Code Enforcement

[Patrick]

It never ceases to amaze me just how un-kept our city actually looks. And our citizens are partly to blame. I was driving down Independence near NW Expressway just yesterday evening (I live near this area), and this guy rolls down his window and throws three plastic bottles and a McDonald's bag out the window. The trash is still sitting there on the side of the road today.
A few years back I went to Washington state, Seattle to be exact. My dad (in the military at the time and at summer camp), myself, and two of his fellow soldiers, were in the car. One of the men decided to roll down the window and throw out a plastic soda bottle. Just a few seconds later, lights are flashing and they pull us over. The guy is written a ticket for $350 for littering! And he's made to drive back and pick up the bottle. Hmmm. This just showed me why Seattle was so clean. They're serious about enforcing their litter laws. As a result, people don't litter.

We have a lot of laws on the books around here that we just don't enforce well. Sure, it would cost a lot of money to pay police to enforce these laws, but they'd make up the difference in fines and having to pay prisoners (yup, they pay them) to pick up the litter. Having people out there picking up the trash in fact just encourages littering more, because people don't feel as bad about littering if they know someone is going to pick it up!

Other codes need to be enforced as well....everything from animal control, to yard appearance, to dilapidated buildings, to chipping paint on homes.

And by all means, our city really need to start focusing on beautification. Let's start planting trees in the medians on the highways! Let's start maintaining the flower beds and street scaping that we've put into place. Let's do a better job of edging our medians, so grass isn't growing out into the street. Let's get some vines to grow up someof the concrete walls enclosing the highways.

[Midtowner]

Is it just that we seem to have a bunch of trailer trash bumpkins over here who don't think beyond their noses? I don't really think we have any more than Texas or Kansas or whatever. I'm not really sure why Oklahomans think this is okay.

Perhaps it's because people have no sense of pride in their state?

[Luke]

Whenever I see people litter I call 888-5-litter. I dunno if it does anything, but it's an ODOT number. All you do is get the color make and model of the car and the license plate. It's easy if you have a cell phone while you drive. I've used it plenty of times cuz I hate it when stupid litterbugs "lay trash on Oklahoma." We need to "keep our land grand." Heh heh.

[Patrick]

I heard awhile back that when you dial that number, ODOT just sends the offender information encouraging them not to litter and showing the devastating effects of litter. A lot that does! I'm sure the literature ends up in the trash with theother junk mail. There's no real way they can prosecute someone with a call-in system like this because anyone can call in anyone's tag number. Same way with gas drive offs, and the reason why the police can't prosecute drive offs even if the convenience store clerk wrote down the tag number. What if the person is one number off on the tag number? They might end of prosecuting the wrong person.

Midtowner, I think some of the comments you state are right on the money. People here don't have any pride in their state. Also, we have a bunch of redneck hicks here that don't have the slightest clue what effect littering has on our city. It really ruins our city's reputation. It has to do with class. People back east and on the west coast just have more class than we do.

[Polaris]

If there is no pride in this state, it would be because of all the graft and corruption the Southern Convention allows in gov. offices , since they seem to have more power than the governer. By the way, r we sure that these people aren't aliens from another planet with some kind of mind power or are they jusy rich shareholders??

[Polaris]

Or should I have said "slaveholders"?

[Patrick]

What is the Southern Convention? I'm a little lost in what you're referring to there.

[Proactive Volunteer]

OK guys! You have touched on a subject that I spend a lot of volunteer time on. I call it a passion....my husband calls it madness! HA!

We need an overhaul with how code enforcement works within the city. I would suggest that we start with the property maintenance ordinances, which includes littering.


According to Action Center, the top five complaints taken from August 2001 to August 2002 were:

1. High grass and weeds
2. Junk and debris
3. Inoperative vehicles
4. Front yard parking
5. Exterior property maintenance


First off...I strongly believe in proactive code enforcement, which the political will of our city government obviously does not. Neighborhood Services has an average of great programs lasting 2 years due to city council members killing them with stopping their funding or instructing department heads to stop them.

