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Premise Inspections
Premise Inspections are the primary activity of the Environmental Maintenance section. The purpose of this program is to help maintain the quality of life in our neighborhoods by fighting against the natural trend toward degradation. The conditions we address fall roughly into three categories: things that blight a neighborhood, things that cause a safety risk, and things that cause a health risk.
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Safety factors include things like in-ground or above-ground swimming pools that are not regularly maintained or properly fenced to prevent access are a safety risk to children.
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Health factors are our most immediate concern. They include such things as rats, mice, roaches, etc., all of which can carry diseases to people. We also deal with animal fecal problems. The accumulation of feces blights a neighborhood because of the odor problems it creates and attracts flies, which can spread disease to people. Household garbage that is not properly contained is also be a source of odor and attracts flies. Perhaps the most serious problem we address is surfacing sewage. Wastewater containing human excrement has a high potential for spreading diseases as well as being another source of offensive odor. |
| The Investigation Procedure |
 Any time a request for service is received by our office, it will be investigated. Generally, the inspector checks out the complaint the day after it is received. In the majority of cases the complaint is valid, so the inspector starts a case against the person who is primarily responsible for the violation, be that the owner or the occupant.
After returning from the field the inspector checks the County legal records and the City's water records to determine who owns the property and who is currently living there. He then sends a Notice of Violation letter by certified mail to the responsible person. In most cases, the respondent is given two weeks in which to correct the violations. On the day of the recheck, the inspector checks to see if the property has been brought into compliance. If all the violations have been corrected, the case will be closed with no further action being taken. If the property is not in compliance, the inspector will generally start enforcement action against the responsible person.
| How long does it take for a "typical" environmental code violation to be brought into compliance? |
 The time it takes for a certain property to be brought into compliance will generally depend on how many the field inspector has to take. The majority of public requests for service are investigated within the week following the complaint and most of the "Notices of Violation" are sent the day following the field investigation.
For most environmental code violations, a period of two weeks is allowed before the property is rechecked. Our records show that a large percentage of responsible homeowners will have their properties in compliance at the time of the first recheck. In these cases, the compliance will fall within twenty-two or twenty-three days from the date of the original complaint.
In cases where the person responsible does not willingly comply and the Environmental Services Department must go through additional steps, the time for compliance may extend to two months or more.
| If I call Environmental Services to make a complaint, do I have to give my name? |
 It’s not required, but it is helpful for us. We would like to know who called, your address, and a daytime phone number. There are several reasons why this information is helpful to us.
Our inspector may not see the alleged violation and may need more information to complete the inspection. Or there may, in fact, be no violation and we will need to get in touch with the caller to let them know. There may also be reasons why we would want to let the caller know what action we will be taking. All complaints are kept confidential. We do not reveal the source of a complaint to the violator!
If you would like to file a complaint, you can choose one of the following forms:
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