Staff recommends the Council conduct a public hearing and approve the amendments to City ordinances on first reading. These amendments will make enforcement and legal processes for Code Enforcement, Police Department and other Departments more effective and efficient.

At the City Council Work Session held on Monday, January 6, 2025, five proposed ordinance amendments and one resolution amendment were presented and discussed with Council.  These amendments have been worked on by Code Enforcement and Legal staff for months and coordinated with all other Departments that may be involved or impacted by the code changes. Council accepted the suggestions and directed staff to move the amended ordinances to a public hearing and first reading.  The amended resolution does not require a public hearing and will be presented to council at the February 10, 2025, regular meeting on the consent agenda.  The following is a list of the amended ordinances:

• BMCC 24-411 Parking for Camping Purposes
• BMCC 18-1100 Graffiti (reward language only)
• BMCC 18-1302 Civil citations service and requirements
• BMCC 6-1300 Display of address numbers
• BMCC 13-400 Division 3 - Business, occupation and professional tax

Red-lined ordinances are attached to this memo, amending some language.  Clean versions are also attached to this memo to show what will be approved on First Reading.

The suggested amendments will update the language in the ordinances to be consistent with previously amended ordinances approved by council.  The amendments remove the penalty for violating these ordinances as a misdemeanor and replace the penalty as a municipal infraction, which has a direct effect on the property owner and simplifies the prosecution process.  This eliminates the need for legal staff to be involved at a court level in these cases. Overall, the amendments also enable more efficient and effective application and enforcement of City codes.

City Council may:

• Approve the five amended ordinances as submitted; or,
• Not Approve the five amended ordinances as submitted. Not making the ordinance amendments will result in existing alignment issues between City ordinance sections, more complex legal processes where municipal infractions are not applicable and less efficiency for Code Enforcement and other departments in applying and enforcing the City codes.

Approval does not have a negative impact on the code enforcement budget and may decrease staff time required to prosecute these cases, increasing efficiency and allowing code enforcement staff to have more time to address more and varying city code violations.

Staff recommends the City Council approve the amendments to the five city ordinances on first reading.