Public Access to Code Enforcement Data

As followup to a December 13, 2012 meeting, I met Thursday January 17, 2013 with Housing and Community Development Interim Director Andrea Ibanez, Code Enforcement Administrator Teresa Williams, Director of City Planning & Development Services Department Ernie Duarte (home of the Permits Plus data system) and City Attorney Mike Rankin (on the phone) regarding access to Code Enforcement data.

The meeting went well with good discussion of neighborhood and City concerns. Rankin said he could find no legal reason why the City should deny our request as the data is public record. Complainant data and the exact street address of the alleged violation is not part of the JWT request. Director Ibanez was very supportive of our request.  Director Duarte will begin discussions with City Information Technology on how to extract Code Enforcement data from the Permits Plus system. Also, a mocked up format proposed for public use will be presented to Mayor and Council during a study session.

Tucson City Court - Update on Data Access

One of Justice Watch Tucson's initial efforts is to improve interested neighbors' ease of access to upcoming Tucson City Court event information, and thereby increase the presence of citizens in court who are affected by a wide range of alleged civil City Code and criminal (e.g. graffiti, unruly gatherings) violations in their neighborhoods.

As followup to a November 13, 2012 meeting with Tucson City Court administration, a message was received December 20 from Mr. Christopher Hale, City Court Administrator. My reply is shown first below, with Mr. Hale's message below that.

Don Ijams

Code Enforcement Background

The highlighted section below describes a JWT request for assistance in improving access to information about open code enforcement cases for interested citizens.

I had an eighty minute meeting with Andrea Ibanez, Interim Head of Housing and Community Development and Teresa Williams, Code Enforcement Administrator, on December 13, 2012.  We talked over the City of Tucson's code enforcement process, what is written in Tucson City Code - Chapter 16 - Neighborhood Preservation, Code Enforcement's administrative procedures, data availability and the arena in which the City's code enforcement process operates.

Detention Hearing

On very short notice (noon), I went to a 2:30 PM Nov. 30 detention hearing at Pima County Juvenile Court Center for a 13 year old boy accused of Class 4 felony criminal damage. The underlying case involves more than 1,000 separate tags.  The boy was arrested the day before by TPD and spent the night in detention (not doing graffiti with his crew).  The boy has been most active on the Southside of Tucson.

The judge, on advice from the probation officer and prosecutor, decided to keep the boy in custody until a pretrial hearing next week.  The alternate to continued detention was a monitoring device. The device was deemed too intrusive for his mother and the boy was not showing any willingness to respond to her attempts to control his behavior.  So he remains in detention.  The prosecutor says the judge next week will likely set him for another pretrial hearing and eventually a trial in several months.  I'm told that the restitution calculation involves nearly $17,000 worth of damage.

Code Enforcement Process

Sometimes restoring public order means using the City of Tucson Code Enforcement process. The Neighborhood Protection Ordinance (Chapter 16 - Part II of Tucson Code) shows a portion of what is required of property owners and occupants within the City. Other requirements are shown elsewhere (e.g. zoning, land use, signs). Justice Watch Tucson wants the Code Enforcement process to be an effective tool in maintaining the quality of life of Tucsonans. A description of the process has been prepared with the assistance of City Code Enforcement personnel:

The City of Tucson Code Enforcement Division can receive a complaint by phone, web, FAX, email, letter, in person, from a code enforcement inspector, City Communications, other City personnel, and from the online program SeeClickFix.

When a complaint is received we check in our data base, Permits Plus, first to see if we already have a case open for that complaint. If there is not a complaint we open a new report for inspection. We strive to open a case within 24 hours of receiving a complaint. Call center concerns (520-791-5843) are entered faster as often the caller wants the activity number for their records, or needs to know who the inspector will be.
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