By GARRET JAROS/YachatsNews
Education instead of confrontation and clarity instead of confusion are the overarching goals Waldport and Yachats are striving for as the two cities revive and revamp their code enforcement programs.
While both cities have struggled for years to get their code enforcement houses in order, Yachats’ is now up and running and Waldport’s is on the cusp as it looks to streamline its process and hire a code enforcement officer.
In Yachats, overgrown vegetation has been at the top of city code compliance officer David Fortmeyer’s to-do list since starting the job in August. He was hired as a full-time public works employee but now devotes 20 percent of his time to code issues – checking on complaints and contacting people, and keeping an eye out as he goes about his work throughout the city.
A recent rainy day began with Fortmeyer at city hall transferring violation notices to a spreadsheet so he can track follow-up dates and consequences if need be. Once finished with that he takes to the streets.
There is a dirt pile on a construction site sloughing off into a nearby storm drain that has been screened but needs checking. He finds and documents a tree reportedly impeding travel on Radar Road and a jungle of overgrown brambles colonizing a vacant lot that may or may not be classified as wetlands. Everything is documented with photos.
He also needs to check on some outdoor store lights that may be too bright.
“Some but not all of the job is complaint driven,” Fortmeyer said. “A lot of the complaints come from repeat callers, people who have taken on the job of communicating where they see something in their neighborhood or elsewhere in town.”
He has only sent out a handful of notices so far, but says there is a backlog to work through.
Dirt is indeed migrating downhill and banking up against a screen that is stopping it from going into the storm drain. Fortmeyer snaps a photo.
“I do wish they would screen it off closer to the pile though so it didn’t travel so far,” he says before driving to Radar to photograph several trees, any one of which could be the offending culprit branching into the road.
Conversations around clarifying code violations has been a regular part of the job.
“Some people are unsure about the verbiage in the code, so some of that is being revised,” Fortmeyer said. “It has been confusing for people whether a notice is referring to invasive vegetation for example, or if it’s just a fire hazard related thing for example. And so that is being corrected to give people a clearer message.”
Fortmeyer said he is good at talking with people who have been issued notices and approach him with a “riled up tone,” letting them know so long as they are doing everything they can to correct the issue, the city is willing to work with them.
“Sometimes they are just stressed about the timeline and that sort of thing,” he said.
Yachats has not had a dedicated code officer since a contract with TCB Security of Newport lapsed in 2021. Since then it had been handled by city hall staff when they could find the time.
Yachats city manager Bobbi Price said the focus so far has been getting Fortmeyer up to speed, establishing the position and catching up on the backlog.
“We haven’t had an active code position for a long time, so getting him comfortable and well-versed in all things code in Yachats is really step one for us,” Price said. “Getting systems put into place surrounding his combination role, and then looking at how our system works.”
It was primarily a budgetary decision to hire a full-time entry-level public works employee who would devote a percentage of time to code compliance, she said. But it is also difficult to hire somebody just for a quarter-time position.
“And with somebody who is out on the streets looking at everything, really engaged daily, while reading meters and doing other things public works does, I thought it would make a really holistic combination for a person,” Price said.
Yachats city councilor Mary Ellen O’Shaughnessey says code enforcement has been a frustration since her first days on council. And that having someone who builds relationships with the community before telling them what they have done wrong is crucial to the program’s success.
“So I’m delighted that we have found someone who I have heard is doing his best to get to know people and is making thoughtful decisions about what to do and what boundaries to set,” O’Shaughnessy said. “It’s not about punishing people it’s about educating them. Many times, I think they don’t even know they are breaking the code because no one looks at the codes. They just go ahead and do what they think they can do.”
Neighbors frustrated over a 10-foot-high fence or an out-of-control escallonia reaching for the stars now have Fortmeyer to talk to, she added. And she is impressed with what has been accomplished in the two years since the pandemic when there was not much that could be done.
“We came up with a lot of ideas,” O’Shaughnessy said. “But now I think we are moving forward.”
The best way for Yachats’ residents to report code violations, said Price, is through the “request tracker” on the city’s website. Once alerted there, Fortmeyer will reach out to the person lodging the complaint and the person who may be in violation.
The city council appointed Donna Bader of Yachats as municipal judge to oversee unresolved code violations at its Nov. 20 meeting. The city hopes to have a municipal court up and running – heavily code focused but only as needed – by the beginning of next year.
