Code Enforcement and City Legal staff recommend City Council conduct a public hearing and approve the proposed amendments to the City Nuisance, Graffiti, and Boarded Up Structures Ordinances on First Reading.

The Code Enforcement Division previously brought proposed amendments to the Nuisance, Graffiti, and Boarded Up Structures ordinances to Council in a Work Session on February 20. Council made some minor suggestions to the proposed amendments and then decided to move them to a First Reading and Public Hearing.  The suggested changes by Council were made to the ordinances and reviewed by City Legal.  The attached Nuisance Ordinance shows strikeout and new language. 

The residents of Billings will ultimately benefit from the City making these ordinance amendments as the changes will increase efficiency of enforcement, better clarify the codes so people understand their rights and obligations under the City Code, and make it easier to apply the codes by the City Code Enforcement Division.

City Council may:

• Approve the proposed amendments to the Nuisance, Graffiti, and Boarded Up Structures ordinances; or,
• Approve with modifications the proposed amendments to the Nuisance, Graffiti, and Boarded Up Structures ordinances; or,
• Not Approve the proposed amendments to the Nuisance, Graffiti, and Boarded Up Structures ordinances

Should the Council decide to approve the ordinance changes, there could be some advantages of efficiency and process that might be fiscally beneficial.  However, it would be difficult to measure them given the overall complexity of some of these enforcement processes.  The establishment of the anti-graffiti fund reward opportunity would require an initial budget amount; however, Municipal Court fines would be deposited in this fund to help supplement the budget to support rewards for information leading to convictions.