This week, the San Joaquin County Civil Grand Jury released a report about code enforcement in Tracy and other cities, concluding that the quality of life in town hasn’t entirely recovered from the 2008 recession.
The grand jury examined how eight communities deal with blight, abandoned vehicles, structural hazards and illegal commercial truck parking in their areas.
“Tracy and the community of Mountain House are still affected by the budget and staffing reductions resulting from the 2008 housing crash. The result is enforcement that is reactive instead of proactive,” the report concluded.
In Tracy, the grand jury found that the manager and four officers of the Community Preservation Unit of the Tracy Police Department are complaint-driven and lack the manpower to proactively seek out code violations that affect people’s quality of life.
“The department primarily focuses on structural inspections, building code enforcement, state housing law enforcement, illegal dumping, illegal signage, graffiti abatement, zoning law enforcement, unauthorized use of motorhomes as primary living spaces, and abandoned shopping carts,” the grand jury found. “The resulting level of enforcement is reactive, which allows blight and safety issues to continue.”
Community Preservation Manager Ana Contreras addressed the report Thursday.
“In order for any jurisdiction to be proactive, you have to have a certain level of staffing, and with the existing staff, we are only able to be reactive,” she said, adding that the grand jury’s inquiry did not paint a total image of code enforcement in Tracy.
“Over the past 18 months, we’ve been proactive in recommending policy to (the City) Council and council adopting ordinances regarding stores that have in excess of 25 shopping carts to submit a retrieval plan to the city,” Contreras said, citing one example of proactivity beyond daily enforcement. “That’s to address abandoned shopping carts throughout the community. We’ve also adopted an ordinance restricting parking on unpaved surfaces. Again, a direct response to the community’s cries for blight in their neighborhood.”
She added that her unit at one time had only one officer, but within the last year, it has grown to four code officers and a full-time analyst.
The grand jury recommended that the city find money to restore code enforcement levels and consider using community volunteers to augment their efforts.
The grand jury concluded that Mountain House also lacked adequate manpower to seek out violations.
“There is one full-time administrative employee assigned to work part-time on code enforcement,” the report read. “Unlike other communities in San Joaquin County, Mountain House relies on governing documents such as CC&R’s (Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions) as well as established homeowner rules and regulations to generate compliance and reduce the need for code enforcement. As a result, code enforcement calls and responses are limited due to the level of voluntary compliance generated by the community’s master plan governing documents.”
Mountain House Community Services District General Manager Edwin Pattison, who testified to the grand jury, said the finding did not necessarily capture the details of finding a “sweet spot” between following the rules and fines.
“We’re enforcing but we’re not being a police state either,” he said Thursday. “In terms of the grand jury, what they got wrong for Mountain House, it’s more than complaint driven. … Our code enforcement officer also drives throughout the community during the course of a day, and if he sees a problem, he addresses it proactively.”
Where the grand jury describes a limited level of voluntary compliance, Pattison sees an ongoing conversation with the community.
“We’re not about enforcement as our first approach,” he said. “We try to connect, communicate and educate.”
Pattison said most of the code issues within Mountain House involve oversized or improperly parked vehicles, and the CSD will soon add signs around the community to inform people what types of vehicles may not be parked on the streets.
The grand jury also recommended that Mountain House CSD find more budgetary options to increase code enforcement, which Pattison said the board has already done.
“We’ve been ramping up staffing to meet the demands of growth,” he said. “In this last budget cycle that was just approved for (fiscal year) 18-19, the board provide authorization to hire a second code enforcement officer.”
Pattison said he expects to hire the officer later this year.
The county civil grand jury is made up of 19 citizens who serve on the jury for a year and is authorized by law to investigate public prisons; the operation, accounts and records of city and county offices; allegations of willful or corrupt misconduct of public officials; and activities of all schools and special assessment districts within the county.
June 29, 2018
Tracy Press
Staff report
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