October Monthly Council ReportCode Enforcement is actively engaged in 1,007 open cases
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Before After
Menifee may fine illegal dumpers up to $3,000
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Amber Kearney, a Menifee code enforcement officer, left, and city spokesman Ben Gallagher survey illegal dumping at Antelope and Garbani roads Thursday, Oct. 17, 2019. The debris includes
a couch, refrigerator and broken windows. (Photo by Cindy Yamanaka, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
By DAVID DOWNEY | ddowney@scng.com | The Press-Enterprise
PUBLISHED: October 21, 2019 at 6:30 am | UPDATED: October 21, 2019 at 8:13 am
A couch, washer, refrigerator, child’s doll, board with exposed nails and shards of broken window glass were strewn next to eucalyptus trees along a Menifee trail where people jog and
walk their dogs.
In contrast to the backdrop of golden open fields and blue mountains, the shattered glass at the makeshift landfill near Garbani and Antelope roads appeared to be making code enforcement
officials nervous. “Kids are going to come over here and play,” Amber Kearney, one of Menifee’s four code enforcement officers, said on a Thursday, Oct. 17, tour. “What if they get
cut?”
Kearney said the pile of assorted and disorganized trash had been around two and a half weeks, and officers planned to work with the property owner to have it removed. The illegal dump
underscores a growing problem in the city of 94,000 that officials hope to confront by slapping midnight dumpers with fines as high as $3,000 — and installing surveillance cameras to
catch them. The site is just one of many popping up all over the nearly-50-square-mile city in southwest Riverside County.
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When most sleep, others dump
“Illegal dumping has always been an issue,” Kearney said. “But in recent months we’ve seen an increase in illegal dumping. Instead of having Waste Management pick it up, they just throw
it out on a vacant lot.”
Most dumping takes place late at night or early in the morning “when most people are sleeping,” she said, adding that often the culprits are looking to avoid paying landfill disposal
fees.
Menifee officials are mobilizing in response.
They are crafting a local law to establish fines of $1,000 for someone caught dumping the first time, $1,500 for a second offense and $3,000 for a third offense, while empowering code
enforcement officers to impound a violator’s vehicle. The measure is expected to be taken up by the Menifee City Council in January or February.
The idea, code enforcement officers said, is to make paying a fine much more expensive than taking a load to the landfill.
At the same time, the Public Works Department wants to establish a citywide, solar-powered network of cameras to record violations and violators’ license plates.
In Kearney’s three years with the city, she said no one has been caught. But she expects that to change. Officers said they also expect that steep fines and modern cameras will deter
people from dumping.
Problem getting worse
Complaints have surged dramatically.
Menifee spokesman Ben Gallagher said the city logged 46 reports of illegal dumping from Feb. 1 through Friday, Oct. 18 — up from 26 cases in that period in 2018.
Code Enforcement Director Colin McNie said in a news release that, since February, public works employees have hauled off 7,260 cubic yards of couches, mattresses, refrigerators and
other household items, as well as construction materials and general garbage, from unauthorized dumps.
It’s become such an absorbing issue, Kearney said, that she spends up to eight hours of her workweek addressing it. City officials said Menifee is vulnerable to illegal dumping because,
though the city is urbanizing fast, it has vast tracts of undeveloped land and 70 miles of dirt roads.
Terrence Wiggins, senior code enforcement officer, said dumping hot spots have long existed. But unsightly piles of trash are showing up in places where they didn’t used to, he said.
Garbani Road is one spot where dumping is occurring, code enforcement officers said. Other such places include Valley Boulevard, Barnett Road, McLaughlin Road, Dawson Road, Rouse Road,
Case Road and Menifee Road.
Not only is the problem widespread, but it snowballs once an illegal dumper takes the initiative.
“You can see when one person starts and then another one sees (the mess),” Kearney said. “Then it becomes a free-for-all. Everyone feels like they can dump there.”
Punishing the victim?
Which is why, said Wiggins, code enforcement officers scramble to get rid of messes as quickly as possible.
That involves working with property owners. They are legally responsible for cleanup, officers said, and are subject to $100, $200 or $500 fines — for first, second and third offenses
— if they fail to remove trash.
Code Enforcement Officer Andrea Montes said she feels bad about that.
“It’s like punishing the victim,” she said.
And some property owners are victimized repeatedly.
“They come out here and it’s like, ‘Again? Who did this?’” Montes said. “They finally clean it up. Then they get hit again and it starts all over.”
So code enforcement officers work patiently with landowners, Montes said, and only assess penalties if they refuse to haul away debris.
Officers said their goal is to shift the burden from owners to dumpers with the aid of new laws with teeth and cameras.
Kearney said the city plans to establish “community action teams” early next year pairing neighborhood representatives with a code enforcement officer — and, later, a police officer
after the city’s own police agency debuts next summer. “There’s only four of us,” Kearney said. “We need the residents’ eyes and ears.”