Code Enforcement: what’s it all about?

(Editor’s Note: Cannon News Editor Cedric Iglehart recently sat down with the members of the newly-organized Code Enforcement Task Force for the City of Gonzales. The Task Force consists of Building Officer William Ince, Gonzales Fire Department Captain Mike Terry and Gonzales Police Department Officer John Brumme, who was represented in this Q&A by Police Chief Tim Crow.)

Q: What are the primary goals of this Task Force?

Ince: Our first thing is health and safety, that’s above everything else. Our second thing is compliance of the ordinances that are in place.

Q: I understand that each member of the Task Force has a particular focus. Chief, from a law enforcement standpoint, what are some of things you are focusing on?

Crow: The officer will be looking for anything that is a state law violation to things that are city ordinance violations. These could be anything from unreasonable noise to illegal parking and everything in between. When he is on inspections with the Task Force, he will also be looking at businesses from a security standpoint so he can make suggestions to the owner as to how to better secure their building. This will be done as a crime prevention measure.

Q: Captain Terry, as the representative of the Fire Department what are the things you look at during an inspection?

Terry: My primary focus is the enforcement of the International Fire Code. This entire code was built as a knee-jerk reaction to something bad that has happened in the past. History is full of bad instances where multiple people have been killed.

A good example is a fireman in Phoenix was killed in a grocery store fire. They traced it back to a dumpster that was pushed up against the building. The dumpster caught fire, it caught the eaves on fire, burned the store up and the fireman ended up getting trapped and killed. As a result of that, now the Fire Code says that no dumpster over 1.5 cubic yards shall be closer than five feet to the building.

The code is not written because we want to inconvenience people or punish people or because we want to make money. It’s all based on what can we do to prevent such tragedies by being diligent and looking to see what’s wrong and how we can fix it. It’s all about compliance through cooperation.

Q: How do you respond to people who accuse you of utilizing strong-arm tactics during your inspections?

Terry: This is definitely not about that. It doesn’t do us any good to shut down a business because ultimately in the long run the City won’t get any tax revenue from that business. Not only that, but we’ll be making enemies in the process and that’s not our goal at all. Our goal is to make sure that everybody is safer.

Ince: People have a big misunderstanding when it comes to zoning and setbacks. I understand that people think "This is my property and I should be able to do whatever I want to with it." The reason we have those requirements in place is to provide you a better solution to what you want to do whereas you can still keep the integrity of your property without jeopardizing the property of your neighbors.

Q: I’ve had at least one person come into my office and complained that the Task Force takes a heavy-handed approach to these inspections. How would you respond to that?

Ince: I think they say that probably because when we walk in, we have a uniformed officer with us. The natural reaction when law enforcement comes into your business is "What’s the problem?" or "What did we do wrong?" It’s not like that. People should view us coming in as helping them to succeed as opposing to allowing them to fail.

Captain Terry’s objectives and my objectives are intertwined. Law enforcement might be looking at how easy it might be for someone to break in through your window, but we’re looking at whether or not the aisles are so congestive that it makes it hard for people to get out during an emergency. It doesn’t matter if it’s a brand new store or if it has been here for 100 years, we have certain standards in place that everybody needs to comply with.

Q: How do you go about deciding which places you inspect? Is there a schedule in place or some calendar that you abide by?

Ince: We have plans to go to every business in town. The thing is when we make an inspection, it might take us several days to follow up on the paperwork. We have to pace ourselves.

Q: What do you do you when find violations during an inspection?

Ince: Basically what we do is end up listing any violations we find and follow that with a time frame to get those fixed. If it’s a life safety issue, then we cannot leave that location until it is resolved immediately or until we know that a certified person is on the premises repairing the situation.

Terry: Most of the violations we find are not a matter of life and death. We’re giving people anywhere from 15 to 30 days to fix them, sometimes even more than that depending on the severity.

Q: Up to this point, we’ve talking about inspection of businesses. How do residences fit into what you do?

Terry: As far as the Fire Department goes, we just look primarily at commercial occupancies. The Task Force as a whole does, however look at residences.

Ince: Take for example foster care houses, of which there are several in town. They require an environmental health checklist, which includes things like child protective caps on electrical outlets and storage of cleaning supplies away from food storage areas.

Q: When you’re doing code enforcement on things like junk vehicles and tall grass, what is the procedure for getting those things corrected?

Ince: The first thing we do is send out a letter stating that you have 10 days from the receipt of that letter to respond.

Q: What happens if this letter goes ignored by the recipient, in that they fail to respond accordingly?

Ince: On the 11th day after your receipt has been confirmed and we have not heard back from you, then I file a complaint with the City Attorney who then turns it in to the Municipal Court. Before we do that, we document everything by taking a picture of the situation with a time stamp.

If they do call, we are more than happy to work with them. That way we can set up an appropriate time frame to get the issue resolved.

Crow: Depending on the offense, some of these violations can draw a maximum fine of $2,000.

Terry: Everybody gets worried about the fines and going to court, but I can tell you that I’ve been doing this for 19 years and I can only recall one person who was actually taken to court. Most of the time, people are willing to comply.

Most people realize that we’re not asking them to something that’s unreasonable. Whenever I deal with someone who has a problem with what I’m doing, generally after I explain it to them they are happy to comply. These codes are created because many people have died in the past and we’re trying to prevent that. I do whatever I can to help remedy their problem.

Ince: Sometimes we have situations where it’s not the property owner’s fault that bulk trash is left behind by former tenants and we understand that.

I know it’s an inconvenience to have to find a truck, load that stuff up and haul it off. But if you’re a resident of the city, then you can dump that off for free at Public Works every Tuesday and second and third Saturday. If you want to clean up your yard and you don’t know where to dump it, this is a service that the City wants to provide for people who need it.

Q: Since the activation of the Task Force on last Tuesday, how many inspections have you done?

Ince: The first day we did six including one private residence.

Terry: You have to remember that I’m basically running the Fire Department under the Chief’s command, so I still have duties to perform outside of the Task Force.

Ince: We’re having to do this as we find time among our regular duties. That doesn’t mean we’re not going to be diligent in this, but we have to follow through on everything else we’re doing. Capt. Terry and I have to look at all of the plans whenever a new business comes in along with the City Engineer. We spend an average of 16-24 hours just looking at the paperwork for a new building and that’s before they even put a shovel into the ground.

Crow: Officer Brumme is focusing on the law enforcement side of this, so he can serve in this capacity while he’s out on regular patrol. He can do things like enforce truck routes and look for illegally parked vehicles as part of his normal patrol duties.

Terry: We’re trying to get into a program where we’re doing fire code inspection on every occupancy in town on an annual basis. It just hasn’t happened in the past, but we are trying to build that program where we can do that. The Task Force will get to a point where we’ll just be hitting target occupancies that we know we have to be diligent with.

Q: Is there anything else you would like to add before we come to a close?

Crow: We just want to emphasize that we’re looking for compliance in order to have a healthier, safer and cleaner community. That’s the bottom line.

Ince: Citizens are always welcomed to call us. We’re not so busy where we can’t set up a time to come out and visit with them to answer questions.