Memorandum
City of
City Manager’s Office
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To: |
Dave
Corliss, City Manager |
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From: |
Michael
Tubbs, Management Analyst |
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cc: |
Diane
Stoddard, Assistant City Manager Cynthia
Boecker, Assistant City Manager Jonathan
Douglas, Assistant to the City Manager |
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Date: |
January 3, 2008 |
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Re: |
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This is a follow up to your request related to the City of
Madison, Wisconsin Snow Removal Ordinance and practices.
Enforcement
and Staffing Madison City Ordinance 10.28 requires
that sidewalks be cleared of all snow and ice not later than 12:00 noon of
the day following each snowfall. Days end and begin at 12:00
midnight. An example would be: Snow starts to fall on Monday
morning. The snow stops at 11:59 p.m. on Monday night. The sidewalk would
have to cleared by 12:00 noon on Tuesday. If the same snow continued
until Tuesday morning at 12:00 midnight, the sidewalk would have to be cleared
by 12:00 noon on Wednesday.
When public walks are found in violation, the property owner is
issued a citation with an initial fine of $109.00. All subsequent
violations at the property during the current snow season will result in a
$172.00 fine. After a City inspector photographs a sidewalk in violation and
cites the property, the owner has until 8:00 a.m. the following morning to
remove the hazard. Failure to do so will cause the City crews to do the work
with costs assessed the property. There are no warnings given for this
ordinance violation.
The inspectors are looking for reasonably safe conditions. In
cases where ice has formed on the public sidewalk and cannot be removed, the
property owner must use sand or salt to effectively eliminate dangerous
conditions. The City provides a mixture of sand and salt for public use.
The city of
The engineering division handles snow removal using 2-3 two
person crews when the city cites someone and they fail to clear the
sidewalk. The cost is passed to the
property owner in the form of an administrative fee ($30) and removal cost
($50-60 or actual cost). This is in
addition to the fines for violation of the ordinance. If they fail to pay, the fees and costs are
assessed on the property taxes.
High Mobility
Pedestrian Corridors The day after
each significant snowfall inspectors go out and review the high mobility
pedestrian corridors. These areas
include – downtown, hospital areas and areas with a high concentration of
elderly and disabled citizens. These
areas were identified during a meeting with neighborhood groups and remain on
the corridor list as long as the city issues tickets for those areas each
year. The city has identified a certain
number of areas that can be inspected within one day which was a condition to
establishing the corridors. If
neighborhoods want to add to the list then they must remove a location from the
list as the city will only use one day to check the corridors for compliance.
Elderly and Disabled The elderly and disabled who cannot
afford to hire someone or who can not physically shovel their sidewalks are
referred to one of the community agencies that coordinate shoveling
efforts. These elderly and disabled
citizens are placed on a deferral list and given an additional 72 hours if
paired up with an agency to comply with the ordinance.
Number
of Complaints
|
Year |
Number of Complaints |
|
2004-2005 |
835 |
|
2005-2006 |
963 |
|
2006-2007 |
844 |
|
12/01/07-01/02/08* |
1027 |
*Record snow fall in December 2007 of 35 inches; generally
they get 54 inches for the year (for comparison purposes,