The Building Blocks Program worked well in WestLawn Gardens (Mulligan Flats - Reno to NW 10th and May to Penn). There is new, trained leadership, over 40 neighbors working on an implementation plan to clean up the neighborhood, build new housing ( 8 new houses are being built right now) and implement beautification projects. They currently have funding for 3 neighborhood entry signs and low maintenance flower beds.

However, the funding for this program was killed this year by the City Council.

There are snags from turning in violations through Action Center, to the inspectors not having proper training to enforce the ordinances they are hired to enforce, not enough zoning inspectors and for that matter not enough Neighborhood Service code enforcement officers, no consistent criteria to enforce the ordinances, badly written ordinances that can't efficiently be enforced and the wrong people enforcing ordinances.

We have an opportunity to improve how we handle property maintenance violations in Oklahoma City. From a Landlord Training Program, to code enforcement reform, to anti-litter and recycle education programs in elementary schools to doing a peer city study on successful proactive programs and many other positive ways to fix the problems.

Litter Program Suggestions


Community Service Program needs to be established for non violent juvenile and adult offenders to perform litter pick up and graffiti removal.

Lobby for all public schools receiving MAPS for Kids funding to require Community Service in order to graduate. This should start in the high schools and implement to the elementary schools.

Create an ongoing litter educational marketing campaign.


It will take many voices to the City Manager and City Council to help bring about the changes Oklahoma City needs.

Hope yours will be one of them!

[Proactive Volunteer]

“The city’s appearance is important in attracting new industry or bolstering the tourist trade. When appearance is poor, efforts to attract industry and tourism may be unsuccessful. But when there is pride in a community’s appearance, these efforts are bolstered by a confidence that can win the day.”


OKC Plan 2000-2020
September 28, 2000



“We believe that there is a growing consensus that physical attractiveness of an area directly affects property values and that well-maintained areas tend to be safer areas. Viewed in this light, efforts to uphold the community standards inherent in the maintenance code are an important complement to the other components of neighborhood revitalization.

We would suggest the following guidelines for City action:

1. City Council and staff should acknowledge the importance of effective code enforcement to improving real estate values, neighborhood appearance, and safety.

2. Effective code enforcement, according to the neighborhood leaders, citizens and staff we have interviewed, is (a) proactive, (b) consistent, and (c) vigorous. This calls for City follow through from the initial contact with a violator to the citation for the non-compliant violator, to the Municipal Counselor’s prosecution, and the Municipal Judges’ recognition that code enforcement is a very serious issue for the appearance and safety of the City’s neighborhoods.

3. Education is important to community support and citizen buy-in to the purposes and importance of the particular code being enforced.”



Rebuilding Our Urban Neighborhoods: A Report of the Mayor’s Task Force on Neighborhood Revitalization
February 22, 2000

[Keith]

1. High grass and weeds
2. Junk and debris
3. Inoperative vehicles
4. Front yard parking
5. Exterior property maintenance


This doesn't surprise me one bit. I have all of this happening in my neighborhood. Our biggest problem is #4 and #5. Unfortunately, when these people park their vehicles in their yards, it is usually after 5 PM., and you aren't able to contact code enforcement. Even if you could contact them, it takes them forever to respond.

I would hate to think that we have officers out there that aren't properly trained, or who don't write citations when they should.

Why does the city council keep killing these programs ? I would think that they would want to keep these programs going so that our city would be attractive and so that more people would be interested in settling down here.

I work within a mile of Mulligan Flats, however, I haven't been over there in quite a while. I didn't realize that there was so many improvements taking place over there. The area has always been low income, and the houses in poor condition, so I am glad to hear that the area is improving. It takes people that are interested in cleaning up their neighborhood and making it presentable for any program to work. If the residents in Mulligan Flats can make their area more desirable and more attractive, by working together, than anyone can. It takes hard work and determination.

I agree with proactive volunteers plan on cleaning up the city. Her idea of having non-violent offenders to do community service by picking up litter and painting over graffiti is a super idea. As long as there is community service, then litter should be a top priority.

I also believe neighborhood associations can adopt an area, in which they are responsible for litter pickup and graffiti removal. We have scout troops, churches, and other organizations that adopt certain stretches of roads, and all they have to do is to keep the area clean. It's a great plan.

We all need to continue to call in code violations to the Action Center, and maybe the mayor and the city council will see the need to start special programs, seeing that code enforcement can't get the job done.

