fines<\/a> for many code violations.<\/p>\nCity Council members say the mayor\u2019s plan could significantly damage quality of life in many neighborhoods by adding a second layer of building inspector and zoning inspector cuts on top of last year\u2019s layoffs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is real-deal public safety,\u201d Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera said about the proposed cuts. \u201cI know multiple neighborhoods across the city who depend on this enforcement to maintain their quality of life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Council members are also questioning whether it makes sense to lay off workers who generate revenue by issuing fines. The city\u2019s civil penalty revenue fund typically takes in about $800,000 a year.<\/p>\n
Gloria proposes to save about $1 million by cutting seven of the city\u2019s 25 remaining inspector positions. The proposal comes one year after the city eliminated 14 inspector positions.<\/p>\n
Last year\u2019s cuts forced San Diego to stop enforcing what the city calls \u201cpriority 3\u201d violations, which are considered relatively less important because they damage quality of life but don\u2019t threaten public safety.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s things that annoy you like your neighbor parking on their lawn or perhaps having their fences too high,\u201d said Leslie Sennett, deputy director of the city\u2019s Building and Land Use Enforcement Division.<\/p>\n
Instead of conducting inspections and issuing citations in such cases, the city began sending letters last summer to people who complained about such violations.<\/p>\n
The letters encourage the complaining party to either engage the violator or seek mediation. They also clarify that the case is closed due to budget issues and won\u2019t be pursued by the city.<\/p>\n
Gloria\u2019s new proposal would affect \u201cpriority 2\u201d violations, which are considered more urgent. The proposed cuts would eliminate enforcement of some priority 2 violations and significantly slow enforcement of others.<\/p>\n
Violations where enforcement would stop include billboards, signs, building wraps, illegal storage and adult businesses. In particular, the city would no longer make sure no one is illegally living at massage businesses.<\/p>\n
Violations where enforcement would slow significantly include abandoned houses, substandard housing, illegal grading, environmental destruction, damaging historic structures and enforcing rules on streeteries: restaurant extensions into street parking spots.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will just be much, much slower,\u201d Elyse Lowe, head of the city\u2019s Development Services Department, said about enforcement of most priority 2 violations under the mayor\u2019s proposal.<\/p>\n
Lowe said her department\u2019s No. 1 priority would remain investigations of substandard housing.<\/p>\n
Councilmember Vivian Moreno said the cuts should be reversed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very concerned with this move,\u201d she said, praising inspectors for keeping the city clean and orderly. \u201cThey do a whole lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elo-Rivera said the cuts, particularly less enforcement of abandoned houses, are likely to affect low-income neighborhoods more than wealthy ones \u2013 potentially damaging community pride there.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pride among residents and business owners in the communities most likely to be victimized by these negligent property owners is no different than in other parts of the city,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Moreno questioned whether it makes sense to cut workers who generate fine revenue, suggesting that it could create a bad cycle that continues to worsen.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re cutting the staff that generates the revenue that funds enforcement and helps keep constituents safe,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
City officials said the fine revenue has not traditionally been used specifically to fund enforcement. Sometimes, the fine revenue is transferred into the city\u2019s general fund to cover expenses elsewhere in the city.<\/p>\n
Officials said they are optimistic the higher fines, which the council unanimously approved Monday, could keep compliance rates high despite decreased enforcement.<\/p>\n
Violations of the municipal code or the state building code would now cost $10,000 \u2014 up from previous amounts that ranged from $250 and $1,000. These fines hadn\u2019t been updated since 2006. Fines would also rise for abandoned property penalties.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are intended to act as a deterrent to violators and encourage compliance,\u201d said Heidi Vonblum, the city\u2019s planning director.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Diego\u2019s efforts to keep the city orderly, clean and healthy would take another step backward with a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":792754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,1370,728,8629,50,80,3549,7264,7289,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-792753","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-local-news","13":"tag-local-politics","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-politics","16":"tag-san-diego","17":"tag-sandiego","18":"tag-top-stories-sdut","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-united-states-of-america","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116565671143716714","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=792753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/792754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}