1995-11-27 Regular Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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• Minutes Regular Meeting La Porte City Council November 27, 1995, Page 3 • Mayor Malone opened Workshop B -Review Report Regarding Inspection Division's Efforts to Improve Code Compliance at 6:29 P.M. Chief Building Inspector Mark Lewis reviewed the Code Enforcement Overview (Exhibit A) with Council and stated, "Inspection Services Division is working very diligently to help improve the appearance of La Porte through our efforts in Code Enforcement." Mr. Lewis passed out photos of typical types of code violations for Council's review. Asst. City Manager John Joerns stated, "The objective is to develop a plan to be more pro-active in our approach to improving code compliance in the City of La Porte and for handling some of the City's more chronic cases. We are very conscience of citizens and the problems they have. We have worked with these citizens to try to resolve these problem, although we were unable to resolve some cases. We are now hearing from citizens and Council regarding a better turn around time and the wish to resolve a higher volume of cases. We will not lose willingness to work with a person. We are still going to have that pro-active customer relationship that the City has always promoted. We are trying to keep Council informed on procedures, be more active, improve our methodology and our way of handling cases. This is something staff will implement based on what we hear from Council tonight." Councilperson Sutherland asked City Attorney Knox Askins if someone is convicted of a violation how much will it cost the City to prosecute, and how much will it cost the citizen in mandatory court costs? Mr. Askins said, "There should not be a lot of extra burden of cost on the City's part for the prosecution of these cases. Most of the preparation of the cases is done by City staff, and the cases will be prosecuted by City staff. I will look into the question of the mandatory court cost to the citizen and give Council a memo in that regard." After Council discussion, Mayor Malone asked if anyone in the audience had questions. There being none, Mayor Malone closed Workshop B at 7:32 P.M. 8. WORKSHOP - C OPEN WORKSHOP MEETING - C A. REVIEW PROPOSED CHANGES TO SOLID WASTE ORDINANCE CLOSE WORKSHOP - C Mayor Malone opened Workshop C -Review Proposed Changes To Solid Waste Ordinance at 7:33 P.M. Public Works Director Steve Gillett reviewed the Executive Summary (Exhibit A) with Council. He stated, "The existing Solid Waste Ordinance is a combination of seven ordinances which have been passed by Council over the years. " Mr. Gillett presented a slide show to accompany the workshop presentation. The presentation illustrated the changes which have taken place in the City since the population was 7,000 people. Mr. Gillett reviewed the proposed ordinance and brought Council's attention to the proposed changes. The proposed ordinance incorporates all of the functional aspects of previous ordinances, updates our language to conform to existing practices, state and federal regulations, and modifies our existing practices to effectively manage collection and disposal of solid waste in a business like manner. Mr. Gillett gave Council illustrations of some of the things which staff face every day. Mr. Gillett and Mr. Joerns reviewed with Council the reasons for the new ordinance and the changes it will bring to the manner in which the City of La Porte does business in regards to garbage, trash collection, and recycling services.