“Wonderful timing to bring Donna to this process,” Price told the council. “We have recently employed a code compliance officer. It gives us the next step to ensure that while we are working with our residents to help them be in compliance, if they choose to not take our advice … and follow through with our code then we do have a municipal judge in place …”
The city does have a few chronic cases of non-compliance to work through, Price added, in food and beverage tax reporting and vacation rentals.
Waldport tackles enforcement
Waldport city manager Dann Cutter has been handling code enforcement for the city since he came on board in 2020. If it has been a good-weather weekend he may arrive at is desk Monday with 10 to 15 complaints to sort through. If it is a rainy weekend that has kept people indoors the numbers drop to one or two.
City staff keep an eye out for obvious violations they see but for the most part the system is entirely complaint driven.
Garbage in people’s yards is the biggest complaint. And discussions with people about the difference between “yard art and trash” takes up too much of his time, Cutter said. He tries to figure out which is which while also determining if it is just an ongoing dispute between neighbors, which the city does not get involved with.
Cutter learned early on in trying to address violations that people do not respond well to notices in the mail, so he tries to reach them by phone. Then there’s the complaint that will need to be addressed with the help of an armed sheriff’s deputy because a sign on the front door clearly states “You take your life in your hands by knocking on the door.”
With money saved from sharing a Lincoln County Sheriff’s contract deputy with Yachats, Waldport is advertising for a part-time code enforcement officer who can be trained and ready to start work at the beginning of the year. Previously, Sheriff Curtis Landers told city council that having a code enforcement officer syncs well with deputies’ crime-fighting efforts.
The 20 hour-a-week position will pay $25 an hour. Startup costs, to pay for a computer, uniform and camera citation device, is expected to cost about $6,000. The annual cost is estimated to be about $50,000.
Cutter and the city council are also revamping and updating some of the city’s codes and language such as the ones still focused on teen curfews and others that refer to bathrooms as privies. And council is discussing lowering some code violation citation amounts.
“With that in mind, I will bring some code change recommendations to council – and it’s just little stuff, mostly process not the code, and clean up the language,” Cutter said. “I think there’s a lot of opportunity for us to create some modern language in our code that will make it easier for people to understand about when they are or are not violating the code.”
Some of that has now been corrected and signed off on by the council. Cutter also wants to bring a revised process, which he believes is one of the more important pieces that will both save time and bring better clarity to the public.
He wants codes clearly posted on the city’s website, and like the city of Corvallis, he would like to have a single sheet with the different violations listed alongside boxes that can be checked.
“So if you have a code enforcement issue, your code enforcement officer can write the address at the top of the sheet, checkmark the boxes so there are clear descriptions and links to the deeper code and set timelines, and then just post it as the site,” Cutter said. “Then it’s not a long, drawn-out process. It would just provide a quicker and more concrete way of doing code enforcement so it’s not as arbitrary.”
He would also like to establish a list of volunteers and organizations willing to help seniors and people struggling financially who are unable to address violations.
And Cutter is keenly aware of the costs the city can incur when citations are met with legal action. There are problem violators the city has long been aware of but have not been able to take action because it was tied up with litigation.
“We have had to let some slide just because there is a certain amount of legal capacity that you have,” Cutter said. “We’d been fighting a lawsuit that we wanted to wait until it was done before picking our next fights.”
Cutter is referring to a $2.35 million lawsuit brought by the owner of a wrecking yard who claimed the city was interfering with his business. That lawsuit was recently settled to give the owner a specified time to get the property in order.
“We’ve had potential citations against dozens of properties,” Cutter said “Generally, people don’t want to pay. Our citation’s $1,000 a day. Generally, that’s why we’re very hesitant to give a citation. But, at the end of the day this allows us to when we do cite, we have resources to go to court. But that’s why we do it hesitantly.”
Once people see that bill, it is amazing how quickly they come into compliance, he added. But in all three larger cases, the violators came into compliance and the citations were ripped up.
But like Yachats, Cutter said Waldport wants to use the carrot not the stick, wants to place educating the public in a clear and straightforward way at the forefront. And then give them time to comply or connect them with help.
- Garret Jaros is YachatsNews’ full-time reporter and can be reached at GJaros@YachatsNews.com
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