The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink About08/31/2006 CEAC I CODE ENFORCEMENT ADVISORY BOARD AUGUST 31, 2006 MINUTES I Attendance Present: Chris Italia, John Fowler, Ruby Lawrence, Robert Taylor, Rita Webster, Richard Kuether, Berry Vondersmith Present from staff: Iris Browder, Donna Bateman, Jennifer White, Chief Joe Clark, Steve Eubanks, Carl McMurphy, Bob Hager Council Liaison: Joel Marks Absent: none Agenda Item II Consider minutes from the June 29, 2006 meeting. I Meeting was called to order by Chairman Italia. The minutes from the June 29, 2006 meeting were discussed. Richard Kuether stated on Item 4 & 5 his name was misspelled. Motion to to accept minutes with changes to item 4 & 5 was made by Ruby Lawrence and seconded by Richard Kuether. Motion carried 7-0, I Agenda Item III Receive citizen input. No input was provided. Agenda Item IV Receive a report from Police Chief regarding parking violations. Chief Clark presented his report and it is as follows. Offense Total Total Citations Citation Warnings Warning % % % Total action taken 1667 391 23% 1276 77% Parked wrong way facing traffic 450 27% 28 6% 422 94% No Parking Zone or Prohibited 257 15% 56 22% 201 78% Parked over 18" from curb 93 6% 5 5% 88 95% Parked within 15' of fire hydrant 91 6% 31 34% 60 66% I John Fowler asked what determines whether violators received a warning or a citation. Chief Clark stated that if they stop or approach someone for a violation and the driver argues that they have done nothing wrong then a citation may be issued. If they acknowledge it, than a warning will be issued. They keep records of 1 I I I warnings for 2 years. The officers will check for previous warnings and if the driver has received one, then the officers issue a citation. Majority of the time warnings are issued. Chief Clark stated that his department responds to parking violations on a complaint basis. Richard Kuether asked if there was a difference in which way you can park depending on the street. Chief Clark stated that if you are parked facing traffic than you are parked the wrong way. Rita Webster asked if there were restrictions on parking on hills or curves. Chief Clark stated there are but not in our city. Ruby Lawrence asked if there was a restriction on parking to close to a driveway. Chief Clark answered not that he is aware of, but if they are blocking they driveway then there is. Steve Eubanks commented that there is a restriction for parking within 20' of a crosswalk. Rita Webster asked if the city was going to restrict parking on one side of the street and if all of our streets are built wide enough for emergency vehicles to get through if there are vehicles on both sides. Chief Clark answered normally yes, as long as the vehicles are parked legally in the street there is usually enough room for one lane of traffic to get through. Sometimes it's not easy for them to get through or to get turned around but they are able to do it. Agenda Item V Discuss the parking of vehicle on city streets. Steve Eubanks started by introducing himself as the Public Works director and stated that he also serves as the cities traffic administrator. Steve explained to the board that the way the ordinance reads is that if there is a hazard then the traffic administrator can take action to eliminate that hazard. Carl McMurphy and Steve have discussed that if there is a route that is problematic for the fire trucks he can bring it to Steve's attention. Generally speaking there has not been any instance to where it has been a problem for the fire trucks so no action to restrict parking has been taken. Steve Eubanks pointed out a copy of the cities thoroughfare plan and showed the arterial streets which would be used for emergency access. Carl then stated that the main problem is on dead end streets. Fire engines will stay on the collector street so that way the ambulance will have a way out. There have been times where the engine had to back all the way down a street because there was no way for them to turn around. Rita Webster asked who residents should contact if there is an issue with parking on the street. Steve said to contact him. 2 I I I Chief Clark commented that it has been brought up several time to limit the parking to one side of the street. The reason it has not gone anywhere is because no one wants to give up there side of the street. Agenda Item VI Receive a report regarding rental registration and inspections. Iris Browder explained to the board how the rental program works. She also showed them the brochure that is being handed out to property owners and tenants. As of August 24th there have been 983 properties that have registered and 951 of those that are single family homes. We roughly have 1400 single family homes so there are several that have not registered. We are giving them until the end of September to register, after that they will be issued a citation. We have posted it in the newspaper and sent out mailings to get property owners to register. There are 2800 multi-family units that have registered, which includes 300 units in Estancia, 1941 in Austin Ranch, 304 in Bristol Oaks, & 342 at the Budget Suites. Rita Webster asked why it has taken so long to get these properties registered. Donna Bateman answered it has been a personnel issue and how our department has been understaffed. Richard Kuether asked why we have property owner or tenant down to do the registering in the brochure. Donna explained that it really didn't matter who does the registering as long as it is done. Jennifer White went through the steps on how we check to make sure a property is registered. Agenda Item VII Receive an update on the definition of "inoperable". Memorandum was handed out by Donna Bateman that explains the meaning of Junked Vehicle and Inoperable. Agenda Item VIII Review and discuss the fence maintenance and retaining wall ordinance. Discussion was made on how we would determine if a fence was leaning. It was set at 1" of lean per foot of fence. Chris Italia asked for a motion to accept the 1" of lean per foot of fence. Motion was made by Robert Taylor, and 2nd by Ruby Lawrence. Motion carried 5-1 John Fowler opposed. Richard Kuether was absent from voting, however, he stated that we should remove fence posts from the maintenace sections since he didn't see an issue with having fence posts erected without panels. 3 I I I Agenda Item IX Receive an update from staff regarding inspections of manufactured homes and city compliance. Donna informed the board that manufactured homes were included in the rental inspection program. We can always move forward to adding it to the ordinance to where we can do inspections on all manufactured homes. This has been forward to the city council and they seem to want to see these homes to go away. I Adjourn Meeting adjourned at 7: 15pm. /J / /)4 j/< _ j~/ ;L~y r( c~ Chairman 4