DeKalb County is revamping its code enforcement, cutting the maximum fine but making it easier to make cases stick against violators.
County commissioners argue the changes tighten enforcement because more violators will face fines for letting their yards go wild or for keeping junk cars, even if the penalties are smaller.
The changes don’t satisfy members of a resident task force, though. They spent nearly a year studying the issue and recommended the county institute mandatory fines for all violators and create a citizen board to speed cases along.
The County Commission rejected those suggestions.
“We got a watered-down version of what we need,” said Gil Turman, a member of the task force and president of the South DeKalb Neighborhood Association. “They didn’t listen to us and what the citizens wanted.”
DeKalb has long struggled with code enforcement. The task force found, and officials agreed, that a big part of the problem was how the system worked.
For years, that system called for officers to personally notify violators and get them to sign citations. Savvy troublemakers knew, though, that without their signature, there could be no case.
DeKalb Recorders Court judges had to dismiss more than half their code enforcement cases last year because violators did not receive that so-called personal notice, Chief Judge Nelly Withers said.
She did not have an exact figure, though she said code violations make up a small percentage of the court’s 243,000 citations each year.
“The frustration has always been that people are very good at dodging the enforcement officer,” Withers said.
The new code allows code enforcement officers to post a violation at the property or send one in the mail. Then, if the property owner doesn’t show up in court, the judge can still find them guilty in their absence and levy a fine up to $500.
If an officer serves the citation personally, a violator still faces a fine up $1,000 and up to 120 days in jail.
But even with the change, violators will face a local judge. The task force had asked DeKalb to set up a citizen code compliance board, similar to one in Fulton County.
Under that system, the board could lower mandatory fines -- proposed at $250 -- only if a violator showed up at the hearing and could prove he had fixed the problem.
“There are issues of training and making sure you have quorums for a board,” said Commissioner Sharon Barnes Sutton, who authored the change. “Keeping this in Recorders Court lets us address many of the concerns with resources we already have.”
Resources for enforcement may be the next sticking point. Withers said the average fine for code violations has been $300, just 30 percent of what had been the maximum.
Residents complain the true rate is even lower because the county often gives warnings instead of immediately writing citations.
The caseload, at least, will increase under the new system since so many violators now face a judge’s ruling.
Charles Peagler, president of the Kings Ridge Homeowners Association, said he and other task force members will monitor those cases to see whether the overhaul improves enforcement.
He doesn’t expect it to, though. No matter who is hearing cases, the county still needs mandatory fines, he said.
“People have to know we’re serious about this,” Peagler said. “The residents want to clean this county up."
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