Jamestown resident Doug Champ discusses support for a local law during a City Council work session meeting Monday. The law would allow code enforcement officers to issue fines directly for code violations. P-J photo by Eric Tichy

The city Department of Development is hoping to replicate the successful implementation of a nuisance officer by the Jamestown Police Department to address quality-of-life complaints.

City Council members on Monday were briefed on a proposed local law that would allow code enforcement officers to issue fines for code violations. The current code enforcement process — from the time a complaint is received to its resolution — often can be arduous for city personnel.

“What this will do is allow us somewhere to what we’ve been able to see with the nuisance officer where he can directly ticket for nuisance, quality-of-life-type items,” Crystal Surdyk, city director of development, said during a council Housing Committee meeting Monday evening.

If adopted, Surdyk said the local law will allow code enforcement officers to immediately issue tickets “upon inspection” for animal maintenance, junk and debris, high weeds and grass, dangerous trees, unauthorized motor vehicles and illegal burns.

“While we do already have ordinances that address all of these, this gives our code enforcement officers the ability to issue those tickets,” said Surdyk, who added that the city did review similar ordinances employed by other municipalities.

She said there will have to be some “procedural things that are put in place” with the adoption of the local law, including the collecting of fines and addressing potential impacts to the court clerk’s office. “While we don’t have all of those logistics worked out, we feel that this is something that we should move forward with and hope that we have council’s support,” she said.

Area resident Doug Champ, during Monday’s Housing Committee meeting, said the local law is “very well thought out and very necessary.” He said he recently spent four hours in city Housing Court, and criticized how long it takes to resolve code enforcement matters.

“This law does something very vital — it steps it up in terms of enforcement opportunities,” Champ said. “I’m not talking about roofs falling down. I’m not talking about structural problems. I’m talking about unregistered vehicles. I’m talking about garbage getting picked up. I’m talking about dog feces in the street, the yard, everywhere. I’m talking about assorted problems that typically can be resolved in 24 hours.”

Champ questioned why another judge can’t be added to help move cases along in court. Councilwoman Marie Carrubba, D-Ward 4 and Housing Committee chairwoman, said the city has no role in appointing judges.

“There are many things that we would like to do that are not the City Council’s or city government’s purview,” she said. “We do realize that the Department of Development is overburdened because we have to keep attending repeat performances in Housing Court to get people to comply. It’s a waste of their time.”

Surdyk was asked how the fine structure will work for those who do not comply after being issued a ticket for a code violation. She said there is the initial fine, followed by the doubling of the fine if the payment is not made within 15 days. Fines will increase until it reaches a set maximum amount.

“In addition to that,” Surdyk said, “if they don’t mitigate the issue within the designated period of time we can then go and remediate it ourselves and then bill it back to them.”

Surdyk said nonpayments also can be referred to a credit collections agency, similar to how parking tickets are handled.

On the other end, fines will be discharged for violations that are “remediated” within 48 hours of being issued.

Police Chief Timothy Jackson has previously touted the early success of the department’s nuisance officer, who has issued a number of tickets for what’s called “quality-of-life” complaints such as loud vehicles and illegal fireworks being set off. He said the officer is citing violations both from specific complaints and from patrolling the city.

Surdyk said she’d like to have the council take up the local law at its voting session July 31. “If everyone is confident that this is ready to go, we’ll be ready,” she said.

Tony Dolce, R-Ward 2 and council president, said the local law is a “step in the right direction” for the Department of Development.

“Again, it’s not going to be perfect, but anything that we can do to help these quality-of-life issues, especially in the summertime it seems to be more apparent with garbage and feces and bushes and grass and all that stuff,” Dolce said. “The sooner we can get a handle on this just like the nuisance officer who started… It took time to get that position going but, once we got it going, it’s working. It’s making a dent.”