Budget approved with added code enforcement

Andrew Glazer

COSTA MESA -- The City Council committed to boosting code enforcement

with additional staff Monday when it unanimously approved a $86.7-million

budget for 2000-01.

“I think it’s the very best thing that could happen to us,” said Janice

Davidson, co-founder of the Westside Improvement Assn., a grass-roots

neighborhood group that has pushed for increased code enforcement.

The new budget, discussed at several community meetings last week, does

not include many changes from last year’s budget.

The first draft of the budget did not account for the three additional

officers, who will make sure houses are built and maintained properly.

But City Manager Allan Roeder assured the council at a meeting last week

that the finance department could find a way to fund the additional

staff.

The council will use money budgeted for West Side improvements to pay the

officers’ salaries. The new officers are scheduled to hit the streets

next year.

Code enforcement -- specifically holding absentee landlords accountable

for dilapidated buildings -- has been a hot topic in neighborhood

discussions about how to improve the West Side.

City planners also recommended the council approve increased fines for

multiple code violations and mandatory inspections of apartment buildings

at the time of sale.

“I’m really pleased because there’s so much to be done,” said Eleanor

Egan, who was appointed the Westside Improvement Assn.’s code enforcement

liaison last month. “On the West Side, we have dumpy homes -- with lawns

that haven’t been watered for 100 years and falling fences -- and nice

homes. There’s no reason the nice ones should be brought down by the

dumpy ones.”