Rob's blog

Platform Issue

I believe that people are basically good inside. All things being equal, most of us would likely stop to help someone with a flat tire, give up a seat on a bus for an older person, and be honest when returning a lost wallet to the person who lost it. While there are many of us who would do these things, there are some who will not. It is in protecting our community from those who do not realize their role in it or who refuse to do the noble or appropriate thing instead of only looking out for number one that laws are created and enforced. It has been said that "locks are on doors not to keep bad people out, but to help keep good people honest." I believe this. A determined crook will find a way to get through a locked door, but for mostly honest people, knowing a lock on a door is there may be enough to resist the impulse to sneak a peak at a neighbor's house or look around for something he or she might like to take home with them.

Code enforcement is our way of protecting our citizens and ensuring their happiness in the community by allowing them free access to the enjoyment of their property and their rights. You rights begin with you and end when they begin to impact someone else - also known as "my rights end with my fist and your rights begin with your nose," suggesting that what I do with my fist is my right until it impacts you; at which point I have violated your rights. You have the right to have one or more cars at your home. This right stops when you choose to park your car for days, weeks, or months on the street (a public road) that other members of the public have equal right to be on. If your car constricts traffic, makes it difficult for snow plows, garbage trucks, police cars trying to apprehend a suspect, fire trucks responding to an emergency, etc. to get to where they need to go, then your right to have your car where you choose has impacted the rights of others to have a safe environment to live in. In this case, the public's rights outweigh your rights to park your car wherever you want.

I believe in code enforcement as a way to help keep good people honest and to force compliance with people who don't think along those lines and need stronger encouragement to act in the public's best interest. In West Jordan, we have a policy when doing code enforcement of responding to a complaint - but when we visit the house in question to discuss the complaint with the owner, the code enforcement officers also check the surrounding area to see if there are any more code enforcement issues that need to be addressed. This means that if YOU are the one who called to complain about your neighbor and if the cop finds that YOUR property is also out of line with city codes, then YOU can be the one to get a warning or a ticket too. We don't play favorites, and we don't send cops around to peak over walls and look for a violation just for the heck of it. If a code enforcement officer is sent to a neighborhood based on a complaint, that is how they get to the area, not just house, where they will do their job. Everyone deserves and should get equal treatment.

We typically issue warnings first that give citizens a week or two to fix the violation before a ticket is written. This gives the citizen time to address the issue before stronger measures might be called for. The city has a code enforcement school like traffic school for traffic tickets that can teach you what to do to resolve your problem and be a good neighbor to prevent these kinds of complaints in resolving problems based on the city's codes (ordinances). Pretty much everyone who goes through this class comes away feeling the city is just doing their job and is not out to get them and feel good knowing what they need to do without danger of going to court or being fined, etc. In this way, we attempt to help our citizens rather than penalize them. You always are given time to resolve the issue before further steps are taken so each person is treated equally and fairly, but is also expected to work towards resolving the problem.

If you ever have a question about what is and is not permissible for someone to be doing in their home, you can call the city's code enforcement office and ask the question. They will tell you if your concern is backed by our city's ordinances or if someone is acting within their rights. Code enforcement is meant to be a friendly reminder when something is not right and to give people the opportunity to change it to make our neighborhoods a better place, making all of us happier in the enjoyment of our rights and property. This is a critical issue to our ability to get along and treat each other with respect, and I wholly support code enforcement in our city. If there is a measure that goes too far in impacting personal rights, I am willing to look at the ordinance in question and suggest making changes to it if necessary by changing the policy rather than making exceptions for those who I might know or who I like but not for those who I don't. I think the law needs to apply equally and fairly to everyone without exception. That is my position on code enforcement.