[Polaris]

I guess ya'll neva hurd of the Southern Baptist Mafia.

[Patrick]

Uh...yeah, Keith and I are both Southern Baptists! We're not rich, we're not shareholders, and we're not slaveholders. None of the people in our churches are slaveholders, and the great majority of the people in our churches are not rich nor are they shareholders, although there is nothing wrong with either one.....rich people actualyl have nicely manicured lawns, so they are not to blame.
Keith and I, along with all of the other members in our religiuos denomination aren't part of a mofia, nor are we aliens from another planet. Sure Keith may look like an alien (lol! just playing with ya Keith) but he really was born in the states. And the Southern Baptist Convention apparently doesn't have any power in our state or any power over our governor...if it did, then the lottery would've failed. It passed by a huge margin.

And I really don't see what the Southern Baptist Convention, a religious denomination, has to do with code enforcement in our city. Simply put, this is not a religious topic, and religion plays no factor in the matter whatsoever.

By the way, just for the record, our mayor attends a church that's part of the Church of God in Anderson, Indiana, not a Southern Baptist Church. But, that's beside the point, because I don't blame him for the problems.

The blame lies more on the tight city budget resulting in a shortage of code enforcement officers.

Also, part of the blame can be placed on our citizens. If our citizens would take a little more pride in our city, we wouldn't have as large of a problem on our hands. We have a lot of redneck trailor trash that doesn't know the difference between a pickup window and a garbage can. Most of them are too hung over the next morning to even worry about going to church. So you definitely wouldn't find them in a Southern Baptist Church.

[Patrick]

Back on topic, I think both Proactive and Keith hit the nail on the head. Getting people in their neighborhoods more involved through neighborhood associations and other programs allows people to take more pride in the commuinty where they live.

If anything, our non-profit organizations like our scout troups, CHURCHES, OKC Beautiful, etc., are the only ones actually doing anything to help clean up the city. My church had a work day just a few months ago where we went into the community and helped clean up the surrounding community. We did everything from mow high grass, to plant flowers, to paint houses.

[Proactive Volunteer]

OKC Beautiful has the Adopt A Park Program. Over 100 city parks are currently adopted through this successful program!! Neighborhood Associations, residents, churches, church groups, businesses....anyone can adopt through OKC Beautiful a public park, median or easement. Adoption levels vary. It can be litter removal, landscaping or mowing.

"I would hate to think that we have officers out there that aren't properly trained, or who don't write citations when they should."
Quote from Keith

I was outraged when I was told this by a code enforcement officer, that the training this person was put through was one week of riding with another code enforcement officer. This is not proper training due to the fact that there are officers that send back way to many "no problem found" responses when there actually is a code enforcement violation...and this is who is training new officers. Luckily this officer took it upon themself, to read the city ordinances and become educated in what they were there to enforce.


"Why does the city council keep killing these programs? I would think that they would want to keep these programs going so that our city would be attractive and so that more people would be interested in settling down here."
Quote from Keith

Priorities of the council's favorite programs can kill good neighborhood programs. Building Blocks was killed by a council person who was angry that the success of Westlawn Gardens was not happening in their ward. Even though their ward had a Building Blocks neighborhood that was doing fairly well, this council person was angry that a neighborhood who never applied to be included in the program was not in it and decided to kill the program.


Budget cuts also kills good neighborhood programs. Neighborhood Services had a mural program. If a site in the neighborhood was repeatedly graffitied, and documented through the city, they could apply for a mural project. This program pulled in neighborhood people, churches, businesses, schools to accomplish the mural. It is virtually dead, if not, due to budget restraints.

Mark Twain Elementary School at 2451 West Main, has two murals through this program. The program has worked in that the two sites have not been vandalized since they were painted.

Neighborhood Associations need to become more active in the budget process of the city's funding. We have this right as we are the taxpayers...and our input is needed very badly.

Case and point.....the city council is currently building two new parks. The parks maintenance in the inner city are suffering due to budget cuts, yet the city is building new parks with no idea of how to maintain them after they are built. As big as Will Rogers Park is, their budget was cut to include one full time person.

Make a difference in our city....make your voice heard!

