Monday, April 05, 1999
City may shuffle codes
Newport weighs shifting enforcement to police dept.
BY KRISTINA GOETZ
The Cincinnati Enquirer
NEWPORT — City code enforcement officials may soon have an easier time organizing and responding to residents' complaints.
Commissioners will likely discuss tonight, among other organizational changes, whether to move code enforcement from under the department of community services to the city's police department.
“Now, if a housing complaint is filed with code enforcement, we don't have readily available the number of times police have gone there,” said Doug Roell, director of code enforcement. “There are a lot of records shared by the police department and our department that we'd have better access to.
“We would have more information from the get-go.”
This way, code enforcement officials would know early on the frequency of complaints from a certain piece of property and the number of times police and fire departments have been called there.
Move called "logical'
City Manager Philip Ciafardini said that since the police department is the city's largest enforcement agency, the move makes sense.
“It's (building code enforcement) a tough issue for all cities,” he said. “But especially for Newport, where most of our houses are 30 to 40 years old.”
By putting code enforcement under the police department, the city would be able to hire another certified building inspector.
Mr. Roell, the city's only building inspector, would be the Ident coordinator, a position that was created under the police department that helps the various departments work together on code enforcement issues.
Although no city he knows of in Northern Kentucky has code enforcement under the police department, Mr. Ciafardini said it's not unusual for other cities across the United States.
“It's something we feel like is worth the change,” he said. “Like anything, we'll be evaluating it as time goes on.”
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