At the Ukiah City Council’s next meeting Feb. 19, the Community Development Department is expected to give a presentation on code enforcement actions over the past year, Community Development Director Craig Schlatter told the Ukiah Planning Commission this week.
During their Feb. 12 meeting, Schlatter advised the commission of the planned presentation after Chair Rick Johnson expressed frustration with the number of code enforcement issues he witnesses, noting that “the streets around St. Mary’s sometimes are an attraction for RVs and vans to park and camp there for a few days, and usually when I see one for more than a day or two, I’ll call the Ukiah Police Department and they’ll send somebody out there to tag it.
“This time, the dispatcher said they have a new policy, so they sent me over to (Community Development) and I had a lengthy discussion with (Sean Connell) and we’re all kind of frustrated,” Johnson said. “It just seems like these (vehicles) are a public nuisance (and) it does become kind of a blight – the vehicles are often in disrepair, sometimes they leave trash along the sidewalk, and there is a no-camping ordinance within the city.”
In response to Johnson’s comments, Community Development Director Craig Schlatter explained “a bit of the history of code enforcement in the city of Ukiah: my understanding is that there was a code enforcement officer at one time in Community Development, and that position became vacant (at least 10 years ago). Then the UPD took over management of code enforcement for a period of time (until) about five years ago, when we partnered with the UPD (to help with code enforcement because we had staff available at that time to assist.)”
“Over time, they asked us to take more of a lead role, so now we have a Code Enforcement Division,” Schlatter continued. “We still collaborate on certain nuisance complaints, and we meet with them regularly to discuss (issues like) homeless encampments, for example, and how we can clear that area or make it more safe for the community, so we have a joint response, but starting about two years ago, the Grants Management Division applied for a grant to stand up the program fully within the department, because we had no funding to pay for a position or a vehicle, and we were successful in securing that grant, I think about a $500,000 Community Development Block grant, so we used those funds to hire Sean Connell, our code enforcement inspector.”
Schlatter said he gave the commission “all that background so you can understand that during the last 10 years, code enforcement has been highly in demand, but we haven’t had a centralized function to address it until really the last two years – once we had the funding, the partnerships, and we really started pro-actively addressing code enforcement.
“So this is the first time in a while that we’ve had a standalone code enforcement division, and we have personnel specifically trained only to do code enforcement,” Schlatter continued, adding that there is also now “tremendous, pent-up demand (for code enforcement) because we haven’t been able to pro-actively address it, so we have a lot coming up all at once.”
And now that there is a code enforcement division, Schlatter said its staff has begun giving the Ukiah City Council regular updates on its efforts, “and last year we presented the first code enforcement annual report to the City Council. We said we want to do it, and the council said they wanted to hear that. And next Wednesday (Feb. 19), we will be presenting the 2024 Code Enforcement report, and abandoned vehicles are one of the items that we report on.”
“We know there is tremendous demand (for addressing abandoned vehicles), and we know that people try to game the system,” Schlatter continued. “The unfortunate reality is that, at this point, we’re still scaling up the division. We’re seeking more grants, we’re bringing more targeted enforcement campaigns online to address specific issues of concern, including vacant and abandoned properties, which has been a constant area of concern related to blight, deterioration of neighborhoods, etc.
“So, we’re ramping all that up, but at the same time, we still have all that demand, and a lot of people calling in about recurring issues,” Schlatter continued. “So we are addressing it, it’s just not as rapid as what the community really wants to see. We acknowledge that, and it will get better. The longer we do it, the stronger we will get, and we’ll scale it up even more, that’s our goal.”
Schlatter also again urged members of the community to “please join our Planning Commission. As long as you live in the city limits (and are registered to vote) you can fill out an application.” Currently, the commission only has three members, so it often struggles to have a quorum, which will likely lead to both meetings in March having to be canceled due to one board member’s absence.
Read more about all of the city’s commissions and how to apply here: cityofukiah.com/boards-commissions-committees/
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