[Patrick]

Wow Proactive, you never cease to amaze me! Great post. And great insight into the problems we face as a city regarding this topic. I wish I could say more, but you've covered everything. Thanks for the great post. By the way, it's a shame that one of our council people would play politics and ax a Building Blocks program. That's immature if you ask me.

[metro]

I also am wanting to see more effort for Code Enforcement. I live in Bethany were the city council and mayor seem to be behind and slow compared to OKC. I call in code violations frequently but rarely see anything done unless it is within a block of the mayors house. Any suggestions that can help me get Bethany cleaned up?

On another note, those wooden signs OKC Beautiful puts up everywhere are tacky and take away from the natural beauty they put up.

[slydog]

WoW, such hostility towards us mobile home living, white trailer park trash, tax paying citizens. You want to hear an opinion of a different sort? Maybe, if you see this trash on the road and are that concerned of it, STOP AND PICK IT UP NEXT TIME. If you live in the surrounding area and still leave it there for the low income inmate population, well Sir, you are just as much to blame as us trailer trash.
On the other hand, if the people you mentioned would come down a level or two, you know to the level of the common man, the man or woman that pay the salories of those high to-do big wiggers, maybe we would all be on an even playing field. I know for a FACT, there is one council member that would rather not be mentioned in this forum or any other forum that would frequent an adult bookstore on N.W. 23rd that would request movies and adult playthings that would make your southern baptist church close it's doors, you say no, I worked there and talked with the man several times, didn't seem too concerned with the way the city was going at that time. Oh, I forget, the position and title give the man a clean record, HA!!! And by the way I'm not telling you anything I don't practice myself, if I take my family to the park and there is trash, we spend time before departing to at least pick up one or two articles of trash, this I believe is teaching my children to have respect for their surroundings and the mother earth in general, but, I believe if I just talk about it, they may wind up on this board whimpering about something they themselves could have taken care of.
SlyDog...

[Patrick]

slydog, I was using those terms in a figurative sense, not a literal one. Basically I was using it to describe people who have no pride in our city......People who don't even think twice before they throw a bottle out the window. People who aren't educated about the effects that litter has on our city.

And just FYI, I've done my fair part picking up trash....I've helped clean up the neighborhood surrounding my church. I've also been involved in tons of other community service projects in the past, where we've cleaned up trash and done other service projects. I mentioned that in my post, but I suppose that got overlooked. I also do my part in keeping my own neighborhood cleaned up, the best I can.

But to be real honest with you, picking up other people's trash isn't solving the problem. We need to enforce the law and cite those you violate littering laws in this city. We also need to educate our citizens about the real impact litter is having on our city. Like I said, most of the people littering are just uneducated on the subject, or just have no pride in their city or themselves.

And yes, I am that concerned about litter in our city...but if I stopped to pick up every piece of trash, I'd be 100 years old, and I still wouldn't have made a dent in the litter problem in our city. Why am I so concerned? Because it affects the overall appearance of our city, and this has stopped many businesses from locating here. Former mayor Ron Norick once told us about a larger corporation that was considering moving to Oklahoma City.....well, the CEO came to town....his son was in the car and asked his daddy...why is there so much trash? Obviously, the son could see it...we missed out on luring that large corporation to our city. All because of litter bugs in our community. That's a crying shame! Something as simple as litter caused us to miss out on landing high paying jobs! I forget which corporation it was now, but that's realy beside the point.

I'm not really sure what the issue with the councilman and an adult video store really has to do with this topic. Personally, I could careless what our council people do with their spare time.

[Patrick]

Hey metro, in response to your statement about the OKC Beautiful signs....well, we have two choices...1. Either have the signs and the landscaping to go long with them or
2. Have neither

Most of the OKC Beautiful landscaping projects are sponsored by local businesses. They of course want a little advertising out of the sponsorship....otherwise, they wouldn't invest the money for the landscaping. Thus, we can either allow the signs and in return get the money for the landscaping, or we can lose both.

Most corporations aren't going to make a donation if they're not getting something in return. Even donations made for projects like the Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, OmniDome, Crystal Bridge, etc. are recognized on plaques that list the donors.

I suppose an option might be coming up with more attractive looking signs.

