City of Fresno Announces Code Enforcement Strike Team
FRESNO, CA – City Manager Bruce Rudd, along with Councilmember Clint Olivier and City officials, today announced the creation of a special Code Enforcement Strike Team to identify properties known to contain substandard housing and proactively ensure compliance with city and state housing standards.
The Strike Team will consist of two senior Code Enforcement officers who will report directly to the City Manager in conjunction with the City Attorney’s Office, and will immediately start the process of creating a priority list of negligent properties with a focus on multiple-family residential complexes with significant code issues.
“We’re taking action with every tool at our disposal to hold landlords accountable and guarantee Fresno families safe, dignified housing throughout the city,” said City Manager Rudd. “We’re putting negligent property owners on notice – get your act together or face the charges.”
The new Code Enforcement Strike Team will make exterior inspections and if conditions call for further examination, the team can be deputized to make interior inspections and recommend criminal charges. City Manager Rudd is recommending to the Council that the FY16 General Fund budget carryover fund these specialized code enforcement positions.
Because the City is aware that the actions taken to clean up numerous code violations at a multi-family residential complex may result in displacing or relocating tenants while the repairs are taking place, a Temporary Relocation Fund will be established with $30,000 of seed money to address the cost associated with relocations. The fund will grow as fines are collected and money is deposited to sustain the program.
In addition to the Strike Team, the City will provide the Fresno Housing Authority with the addresses of substandard housing prior to the inspections in order to determine if the Authority inspectors should be present at the time the inspections have occurred. The City will also require the testing of natural gas lines that serve a building complex beyond the PG&E meter.
