Anaheim Debates Code Enforcement
Is Anaheim laying down a heavy hand by threatening jail to code violators?
Anaheim City Council member Tom Tait said he’s been receiving complaints from business owners. For example, Tait said one business owner was forced to put a sprinkler system inside his walk-in freezer or he was told he could face criminal penalties. The business owner complied, but the sprinkler system accidentally turned on one evening and ruined the food in the freezer. Tait said another business owner faced a jail sentence because his sign was 10% too big; that case eventually was dismissed.
“I think individuals shouldn’t be threatened with criminal prosecutions for code violations,” said Tait. “You can do the same thing with citations. I’m concerned about due process for business owners, and the potential for abuse is too great.”
Anaheim is in the midst of a building boom, with an estimated $4 billion being spent on projects such as Disney’s California Adventure, Downtown Disney, Pointe Anaheim, Gotcha Glacier, and infrastructure improvements such as street widening. The city is trying to make sure its residents and businesses comply with a new, cleaner look for Anaheim, which includes everything from small issues like making signs smaller to bigger issues like forcing apartment complex owners to make repairs to eliminate health and safety hazards.
Six months ago, the City Council voted 3-2 to allow criminal prosecution for business owners who violate their conditional use permits.
“That’s way too heavy-handed,” said Tait. “The city has all the authority right now to handle this by taking away the business owner’s license.”
As a result of the concerns, the Anaheim City Council decided to hold a workshop last week.
Mayor Tom Daly, while praising the job of the code enforcers, also said they shouldn’t go overboard.
“I’ve gotten calls from business owners who are in alleged violation, and boom,out comes a letter threatening criminal prosecution. Then there is no point for a business person to argue but rather just comply,” said Daly.
During the workshop, John Poole, manager of code enforcement for Anaheim, said that the letters do carry warnings that alleged violators could be criminally prosecuted. He said the note is not threatening, but is boilerplate information to advise people they may be open to criminal prosecution.
“Before we refer these cases to the city attorney, we give property owners a lot of options” on how to comply, Poole said.
Poole provided examples of notices that are sent to alleged violators. While the notices say that “a criminal complaint could be filed against you,” the notices do not threatened violators will be sent to jail. Anaheim has recorded a tremendous increase in complaints about code violations. For example, there were 46,603 complaints registered in the fiscal year 1997-98 (ending June 30), which increased nearly 40% to 65,044 in the fiscal year 1998-99. Poole said the increase is due to his office cracking down more on violations by apartment owners. He said his staff has increased its number of part-time code inspectors from three in previous years to nine.
The number of criminal prosecutions also nearly doubled, from 176 in 1997-98 to 306 in 1998-99. However, Poole said the number of prosecutions can vary widely from year to year, and that the 1997-98 numbers were abnormally low. He said the number of prosecutions is typically in the 250 to 300 range. And Poole said most of the criminal prosecutions for code violations are not directed at businesses but at apartment owners who don’t maintain their properties and who often live outside Anaheim.
Mark Logan, the Senior Assistant City Attorney for Anaheim, said, “We look at prosecutions as a last-ditch effort. … It’s extremely rare where a defendant has to be sent to jail.”
Both Logan and Poole said the publicity from a recent case caused the City Council to hold last week’s workshop.
In that case, Raman Patel is facing more jail time because he hasn’t maintain his residential property. Patel, a 59-year-old man who suffered a stroke a couple of years ago and has a difficult time speaking, was previously sentenced to jail for 45 days in 1997 because of similar violations. Patel said vandals have damaged his yard and now he cannot afford to maintain it. However, city officials said they have given him numerous opportunities to comply with city codes. n
