Memorandum

City of Lawrence

Legal Services

TO:	Toni Wheeler, Interim Director of Legal Services
FROM:	Scott J. Miller, Staff Attorney
Date:	January 18, 2007
RE:	Ordinance 8074 – Emergency Authority to Order Destruction of Dangerous Burned Buildings

Any time an insured building or structure is damaged by fire in an amount greater than 75% of the face value of the policy that insures it, the City is authorized by K.S.A. 40-3901 to require the insurance company to pay a deposit to the City in an amount not to exceed 15% of the proceeds of the insurance policy.  The purpose of the statute is to ensure that either the site is cleaned up and the structure safely removed, or that the City has funds available to cause such cleanup and removal.  This statute is implemented by Article 3 of Chapter 8 of the City Code.

Any amount paid in to the City as a deposit may be withheld by the City to pay for its expenses if it takes action pursuant to K.S.A. 12-1750 et. seq.  This group of statutes provides a procedure for the City to utilize when a building or structure must be removed because it is unsafe or dangerous.  Enforcing officers may be designated by ordinance to have authority under these statutes to order the demolition or cleanup of a damaged building.  Section 5-301 of the City Code currently declares that the Codes Enforcement Manager is the enforcement officer for the City.

A problem arises when a structure is damaged by fire and must be partially or wholly demolished to render it safe for investigation and recovery efforts.  In such circumstances, the decision is best made on the spot by the Fire Chief or his or her designated incident commander.  Having to wait until the Codes Enforcement Manager can respond to the location is potentially risky and is certainly inefficient.

Ordinance 8074 was prepared to address this issue.  It adds the Fire Chief and his or her designees to the list of enforcing officers contained in Section 5-301, and modifies portions of Article 3, Chapter 8 of the City Code to refer to enforcing officer rather than Codes Enforcement Manager.  The net effect of these changes will be to allow the City to retain insurance funds in the manner specified above for buildings that are damaged by fire where the Fire Chief or his or her designee has ordered demolition work to be done on those buildings to protect the public’s safety.  Therefore, a fire incident commander will not be stuck in the position of having to decide between two potentially perilous courses of action – either delaying investigation or recovery efforts until the Codes Enforcement Manager responds and makes a determination, or going ahead with demolition efforts knowing that the City may not be reimbursed for those efforts.  He or she will be able to act immediately.

Staff recommends the adoption of this ordinance.  If you have any further questions, please let me know.