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HomeMy WebLinkAboutNeighborhood Wellness SOPCCommunity Development NEIGHBORHOOD WELLNESS MAJOR CITY GOAL Measure Y Relationship: The major City goal for neighborhood wellness directly supports neighborhood code enforcement, a top priority for the use of Measure Yfunds. Request Summary Creating two full-time regular positions known as Neighborhood Services Specialists and adding one half-time contract Parking Enforcement Officer to support the Neighborhood Wellness Major City Goal will cost $176,200 in 2011-12 and $205,000 in 2012-13. Key Objectives 1. Hire additional staff in order to provide enhanced code enforcement through the use of pro -active patrols within residential neighborhoods. 2. Review and revise the current code enforcement practices to streamline efforts and achieve greater efficiencies. 3. Shift neighborhood enhancement ordinance duties from the Police Department to the Community Development Department. 4. Enhance parking enforcement efforts within residential neighborhoods. 5. Enhance pro -active efforts to deal with noise nuisances within residential neighborhoods. 6. Initiate the new practices with a public information campaign. Existing Situation: Factors Driving the Need for Change During the budget goal setting workshops, members of the public and Residents for Quality Neighborhoods (RQN) recommended that the City strengthen its existing code enforcement and neighborhood services programs. The Council adopted a Neighborhood Wellness Major City Goal to "Embrace and implement pro -active code enforcement and Neighborhood Wellness Policies." During the April 12, 2011 City Council meeting, the Council provided further direction to staff to create work program that would more aggressively enforce the City standards for: 1. Property maintenance and trash receptacle storage. 2. Illegal conversions of non -habitable space to living areas. 3. Fence height violations. 4. Unpermitted fraternities and sororities and "satellite houses." 5. Neighborhood parking, including front yard parking violations. 6. Other violations of the neighborhood enhancement ordinance. The City currently has two Code Enforcement Officers responsible for enforcing the zoning and building codes. Code enforcement has started to incorporate pro -active strategies, but remains primarily a complaint -driven activity. Currently, property maintenance standards are primarily enforced by part-time Student Neighborhood Assistance Program (SNAP) personnel. Strengthening enforcement efforts as proposed in the Major City Goal includes patrolling for violations rather than responding to complaints. Patrols would look for violations of property maintenance standards, residential parking and certain code enforcement problems. Two new Neighborhood Services Specialists in the Community Development Department would conduct these activities. The primary responsibility for zoning code, building code, and property maintenance standards would be transferred to the Community Development Department. NEIGHBORHOOD WELLNESS MAJOR CITY GOAL In order to achieve the objectives of this Major City Goal, staff recommends hiring two Neighborhood Services Specialists who would share the responsibility of patrolling neighborhoods to enhance neighborhood wellness. In addition, a half-time contract Parking Enforcement Officer would be added to the Public Works Department to enforce neighborhood parking violations and observelreport code violations. A two-year contract position would allow staff to evaluate whether or not the position generates sufficient parking fine revenues to offset the costs of the parking officer. At the conclusion of the two-year term, staff will evaluate the effectiveness of the new position before deciding to make it a permanent position. Goal and Policy Links 1. 2011-13 Major City Goal: Neighborhood Wellness 2. Measure Y Priority 3. General Plan 2.15 — Neighborhood Wellness Service Categorization Criteria 3 = High Mid -Range (Revenue Management) Program Work Completed Several meetings and communications between the affected departments have already occurred. The proposed staffing additions and program changes will dovetail into existing code enforcement programs. Environmental Review No environmental review is required. Program Constraints and Limitations 1. Increasing enforcement in the neighborhoods is likely to generate complaints from neighborhood residents who have not been subject to regular enforcement of these types of violations before. Some residents may feel the enforcement is inappropriate and intrusive. 2. The revenue generated by the additional parking officer is not likely to off -set the cost of the new position and associated equipment. Generally, parking violations in neighborhoods are less frequent and sporadic than in retail areas and, once citations are issued, compliance by residents tends to be relatively high. hi addition, parking violations and associated revenue has declined in recent years due to increased fine amounts driven by State surcharges on parking citations. 