[Patrick]

About code enforcement in Bethany...they have a number you can call to report code violations.

Code Enforcement/Nuiscances: 789-6005

[Patrick]

If that doesn't work, try any of these contacts:


City Hall: 789-2146

City Manager's Office: 789-5005

J.D. JOHNSTON, Mayor: Home: 787-5228 Work: 373-4449,
email: jd.johnston@bethanyok.org

Ward 1 Council: Randy Luinstra Phone: 787-2668
email: randpl@integrity.com; Phylis Hadley Phone: 789-9259

Ward 2 Council: Jeffrey L. Siems Phone 495-4922,
Kathi Holloway Phone 848-0047

Ward 3 Council: Tim Tardibono Phone 787-8668
email: TimforBethany@aol.com

Steve Allen Phone 495-4449


Ward 4 Council: Bryan Taylor Phone 789-7810, Phil Shirey Phone 789-3512

[SoundMind]

Patrick I agree with you. I've traveled to the west coast several times, and the mindset there is far different from the mindset here. People in California, Washington, etc. have more pride in their cities, and most wouldn't even think of littering. In contrast, people in our city litter and it doesn't bother them.
You're right when you mention the impact littering has on our city. We have lost many high paying jobs as a result of the appearance of our city. Large corporations don't want to locate in cities that have low quality of life, and litter falls into the quality of life category. Hopefully we can all work together to try to clean our city up, and at the same time enforce the laws already on the books.

I think many of us that really care about our city are trying to do something about the litter problem. The problem lies with those who won't change their behaviors. We need to better educate our citizens about issues such as these.

[slydog]

OK, I see your point, the little people, beneath you RICH people are the blame for the trash littering our highways and city streets. I quote the earlier post as Redneck Trailer Trash too hung over to go to church, you said it I didn't, figuratively or literally, this is a statement that shows ignorance. Just because someone lives in a trailer doesn't mean they are illiterate or drunk, sure they can be. the point for the comment about the adult bookstore was to illistrate that money doesn't make the man, the heart of a man makes him who AND what he is. These posting boards can be fun AND amusing at times, on the other hand, when we go to bashing a certain populatin, we alienate a whole segment of people and cultures.
I DO NOT plan on putting verbal boxing gloves on with ya Patrick, you have been here a lot longer than me, but, I too have pride in my state, my city, AND myself, yes there is a lot to be done to make Oklahoma truely beautiful, it starts with putting quality people in charge of quality people.
SlyDog...

[Patrick]

Hey, I apologize if I stepped on any toes. Seriously, I didn't mean it in a literal sense. My own brother lives in a mobile home park in El Reno, so I obviously have nothing against people that live in mobile homes. And by the way.....I'm not anywhere close to having any money. In fact, right now I'm $80,000 in the red with school loans. I'm living off bread and water! lol!
Usuaully when people mention redneck trailor trash, they're not literally referring to someone that lives in a trailor or someone who's poor. Instead, that phrase refers more to backwards and trashy people that don't keep up their properties. That's what I meant when I said that. I didn't mean to offend anyone that lived in a trailor park. Trust me...I wouldn't put down my own brother who lives in a trailor. In fact, for the most part, his trailor park is pretty decent.

Really, I think we both agreee here, I think we're just having a misunderstanding. I think we both agree that they key to cleaning up our city is for people, both poor and rich, and those that live in apartments, houses, or trailors, to have a little pride in our city, and do their part by not littering. And for those that don't litter, to invest a little time trying to clean up their communities.

Sorry if you were offended by my comments. I'll refrain from using that figurative language in the future since you were offended by it.

[slydog]

not offended, just put off a little by the lingo. If absent minded people can't seem to find a trash receptical other than the road ways, then yes, I say make'em pay til it hurts, the one true way to get someones attention is dig into their pocket book. as far as the lureing of companies here, we shouldn't have to lure anyone, lure again is such a strong word, if companies don't think we have anything to offer, then I say good, stay where they are.
I again say offended, no, not if it was a statement brought about by personal experiences, if however it was a statement looking down your nose at ordinary hard working folks that happen to live in a mobile home, then yes, offense was taken and not very appriciated.
SlyDog...