Drafter
Clerk 10/16/2007
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AN ORDINANCE relating to the enforcement of code compliance by the department of development and environmental services and other executive agencies; amending Ordinance 4461, Section 2, as amended, and K.C.C. 20.24.080, Ordinance 13263, Section 5, and K.C.C. 23.02.040, Ordinance 13263, Section 7, and K.C.C. 23.02.060, Ordinance 13263, Section 8, as amended, and K.C.C. 23.02.070, Ordinance 13263, Section 10, as amended, and K.C.C. 23.02.090, Ordinance 13263, Section 9, and K.C.C. 23.02.080, Ordinance 13263, Section 11, as amended, and K.C.C. 23.02.100 and Ordinance 4461, Section 2, as amended, and K.C.C. 20.24.080 and adding a new section to K.C.C. chapter 23.01.
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STATEMENT OF FACTS:
1. As of April 19 2007, five hundred eleven code enforcement actions were opened by the department of development and environmental services ("DDES") for the year 2007. Five hundred thirty-four code enforcement actions, spanning over several years, were closed this year.
2. The Voluntary Compliance Agreement is a tool utilized by the department to give citizens the opportunity to engage in voluntary abatement of activities that may constitute code violations on their properties.
3. Currently, only a limited number of voluntary compliance agreements have been entered upon by citizens in violation of code compliance. As such, only a small percentage of all opened code enforcement actions are successfully resolved through the use of voluntary compliance agreements. Such a small fraction of cases resolved through the use of voluntary compliance agreements is an indication of the ineffectiveness of the tool in solving the issues it was created to resolve.
4. An April 2007 letter from the office of the county ombudsman found that the tool of the "voluntary compliance agreement" offered by DDES are rarely ever entered upon by affected parties. Such an agreement requires the offending party to waive the rights to administrative appeal a...
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