A View From Harbor Street
By David Buckingham

Morro Bay does not have an effective, proactive approach to ensure residents, visitors and businesses follow the civil aspects of our municipal code.
When speaking of “code enforcement” in this context, we are not talking about our police officers enforcing the criminal aspects of City, State or Federal law. We are talking about the City enforcing the softer parts of our municipal ordinances for the betterment of the entire community.
Do we have a code enforcement problem? Judging from the many complaints we receive about various violations, and considering some of the commonalities of well-managed, well-working communities, we should seriously consider a more consistent and more effective approach to code compliance.  
While perhaps not the most enjoyable function of city government, helping everyone follow the rules is a crucial function in a well-managed and enjoyable community.
What is code compliance? One definition is the enforcement of various aspects of City ordinances in order to maintain the health, safety and wellbeing of our community for our businesses, residents and visitors.
If the police are engaged in criminal law enforcement, then code enforcement is the process the City uses to ensure we are all following the various aspects of our municipal ordinances that don’t fall under the umbrella of law enforcement.
Among other things, code enforcement addresses public health and safety, nuisance abatement and fairness.
Whose code gets enforced? The answer to that question is “our code.” We elect the City Council and the City Council sets the policy for the City. That policy is often enshrined in our municipal code. And, it is actually pretty easy to change our code. In many cases the Council can do it in less than 2 months, and they do so fairly regularly.
This is important: the City staff or police do not make up what they want to enforce, they simply enforce the ordinances passed by the council.
Why is this important? Because we should not fear “code enforcement.” If we don’t like a law, the City should not ignore that law, we should change it. In fact, we should have laws that we want to be enforced because they improve our quality of life.
That’s the way we should think about it. We should want balanced, thoughtful code enforcement because it improves our quality of life.
Here are some areas our ordinances address and how enforcement improves the quality of our lives:
• Building codes — we have important ordinances governing the quality of construction so that we can be confident our residences and businesses are safe in which to live and work.
• Weed abatement – we have ordinances governing the cutting of weeds to reduce the risk of fire during our dry season.
• Water waste — preventing over-watering during the drought preserves an essential and dwindling community resource.
• Parking — if we enforced our 2-hour parking rules there would be increased turnover of customers in our business districts.
• Zoning — enforcement of zoning requirements ensures that signs, fences, shrubs and trees do not cause unsafe traffic conditions, preserves the visual integrity of our neighborhoods and prevents situations such as people living in back-yard sheds or public storage units.
• Noise — ensuring residents and visitors follow our noise ordinances helps keep our town a peaceful place that all can enjoy.
• Graffiti — requiring property owners to remove graffiti from their property keeps our town looking like home for our residents and, for our tourists, like a great place to visit again.
At one time Morro Bay had a staff member dedicated to code enforcement. That position was abolished some years ago and since that time our code enforcement has essentially been an “ad-hoc, complaint-driven system” with no staff dedicated to friendly and proactive engagement with the community.
It is probably time to change that and to ease back into a process where the City — in a thoughtful and friendly, but firm and proactive manner — ensures that we are all living, working and playing by the same set of rules.
Code enforcement is good for everyone. Residents are safer, living is healthier, property values are enhanced, business activity is improved and visitors want to return again and again to a safe, neat, clean, and well-run city.
And, the great news is that if we don’t like the code that is being enforced, the community can affect change by encouraging our elected officials to modify our ordinances for the benefit of the entire community. That is local government at its best.
We want to hear your thoughts about code enforcement in Morro Bay! Log onto the City Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/cityofmorrobay and comment on this column in the notes section.
We’ll respond as quickly as we can. Or, send me an email at: . The City staff and Council will be considering improving our code enforcement in the upcoming budget cycle, so make your voice heard now.

David Buckingham is City Manager in Morro Bay. A View From Harbor Street is a regular feature of The Bay News. We too would like to hear what readers think of this and previous columns. Send Letters to the Editor to: .