Kudos to both Mayor Tom George, and Sgt. Ed Favre

[Mark Crnolatas]

I received, in my email, the Lakewood Alive newsletter. I commend Sgt. Ed Favre and Mayor Tom George, on this excellent concept, that is also a very positive move for the whole city. Here is the top part of the email from Lakewood Alive, in case you may have not seen it. :
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On Friday, February 10, LakewoodAlive officers met with Sgt. Ed Favre, who was recently assigned to the Mayor's Office. Ed told us he is holding weekly joint meetings with the building, fire, police, water, refuse and health departments in an attempt to take a coordinated approach to dealing with property code enforcement issues. He explained, for example, that a police officer or a refuse collector might see/know something that otherwise might not be known to the building or health department.....and vice versa.

To assist in this increased level of cooperation, enclosed in every City employee's paycheck on Friday was a yellow form which will serve as a starting point for addressing chronic property violators. This form asks employees to note the three top property violations they have come across in the course of their work and to return the form to Sgt. Favre directly for follow-up.

Congratulations to the mayor and to Ed for taking these steps towards cooperation and alignment in enforcing Lakewood's property ordinances.
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Congrats again.

Mark Allan Crnolatas
"A society or group of people exist soley in it's ability to maintain an atmosphere of peace and civility. It's failure is directly relative to the degree of the lack of these conditions".

[Dee Rogozinski]

Bravo on the concept.
Can general public send violation concerns to Sgt. Favre?
Let's hope there is follow up with enforcement.
Thanks again,
Dee.

[Grace O'Malley]

Is this the Lakewood version of the TIPS program?

I think nosy neighbors, who may actually be impacted, can do a better job of reporting "violators" than enlisting city employees to "turn people in."

And they have a quota, too!

I'm appalled that anyone would think this was a good idea.

If they're worried about "chronic property violators," what do they need tipsters for? They ALREADY know who those people are.

[Mary Anne Crampton]

Sgt. Favre made no mention of a quota. The submissions from employees are anonymous. This is simply a coordinated effort to consolidate observations of employees in the course of their daily work. For example, a refuse worker sees unbagged trash and leaves a notice at the residence. He can easily see that there are also health and building violations at this property, but until now there has been no protocol for follow-up within or without his department. City employees are an important part of our community, let's encourage and applaud them for working together to protect it.

[Grace O'Malley]

According to Mark's post, he received a newsletter from LakewoodAlive that stated :

This form asks employees to note the three top property violations they have come across in the course of their work and to return the form to Sgt. Favre directly for follow-up.

Is the newsletter incorrect?

This is another example of doing something just to make it look like you're making an effort.

It's completely misdirected. As far as I can see, the problem lies not in the REPORTING of property violations, but in following up on, and dealing with those already reported.

Do you really think using city employees as some sort of spies solves anything?

[Mary Anne Crampton]

I guess there is a sematic question here - the form asks, not requires - and now that you know it is anonymous, it is clear the newsletter was not in error. Absolutely, the key is follow-up. And yes, I believe that allowing employees to think and act beyond their specific job desciption is a very good idea. I would call it leadership.

[Grace O'Malley]

ANYONE can call the city about a property whether they live here, work here, or are just driving through. Nothing has changed; no one has been given any special "rights." Employees have always been able to use their heads and report either a problem and I doubt they feel they needed to be told they were allowed.

All that has been done is that we've turned city employees into tattletales; in fact, we've demanded that they become one.

Now I ask, how many city employees are there? How many additional complaints will the city get, say 300, 600? Have we hired more people in the building department? Are we planning on it?

Who is going to address these additional complaints?

What difference would it make if we had 200 complaints a month and now have 400 if we can't deal with the 200 we already have?

[Charyn Varkonyi]

Grace,

I know a LOT of city employees and they are THRILLED with this program. It gives them a much needed way to ensure that their observations are heard and better yet, it allows them to do so anonymously.

I truthfully don't know what your experience is with the city, or with its employees, but your statements are not reflective of the majority of opinions I have received from the various employees in various departments that I have talked to.

Spies? Hardly. No-one is asking them to go looking for trouble, or to go through your trash, or listen at your door. They are only surveying those people who work the streets in an effort to co-ordinate the actions of the city in a way that addresses the most troubled areas first.

