Right now, it’s being called “The Beautification Division.” At least that’s the name given to this new department by assistant city manager James Earp. It’s first assignment is to maintain the rights-of-way along eight major Kyle corridors. But, during last night’s city council meeting while Earp was describing his three-year-plan for this new division, it’s easy to see how this idea could morph into something the city desperately needs — a stand-alone Code Enforcement Department.
“We’ve gotten to the point right now where we’re large and sophisticated enough to where we really need to start specializing in order to maximize our efficiencies and in order to maximize the benefit the public is receiving,” Earp said.
City Manager Scott Sellers tried unsuccessfully to bolster code enforcement in his proposed FY 2020-21 budget, but the council nixed the plan, removing Sellers’s proposal to add two new code enforcement officials to the city’s staff. At the time, the council made clear it erroneously thought of Code Enforcement as a “beautification” issue. It is not. Code Enforcement, in reality, is a public safety issue and that’s one of the reasons that, in the city’s current organization, code enforcement falls under the jurisdiction of the police department.
So it seems to me what the city’s staff is doing right now, with a wink and a nod, is saying, “OK, if you folks think this is beautification issue, we’ll play along with you, and create a stand-alone Beautification Division,” with the idea that its success and acceptance will give it the space is needs to grow and morph into something much greater and much needed in any “large and sophisticated” community.
The first step in the creation of this new division was to award a $250,000 contract to WLE (which, according to its website, stands for “Water, Land, Environment”), an Austin-based commercial landscape and construction company, to be responsible for, essentially, the “beautification” of these Kyle roadways: 2770, RM 150, Center Street, Burleson, Philomena, Kyle Parkway, Marketplace, and Lehman Road. In this case, “beautification,” primarily means mowing, weed removal/prevention and litter abatement. About 90 minutes after Earp outlined his plan for the first three years in the life of this Beautification Division, the council voted unanimously to award the contract to WLE contingent on whether Earp could obtain satisfactory answers from the company to questions and concerns raised by Mayor Travis Mitchell.
But what I found so fascinating about all this was that three-year plan Earp outlined for this new city department, because it contained valuable hints of what’s in store, or at least what the city staff envisions. I know for a fact Sellers knows the value of code enforcement. He tried to strengthen it in this upcoming budget. He failed. But, like any good administrator, he simply decided to accomplish his goals another way.
Why is a strong code enforcement department necessary? That’s an easy question to answer. Kyle, like any other city, has any number of codes/ordinances that it puts on the books. Here, to cite just one example, is Kyle’s sign ordinance, and section 3 of that ordinance says, in part, “the code enforcement officer is hereby authorized and directed to enforce all the provisions of this chapter.” Does Kyle have the code enforcement staff required to adequately enforce “all the provisions of this chapter”? I doubt it. There’s also zoning regulations. For instance, do we know for certain that a particular area zoned Community Commercial is following the restrictions for that zoning, or is it possibly allowing uses prescribed for Retail Services zoning? I’m not saying developers are deliberately gaming the system, but do we even have anyone inspecting these properties? Do we know what’s going on? Are residences being developed in R-3-3 zoned areas being developed exactly as prescribed in the city’s zoning ordinances? Is anyone checking? Are the coolers where the food is kept at the restaurants in town being maintained and kept at the proper temperatures? In short, the Code Enforcement Department of a city is responsible for monitoring both public and private property, commercial and residential, to ensure that there are no health or safety hazards that might endanger the public and determining compliance with certain city codes and ordinances. That’s why such a department is necessary.
And that’s why I found it so fascinating that Earp said that he planned that, by year three of this Beautification Division’s existence, it would include a least one building inspector — a position not associated with “beautification” per se, but definitely linked to code enforcement.
“One of the things we have issues with and challenges with is recruiting qualified building inspectors,” Earp told the council last night. “That’s predominantly because in order to become a licensed building inspector you first have to be a licensed electrician or plumber. We just don’t have a good pipeline that creates that type of skill set. So, we’re constantly trying to find folks outside of our organization to come work for us. So I thought, how better than to build our own pipeline. We have these needs. We have these responsibilities. If we could start training folks up and find a way to get them licensed and then we can build our own pipeline of ultimately becoming a building inspector.”
It also goes without explicitly saying, it’s also the way to building the city’s own pipeline to creating a functioning code enforcement department.
“Obviously this is a big plan,” Earp said about his proposed new division, “with a lot of thought that’s gone into it. It will ultimately be a high bar for everyone to accomplish.”
Some may think the actual height of this bar ends at the “beautification” of the eight roadways named above. One of those is Mayor Mitchell.
Earp’s proposed Beautification Division “is exactly the kind of move we’re ready for as a community,” Mitchell said. “I can’t wait to drive up and down some of these streets and see our street sweeper out there full time, see our sidewalks without weeds, making sure all of our right-of-way is mowed, weed-eated, trimmed and edged, all of it. The community of Kyle deserves to have nicely maintained roads and I’m glad we’re taking the steps we’re taking to deliver that to them.”
He’s right, of course. But, personally, I think the city staff is justifiably setting the bar much higher than that.
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