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4111)CITYOFSOUTHBEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK
<br /> but it also came with some problems. Judy said not to miss your hearings, and if you don't agree
<br /> you need to file an appeal. We found that in order to appeal, you have to actually file a lawsuit
<br /> against the City. That means you have to spend money and go through a daunting process,
<br /> especially when you don't have a lawyer to do that for you. So these are the barriers we have to
<br /> get over. It is true that the judge makes the decision,not the City. But the judge is paid by the City,
<br /> and Code Enforcement makes a recommendation. When we look at those hearings, how do we
<br /> have something that is a little more standardized, where it is just not one person's decision? The
<br /> Unsafe Building Law states that legally, when there is a problem, you can assess a civil penalty
<br /> anywhere between zero ($0) and $5,000. That is a big range. How do you decide if it is going to
<br /> be a fifty dollar($50)penalty,or a$2,500 penalty?That is where the City of South Bend can make
<br /> decisions. We have the data,but we can also be informed by stories and the experiences of people.
<br /> Everything that was done was legal based on the current laws.We make a lot of those laws locally,
<br /> and if we find that people have been hurt by those laws, then it's our obligation to look at those
<br /> laws and possibly change them. We had a recording,but we couldn't hear it, so I'm going to read
<br /> it for you. We were constantly downtown asking questions of the director of Code Enforcement,
<br /> and I was always recording so I could better understand the process. I am going to read one (1) of
<br /> the conversations I had with the former director, and it is going to lead into another testimony we
<br /> have tonight. It was September 8, 2015, and we were in the middle of the budget hearing process.
<br /> I was not yet on the Council, I was just there trying to understand the process. When Code
<br /> Enforcement had finished their presentation, I had some questions for Randy. I had specific
<br /> questions about special assessments and how they get on your taxes, and when they fall off. I was
<br /> recording so I could get the language down. When those legal things come to you, if you don't
<br /> understand the language, you're in trouble. He started telling me some of how he went about
<br /> addressing this issue of problem properties.
<br /> She continued, He said, When I first (1st) got here to the City of South Bend, the first (1st) time I
<br /> met the Mayor, I said there's 100,000 people in this City. 1,000 people think we're doing a great
<br /> job, 1,000 people think we're doing a crappy job, and 1,000 people absolutely hate us. The ones
<br /> that dislike us are the ones we're going after. So you know, the police asked me about a bar the
<br /> other day that is operating in, and they were talking about my neighborhood, he said I can't
<br /> remember what it's called. I asked, The KickBack? He said yeah, the KickBack. He said, they
<br /> said, you guys (the Police) got anything on that? Can you guys go check this out and see what
<br /> you've got? I said,hang on a minute... this is in our CAN meeting, I bring it up, so we were there,
<br /> we wrote a citation, we wrote a fine for this, we wrote a fine for that, we did a grass violation for
<br /> this. And then I asked about the new computer system and the new way that they're actually
<br /> recording these things. He said yes, it makes it very quick and easy for us to define what's going
<br /> on. And again part of that is working with CAN and the police department for chronic nuisance,
<br /> we're sharing information daily, such as, he's got two (2) violations, I've got two (2) violations,
<br /> now we need another one (1) to bring it into a chronic nuisance. So you know, again we're
<br /> improving the process. And then we would go out and do it...and you know maybe in a way it is.
<br /> Because we had a conversation about if this is fair. He said but if you think about who we are
<br /> going after, who we would go after. He then asked, do you know, and I couldn't really understand
<br /> the name,but he said,he's a scumbag. He runs prostitution out of his houses,he runs drugs out of
<br /> his houses,he's just not a good person at all. He's always on one(1) of our hitlists. So,he'll move
<br /> to a different house. We'll go out one (1) day and cite him for tall grass. We used to go cite it for
<br /> tall grass and litter. Well,we'll hit it for tall grass on one(1) day, and come back the next day and
<br /> hit it for litter, now that's two (2) violations. If you do it the same day, its only one (1) violation.
<br /> So people like that, that's the way we are actually going after them aggressively, using the law-
<br /> EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT
<br /> 455 County-City Building 227W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f 574.235.9173 TTD574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov
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