The Columbus City Council has approved an ordinance increasing the penalties for city code violations. Director of Community Development Robin Hilber said the action is to align city code with state code.
The council passed the ordinance on second reading 11-0, meaning it is fully approved. The ordinance amended section 1.12.010 of the municipal code to be consistent with Indiana Code 36-1-3-8(10).
Code enforcement is responsible for overseeing and potentially doling out penalties, which are reserved for only the most serious violations such as “operating a junkyard in your backyard” and not for something such as not mowing your grass for two weeks, Hilber said.
The previous maximum penalty for violations of this type was $2,500 for the first violation and any other subsequent violation of the same type per day. Now the maximum penalty is $2,500 for the first violation and $7,500 for the second and any subsequent violation of the same type per day.
“Even though they may say there’s a $7,500 violation, if the owner says, ‘Oh my goodness, I didn’t realize this, let me you know, just give me five days and I’ll fix it, they will usually allow that,” Hilber said during the first reading of the ordinance on Feb. 6. “So there is some flexibility in there, however, there have been some cases where now, people just don’t comply, they don’t contact us.”
Code Enforcement Officer Fred Barnett said that last year there were only four such instances— one of them was settled in the Columbus Board of Works and the other three went to court where the $2,500 fines were imposed.
“Usually they get complied before it even gets to court, is what happens, though it (is) something in our back pocket to help generate better behavior,” Barnett said.
Hilber noted that typically code enforcement will send a letter to notify the property owner of the violation and give them 30 days to remedy the issue before there are any fines.
Code Enforcement recently welcomed a second officer, Erika Smith, who along with Barnett works with property owners on these issues.
“Fred and Erica, our other code enforcement officer, are very good with talking with people to abate the situation before it gets to this,” Hilber said.
