Schoenberger says B&I understaffed, questions changes

Calling code enforcement statistics "the third most important key along with police and development to increasing homeownership", College Hill Forum Quality of Life Committee Chair Phyllis Schoenberger has several questions for City Council regarding the dismantling of the Department of Buildings and Inspections (B&I).

In an effort to stop the demise of B&I, she has submitted a letter to City Council asking them to review the last six years of data for the number of inspectors they have employed, the abandoned and vacant trends by neighborhood, the number of unenforced housing orders by neighborhood, and the number of cases per inspector.

By posing those questions, Schoenberger contends that it it impossible to effectively deal with housing issues when one inspector has a caseload of 600 properties, and wonders how dividing up the already ineffective department will help.

In fact, she has little hope that it will help, having worked with the Department of Community Development on the Linden Park project - where she doesn't see better efficiency, communications or timely enforcement.

And Schoenberger fears that building Linden Park may not have the desired community development result because the Hamilton Avenue business district remains plagued by property owners who ignore B&I orders because they know they won't be enforced.

In her opinion, this is due to the City's piecemeal approach.

"By choosing three neighborhoods per year, how long will it take to get the neighborhoods to get out of this spiraling abyss that Council and Administration has allowed to happen?", Schoenberger said. "How many of the properties being demolished under the Neighborhood Enhancement Program have been on B&I's unenforced housing orders for the past 10-20 years?"

Amendments to the Cincinnati Municipal Code dismantling B&I were passed by City Council on December 19.

Schoenberger's letter is dated December 7.

Councilmember Chris Monzel has proposed a motion to respond to Schoenberger's questions, but a timetable for a report has not been established.

Previous reading on BC:
Council approves changes for DCDP (12/24/07)
City approves money for new planning director (9/18/07)
$36,000 made available for planning director's salary (9/11/07)