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Police outline code enforcement, abandoned-vehicle and animal-control work; council discusses administrative citations
Summary
Patrol Officer Esparceta described enforcement metrics (abandoned vehicles, commercial enforcement, animal transports to SPCA) and outlined community outreach and microchip scanning; council discussed fees, program funding, and whether to pursue an administrative-citation process that would let the city handle some violations internally instead of traffic court.
Officer Esparceta presented the police department's code-enforcement and animal-control work for the past year, detailing case volumes, program responsibilities and recurring costs.
He reported totals for enforcement contacts and citations and described the abandoned-vehicle program tied to state guidance and CHP resources. He said the city transports animals to the SPCA under contract and pays the private facility a per-animal daily rate ("a hundred and $75 per day for 5 days"), adding that transport to SPCA takes considerable officer time.
"The city of Soledad is the only South County city that still picks up stray cats," Esparceta said, noting the time and cost burden of long transports. He said the department is expanding microchip scanning to reunite pets with owners and is working with the building department on illegal ADUs and unpermitted construction.
Council members asked whether citation fees fund the unit's equipment and whether the city could pursue administrative citations to avoid routing certain code cases through the traffic court system. City staff and the deputy chief explained that many citations currently go through traffic court and the city retains only a small portion of fine revenue; an administrative-citation process would require municipal-code changes, an appeal process, and administrative work but could provide a faster local remedy for repeated blight and building-code violations.
Council asked staff to explore administrative citations further, including the possible fee schedule, appeal steps, staffing implications and estimated costs; staff said they would return with options if council wants the city to pursue code changes.