3. There is no funding in the current. budget to purchase vehicles for the added Neighborhood Services Specialist positions to use for the additional neighborhood enforcement. Fleet Maintenance will reassign an under-utilized fleet vehicle for one of the positions. Staff is proposing the addition of a second vehicle for this purpose. Stakeholders NEIGHBORHOOD WELLNESS MAJOR CITY GOAL Stakeholders include City residents, neighborhood associations, student groups, property owners, property managers, and realtors. Implementation The additional two Neighborhood Services Specialist positions, which will be assigned to the Community Development Building & Safety Division, will be responsible for enforcement of the neighborhood enhancement ordinance violations and parking violations in neighborhoods. Their parking enforcement will complement the parking enforcement done by the Parking Enforcement Officers. These two divisions will coordinate their enforcement efforts. The duties of the Neighborhood Services Specialists will include proactively patrolling residential neighborhoods and processing of necessary reports such as: • Investigation reports • Notices of violation • Notices to correct • Administrative citations • Tickets for parking violations The addition of a half-time contract Parking Enforcement Officer will take effect at the implementation of the 2011-13 Financial Plan, effective July 1, 2011. Actual hiring for employment is expected to take effect during February, 2011 for the positions. et and added ositions Jul 2011 74T7mdinM9 scri tions, be ' recruit rocess November 2011 ire Februa 2012 Feb — May 2012 Key Program Assumptions Council support for reducing the number of warnings provided before citations are issued. Currently the City provides multiple warnings before issuing citations. This process increases the amount of staff time spent on individual violations and limits the time that would otherwise be spent identifying new violations. The number of violations processed is expected to increase substantially with the program changes proposed. In order to increase the proportion of time the new enforcement staff spend in the field identifying new violations, as opposed to time spent on repeat warnings, the new program strategy is to follow-up the initial warning with a citation if corrective action is not taken. 2. On -going Council support for increased enforcement as the program goes through its start-up period and complaints that the program is too aggressive surface, based on the feedback received from recent enforcement of trash and recycling receptacles. 3. Although there will be three new positions added there will be need for only one additional vehicle. Due to the unique hours that the %2 time parking enforcement officer will be working, the Parking Services Division has adequate vehicles for weekend patrols. Regarding the patrol vehicles for the neighborhood Services Specialists, Fleet maintenance recommends reassigning an under-utilized vehicle for one of the positions and purchase of a new vehicle for the other. Community Development NEIGHBORHOOD WELLNESS MAJOR CITY GOAL 4. The proposed salaries of the new Neighborhood Services Specialists is assumed to be between the salary level of the Parking Enforcement Officer and Code Enforcement Officer I positions. Human Resources will need to analyze position duties and make a final determination of appropriate compensation. Program Manager and Team Support Program Manager. Chief Building Official Project Team. Community Development Building and Safety Division Public Works Parking Services Division Public Works Administration Division Police Department Office of Neighborhood Services Alternatives 1. Continue the Status Quo. This is not recommended because continuing neighborhood nuisances has prompted Council to adopt a Neighborhood Wellness goal. 2. Defer or Re Phase the Request. This staffing request could be delayed or deferred until the second year of the Financial Plan in 2012-13 which would reduce estimated costs by $89,200. Change the Scope of the Request. Hire one Neighborhood Services Specialist to augment patrolling for NEO and parking violations. This position could be assigned to the Community Development Department, however not all the NEO duties of the SNAP employees could be transferred due to the volume of violations that are currently enforced. A half-time contract benefited position could be allocated to the Parking Services division for increased parking enforcement of these residential neighborhoods. However, with part-time staff, only a portion of the key objectives for this goal could be accomplished. Operating Program Building & Safety (40700) Parking Services (50600) Cost Summary The anticipated salary and benefit costs for adding two Neighborhood Services Specialists (NSS) will cost approximately $81,000 in 2011-12 and $162,000 in 2012-13. One time start up costs for the NSS positions for computers, a vehicle and workstation modifications will cost an estimated $71,000 in 2011-12. This includes $15,000 for two hand-held ticket writing devices that may not be required depending on the volume of parldng citations that may be issued. The proposed budget also includes $5,000 per year for on -going operating expenses. Adding a part-time Parking Enforcement Officer position as well as the total parking citation processing costs of the three new positions, will cost the Parking Enterprise Fund approximately $24,200 in 2011-12 (estimated for a hire date of February 1, 2011) and $38,000 in 2012-13. This brings the combined total cost to $176,200 in 2011-12 and $205,000 in 2012-13. Community Development NEIGHBORHOOD WELLNESS MAJOR CITY GOAL runa runa Mobile