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October Code Monthly Council Report October 2019 Code Enforcement is actively engaged in 1,007 open cases 127 310 245 131 69 100 46 14 1827 3535 2327 681 835 1465 439 311 ACTION DETAIL COUNT October YTD 11 2 0 0 4 8 13 67 13 20 1 23 6 12 6 1 87 3 10 93 14 18 4 56 134 65 10 69 266 76 14 9 BUILDING CODE VIOLATION COMMERCIAL ENFORCEMENT DANGEROUS BUILDING FORECLOSED PROPERTY REGISTRATIONS HAZARDOUS CONDITION ILLEGAL DUMPING ILLEGAL SIGNAGE CVC/PARKING CITES PROPERTY MAINTENANCE PUBLIC NUISANCE SUB-STANDARD HOUSING VEHICLE ABATEMENT WEED ABATEMENT ZONING VIOLATIONS PUBLIC WORKS REFERRALS MARIJUANA CULTIVATION TOPIC COUNT October Open Code Enforcement Updates: • Officer Montes assisted animal control with a single family residence for hazardous living conditions. As of this week, the property has undergone sufficient progress and is being rehabilitated. • The North Golf Course has been instructed to submit corrections to obtain Planning Approval for their trees and landscape. • Officer Burks assisted a neighborhood with bee removal with the help of a licensed bee service provider. Officer Kearney assisted with a single family residence for unsafe electrical due to a tenant leaving the property in disrepair. Code Enforcement is working with the property owner in regards to the getting the unsafe issues resolved. • Officer Kearney assisted with health & safety issues regarding mold. A microscopic contamination analysis report was provided indicating contaminated spores and fungi. Property owner has since then hired a licensed contractor for proper restoration and treatment. • Code Enforcement Officers were featured in the Press Enterprise, regarding illegal dumping issues. SIGNIFICANT INCIDENTS – OCTOBER 2019 Embassy St SIGNIFICANT INCIDENTS – OCTOBER 2019 Before After SIGNIFICANT INCIDENTS – OCTOBER 2019 Unsafe Electrical Exposed Wood Frame SIGNIFICANT INCIDENTS – OCTOBER 2019 Before After SIGNIFICANT INCIDENTS – OCTOBER 2019 Menifee may fine illegal dumpers up to $3,000 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. SIGNIFICANT INCIDENTS – OCTOBER 2019 • 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 W aste 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. A bike and other items were seen dumped Thursday, Oct. 17, 2019, about a half mile beyond this sign at Pitman Lane and Garbani Road in Menifee. (Photo by Cindy Yamanaka, The Press- Enterprise/SCNG) SIGNIFICANT INCIDENTS – OCTOBER 2019 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.” SIGNIFICANT INCIDENTS – OCTOBER 2019 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.”