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Santa Maria Sun /News
The following articles were printed from Santa Maria Sun [santamariasun.com] - V011.111le 16, Issue 12
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Santa Maria forms Code Compliance Volunteer Patrol
BY SEAN MCNULTY
The city of Santa Maria is forming a Code Compliance Volunteer Patrol to promote "neighborhood preservation." The
volunteer program, created at the behest of the City Council, aims to proactively educate residents who have potential
violations on their property.
Volunteers will work in pairs and go door -to -door. They won't have the power to issue tickets themselves, but can deliver
warnings and notify code compliance officers about noncompliant households.
Esequiel Moreno, code compliance supervisor for Santa Maria, hopes that the program will invest citizens in neighborhood
preservation and give them the tools to bring their neighborhoods into the know.
"This is just another educational program that we have to spread the word and let folks know that we're interested in
neighborhood preservation," he said. "Without neighborhood preservation, you tend to have more problems that follow."
Code compliance is responsible for the enforcement of a dizzying number of ordinances. They watch for violations of Titles
1 through 12 of Santa Maria's municipal code; the various provisions of the health and safety codes; and building, fire,
electrical and plumbing regulations.
In a city of some 100,000 people, all this work is done with just three officers, supervisor Moreno, and a trainee. Officers
focus on health and safety violations and handle between 40 and 60 cases a month.
"We are the most productive code - enforcement [department] in the state," Moreno said. To date this year, Code
Compliance has issued 99 administrative citations and some 400 notices of violation. In 2014, they issued some 346
violations and 1,600 notices of violation.
The California Association of Code Enforcement Officers awarded the Most Innovative Program Award to Santa Maria in
2014 for their Walk and Talk program, through which Code Compliance reached out to 6,000 homes. "Of those 6,000
homes we've been to, we haven't written a single ticket, a single violation," he said.
Moreno hopes that the volunteer patrol will promote civic engagement and help his department keep up with their
seemingly unending task.
"Get involved," he exhorted. "This is the only way we can improve our city. Compare Broadway and Main Street to other
cities on the Central Coast, it's beautiful. But if you don't get involved, you're relying on three officers for a job that's almost
impossible."
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