Quality code enforcement is a problem many municipalities face. Because of that, Chautauqua County officials are looking at helping improve the process.

Chautauqua County’s Housing Work Group and its Shared Services Municipal Leaders Group both recommended county leaders examine the possibility of countywide code enforcement. As a result, a consultant was hired to do a study on the topic, the results of which were recently released to members of the legislature’s Planning and Economic Development Committee.

The money for the study came from the state’s Local Government Efficiency Program.

“It (study) was meant to better understand our CEO’s (code enforcement officers) current conditions, as well as get their input on what the county could help with to improve their services, and ultimately improve housing conditions and housing neighborhoods throughout the county,” explained Rebecca Wurster with the county’s Planning Department.

The study was done by CGR — Center for Governmental Research in Rochester and presented by Kieran Bezila. It looked at current conditions, presented a range of options for improvements, and gave a plan for implementing selected options.

CURRENT CONDITIONS

Of the 33 code enforcement officers in the county, CGR interviewed 24 of them. Some code officers reported things were going well, while others reported numerous struggles.

Some of the major issues include large workloads, low competitive pay, lack of future qualified successors and the difficulty deterring chronic offenders, including making meaningful penalties stick and getting courts and judges to get more aggressive.

Getting inspections done for fire and property maintenance, Bezila said, is a common problem with most code officers focusing most of their efforts on permits for new construction.

Bezila said getting new code enforcement officers is a challenge for many municipalities. “Many times when a code enforcement official leaves their job, local officials kind of scramble around or know somebody who works, say, in the construction field and taps them potentially part-time, or somebody partially retired, something like that. It’s a very ad hoc kind of procedure,” he said.

OTHER COUNTIES

In New York, Bezila said there are eight counties that have some level of countywide code enforcement. Most of them are much lower in population than Chautauqua County, with Jefferson County the only one that is close in size, with 116,000 people.

Of the eight counties, only Seneca County covers all municipalities. Most of the others don’t handle code enforcement for the larger cities in their county.

Only two of the eight counties – Lewis and Wyoming – enforce local zoning. The other six do not.

FUTURE OPTIONS

Bezila said there are different ways the county could offer assistance with code enforcement

One option could be to offer background support. For example, the county could have a county code expert that local officials could refer to for advice. The county could also set up a standardized fee schedule or create a registry of contractors, to help deal with dishonest or problematic contractors.

Another option would be if the county took on limited code enforcement duties, like fire inspections. “This is something that is not getting done as it should be locally,” Bezila said.

The county could also do full code enforcement for municipalities that are interested. Bezila said state law requires municipalities would need to opt in for code enforcement; the county can’t take over code enforcement without their approval.

Bezila said because of this, he pictures only a few municipalities joining in the beginning and if it’s proven to be cost effective, he can see other municipalities participating. “It’s likely that even if it was successful and popular, it wouldn’t cover every municipality in the county. Some would still choose to run things locally on their own,” he added.

The three benefits to countywide code enforcement would be more qualified people, getting fire inspections done, and tackling problem properties.

With countywide code enforcement, Bezila said it would probably be more expensive. He said a countywide full-time code enforcement officer would probably earn $55,000 to $60,000 to start, plus another 40% for benefits. Division leaders would need to make $5,000 to $15,000 more. There would also be support staff needed.

Depending on how many municipalities join, Bezila said it would cost a few hundred thousand dollars to start and could go up to $1.2 million should most or all municipalities join in, although he admits he isn’t sure cities would want to participate.

Bezila said in other counties that have countywide code enforcement, funding comes from the general fund, even if not all municipalities use the program. “As you can imagine, some people feel they’re being doubly charged, because they have a local code enforcement program, plus they’re paying into the county code enforcement program. … That is the case, but that’s the way it’s operating,” he said.

Permit fees would cover some of the costs. Bezila said counties that have countywide code enforcement get about 40% of their budget paid through the fees. He cautioned to not make fees too high for individuals because they may become reluctant to make improvements or seek building permits.

Bezila added that some local code enforcement officials believe local municipalities should charge more for commercial properties, since many of these projects are not affected by a higher fee schedule, due to their large size.

Another possibility is to have local municipalities participating pay the county for code enforcement the amount they’re already spending in their annual budget.

COUNTYWIDE HOUSING COURT

Bezila said they wanted to examine countywide housing court, however no counties in the state currently use a program like this. There are specialized housing courts in certain places in the state.

He said the Unified Court System has not responded to questions to see if a countywide housing court is a possibility, and if so, how it would operate or be funded.

The advantage of a countywide housing court, Bezila said, is that local code enforcement officers believe too often judges don’t want to apply harsh penalties. “They feel that local judges are often too close to local residents. They’re concerned about local elections. They don’t want to aggravate their friends and neighbors,” he said.

RESPONSE

After the presentation, Legislator David Wilfong, R-Jamestown, agreed that the program is quite expensive, but he believes something needs to be done. “Is it worthwhile? It is, but I think we need to move ahead slowly,” he said.

Mark Geise, deputy county executive for economic development, said he would work with CGR to flush out further options, so the county could have a “menu of items” that they could examine to explore, instead of simply having the county take over code enforcement.