East Swope Highlands Neighborhood Watch

KCMO Strikes Again

Jan 31, 2008

In August, 2007 the City Council decided to ?“streamline the process?” of the Kansas City housing code enforcement system.

In the opinion of Wayne Cagle; who has been the Municipal Housing Court Judge for 17 years and lives in Kansas City; their new ?“streamlining process?” is often unfair to property owners.
Here?’s the scoop?…...For more than two decades. The enforcement process for nuisance violations
began with a written notice mailed to the property owner and a chance to correct the violation. Nuisances?—rubbish, weeds, ?“open storage?” of unapproved items, etc.?— generate most of Kansas City?’s housing code work. With the August change, city inspectors now FIRST issue a ticket to owner, if the inspector finds a nuisance. Now?….NO warning letter, NO door hanger, NO knock on the door and NO chance to correct!

The biggest problem with this change is that practically every other yard in Kansas City has a
nuisance violation, although property owners may not realize it because of obscure provisions
and the arcane way the ordinances define terms like ?“rubbish?” and ?“weeds?”.

A fallen tree limb is rubbish and an unkempt bush is a weed. Gravel is unacceptable as a parking place unless it was in place by September 1951 and the owner can prove this to be true. What? How would you prove that?

The problems caused by absence of a notice are compounded by the way Kansas City selects properties for enforcement.

Almost all inspections are triggered by complaint, which means that many cases end up in the system because a complainant is retaliating for a grievance unrelated to housing. If a neighbor does not like you, your tenant or has any grievance, all they have to do is call and make a complaint and the inspector will probably be able to find something that fits into their loosely defined nuisance violations.

Wayne Cagle says ?“The Housing Court defendants understand the unfairness. They are pleading not guilty in unprecedented numbers. It is time for the City Council to rectify it?’s mistake.?”

All in all, this is just a crappy situation. Our hope is that when the Municipal Housing Court Judge feels this is a mistake, the City Council will ?“rectify it?’s mistake?” soon. We will keep you updated.