Neighborhood Services is partnering with the Neighborhood Preservation and Dangerous Buildings divisions to help ensure that problem proprties in your neighborhood get dealt with in a timely manner. This project is currently a pilot program only, with 15-20 volunteers already engaged in the first steps; if successful, this program will be made available to other neighborhoods by mid-2010.
Citizens' Codes Education
The first portion of this program is an eight-hour, three-session training designed to familiarize the average citizen with the way Dangerous Buildings and Neighborhood Preservation handle neighborhood code enforcement cases. A similar training was conducted by Neighborhood Preservation several years ago, but this one is more in-depth and updated to reflect changes in city codes and procedures.
- The first session covers Chapter 48 in depth. (3 hours)
- The second session covers Chapter 56 in depth (3 hours).
- The final session covers the housing court/administrative hearing process, common pitfalls that get cases dismissed, and more details about the optional volunteer opportunity described below.
Code Enforcement Volunteers
Some of those who completed the Citizens' Codes Education training are taking the additional step of becoming a Code Enforcement Volunteer, or CEV, for their neighborhood. These volunteers will assist their Code Enforcement Officer with the inspection of nuisance code violations (Chapter 48) only, forwarding cases needing more followup to Neighborhood Preservation or Dangerous Buildings as appropriate. These volunteers will help shorten the response time for city inspectors to all code violation cases, as it will help ease the workload of those cases that traditionally tend to be resolved by the property owner without further action by the City. CEVs will have access to certain City-provided materials such as cameras and checklists; neither mileage nor time will be reimbursed.
At this time those volunteers are operating in a pilot program; no more trainings will be conducted until an evaluation of the initial run can be done in mid-2010. Since those who are volunteering will be working directly with the code enforcement officers and using City-provided equipment, there are some additional requirements placed on them:
- Their neighborhood/homeowner association must be registered with the City through Neighborhood Services, and must be willing to vouch for the volunteer’s involvement with the group. The association must also be incorporated with the State of Missouri.
- To avoid a conflict of interest, Code Enforcement Volunteers may not be paid employees or board members of their association.
- Code Enforcement Volunteers must supply a criminal history record check (available through KCPD, at any patrol division headquarters, for $8).
If you have any further questions, please contact the Neighborhood Services Division at (816) 513-3200 or by e-mail at solutions_ncsd@kcmo.org.