I say kudos for a wonderful initiative, but to your point of enforcement, I mus heartily agree. making a list doesn't solve the problem. Acting on that information does. I hope there is enough support of this program to ensure that they maintain the momentum and drive to take action on the reported properties.

Peace,
~Charyn

[Jay Foran]

More important in the original message than the reference to the form employees are being "asked" to fill out .........is the effort to better align the departments. Aligned departments will be more effective, more productive in addressing issues. Getting all departments to pull in the same direction is only good for the community and every tax-paying citizen.

Now, personally, if I was being asked to resource the work (fix the problems), I would want to know first....how BIG is the work and what is the PRIORITY for this work. These preliminary steps seem wise to me. FWIW.

Before we assign bad intentions, let's at least initially assume good intentions.

[Grace O'Malley]

The person that owns that lot, and the first two house on Edwards has let the places go to hell. He now has so many citations against them, the guy cannot afford to fix them. When city hall is called they all know about the properties, but for some reason enforcement was kept at bay until this

This is a quote from another thread. A property owner who wants to tear down his buildings for parking lot. (Keep in mind that property without a bulding pays less property tax.)



We already have existing codes and laws to enable the city to force owners to maintain their properties. So why aren't we doing that? Why aren't we enforcing existing laws? Why do I constantly hear about properties that have gone YEARS, all the while with neighbors making repeated calls, without the owner having to pony up and make needed repairs?

Those who think the city can address this problem by asking city workers to report problems are astoundingly naive. You're approaching the problem bass ackwards.

The city needs to add some bite along with its bark. Once owners know the city takes property maintenance seriously, lets see how many drag the repairs out for years.

[Jim O'Bryan]

Grace


Was at a warrant serving today. Was driving out for lunch and saw a bunch of action of police and fire on Elmwood. We got there and a policeman mentioned they were serving a warrant. The Ed Fitzgerald showed up, and I wondered why he was there. Then Ed Favre walked in, and he gave me the run down.

In a nutshell, "The Party Is Over." House was sealed up and the absentee landlord served.


.

[Stephen Calhoun]

Total Information Awareness coming to Lakewood soon?

How about: trash dudes collect trash, and building inspectors inspect buildings?

Too quaint?

Interdisciplinary city services...how innovative...

[Charyn Varkonyi]

but...

Isn't this the common expectation in business anymore? Teaming, co-operative efforts, etc.? Is not our government(s) a business that needs to operate as efficiently as possible? I would submit to you that we are not using our resources as efficiently as possible if we do not have processes in place that allows every department to help and support every other department as much as possible.

As an investor, I would expect that any firm that I own stock in would use their resources as efficiently as possible to maximize my value. I expect no less from the city I live in and pay taxes to.

I am curious about your further thoughts on this.

Peace,
~Charyn

[Dana Baker]

Grace


Was at a warrant serving today. Was driving out for lunch and saw a bunch of action of police and fire on Elmwood. We got there and a policeman mentioned they were serving a warrant. The Ed Fitzgerald showed up, and I wondered why he was there. Then Ed Favre walked in, and he gave me the run down.

In a nutshell, "The Party Is Over." House was sealed up and the absentee landlord served.


.

that house has ben empty and sealed for over two years, and it has no landlord. just a homeowner who couldn't pay their mortgage, so they defaulted to the bank.

it would be nice to see it fixed up, but the repairs are probably going to cost more than the house could ever be worth. the inside is as trashed as the outside.

the bones of the house are beautiful, but it's going to take a huge ton of cash just to get it livable, let alone as beautiful as it could be.

I know a couple of people who live on that street. they know the people who used to live there.

it was partly a case of not enough cash to maintain, and partly a case of fighting with the bank, according to the neighbors.

[Phil Florian]

Aren't they just formalizing what is already a responsibility of everyone in the city, citizen or worker? Creating a method to make reporting concerns easier? Granted, knowing that more was being done to take care of these concerns in a timely manner would be a great match with this, though. Quickly responding to smaller violations might prevent the kind of seizing happening in Jim's example.

But the bigger question comes up with the comment on the amount of work needed for some of these properties. Lakewood housing stock is getting older and older and harder to keep up and at some point the price of upkeep outpaces the value of the house. What is to be done in this situation?