Memorandum

City of Lawrence

Planning & Development Services

TO:	David L. Corliss, City Manager
FROM:	Brian Jimenez, Code Enforcement Manager
CC:	Scott McCullough, Director Planning & Development Services
Date:	December 13, 2010
RE:	Grass/Weed Abatement Summary for the 2010 season

Each spring, the Code Enforcement Division recommences the annual enforcement of the City’s Weed Code.  The enforcement of this seasonal violation typically begins in early April and continues through the end of October.   This memo provides a summary of the 2010 effort to enforce the Weed Code and provides comparisons to recent years.

Two staff members are assigned to the enforcement of the code which consists of citizen complaint inspections and staff initiated inspections.  Below is a chart providing a five year history of the total number of cases opened, number of citizen complaints, complaints received via internet complaint system and the number of staff initiated cases.

Summary of Weed/Grass Cases

Year	# of Cases	Citizen Complaint	Internet Complaint	Staff Initiated
2006	873	438	8	427
2007	841	409	19	413
2008	1,043	608	35	400
2009	1,000	509	21	470
2010	949	411	123	415
Total	4,706 (941 avg.)	2,375 (50.4%)	206 (4.3%)	2,125 (45.3%)

It is important to note that each case investigated can have several different outcomes. 

• If there is no violation found during the initial inspection, staff will close the case resulting in only one inspection being conducted. 
• If there is a violation, staff sends the required written violation notice which  requires a 2^nd inspection after ten days.
• Staff will close the case if the violation is corrected after the second inspection.  
• If a violation still exists upon the second inspection, staff will notify our City mowing contractor to mow the property.  A third inspection will then occur to verify the property has been mowed and is code compliant.  Staff can easily conduct over 2,000 inspections per year for this code violation.

Staff’s other significant responsibility in enforcing the Weed Code is the administration processes that are required which includes the following:

• The mailing of all violation notices and the tracking of all case information.
• Establishing purchase orders for the contract mower and the managing of payments to the mowing contractor for each property mowed.
• Monitoring open accounts throughout the year and processing outstanding weed bills for assessment to the property taxes at year end.

As mentioned above, the Weed Code allows for the abatement of the violation; therefore, the Code Enforcement Division budgets for these abatement costs every year.  Historically, the abatement budget has been set at $25,000 per year.  Below is a chart identifying the budget for each of the last five years, annual total expenditures, and the remaining fund balance for each year.

Abatement Costs per Year

Budgeted Amount	Expenditures	Fund Balance	%
2006 – $25,000	21,454.70	3,545.30	14.2
2007 – $25,770	25,296.69	474.31	1.8
2008 – $25,000	22,588.90	3,211.10	12.4
2009 – $25,700	23,978.20	1,721.80	6.7
2010 – $23,025	21,853.10	1,171.90	4.6

Staff Observations

Internet complaints substantially increased in 2010.  It is staff’s opinion that citizen complaint inspections will remain constant and will most likely increase due to the current poor economy and the subsequent increase in properties that have been foreclosed upon.  Furthermore, while weather plays a role in how many complaints will be submitted, the number of complaints received each year has the potential to rise given the City’s positive growth in geographical size and in population.