Council strengthens code-enforcement tools, adopts environmental-court and title changes
Summary
Council approved ordinances tightening environmental-court penalties (making no-show contempt prescriptive), a Title 12 wording cleanup, and a Title 13 change allowing the city to put cleanup costs on property tax rolls to improve collection and speed enforcement.
City staff presented a package of code-enforcement changes: a Title 12 cleanup (correcting a misprint from "chapter" to "title"); a Title 13 amendment to allow the city to recover property-maintenance cleanup costs by placing liens on property-tax bills; and a change to environmental-court language modeled on Memphis that makes failure to appear or to remedy an order result in contempt and assessment of fines. Staff said the changes align enforcement tools and speed collections; council debated judicial discretion but staff said local judges were consulted and Memphis's provision had been successful.
Council discussed procedural protections and timelines for notice. Staff described a two-step courtesy-notice process (door hanger 5-day notice followed by a formal 5-day notice) that totals about 10 days before summons; staff also said state law requires notice to property owners but the courtesy notice will be left at the property and tenants will be alerted to spur voluntary compliance. Council approved the ordinances in sequence.
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