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2016 Annual Report— Department of Code Enforcement 14 <br /> Total violations cited in 2016 was 3% more than in 2015. Ideally we would like to see this number decrease. In a <br /> perfect world,the lower this number is,the cleaner the city is being kept by its residents. The total number of letters <br /> mailed for those violations increased by 16.2%. <br /> The total number of environmental hearings increased by 164% between 2015 and 2016. This change is partially <br /> attributed to an increase in cautiousness when abating violations located on potentially occupied properties, behind a <br /> fence, etc. We also began to improve environmental hearing <br /> scheduling in Accela. Environmental Citations by Category <br /> 1.5% <br /> Environmental citations can be grouped into 4 primary categories (in 13.1% ' <br /> order of prevalence): <br /> MAI. <br /> 1. Litter-appliances,furniture,trash/debris, demolition remains <br /> 2. Tall grass or weeds <br /> 3. Vegetation - removal or clean-up <br /> 4. Graffiti <br /> The most common type of environmental citations (at 57.2%) involve <br /> 57.2% <br /> litter, discarded appliances, bags of trash,furniture, and demolition <br /> remains. Second most common (at 28.1%) are citations for grass and <br /> weeds over nine inches tall. Vegetation is the third most prevalent (at •Graffiti ■Grass and Weeds .Litter ■Vegetation <br /> 13.1%)for violations such as tree limbs or branches,yard waste,vegetation overgrowth, etc. Graffiti is the third type of <br /> category at 1.5%of overall violations. <br /> Grass Violations <br /> We had another busy grass season. We initiated 3,338 new records for tall grass and/or weed violations. Of those, 68% <br /> (2,280) were abated by owner. Including continuous enforcement properties, the Parks Crew completed 4,290 cuts for <br /> the Department of Code Enforcement. Time between citation and abatement averaged 11.90 days. <br /> Ownership Analysis <br /> Using the Accela software for all environmental violations allows us to easily analyze the ownership of a property. In <br /> 2016, we found that only 28%of environmental records were on properties where the owner address was the same as <br /> the property address (i.e. properties potentially owner-occupied). 68%of all environmental violations belonged to a <br /> property that was owned by someone with a mailing address in South Bend. 82% belonged to an owner with a mailing <br /> address in Indiana; 18%with a mailing address outside of Indiana. <br /> 1300 County-City Building, 227 W. Jefferson Blvd., South Bend, IN 46601 Rev.MJ 3.10.17 <br />