Athmar Park

Joint Citizen and City NIS "Taskforce" Results

Jul 09, 2005

by Karen Cuthbertson

APNA members Carol Campbell and Karen Cuthbertson, with residents from across Denver, participated in a ?‘taskforce?’ to analyze Neighborhood Inspection Services (NIS) procedures/ processes and suggest possible improvements. Peter Park, Manager, Community Planning & Development [CPD] placed considerable City resources at the taskforce's disposal; e.g., NIS Inspectors/Managers. In addition, there were also members of Dept of Environ Health and the City Attorney's Office. With such resources, we were optimistic that real change might result.

The taskforce met monthly from February-April, with taskforce members performing considerable work between meetings:
?? Analyzing current zoning ordinances related to overcrowded houses, too many cars on the street, and rental property upkeep/tenants, and suggesting wording changes and/or new ordinances;
?? Analyzing an NIS complaint ?“life cycle?” - from initial call/email through inter-departmental hand-offs to final disposition in the courtroom - to identify possible weak/problem points and suggest improvements/changes; and
?? Analyzing the legal portion of the process to understand why complaints are ?‘tossed?’ or are settled for small fines/court costs.

The meetings were productive, insightful, frustrating, dismaying, and enlightening, and the final results were mixed; with some very positive changes implemented or coming, while some fundamental problems remain un-investigated and/or unchanged.

On the positive side, kudos to Environmental Health?’s Bob McDonald. EH Inspectors will have regular weekend hours. A focus of weekend inspections includes canvassing Denver parks for illegal food peddlers (?‘honkers?’ and pushcarts). Also, EH proposed requiring commissaries (where vendors prepare food) to keep a copy of each vendor?’s license, along with vendors?’ schedules.

Also good: rotating Saturday hours for NIS Inspectors, who will proactively cite certain offenses. Another noteworthy change is the NIS complaint line, with expanded telephone hours and a voice mailbox where residents can leave messages after hours. In addition, NIS conducted an analysis of the 25% hang-up rate on the call-in line. Kudos here to NIS?’ Becky Esquibel, who implemented a new NIS complaint line queuing system that reduced the hang-up rate by 50%.

Also good, NIS now consolidates like-type offense cases on the same court docket, to help make judges/magistrates more aware of the problem. In addition, kudos to NIS employee, Vince Ferrar, for undertaking to educate current judges/magistrates on the NIS process and the negative impact to residents of violations.

Also good, callers who submit a complaint will be given a tracking ID, so a resident calling to get the status of a previously submitted complaint will not hear that there is ?‘no record?’ of the complaint, as the caller will have an ID number to refer to. Lastly, NIS will convene annual public reviews to determine what areas are working well and what needs further improvement.

On the bad side, the committee members were completely stymied in attempts to analyze and effect any changes on 4 fundamental issues:
?? First, we were told that it would be ?“inappropriate?” to look at the internal evolution of a complaint through NIS and the various other agencies involved. Any attempt to find weak/problematic points within NIS or in hand-offs between departments was completely denied.
?? The second issue not addressed was holding landlords more accountable for their property/tenants. Despite suggestions for registering rental properties, the City cited onerous administrative concerns and vetoed all suggestions. (On a side note, Carol would not accept this answer for Athmar Park, and has procured copies of the Denver Police Department's "Crime Control for Rental Properties" to give to landlords of problem properties in Athmar Park.)
?? The third failed issue concerned too many people residing in homes. The City flatly refused to consider changes to the current ordinance (e.g., 9 people are allowed in a 1000 sq foot house) despite evidence that more restrictive ordinances are working well in other cities, citing the Fair Housing Act as ?“tying their hands?”. The citizen taskforce members question the validity of this and are engaging resources on the national level to assist with this effort.
?? The last failed issue is the problem of too many parked cars clogging residential streets. Suggestions by a taskforce member to adopt ordinances similar to Commerce City?’s code were soundly rejected. The Zoning Administrator even stated that ?“things really haven?’t changed that much?” since the current ordinance relating to parking was adopted in 1963(!!) and said that the City would not support any changes to the ordinance.

I applaud the formation of this taskforce by the City to engage the public in this effort to try to improve a portion of the city government that has such an impact on the quality of life for every resident in Denver. However, basic problems remain.

Please!! Advise your City Council representative and At-Large Council members ?‘clearly and repeatedly?’ about the problems you encounter. Secondly, you absolutely need to let the Mayor/City Council know how important CPD is to your daily quality of life and how extremely important it is to keep the number of Inspectors/Planners high and their level of training and expected standards high, as well.