Ceres code enforcement highlights education-first approach as illegal dumping surges

Cassandra, the city’s code enforcement secretary, told the Ceres City Council that her three-person team handled more than 1,000 calls for service over the fiscal year and emphasized an education-first strategy to reduce long-term violations. She said a revenue-recovery initiative launched in October recovered “over $3,500” in past-due balances and that the unit focused on resolving problem properties including Tuscany Village and a site referred to in the meeting as “Triple R.”

Cassandra said personnel issued 125 courtesy notices in the most recent quarter to encourage voluntary compliance and described a sharp recent rise in illegal dumping: “We went from 33… to 42…and then in June, we went all the way to 56,” she said. Council members repeatedly praised the team’s productivity; Mayor Lopez called the unit’s haul of “116,000 pounds of debris” and hundreds of inspections “incredible.”

Vice Mayor Martinez asked whether the city provides bilingual educational materials and whether the city app (GoGov) supplies a measurable pipeline of blight reports. Cassandra said bilingual materials are provided by the Department of Environmental Resources and that there are roughly 35 currently open app-originated cases; she offered to email councilmembers a more detailed breakdown. She also told the council that, when education fails, administrative citations increased — an 80% rise year over year — reflecting a shift toward enforcement where outreach does not resolve repeat problems.

The presentation included photos of recent cleanup efforts and a description of interdepartmental work such as a street-sweeper cleanup and a collaborative removal of trash from an encampment. Councilmembers commended the work and asked staff to continue process improvements and to return with additional data requested about app-reported cases.