Code enforcement suffers from lack of personnel
With a lack of officers and the way the rules are laid out, there isn’t a whole lot that Lee County code enforcement officers can do about many of the things North Fort Myers residents are complaining about.
That is what Dave Paschall, head of Lee County Code Enforcement, told residents during the monthly North Fort Myers Civic Association meeting last week at the recreation center.
Paschall said that Lee County once had 28 officers, but once the recession hit, that number went down to 11 with the county expected to hire four more this week.
As far as enforcing codes, Paschall said there is only so much his department can do, especially with many of the things residents have complained about and the fact North Fort Myers has only two officers assigned to it.
“Lee County doesn’t regulate cars parked on the lawn because if you have teenaged kids you have many cars,” Paschall said. “People can sell four cars a year on their property without being called a salesman.”
Neighbors said that on Orange Grove Boulevard, near where some of the nicest neighborhoods in town are, there are also properties filled with “not-so-nice stuff.” Weekly garage sales, boats being sold on the lawn, and stripped down cars on the driveways are some of the things neighbors see.
“Code enforcement works on what it can see from the street. We can’t force our way into people’s homes and can’t walk into people’s backyard,” Paschall said. “We can’t determine how people should live their lives.”
Unlike Cape Coral, which has strict code enforcement laws that are acted upon aggressively, Lee County’s aren’t as strict, though it did report 1,310 violations in North Fort Myers last year, 75 percent of which were cited on their own.
“Lee County doesn’t care about RVs you have on your property. You just can’t live in them. You have to go to an RV park,” Paschall said.
It is a situation that has made the civic association bristle, especially in areas where member say infractions are obvious and have been for years.
Gregg Makepeace, who vocal proponent of code enforcement, said those who are ordered to remove old cars or trucks only bring them back a short time later and only cut the lawn when they have to.
“You either had to react or proact. You say you have no manpower, but people are tired of calling,” Makepeace said. “I’d rather pay more money than to see Lee County deteriorate even more.”
Paschall said there are areas that have been a problem for years. Pockets of homes exist that can’t possibly make code and are not safe.
There are also people who have it much worse, living in mobile homes where there shouldn’t be and even living in tents
“We have someone who has lived in a tent in front of his burnt home for months. We don’t want to out this man on the street,” Paschall said.
Ultimately, it comes down to residents making the call if they see something obviously against code. Because even with four more people, they can’t find everything.
“We don’t want people to live in squalor or live with trash. If you don’t call us, the odds of us finding it are slim,” Paschall said.