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When Ocoee opted to maintain its Code Enforcement Board in April, it implemented a new hybrid model, with a citizen board hearing cases that dealt with single-family residences while a special magistrate managed the rest. A stricter fee structure was put in place. An attorney was brought on to provide legal advice. And the board also entered a 90-day evaluation period to determine if the whole thing was going to work before it was codified with an ordinance.
That evaluation period ended July 7. And while the board still has one vacancy and two alternate positions to fill, Ocoee Police Chief Vince Ogburn last week told the city commission that he’d attended most hearings and that the board “ met the quorum requirements for all meetings and has imposed the recommended fines in all cases.”
Leniency with fines and quorum problems had led to calls to disband the citizen-led board earlier this year.
Commissioners later voted 4-0 to adopt the new Code Enforcement Board ordinance with Commissioner George Oliver III absent. The ordinance’s first reading was July 21.
District 1 Commissioner Scott Kennedy said he also watched the hearings. “I’m a glutton for punishment,” he joked.
While saying that the board’s functioning was “much improved,” Kennedy said he wanted to see more “discretion” from board members in meting out justice rather than automatically imposing the city-recommended fine. “They’re a board, not just rubber stamping. I’ve seen a couple of instances where people have gotten a slap on the wrist.”
Kennedy noted that by the time cases reach the Code Enforcement Board, violations have been ongoing for several months. He said he wanted to see the board “amp it up a little bit” — especially for repeat offenders. “I don’t know that the tenth time before Code Enforcement should be the same level.”
He pointed to a recent case where a person was summoned to the Code Enforcement Board for the eleventh time, and the board voted to delay implementing a $50 per day fine.
“After 10 times, you’d think somebody would get the message,” observed Mayor Rusty Johnson.
City Attorney Rick Geller explained that with repeat violations, the Code Enforcement Board can immediately jump to issuing fines without delay.
Fines are now $1,000 a day for first-time violations; $5,000 per day for repeat violations and $15,000 per day for “irreparable or irreversible” violations. Along with civil penalties and nuisance abatement monies, fines are pooled into a Code Enforcement Recovery Fund to support local code enforcement activities.
“ I think they need to know that they already have that authority,” Kennedy said, referring to Code Enforcement Board members. “It's part of their role, and they just need to be coached when they should be doing that … as a general principle.”
