To give municipalities an edge in the war on blight, Schuylkill County District Attorney Christine A. Holman has offered to give building code officials tips on how to prepare their cases for court.
“If we want good results, we have to have good training,” Holman said.
This free seminar, the first of its kind in the county, will be held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Feb. 25 at Courtroom 7, Schuylkill County Courthouse.
“I’m calling it a Code Enforcement Symposium,” Holman said at the Pottsville Blight and Nuisance Task Force’s February meeting at Pottsville City Hall on Tuesday. And she said a group of magisterial district judges from the county, including Christina E. Hale, Frackville, and David J. Rossi, Tremont, will participate.
“I’ve had a nice response from district justices and so far I have three or four commitments,” Holman said.
The symposium will cover a variety of topics.
“We’ll cover things like courtroom attire and demeanor, certainly the rules of criminal procedure that would be applicable to a code enforcement officer and the rules of evidence,” Holman said.
By holding the event in a courtroom, Holman can easily stage court scenarios.
“I’ll act like the code enforcement officer that’s prosecuting and walk them through the steps that you need to take to present your case. I’ll have one of my ADAs act as a property owner, the defendant. And the district justices will be sitting en banc (on the bench) and I’ll give each one of them the opportunity to comment on what they’re looking for and some of the problems they see associated with a code enforcement officer who may have no idea how to present paperwork or a case,” Holman said.
Holman said she’s talked to district justices about their experiences with municipal code officials who were not prepared for court.
“I’ve had some that tell me they come into court, they just come up to the bench and say ‘here,’ and that’s certainly not going to get them anywhere with bringing their case forward as they should and having the result that they’re looking for,” Holman said.
“I’ll be there. I’m looking forward to it,” David J. Petravich, the city’s building code officer, said.
“This is just awesome. I know for our police officers this is part of their training. But the code officers don’t have that. They learn the practical component of code enforcement. They are learning what you need to be in compliance with,” City Administrator Thomas A. Palamar said.
“They learn the building code,” Michael M. McCord, legislative assistant to state Rep. Neal Goodman, D-123, said.
“Right. It’s not necessarily specific to court appearances. So I think this will be really helpful to them,” Palamar said.
“They do have help if they want it. They can always contact their solicitor, but you’re not always going to get a solicitor who’s going to be available to go with them to a DJ hearing or an appeal hearing,” Holman said.
“They don’t always have the time for it,” McCord said.
“And you’re not always going to have the money either if you’re paying your solicitor by the hour. It’s going to cost prohibitive to have them appear to represent you over a $25 quality of life ticket,” Holman said.
“The timing is now to teach this. We’re looking at all these blighted properties and filing these citations and the first ones to deal with it are the code guys,” Holman said.
McCord suggested the event be recorded on video so it can be distributed to code officials unable to make the event.
Holman said she’s going to consider holding the event once a year.
“But that’s if it’s needed, and if there’s a good reception. But already I’m hearing that people are clamoring to get there,” Holman said.
For more information, municipal officials can call Holman at her office at 570-622-5570.
In other matters at the blight task force’s February meeting Tuesday, Palamar said at the city council’s Monday meeting that he will unveil the most up-to-date list of the Top 10 Worst Properties in the City of Pottsville.
And Palamar said ideas presented at two blight summits in July 2014 that focused on ways to improve the buildings in the 100 to 600 blocks of West Market Street need to be discussed. He’s hoping that talk will take place at the next meeting of the blight task force, slated for 9 a.m. Tuesday, March 3 at city hall.
Issues deemed the most critical included loitering, littering, landlord responsibility, building maintenance, cleanliness and a lack of curb appeal, Amy S. Burkhart, executive director of the Pottsville Area Development Corp., said previously.
“What we really want to focus on as well this year is working with Amy Burkhart and the fine folks at PADCO to come up with some specific goals that we can achieve under this West Market Street Blight Initiative. We’re making a contribution from our Community Development Block Grant Program and we want to make sure we have it properly planned. So we’ll get Amy here to the next meeting and maybe we can spend some time talking about how we can get involved with some of those committees to start making a difference,” Palamar said.
He was referring to a sidewalk restoration project along West Market Street. So far, $66,000 from the city’s 2013 CDBG account has been earmarked for sidewalk improvements there from Third to Fourth Street.
Palamar was not certain how much the project would cost but said the bid package will be advertised later this year.