Antioch could soon hire a code-enforcement officer to handle blight such as this at a housing complex on East Sixth Street, seen earlier this year.
Press file photo
Press file photo
Antioch’s City Council will make a final decision on Oct. 25, but discussion at Tuesday night’s meeting seemed to be on track with what many residents have been clamoring for.
If approved at next month’s meeting, the city will use money from the solid waste fund ($40,000), the abandoned vehicle fund ($80,000) and $51,000 in Community Development block grants (CDBG) to pay for a code enforcement officer. The city could also use a portion of grant money that usually goes toward recreation to help pay for code enforcement.
However, Deputy Director of Community Development Ryan Graham pointed out that the CDBG money can only be used in low-income areas of Antioch. Because of this stipulation, Antioch officials are planning to limit code enforcement activities to the northwest sector of the city at the outset.
“I think we need to start this sooner rather than later,” Mayor Jim Davis said.
Antioch leaders can fill the position in-house, hire a private code enforcement firm, or contract services with the county – a notion at which Councilman Brian Kalinowski bristled when he heard the $100 per hour price tag for salary and benefits that would come with that third option.
The council decided that the best option for the city and its taxpayers would be to hire someone in-house once the position has been OK’d. Antioch Finance Director Dawn Merchant estimated that an entry-level code enforcement officer hired by the city would cost between $41.52 and $43.28 per hour, including salary and benefits. Graham noted that the hiring and training process would take roughly 60 to 90 days.
“For the long-term sustainability of this program … I say we get it right from day one,” Kalinowski said. “I’m not going to support code enforcement at $100 an hour where someone else is making money off our business.”
The lack of code enforcement has been a major complaint of Antioch residents since it was a casualty of budget cuts in 2009. Before the recession, Antioch employed a code-enforcement staff of 11. Graham noted that right now there is one employee who can be moved around to handle emergencies.
The city currently issues a series of citations and fines for repeated negligence before handing cases over to the county Superior Court, which serves a warrant to the resident demanding that a cleanup be performed.
“The continued economic downturn,” Graham said, “coupled with the devastating effect of home foreclosures and their negative impact on neighborhoods and an unstaffed code enforcement division seems to have come together in a perfect storm of circumstances.”
Beverly Knight, a 34-year resident of the city and member of the community activism group Take Back Antioch, recently created an emotional video showing examples of blight in her community: shopping carts and trash strewn about, vacant buildings, graffiti and yards in severe disrepair.
After the video was posted to the group’s Facebook page, several members posted favorable comments.
Take Back Antioch founder Brittney Gougeon felt that the discussion City Council held on Tuesday was positive and a step in the right direction. Helping to restore code enforcement has been one of the group’s major goals since its inception in late 2010.
“What they did was very responsible and it was in the interest of the citizens and people who have brought their concerns forward over the last six to seven months,” Gougeon said. “I think it will be sufficient for now, and we can revisit this situation in the future.”
Why throw more laws and more civil servants to enforce what is already on the books? Bums wander all over town illegally in possession of shopping carts illegally camp in nooks and crannies everywhere. They bother upstanding citizens who are trying to go about their business. But APD won't do a thing. They're too busy doing something more important, whatever that may be.
How is paying yet another civil servant to go look at trash piles illegally dumped by miscreants who are long gone going to help? They'll end up fining some poor property owner who had nothing to do with the trash being dumped there in the first place. Concord fines grocery stores if they find their carts off property. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Blame the victims.
I could name at least twenty, City of Antioch owned pieces of property around town where there are weeds, trash, neglect and vandalism. How do we fine the city? Why is the city exempt from the very code it wants to enforce on the residents? It's the height of hypocrisy.
Kalinowski doesn't want to pay $100/hour for an outside service. He thinks that's too much. So Mr. K, tell us how much does a County Sheriff like you make an hour, including pay and benefits, especially that 3% at 50 PERS taxpayer guaranteed pension you will get? Why do you get to retire at 50 with a pension almost if not equal to your final pay, but you balk at paying some firm $100/hour to provide a service for the city? What a hypocrite!
Speaking of hypocrisy, why doesn't the Press jump all over Kalinowski and Davis? They are on the Tri Delta Transit board and they are overseeing cuts in bus service including the Antioch Senior bus because of a supposed lack of funds. But my bus driver friends at Tri Delta who fear losing their jobs over these supposed service cuts tell me that Mr. Kalonowski and his wife, along with Mr. Davis and his wife, along with nine other board members and all of Tri Delta's executive staff and their spouses are vacationing on Tri Delta's dime in New Orleans as I write this. They say it's a "conference" but it just happens to be in a resort city. Conference or not, that is an absolute outrage in the face of cuts to bus routes and I call upon the Press to expose these miscreants for the lying users they are. And, I call upon the public to get out the tar and feathers and run them out of town on a rail telling them to never return.
I'm tired of this garbage and I'm not taking it anymore. Government is the enemy. We don't need more stinking government! All they know how to do is take our money and use it on themselves while acting like they are so high an mighty.