Aubuchon Strong

Responding to violation complaints and handing out citations is only part of code enforcement’s job now that the department’s chief, Frank Cassidy, has implemented his vision for its mission of compliance.

Officers are now giving residents contact information for charities and public organizations that could help them come into compliance if they cannot do it themselves.

“Most of the time our officers come into contact with residents that, for outstanding reasons, can’t maintain their properties. They have fallen on hard times,” Cassidy said in a Tuesday telephone interview. “Instead of just citing somebody, we’re trying to get people involved in solving the problem.”

When code officers come across a situation they deem is out of the resident’s control, they hand the citizen a citation and ways to contact private groups and public departments, ranging from Catholic Charities, to United Way 211, to the local health department branch, that can help them rectify the situation. Cassidy’s officers have come upon people who are living in circumstances not usually seen in Cape Coral.

“When we’re coming across rental properties, some of these folks don’t have water or electricity. They are living in just completely dilapidated structures,” he said. “I tend to believe that people are not intending to live in homes with housing issues. They want to live in a nice place and have a nice happy life.”

With a down economy, and rising prices for food and fuel, residents are feeling a financial pinch. The code enforcement manager said it does the city and residents no good to simply cite and fine individuals who have no way to end the violation because the city will never collect the money for a fine and the end goal, which is compliance, will never be achieved.

In these tough times, many residents have come before the City Council in recent weeks saying they did not know they had been cited and that fines in upward of thousands of dollars are continuously running against them.

Councilmember Jim Burch has advocated for firm “documented proof” and constant follow-up contact with residents in violation to reduce the number of people who have said they are unaware of the fines. In response to his and several other council members’ requests, the division has now listed running fine totals for each case on its Web site.

On Tuesday Burch said code enforcement’s new efforts could give residents some options when faced with a citation and a possible hefty fine.

“Maybe this is a good step,” he said. “I’ll certainly be looking forward to hearing more about what they are doing.”

While Cassidy has not noticed a rise in the number of people who cannot afford to fix code problems on their own, the new policy is part of a philosophy he has long held.

“It’s always been a part of my mission; I brought it from Fort Myers and Bonita Springs,” he said. “These are the methods I employed in those jurisdictions, methods that are still employed now.”

Across the state and the nation, code enforcement is beginning to change its focus, Cassidy said. In their pro-active mission, departments are now expected to try and move past discovering violations on their own and citing the homeowners.

“This does go beyond the traditional role of code enforcement. The new role of code enforcement is trying to solve problems in the community,” said Cassidy. “It’s just a better way of doing code enforcement.”

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