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Friday, August 10, 2012

PUBLIC WEIGHS IN ON CODE ENFORCEMENT RECOMMENDATIONS

THE RIVER CITY NEWS MORE COVINGTON NEWS THAN ANY OTHER SOURCE
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by Michael Monks 
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The review of most of the departments at City Hall is now complete and as of last night the public discussion portion of the Management Partners report has also concluded. Thursday, the Cincinnati-based consulting firm recapped its twenty-five recommendations for code enforcement, community development, and housing at a packed public meeting inside Commission Chambers. 
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For the most part, residents want more code enforcement, not less and even though the Management Partners recommendations include decreasing the department to part-time status or outsourcing to an entity such as the Northern Kentucky Area Planning Commission, it promises that code enforcement will be more productive. Most residents did not buy it.
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Nancy Ray of South Covington complained of what she called "dirtbags" taking over vacant and foreclosed buildings, warning that more foreclosures are likely on the way. James Berg of Helentown said that outsourcing the service to NKAPC would be a bad idea. "Covington code enforcement is far more in tune to Covington's needs than anything NKAPC will be able to come up with," he said. Berg also raised concerns about the efforts of the Northern Kentucky tea party and the Home Builders Association to put NKAPC on the ballot for elimination.
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Dennis Fangman of Austinburg, a member of the City's code enforcement board, thinks the decision to rid the City of the department has already been made. "I have a feeling that what's going to happen has already been decided," he said. "We keep losing more and more people because people don't want to live next to boarded up properties that aren't taken care of. Code enforcement needs more tools and the code enforcement board needs more to get things moving instead of spinning our wheels so much."
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"I don't want to see code enforcement outsourced to area planning or some private company. It needs to remain in the City where the citizens can have contact. We need code enforcement desperately. We can't do away with it."
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"Blight and code enforcement is always on top of the list of concerns," said Bill Wells of his meetings with various neighborhood groups. Wells, of South Covington, is the president of the Covington Neighborhood Collaborative. "We depend on code enforcement to keep our property value as high as it can be."
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Maurice Burden, another member of the code enforcement board, asked how the City can be more effective with fewer employees. "I spoke to code enforcement in Newport," he said of Covington's neighbor which uses part-time code enforcement officers. "I asked about the restructure. The answer I got was, 'It's different'. Not that it's working, not that it's not working. 'It's different.'"
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Another code enforcement board member also spoke. "I have grave concerns about the near future of what will happen," said Fritz Kuhlman of Kenton Hills. "Code enforcement should be toughened, more aggressive."
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But not everyone spoke highly of the department. "There is a house at 226 West Fifth that has been vacant for twenty of the twenty-one years I've lived there and no one seems to want to take care of it," said Carolyn Parker of Mutter Gottes. "It seems like I shouldn't be calling after twenty years but these properties have to be addressed."
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"We're trying to rebuild this city. We need to clean this city up and we won't clean this city up without more aggressive code enforcement," said Terry Simpson of Levassor Park. "It's not working and I don't think it's going to work. I know I won't be very popular when I leave this stand but truth is truth and truth hurts."
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SEE ALSO: Cracks emerge in unified commission at special meeting about code enforcement 
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One of the biggest offenders in the arena of blighted properties is the City of Covington which owns 288 parcels of land. Mayor Chuck Scheper said that is being addressed. He toured the city with employees from the code enforcement department. "Blighted buildings can be an opportunity for us," the mayor said. "I saw it as blight and challenging but I also saw it as an opportunity to cluster and do something. Let's cure the patient instead of just putting Band-Aids on it."
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"There are nineteen to twenty developers interested in investing in Covington but they want to know what kind of tools we have in our toolbox (in the form of tax breaks, etc). How do we monetize the value of 288 properties?"
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City Commissioner Steve Casper said that no decision has been made on the future of code enforcement, at least not yet on his end. "I've not made up my mind," he said. "We're going to listen to the department and we are open to what the resolves are."

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