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Code enforcement could skip courtsA Times Editorial© St. Petersburg Times published April 30, 2003 During the past four years, Pasco County has upgraded its code enforcement in an attempt to help maintain older neighborhoods and to reduce visual clutter. The county hired additional officers in 1999 and announced plans to do so again in the current fiscal year. It streamlined its citation process to require faster action by property owners. Most notably, the county disbanded its civilian code enforcement board because of an increasing workload and the panel's unwillingness to assess fines. Enforcement is now handled by the civil courts. But the state Legislature might force other changes. Under a bill in the Senate (SB 1492e1), the county would be required to pay $200 every time officers issue a citation for a code violation. The charge is intended to offset the expense of the court system processing the citation. It is an ill-advised way to help finance state assumption of court costs as required by a voter-approved constitutional amendment in 1998. In Pasco, it could translate to a $40,000 charge to process 200 citations each month. The Florida Association of Court Clerks justifies the expense by noting a statewide average cost of $227 to process a civil complaint. In Pasco, officers write citations for such things as watering lawns on incorrect days, failing to mow grass, littering, storing junk vehicles, and allowing dogs to run at large. Penalties vary. Unleashed dogs can cost owners $55. Illegal lawn watering is $30 for the first offense, but significantly higher for subsequent violations. Only in Tallahassee would it make sense to charge $200 to process a ticket that might collect $30. Here's a less expensive alternative: Forget the fines. Pasco County could reward each code violator with a $100 payment if they correct the infraction. It would cost only half as much as using the court system. Imagine the inducements. "Earn money by not mowing your own lawn." Pardon our sarcasm, but it is difficult to swallow rationalizations for a system that makes it more attractive to pay cash to violators than to fine them. A more realistic approach is to skip the civil court system altogether - the most likely outcome if the bill passes. Pasco County previously used a volunteer code enforcement board. But commissioners correctly eliminated that panel when they learned enforcement was problematic because board members were reluctant to assess fines and violators routinely skipped hearings without penalty. As an alternative, the county could hire a special master to hear its code enforcement cases. That eliminates the need to take the cases before County Judge William Sestak and certainly will be less expensive than a $480,000 annual payment to the court clerk's office. The drawback is a hearing master, usually a private practice attorney, does not have the judicial authority to jail violators who refuse to pay. Under a special master, fines would be assessed as a lien attached to the offending property. The county also could establish what County Attorney Robert Sumner described as an intervention program. Under that scenario, violators might have 20 days to pay their pending fines or face the prospect of the case going to court and being required to absorb the county's $200 filing fee. Either way meets Tallahassee's cheapskate objectives of reducing use of the court system now that the state has to pick up the tab.
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From today's Pasco Times Police report |
