A citywide cleanup

Code enforcement program patrols for beautification along city streets

MOSES LAKE — Patrolling around Moses Lake, Randy Moore gets nothing but honks and waves from friendly faces.

But when confronting people about junk cars, weeds and broken windows on their property, Moore doesn't always get a friendly response.

As a code enforcement officer with the city of Moses Lake, Moore's job is to work with residents to clean up their property. And in dealing with a subject that can sometimes be confrontational, Moore tries to be a people person.

"There's an old saying that you can get more bees with honey than vinegar," Moore said.

Sometimes the first contact made to a resident is through the mail, but Moore tries to bring a more personal approach to his work when meeting with people individually. One of his jobs is to explain a violation and work with city residents. After an explanation of their problem, Moore finds people are generally receptive and many just ask for some time to clean up their land.

An initial letter gives people a limited time to get their property in order, but Moore said the last thing the city wants to do is write a $52.50 ticket and go through the court system. In some cases, cars have just accumulated over the years. Residents just need a little time to clean them up.

"The city of Moses Lake is willing to work with residents and property owners to fix whatever situation there is," Moore said. "That's what I've noticed working here."

Moore is one of two full-time code enforcement officers for the city, a program that keeps Moore busy with violations of laws like the recently passed residential vehicle ordinance. The Moses Lake City Council passed the law in March, but the code enforcement program was part of the city long before this spring.

The code enforcement position was part of the building inspector position when Community Development Director Gilbert Alvarado first came to the city. A noxious weed problem in the summer of 1995 led to the hiring of a temporary part-time code enforcement officer. That position never left, and the program has since expanded with the city's own population.

"As we continued to grow, as councils changed and as community priorities changed, we saw a much more aggressive need," to deal with code enforcement Alvarado said.

And Alvarado said the city program will continue to grow as neighborhoods do, and as the city hears about upkeep issues on properties in the city's older neighborhoods.

"Some of them are in a bit of a transition, where you have a mix of older owners and rentals," Alvarado said. "As our developments in that area become older, they're going to require some particular service time."

The program has been a successful one for Alvarado, as the majority of cases taken up end with successful compliance by property owners. It's that small amount of cases that end up in the court system which have been a trouble to solve.

In most cases, Moore finds people just need a little time and a little encouragement to clean up and beautify their property. Some cases do take longer than others, but Moore said 98 percent of the cases turn out positively.

"It's an awesome thing, to see it come back," Moore said of compliance.

When he's not working on existing cases, Moore is patrolling city streets for boarded up houses, trash and junk cars littering properties. He spends approximately half his time on patrol with new and existing cases, utilizing the rest of the day to generate those violation letters residents receive in the mail.

Moore has been a code enforcement officer since January, and said his experience has come primarily from on-the-job training. But having a background as a reserve police officer also helped.

"It helped so much to have that law enforcement background," Moore said, "It made that transition a whole lot easier for me."

Under the recently passed residential vehicle ordinance, cars and trucks have to be stored on approved surfaces to comply with city codes. Those surfaces are concrete, asphalt, brick pavers or gravel that residents need to comply with the codes.

Graffiti used to be another big problem for code enforcement in the city. But through programs like Teaching Kids Responsibility, that graffiti has in recent years been on the decline. The TKR program teams up teens in the juvenile corrections system who have gang affiliations in an effort to clean up and paint over graffiti spots.

If Moore wasn't out citing laws on graffiti and residential vehicles, he said residents would definitely see evidence of it. Every week he gets calls from concerned neighbors about new violations. Ultimately, Moore said neighbors become concerned because a violation has an impact on their own property.

"Our main objective is to clean up the city, and definitely bring value to property," he said, "The value of property goes down when there's junk around."

During a transition period, Moore was the sole code enforcement officer at the city for a period of a few months, and admits the workload has diminished greatly since a second code enforcement officer started work this fall. Even now though, his job doesn't include much downtime. His office sees about 30 new cases each week on city streets.

Overall, Moore sees an impact from the work he's doing.

"I know it is, because I can drive through the neighborhoods and see the difference," he said, "Neighbors see it and comply as well."

Alvarado feels the city is just trying to promote safer neighborhoods in the city, and the city has a responsibility to those neighbors and neighborhoods.

"It's important for residents to understand, we're not out there to necessarily issue fines, create problems," Alvarado said. "We're out there to just promote a better community."

To contact Moore or the code enforcement program at the city of Moses Lake, call (509) 766-9235.