City hunts for funding for code enforcement

Jace Radke

Wednesday, May 22, 2002 | 9:29 a.m.

Proprietary funds, $149 million; capital funds, $258 million; special revenue funds, $52 million; general funds, $354 million; other, $22 million.

Sanitation, $74.7 million; fire communication, $6.4 million; parking, $8.5 million.

Economic development and assistance, $30.5 million; public safety, $3.4 million; culture and recreation, $4.7 million.

Road and flood, $106.4 million; parks, $66.5 million; fire services, $15 million; city facilities, $16.4 million; public works, $17.5 million; traffic: $9.3 million.

$836 million. (Figures are rounded off)

The Las Vegas City Council is looking to squeeze funding for four more code enforcement officers out of its already stretched $836 million budget.

The council unanimously approved a proposed budget for fiscal year 2003 at a special meeting Tuesday morning, but the council directed city staffers to try to find the money to add positions to neighborhood services to combat graffiti and other code violations in older parts of town.

"There has been a huge outbreak of graffiti, and the concern from the community is overwhelming," Ward 1 Councilman Michael McDonald said. "We need to give back to the taxpayers. We need to get back to taking back our neighborhoods."

McDonald and Ward 3 Councilman Gary Reese, whose constituents live in older neighborhoods, expressed concern that none of the 23 new budgeted city positions is in code enforcement.

Currently there are 12 code enforcement officers and one supervisor responsible for enforcing neighborhood ordinances for a population of more than 520,000, and about 100,000 complaints a year.

"I have concerns in my neighborhood as well, with abandoned cars and yards going to pot," Reese said.

The council elected to add the four new code enforcement positions but leave them unfunded and unfilled until staffers find a way to shoehorn them into the budget.

"We're looking at reorganizing and restructuring, and that could be used to fund these positions," said Mark Vincent, the city's director of finance and business services. "There will have to be some cuts somewhere to fit them in."

Councilman Lawrence Weekly, who said his constituents in Ward 5 are facing the same issues as the people who Reese and McDonald represent, asked that the council revisit city ordinances as a way to clean up neighborhoods.

"We need to go back and put some teeth in these ordinances, so that when we take these people to court the charges stick," Weekly said. "We can hire 50 more people in code enforcement, and unless we have ordinances with teeth in them it won't matter."

The new positions already funded in the budget include 16 in field operations and maintenance, two in leisure services and one in information technology. There is also a victim witness advocate, a position that was funded by a grant in the past, a management analyst in neighborhood services who will focus on homeless issues and two positions in public works designed to oversee construction management on city projects.

The construction management positions will allow the city to oversee the work on four new fire stations without having to hire private companies to manage the projects.

The budget calls for almost $367 million in general funds expenditures, including a one-time cost of $1.4 million in retroactive payments to Las Vegas firefighters, who worked without a contract last year and are owed money agreed upon in the new contract.

That payment results in a shortfall of $957,509 in the operating budget. The shortfall will be covered by the city's $45 million fund balance, Vincent said.

"If you think of it in terms of your own pocketbook, it's like planning to buy something you don't have the money for so you go into savings," Vincent said.

The city did save more than $571,000 by reducing the number of firefighters needed to man its four new stations.