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4646 Dakota Street SE
Prior Lake, MN 55372
CITY COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT
MEETING DATE: JUNE 26, 2017
AGENDA #: 9B
PREPARED BY: DALE STEFANISKO, CODE ENFORCEMENT OFFICER
SARAH SCHWARZHOFF, CITY ATTORNEY
PRESENTED BY: DALE STEFANISKO
SARAH SCHWARZHOFF
AGENDA ITEM: CONSIDER APPROVAL OF A REPORT ON ADMINISTRATIVE CITATIONS
DISCUSSION: Introduction
The purpose of this report is to provide the City Council with information regarding
the possible adoption of administrative citations for code enforcement.
Current Circumstances
An alternative method for code enforcement may be establishing administrative
citations. Administrative citations use a civil penalty to encourage voluntary
compliance and cover city costs. Administrative citations transfer the enforcement
from the police department and prosecutor to the Code Enforcement Officer and
may lower city costs. Several cities have used administrative citations successfully
to increase compliance and reduce the need to go through overburdened courts.
However, there is no statutory authority to use administrative citations. If the
administrative citation system is challenged, we cannot be sure that a court would
uphold the City’s actions. City’s that use administrative citations take the risk that
the system may be deemed to exceed the city’s authority.
Dale sent out a survey to other cities and has collected some practical information
on how those cities use administrative citations. If the Council desires to proceed
with administrative citations staff can use that information to draft an ordinance for
Council consideration.
ISSUES:
For years the city has had a policy to work with the public to the extent possible to
resolve ordinance violations. To date we have been very successful with in excess
of 95% of the code enforcement cases resolved without the necessity of going to
court.
On the other hand, when court has been necessary the defendant has taken the
opportunity to challenge the appropriateness of the city’s action and the city’s
interpretation of its own ordinances. In some cases, the Scott County Courts have
found for the defendant. The use of administrative citations has the potential of
increasing the frequency of this situation.
Even if the city prevails in a court challenge in an administrative citation, the city
may have to specially assess the citation against the property. Rather than saving
a step in the enforcement process, this would actually add a step.
In light of the success we have had in resolving code issues face to face the staff
recommendation for the time being is to retain the same enforcement process and
work with Metro Cities to have Minnesota State Statutes revised to provide for
administrative citation authority to statutory cities.
FINANCIAL
IMPACT:
Administrative citations allow the City to collect some of the cost incurred in code
enforcement and thus might reduce total City costs. The costs of enforcement
would shift from the police department and prosecutor to the Code Enforcement
Officer who is already handling in excess of 600 cases each year.
ALTERNATIVES: 1. Direct staff to draft an ordinance adopting administrative citations for Council
considerations.
2. Take no action and monitor the effectiveness of our code enforcement efforts.
3. Provide the staff with additional direction.
RECOMMENDED
MOTION:
Alternative 2.