Each year, the City’s code compliance division handles about 23,000 cases. That’s more than 60 cases a day, on average. Most residents and businesses never see code compliance, only if City and state codes and ordinances are violated. Code Compliance is an important community benefit because staff preserve and promote public safety and welfare. This division, comprising code enforcement officers, building inspectors and support staff, handle a variety of cases—from dealing with abandoned vehicles, junk and debris, and housing and dangerous buildings, to enforcing zoning codes and handling noise and graffiti abatement. Get a firsthand look as Maurice Chaney takes an up and close look at t

Bootleg Banquet Sacramento is host to several thousand food facilities, the majority of which are sit-down restaurants, fast food franchise outlets, and independently operated sandwich, coffee, baked goods, and dessert shops. Also making up a notable percentage of Sacramento's food facilities are mobile vendors and caterers, insitutional providers such as schools, churches, and care homes, and of course grocery and other food markets. Whatever your feelings you may have in regards to the sophistication or quality of fare available in Sacramento, one cannot argue that we lack opportunities to eat. Even a flat broke, destitute transient has choices in this area, what with Loaves and Fishes,

After operating for nearly two decades, what may be the last meeting of the Neighborhood Advisory Group (NAG) will take place this Monday.   NAG started out as a meeting of concerned central city residents meeting in private homes.   Eventually a partnership with the city was formed through Neighborhood Services/Code Enforcement under Max Fernandes.   Neighborhood Services has continued to work with NAG publishing and distributing the NAG agenda that was created each month by the independent and volunteer NAG agenda committee.  Neighborhood Services also serves as a conduit between the agenda committed for city entities that wanted to present at NAG and city endities that the agenda commi

Q: My neighbors moved out a couple of months ago because they were facing foreclosure. They left the house a mess! The yard is totally overgrown, there’s a pile of junk in the driveway, and I’m afraid the pool is going to start growing mosquitoes now that the weather is warming up. Is there anything I can do? - Karina A: Unfortunately, you are not alone in this situation. The Sacramento Bee reports that there are thousands of vacant homes in Sacramento, many of which are severely neglected by their owners. According to City estimates, approximately 60 percent of these abandoned properties are bank-owned. To help combat this growing problem, Sacramento enacted its Vacant Building Ordinan

When buildings become slums and havens for gangs, prostitution and drug use, a little-known city program can force landowners to clean them up or – in extreme cases – be evicted. The Justice for Neighbors program began in 2006 and allows multiple departments – including police, code enforcement, the city attorney’s office and park rangers – to focus their efforts on some of the worst slumlords and dangerous properties in the city, resolving an average of 17 cases per year. “Essentially, it’s a public and social nuisance (enforcement) team,” said Gustavo Martinez, supervising deputy city attorney. “We meet every month and evaluate the worst security issues.” Property owners are required

A few more changes are in the works for the Second Saturday Art Walk in an effort to reduce problems and increase the focus on art, city and business leaders said Wednesday. The changes will take effect in April, when the event's crowds are expected to grow as warm weather returns to Sacramento. The city's Second Saturday safety team has come up with some modifications in the wake of a fatal shooting in September 2010. The biggest change is a requirement that vendors, musicians with amplified sound and other street performers who are set up on public property – primarily sidewalks or closed streets – operate from 4 - 8 p.m. Live music is part of a growing music scene that has emerged on

Sacramento’s city and county governments confronted grim budget situations throughout 2010. The city faced a $43 million budget gap, while the county struggled with a $181 million hole. Local government employees felt the pain of budget cuts: Sacramento County laid off about 380 employees during the summer. The county also slashed 29 positions in its engineering department in September. The county will no longer hire engineers for those spots. City officials laid off 12 workers represented by Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 447, city spokeswoman Amy Williams said in September. The layoffs occurred after talks between the city and the union failed. However, the city’s job loss situation

The city is changing the way it manages illegally dumped garbage after the city attorney’s office found that the city’s old program might have broken state law. The City Council agreed on Tuesday to make the city’s code division responsible for the city’s illegal dumping program, meaning the Utilities Department will no longer handle it. City Attorney Eileen Teichert’s office found that the city’s funding system for the program may have violated Proposition 218. That state law says that utilities fees from ratepayers must correspond to the costs of delivering the utilities services. “The city attorney’s office has determined that under Prop. 218, garbage rate revenues may not be used to

Policies. Procedures. Controls. Max Fernandez uses those three words frequently to describe the overhaul he’s leading at the city’s Community Development Department (CDD). Fernandez, the new director of the department, sat down with The Sacramento Press this week to discuss how he’s changing the culture and tightening rules at the department after it faced a host of recent crises with fees and building permits.  The CDD director job was a promotion for Fernandez, who was the former director of Code Enforcement. He started work at CDD in early July.  “A big change that we’ve had since I’ve been here is we’ve implemented all these policies and procedures,” Fernandez said. “That was a big

Max Fernandez, former director of the city’s Code Enforcement Department, has been promoted to lead the Community Development Department. In one of several recent consolidations of city departments, Code Enforcement became a division of Community Development. Fernandez started his new post July 6. A third-party firm is auditing the department. Auditors from Sjoberg Evashenk Consulting Inc. of Sacramento are analyzing numerous issues at the department, including claims that it broke the city's planning rules and did not gather fees from developers. “Obviously, there have been issues” at the department, Fernandez said Friday. The department is working on a plan to retrain its employees,

Following my remarks in my commentary Big Brother or Big Bully, a reader complained that the former Franklin Villa had nothing to do with the article about rental home inspections. My thrust there was to point out how the city council members, going back several administrations, have had the policy of sitting in the back room and making sub rosa decisions that affect you, me and our pocketbooks.  Then they bring these matters out in public meetings where they have to allow concerned citizens their three minutes, and not a second more.  When all this is done, they go ahead and pass what they had already decided on in their clandestine meetings. Where does Franklin Villa come in?  The city

Q: My issue revolves around my neighbor, who many years ago planted bamboo straight into the ground, along our shared fence line. As you may or may not know, bamboo is terribly invasive and spreads rapidly, and it is recommended that it be planted in a metal garbage can to prevent it from spreading. You can probably guess that my neighbor's bamboo plant has spread into my back yard and it's been a nasty headache to deal with. It's been such a burden that when a storm knocked over the fence it's next to a few years ago, my home's previous owner simply gave up a portion of the yard to accommodate the bamboo plant's size. At this point, the bamboo is once again pushing hard against the fence,

Posted by originalgabriel Hi Officer Michelle I’ve lived in my current house on G Street for a bit over a year an in that time, a new neighbor in the apartment building two doors down has moved in. She has a dog who she just lets out her door to go to the bathroom. Being the closest house with an accessible yard, her dog makes a b-line to my house to go to the bathroom. Now, we’ve confronted her a few times and have asked her to, at the very least, follow her dog out and clean up after him but, despite her promises, it never happens. And every time we go out to do yard work, mow the lawn, etc. we’re greeted by "doggie land mines". Is there anything we can do about this? Dear originalg

 In my previous articles, "Graffiti artists vs. property owners" and "How you can affect graffiti" (which you can view by clicking the Storyline tab to the right), the discussion played mostly on property owners, graffiti removal and costs involved. That's only a a part of the issues involved with graffiti. There's a lot I'd like to know about the person holding the spray paint. What happens when a tagger (the person colorfully broadcasting their moniker) gets caught for vandalizing property? Under Penal Code section 594, the penalty given depends on the dollar amount of damage done. Essentially, the cost of property damages done by a tagger determines whether he or she is charged with a