On Sunday morning, a Honda car remained parked, vacant, on Felice Drive at a stop sign that intersects with Fourth Street, one of the most traveled routes in town. Hours later, a Honda CRV hybrid showed up behind the car—with both vehicles abandoned and left with “For Sale” signs and contact information attached.
It’s a common sight in Hollister over summer months in recent years: Such abandoned cars left and marked for sale in private and public lots, or abutting a busy street like what occurred Sunday across from the San Benito Health Foundation.
But that’s not all when it comes to blatant municipal code violations. Shabby, makeshift signs advertising garage sales hang throughout the city from public posts like stoplights and stop signs, which is an illegal practice, and residents generally seem to let loose on municipal code laws come the weekend.
It might have something to do with this: The City of Hollister Code Enforcement Division isn’t historically on duty Saturday or Sunday, as confirmed by the only officer now assigned to the work, and citation numbers obtained by the Free Lance reflect that limited schedule.
Among 414 code enforcement citations issued in Hollister from September 2015 through Friday, more than a year’s worth of data, just 10 were given out on a Saturday or Sunday. That was according to numbers provided by Code Enforcement Officer Desiree Martinez upon request from the Free Lance.
In response to hearing those numbers, Mayor Ignacio Velazquez committed to filling a vacant code enforcement position and also supported hiring an additional third person dedicated to working on weekends.
“At the beginning of the year, we have to do something about it,” Velazquez said.
Martinez has been the city’s only code enforcement officer since May or June when the other staffed officer left, confirmed the code officer, noting how the division responds on weekends just for emergencies, for which she is on call.
“And when I see emergency calls, that means if there’s a structure fire or if P.D. is out on a warrant, or if they had some sort of house that they went into, that’s when we go out,” she said.
She said if someone calls the office to complain about a yard sale sign Saturday or Sunday, she wouldn’t typically get the message until Monday. Martinez explained that she does address illegal signs posted on public property if she sees them out Thursdays or Fridays by knocking on doors, using the advertised addresses, and telling people to remove them.
Signs actually aren’t among the most ticketed violations as a whole, though. Among the 414 citations, 127 were for false alarms, 65 were for inoperable vehicles, 57 were for overgrown landscapes, and 46 were for improperly stored materials, according to the data.
“We have a lot of inoperable vehicles on private property,” she said. “They’re everywhere.”
The mayor said Martinez stays busy, but the weekend enforcement stoppage comes back to staffing. He has an idea on how to correct behavior by code violators.
“Unfortunately, it’s going to come down to citations,” Velazquez said.
For now, though, that enforcement has been almost nonexistent on weekends. Those 10 weekend tickets issued over the past year-plus represent 2.4 percent of the total. Two of those 10 weekend citations were issued after the Free Lance put in its records request.
Breaking the Code
Hollister code enforcement wrote 414 citations from September 2015 through Sept. 16 of this year.
Here is a breakdown of the most common tickets issued, by code violation:
False alarm: 127
Inoperable vehicles: 65
Overgrown landscape: 57
Improperly stored materials: 46
Vehicle on lawn: 30
Substandard building: 22
Illegal sign: 13
Trash on city property: 11
Garbage mandatory: 9
Blocking sidewalk: 9
Here is a breakdown of the weekend citation activity:
Substandard building (2): Sept. 10
Substandard building: May 14
Substandard building: April 16
Substandard building: Feb. 13
Substandard building: Jan.16
Blocking sidewalk (3): July 2
Blocking sidewalk: Dec. 12
Source: Code enforcement
