Dohoney issues report on B&I effectiveness

Over the past six years, the City of Cincinnati has abated 71 percent of all vacated building locations and has achieved 76 percent compliance on code violations for occupied buildings, according to a recent report by City Manager Milton Dohoney Jr.

The report is in response to a letter submitted to City Council last December by Phyllis Schoenberger, chair of the College Hill Forum Quality of Life Committee.

The letter asked the City to review six years of data for the number of inspectors that the Department of Buildings and Inspections (B&I) have employed, the abandoned and vacant trends by neighborhood, the number of unenforced housing orders by neighborhood, and the number of cases per inspector.

Schoenberger believes that an already overworked and ineffective B&I won't improve upon its piecemeal enforcement approach by having its Existing Building Inspection Division (EBID) folded into the Department of Community Development.

According to the report, EBID currently employs 22 inspectors and has employed between 20 and 25 inspectors over the past six years.

These inspectors have handled a caseload of 5,044 vacated buildings, of which 1,480 remain.

They have also issued 67,069 code violations on 13,670 occupied properties over the same time frame, of which 4,889 remain.

The Neighborhood Enhancement Program (NEP), begun in 2007, has been responsible for 1,663 of these cases.

This program, as well as an increase in foreclosures, has resulted in an increase to 340 caseloads per inspector - well above the 200 cases that Dohoney deems manageable - but he says that B&I has actually increased its efficiency through automation and quality management.

"CCE [Concentrated Code Enforcement] is a proactive initative to make a positive impact in geographically focused areas by conducting exterior house-to-house inspections," Dohoney wrote. "CCE is efficient due to the close proximity of the houses and ability to make 20-30 inspections per day."

Dohoney also defends the NEP, saying that it's geographical focus helps leverage private investment.

"The NEP is not intended to be an end in itself, but another tool to maximize resources," he wrote.

Dohoney says that moving enforcement to the Department of Community Development will allow the inspectors to focus on blight abatement by removing the approval of building permits from their workload.

"While code enforcement functions compel owners to make repairs, development opportunities can work alongside to provide gap financing and assist homeowners with financing difficulties as funds allow," Dohoney wrote. "Furthermore, the expertise of inspectors along with the development capability of fellow DCD divisions can be leveraged to create new, progressive and effective programs to improve neighborhoods."

Scribd: Orders issued by year, by neighborhood, 2002-2007
Scribd: Buildings ordered vacant by neighborhood, 2002-2007

Previous reading on BC:
Schoenberger says B&I understaffed, questions changes (12/27/07)