CLEARLAKE >> As part of the continuous efforts of Clearlake to better the city, the City Council has appointed two members to new Code Enforcement Ad Hoc Committee to help keep the department organized.
Two members of the City Council must be a part of ad hoc committees. Mayor Russell Perdock appointed Vice Mayor Bruno Sabatier and Councilmember Nick Bennett to the Code Enforcement Ad Hoc Committee
“I believe they’ll bring some good experience to that ad hoc,” Perdock said.
Clearlake has been constantly working to change its image and build back up since the recession hit in 2008. City Manager of Clearlake Greg Folsom said because of low staffing and the leniency of the Code Enforcement, they city is not being cleaned up like it should.
“The Code Enforcement will give a 30 day notice for something to be cleaned up, and if the owner of that space says they’re working on it, they can get an extension on cleaning it,” Folsom said.
The problem with that, Folsom added, is the city offers so many extensions that it never gets done for almost 12 months, which does not help with how the city aesthetics. Most of these cases were open in late 2015 and early 2016.
Tina Viramontes a Code Enforcement Officer said these people who are assessed receive multiple notices by mail and have them posted on the property.
Most of what is on these properties are garbage, junk appliances and inoperable vehicles. The total amount for the last assessment of eight properties came up to $35,000. These fines can be reduced if fixed within the time given.
“I am very disappointed that as a council we made a consensus to ask to review our code enforcement process because we had concerns, we had worries that maybe the process wasn’t working for our community,” Sabatier said. “And today we are here, looking to assess properties that we are struggling to know whether this is working or not.”
From this concern, Sabatier said he would like an ad hoc committee to make sure that the process is being followed correctly when the next assessment is done. This is also to make sure that these assessments can be made in a quicker and timelier manor to help clean up properties located in the city.
“I will refuse to do another assessment hearing if we do not review our process,” Sabatier said.
