HOULTON, Maine – The Houlton Code Enforcement Officer has proposed changes to the town’s solid waste ordinance that would shorten compliance times and authorize local police to issue citations for violations.
Ben Torres, code enforcement officer, presented the proposed changes to the Houlton town council earlier this month, explaining that he can send “clean up your yard” letters repeatedly but he does not have the authority to write a ticket or fine anyone for repeated violations.
Torres, along with Town Manager Jeremy Smith and the town attorney, has been working on changing the town’s solid waste ordinance to give it more teeth and to shorten compliance timeframes.
In June, Josh McLaughlin, owner of J. McLaughlin Construction, told the town council that as a taxpayer and business owner who donates a lot of time and money to the community, the deteriorating condition of the community was escalating out of control.
“The trash and rat infestation is pathetic at best,” McLaughlin said at the time. “There isn’t a street in town that doesn’t have a house with tall grass … the walking trail downtown, there’s encampments that get moved along by police but they come back.”
During the June meeting, McLaughlin said the town needs to do more.
As the code currently stands, when Torres receives a complaint his first step is to contact the resident and verify its validity.
If a violation exists, he said he talks with the property owner about the ordinance or code they are violating, and the remedy and time frame for completion with time frames varying depending on the violation. If no steps have been taken to remove the violation, he follows up with an official notice of violation sent via certified mail specifying the violation, time frame for remediation, penalties, and right to appeal.
This process continues through a third notice. If the violation remains, Torres said he forwards the notices and supporting documentation to the town attorney, and a judge compels the property owner to remove the violation. The judge may also give the town permission to remediate the property and bill the owner for expenses, he added.
With the proposed ordinance changes, under the authority of the town manager, not only the code enforcement officer, but the chief of police, the local health officer or any other authorized designee would have authority to enforce the provisions of that section of the code, said Torres.
That means, if he is having a hard time getting a property owner to comply with the ordinance, he could take it to the chief of police who could then assign a uniformed officer to go with him to the property.
“The officer would be able to write a citation for breaking the ordinance,” Torres said, adding that the penalty is $100 for the first violation and a minimum of $200 and maximum of $500 for a second.
When Torres took on the role of code enforcement officer about three years ago, it took at least 90 days before the town could set a court date on a solid waste code violation. Since that time, he has been able to reduce some of the notice timeframes and the proposed changes would drastically cut the times for compliance.
“In the case of a property maintenance issue with solid waste and garbage everywhere, we would do 20 days for the first letter, seven days for the second and seven days for the third,” Torres said. “If someone has three junk cars on the front lawn it would be something more like 14, seven and seven.”
According to Torres, at the end of the first notice of violation, he visits the property and if they have made significant improvements, he works with the homeowner. If nothing has changed, that is the time he will return with a police officer to issue a citation.
“Going through law enforcement as an enforcement mechanism really streamlines the process and gets the summons written with a court date assigned,” Chief Tim DeLuca said during the town council meeting.
The proposed ordinance changes are slated for the Dec. 9 town council meeting and Torres said he expects a vote on the matter in January.
