Los Alamos County Councilor James Chrobocinski Los Alamos County Councilor James Chrobocinski has set a meeting for 10 a.m. Friday with local residents unhappy with the manner in which the Los Alamos Municipal Code addresses non-compliance issues for maintenance of property and structures within the County.
The meeting, which will be held at Chrobocinski’s office at 1475 Central Ave., Suite 220, was scheduled by local resident Heather Ortega and Chrobocinski after he joined in a discussion of complaints about enforcement of the Code on a locally-based Facebook page called The Good, The Bad and the Ugly of Los Alamos.
Chrobocinski said that during the recent Recreation Bond Election, there was a lot of misinformation and confusion on social media and he had chosen not to respond.
“In retrospect, it was a mistake. I should have gotten engaged in the discussion,” he said. “From now on, when I see issues like this come up online I will be happy to meet with the people involved.”
Chrobocinski said he agrees that the Municipal Code requirement to keep weeds under 18 inches and that the community has a right to expect that people don’t have blighted homes and yards.
“I believe in private property rights, but I also believe in not infringing on your neighbor’s property rights. There should be some balance,” he said. “I want to listen to people’s concerns with an open mind and see if there is a way for the process to work better.”
Ortega said the idea behind the meeting is to give both sides a chance to discuss the issue and come up with ways to make the Code work better.
Chrobocinski said neither County Community Development Department Manager Paul Andrus or Building Safety Manager Michael Arellano and his two inspectors, Larry Valdez and Michael Marquez have been invited to Friday’s meeting.
Under Chapter 18 of the Municipal Code, Enforcement staff initiate a response to code violations when they observe an infraction or when they receive a complaint regarding a particular property. When a code violation is brought to a property owner’s attention, the hope is that through voluntary compliance and a spirit of personal responsibility, the violation can be corrected.
A notice of violation can be issued to the property owner, tenant or both. It describes the violation and sets a reasonable time for abatement of the violation, usually not less than nine days or more than 30 days after service of the notice. If the violation still exists after the prescribed time, a complaint charging the violation may be filed with the Municipal Court and the alleged violator is summonsed to court. If the alleged violator contacts Code Enforcement personnel, the time clock usually stops and both parties work out a plan to solve the non-compliance issue with inspectors agreeing to grant time extensions where needed.
Several local businesses and homeowners have already received summonses to appear before Los Alamos Municipal Judge Alan Kirk for violations of the County Code. Judge Kirk said almost all citations which have come before him have been dismissed.
“The goal is to resolve the situation and the program here in Municipal Court has been very successful with 98-99 percent of the cases resolved and dismissed,” he said.