Crystal Surdyk, Jamestown development director, explained to those in attendance at the City Council’s Housing Committee meeting Monday what code enforcement officers can and cannot do when enforcing the garbage and refuse sections of the City Code. P-J photo by Sara Holthouse

Following a city resident approaching the City Council’s Housing Committee about enforcing garbage and refuse sections of the city code, and help for code enforcement officers in the city, City Development Director Crystal Surdyk discussed with those in attendance at Monday’s Housing Committee meeting what code enforcement officers can and cannot do.

“We have four code enforcement officers for the whole city,” Surdyk said. “And, we have over 1,000 open cases at any given time. You were close to the amount of condemnations that we have, it’s hovering over the 300 mark. We try really hard to get those back into compliance because the last thing we want is for those to decline further and become demolitions.”

Surdyk said any time code enforcement has to intervene in a case it uses taxpayer money to do so, so they try only to intervene in extreme cases. She said they are working on neighborhood clean ups and working on properties by the Riverwalk, but anytime they need to do a demolition or emergency demolition it costs taxpayer money.

“So we really think about that and do that with the utmost consideration for what is best for the taxpayers,” Surdyk said.

Additionally, Surdyk said code enforcement can issue tickets and appearance tickets, and can file tax liens. There are times when the city can acquire a property, but there are also times where they do not want the property, and they would rather get issues on properties taken care of than take people to court.

“We can enforce up to a certain point, but we don’t actually have the authority to enforce,” Surdyk said. “The judge does. That is it. We can try to get them into court, but we can’t even force people to show up for court. All we can do is issue the tickets. We do not have the authority.”

A question was raised as to how City Court procedures can be changed, and Surdyk said court is always an open session and people can come observe, but Department of Development have also asked themselves the same question. Surdyk added they have worked to change their own procedures to make the process more streamlined.

“We can issue the tickets,” Surdyk said. “We can bring them the appearance tickets and bring them into court, but we cannot force them to show up. … The court has to do the actual penal enforcement.”

Surdyk added that is also how it works with law enforcement officers, in that they can issue the tickets, make the arrests, but cannot force them to show up to court. The judge then decides how to proceed with the court case.

Another city resident added that some of these issues can be fixed as well if people were willing to work together instead of pushing for their own way and “not playing well in the sandbox.”