Citizen D

08/19/04 My Code Enforcement Experience

This would be fiction EXCEPT it really happened! I had to go to court August 18th for a bogus code violation. It was interesting to see the wheels of Dallas' Municipal Court trudge along.

I took the day off to be with my friend for a ticket that was issued in December 2003. It was dismissed (along with a lot of others). That part was a good thing for us. As citizens, we were happy to see that the system can actually render a fair outcome.

The City Attorney's staff tried to dispose of these cases as efficiently as possible, but the system is severely broken. A lot of good employees (including Inspectors) put a lot of effort into preparing for cases that the City was sure to lose. We need an "administrative" process that allows for dismissal of tickets issued in error, so we can avoid the whole court process.

I want to believe had Code known Sanitation had not picked up our bulky trash on time, they would have not issued the tickets in the first place.

Over the three hours we were there, I heard some things that bothered me.

** The judge's bailiff (City Marshall) was unduly rude to the citizens. He was short (of tone) and very gruff. Since he was in uniform, chances are he does not live in the City Limits (and yes, I still contend that this makes a big difference in how citizens are treated). Overall, he expected citizens to know what to do and how this all worked. This was really the FIRST time that most of us had been in to court for a code violation.

** Someone at the supervisory and manager levels should have caught the fact that most of these tickets were in the same areas and for the same offense. Nobody at the management level figured out that it was Thanksgiving week. The City was probably short staffed. In our case, the bulky trash pickup was more than a week LATE.

** Code Inspectors and their supervisors should have checked with Sanitation and asked if they were behind schedule. This would have prevented a lot of the problem. In our case, the tree limbs were picked up almost 3 week late (one week after we got a ticket). Again, the trash was not put out early -- the City picked it up late. In a way, the Code Inspector got caught in the middle.

** Most of these citizens had never gotten a notice (let alone, a ticket) before. A warning would have been more appropriate than a ticket.

What can we do? If we equip each inspector with a hand held device (similar to what water meter readers use) that could tell them "immediately" what prior incidents were present at an address (and owner), Inspectors could make a better determination as to whether or not a warning or a ticket would be in appropriate. BUT, we have to allow code officers the ability to use their own good judgment and ticket any extreme cases "on the spot".

In so many cases, tickets would be welcomed in neighborhoods for the REAL offenders like slumlords. This incident makes you wonder why tickets could not have been issued to the really illegal uses and properties. They certainly are easy enough to find -- at least to those of us who read DallasArena.com".

Here is what citizens had to say about what they thought the problem was and what they felt would be a good solution.

They were concerned that (at least on this day) 90% of cases were dismissed ? because they were bogus. Some that should have been prosecuted, should not have been dismissed.

I never thought I could be "at risk" like those poor people who got falsely accused in the fake drug scandal. Revenues lost for the City because we did not handle the cases correctly.

Some people had hired attorneys and should file a claim against the City for reimbursements through the Risk Management Office. More money down the drain when the City has to pay legal costs that should never have been incurred in the first place!

This whole mess was due to bad actions by a few bad employees. Good employees subsequently trusted them and, unwittingly, helped the system take advantage of our citizens.

The City has created an atmosphere of fear and chaos for citizens and generates income through a sort of public "shake down scheme".

A ticket issued in December cannot be heard before August. If you ignore it and do not show up for court, the City enters a judgment against your property. Try to sell or transfer your property and you end up having to pay anyway. It seems that the City hopes that most people will pay just to see this mess go away.

PLEASE, somebody, tell me I am wrong! I really want to be wrong on this point!

Citizens and Code Inspectors deserve a better system than the one we have in place now. Based on our experience with "the City system", we think Code Inspection and Sanitation should have been better coordinated as to ACTUAL dates for bulky trash pick up. We think the Inspector used the published calendar. If he had known what the actual delay was, the ticket would not have been issued in the first place.

In all of the cases I heard about, citizens showed up in court not to avoid getting a fine, but to tell the judge they had done their part. The City failed to pick up on time. Most thought the "City" deserved a ticket for what it did not do -- and that was pick up on schedule!

If you have a good crime watch or neighborhood association in place, start keeping tabs on the City and how often it is LATE picking up bulk trash. This can help avoid a bogus ticket from Code Enforcement!

I was also upset to know that one citizen who had her bogus ticket dismissed had already informed city management, council, the mayor and Code Enforcement about the late pick ups and did not even get a response. This is not acceptable.

Hopefully, this incident will make it harder for the City to run this bogus ticket scam on citizens.