Codes Hoping to Prevent More Violations From Turning Into Disasters in 2010

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Story Published: Dec 29, 2009 at 6:26 PM PDT

By Peter Bukowski

An impressive blaze interrupted the state fair and shut down power. Months later, dangerous asbestos closed an infamous motel on North First Street. Both made headlines. Both started with a code violation. But Yakima's code enforcement is run by complaints, not prevention.

"If we see a dangerous condition we're not going to wait for a complaint. We're going to get on top of it. We're gonna address it right away," says Bill Cook, the Director of Community and Economic Development. Cook oversees code enforcement in the city.

He says the old mill will likely take until the Spring to get their log piles in line with the law. And the owner of the Tourist Motel says he's working towards getting his other two buildings up to code for guests.

"95% of people who are cited for a code complaint violation will take care of it. It's generally an information problem. Where we get into difficulty is those 3-5% of people who don't have intent or interest in complying with the code," Cook says.

And the city doesn't have the resources to be out searching for violators, with just three officers to deal with nearly 1700 complaints in the last year. That has them looking for legal recourse in dealing with code breakers.

"Anything we can do to streamline how quickly we can get to compliance. Get an order from the judge actually get the authority to take action."

And not everything comes from a complaint. Police were well aware of the problems at the Tourist before it was locked up. That's why cops take code officers out to investigate trouble spots.

Cook says, when they can, code officers will go to the areas where the police department is concerned that they have been concentrations of problems.

And the more help they can get, the few code violations go up in flames.

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