuing citations requiring compliance within 72 hours would begin.
No one likes to be told they’re a “nuisance.” And given a friendly courtesy reminder that their property needs tending, a certain number will respond in that same spirit.
Dennis Kennedy, commissioner of code enforcement for the city, said that in other cities where this approach has been tried, some 30 percent of people take care of the problem without having to be cited. He picked up the idea while attending a code-enforcement conference in Milwaukee in 2018 and decided to try it out in Toledo.
Mr. Kennedy said many property owners receiving nuisance citations have asked, “Why didn’t you just tell me about this before giving me a ticket?”
The courtesy tickets are less time-consuming than the 72-hour citations, because they don’t set in motion a misdemeanor criminal case in Toledo Municipal Court. Mr. Kennedy points out that the courtesy tickets will be issued only on occupied buildings, not on abandoned dwellings or houses on the demolition list.
Among Toledo’s some 95,000 dwelling units are properties that aren’t well-kept, to the detriment of immediate neighbors and the community in general. The courtesy outreach should serve to bring home and property owners into compliance with the city’s nuisance law, which will serve to build a constructive relationship rather than one based on a menacing court order.
If the city’s new courtesy outreach can solve as many as one-third of property nuisance complaints, this move will help the city’s 11 inspectors spend their time on the tougher cases. They’re already dealing with 26,000 cases a year.
The courtesy-ticket approach will help achieve safer and more attractive neighborhoods at less cost and with less friction.