Editorial: City needs more code inspectors

Friday, April 23, 2004 | 8:47 a.m.

For years the city of Las Vegas allowed Sky-Vue Mobile Home Park at 15 W. Owens Ave. to operate even though "uninhabitable" was a charitable description of the place. The Clark County Health District and state Manufactured Housing Division also stood by while the park deteriorated. After the Sun this month exposed the park's revolting conditions, including life-threatening violations of electrical and plumbing codes, officials began moving rapidly to safeguard the park's residents and to pressure the park's owners to comply with occupancy laws.

This week, however, the Las Vegas City Council was informed by the city's Neighborhood Services Department that the owners and operators of the park, including David and Sandi DiMarco, are not making progress on repairs. Mayor Oscar Goodman reacted angrily and demanded immediate action. "I don't want to hear we can't do something about it ... let's step it up!" Goodman shouted. We agree with Goodman that this mess should be cleaned up, pronto. When people are getting their water from garden hoses, and the hoses are submerged in raw sewage, action is required without delay.

Unfortunately, a horror that was years in the making cannot be instantly undone by an impatient order to city staff. With the park unfit for occupancy, repairs -- and legal wrangling over who makes them and who pays for them -- could take months or longer. City-assisted resettling of the residents, already under way, will take a lot of time as well. And the problem extends beyond Sky-Vue. The health district, citing raw sewage accumulating next to trailers, has levied a $10,000 fine against another trailer park owned by David DiMarco.

To prevent future Sky-Vues, a new system for inspecting code violations must be developed. A large part of the problem now is that the city, with tens of thousands of housing units, has only 11 code inspectors on its staff. Overall, property values in much of Southern Nevada are rising dramatically, meaning property tax revenue is increasing. Some of that extra money should be used to hire and train more inspectors, so that violations can be enforced from their outset.