Yoakum City Council discusses aggressive junk vehicle policy

  • Yoakum City Council members discussed the town’s junk vehicle enforcement policy at City Hall on Dec. 13. Stock photo.
    Yoakum City Council members discussed the town’s junk vehicle enforcement policy at City Hall on Dec. 13. Stock photo.

    At each regular Yoakum City Council meeting, citizens cited for violating the town’s junk vehicle ordinance can make the case that their vehicles are not creating a public nuisance or request more time before enforcement. During December’s meeting at City Hall, Councilmember Michael Brandt asked if the present policy was too aggressive in pursuing its goal of removing public nuisances. 

     

    City Manager Kevin Coleman and Mayor Carl O’Neill said the council adopted an aggressive stance on the junk vehicle policy to expedite the previously drawn-out enforcement time. 

     

    “I felt pretty strongly (during) the last couple of meetings concerning some of the vehicles. My thinking was we were getting aggressive. We’re going in people’s backyards…” said Brandt. “I just wanted us to have an avenue to give a little lee-way to a citizen if they were working on a project car or they had something where it is not so black and white.”

     

    Coleman said the aggressive stance changed the junk vehicle policy in three primary ways: 

     

    • Code enforcement officers previously targeted vehicles subject to complaints or on properties under general disrepair. 
    •  Now, if one vehicle in violation is in an area, all violations in the area would be cited.
    • The City notified violators with a  “friendly letter” 30 days before a hard enforcement letter. Now, the policy voids the first notification.

     

    Nineteen violations appeared on the Dec. 13 agenda before many were no longer breaching the ordinance. Coleman said reintroduing the friendly warning letter may not effectively encourage violators to address the issue and would lengthen the enforcement process.

     

    “We discuss all their options with (citizens violating the junk vehicle policy) when we see them on their property or the phone. What you see (on the agenda) is what is left,” said Code Enforcement Officer Adam. “The ones that go away have either gotten (their vehicles) registered, fully enclosed in a building, out of town, out of public view, (etc.).”

     

    Glenn Klander says the council and citizens can agree to resolutions when they explain their situations during public hearings. Findeisen said he gives clear direction to ordinance violators to present their side at city council meetings. 

     

    Ultimately, no action was taken to adjust the ordinance or policy last meeting. O’Neill said the aggressive policy expedited the process and gave the citizen an opportunity to discuss their specific situation with the council for a fair review.