Pair of interns to help address safety concerns
The job of checking on abandoned homes, inoperable vehicles,
overgrown weeds and other violations of city code will be divided
between two interns and the code enforcement director, after the
person slated to take the full-time job took another post.
Pair of interns to help address safety concerns
The job of checking on abandoned homes, inoperable vehicles, overgrown weeds and other violations of city code will be divided between two interns and the code enforcement director, after the person slated to take the full-time job took another post.
“I’m still working, so you’re still getting more enforcement than there has ever been,” said Code Enforcement Director Mike Chambless, who also manages the Hollister Airport. “One intern helps me with normal code enforcement and special projects; the other one does vacant house registration and weeds.”
City Manager Clint Quilter forwarded the job-sharing suggestion to the City Council last month, saying hiring two part-time workers would save money. The person expected to take the full-time code enforcement position took another job, and with the list of qualified candidates “exhausted” and budget a concern, Chambless said Quilter “recommended the intern route.”
Since Sept. 1, Penny Lee and Charlotte O’Connor have split code enforcement duties, with one working 10-hour days on Tuesday and Wednesday and the other working Thursday and Friday. Both women had worked as interns in the department before.
“I’m the director so I’m the guy who will write tickets and go to court,” Chambless said. “I have the interns doing more of the leg work; the phone calls, looking up property records, and taking pictures of abandoned properties. So I’m not doing all of the running around. We’ve got vacant houses all over the place; just general nuisance stuff. I had to let some of that slide because of my airport duties.”
The city’s code enforcement department reports that the most commonly reported violations include substandard housing, illegally converted garages, accumulation of trash, inoperable vehicles, overgrown weeds and inappropriate storage of boats, trailers and recreational vehicles.
“I check on garbage in yards, cars parked on lawns, tall weeds, any odds and ends,” Lee said. “We’ve gotten calls about portable basketball hoops that elderly residents could not get around.”
With a division of duties among three people, prioritization is a key, according to Lee.
“People are losing their homes and entire families are moving in with friends or relatives,” she said. “There are a lot of potential dangers associated with that. You go in to some places and there are cribs being used in the garage. We want to make sure people are safe.”
Code enforcement personnel also make sure that local businesses are properly licensed. Lee said that in November and December, the staff plans to check that businesses selling tobacco are licensed to do so.
“The job is really interesting, though on some days it’s extremely frustrating,” she said. “Some things you have to work on for awhile.
You don’t always get instant compliance. People will stop paying their water bill, then they lose their home, then it’s abandoned, then we have to try to find out who is in charge of the home” as it falls into disrepair.
“I’m still learning the ropes,” she added. “It’s a job with such variety that every day there’s something new.”
Quilter said that the City Council recently offered direction to “give our attention to the garage sale signs and other signs that are left up around town.” Chambless said his office will pursue that course of abatement after a previous council decision placing a moratorium on sign and motor home enforcement is reversed.
