I regret to report that City management has severely crippled the recently vaunted Code Enforcement and Abatement program by releasing ten Code Enforcement Aides that actually do the cleanup of vacant lots and unkempt properties when the owners balk. The downsizing was blamed on the City”s apparent budget crisis. However, the entire Code Enforcement and Abatement program, unlike Fire and Police services, is supposed to be self-supporting through cost recovery.

The cost of cleanups is first billed to property owners. If unpaid, the bill becomes a lien on the property and shows up on the next property tax bill. While there is a delay, virtually all bills are eventually collected. A property lien is the best security there is.

A more innovative and motivated City administration could easily solve this problem. No study has been conducted to find out what the aged accounts receivable pattern is for abatement fines and fees, so the administration is making statements without full knowledge ” a pattern these days. At any rate, institutional lenders would be willing to front the costs based on the secured liens. Nearly a year ago, the City Council adopted an Administrative Citation Ordinance that would make fines and penalties larger as well as easier and quicker to assess and collect, but the Finance Department and the IT (Information Technology) Department have not developed automated procedures for processing these fines, so they are not being collected ” perhaps another reason the City is in a financial bind.

An example of the type of blight that is not being abated is the trailer, surrounded by trash, of Edward Lee Turner, the Richmond rapist convicted in January and sentenced to 302 years. Turner”s lair is located on a Matthieu Court property (between 5th and 6th Street north of Barrett Avenue). The photo below appeared in the West County Times and is titled “The trailer where serial rapist Edward Lee Turner, 50, committed most of the assaults remains, along with trash and debris, on a lot on Matthieu Court in Richmond.” The conditions shown in the photograph show a dozen or more violations of the Richmond Municipal Code Chapter 9.22, Public Nuisances. An aggressive cleanup of this lot and trailer might have prevented some of the crimes.

I hope that the City administration will see the light and motivate staff to find a way to quickly bring back those self-supporting Code Enforcement Aides to keep Richmond”s blight abatement effort going full speed.