Code enforcement division aims to improve Newton’s curb appeal

Establishing a code enforcement division in the police department would allow the City of Newton to continue improving curb appeal — a big push by citizens over the past several years — and give those officers working the complaints an easier way to process them through an administrative assistant.

The city council ranked the code enforcement division No. 5 in its 2022-2024 goals list. It is expected to cost $162,459 per year to the city’s budget. Newton City Administrator Matt Muckler said the feedback he has received from citizens tells him the city is moving in a positive direction in terms of curb appeal.

Currently, the city has two community service officers (CSOs) reporting directly to the police chief and taking care of all of their administrative work. When the city receives a complaint, the CSOs respond and drive out to a property to assess the situation. From there they can determine whether there is a code violation.

If there is a code violation, the CSO returns to the office to write up a citation and deliver it to the property owner. Muckler said the city is looking for ways to keep CSOs out in the community a little bit more and have an administrative superior assist with the paperwork side while also hiring an additional CSO.

“So we would have three CSOs instead of two,” Muckler said. “And we would have a lieutenant that would be supervising this. A person that right now is serving as a sergeant would be promoted to lieutenant to oversee this and kind of the administrative area.”

In total, the code enforcement division would create two new jobs: a new CSO position and an administrative assistant-type position to assist the three CSOs.

“The two CSOs we have now have done an excellent job,” Muckler said. “There is just more out there to do than two people can handle. We’re going to keep up the curb appeal. I think having 70 or so of the worst houses in the community being demolished through the D&D Program has helped immensely.”

Fixing streets has also improved curb appeal, but Muckler noted there are still too many nuisances for two officers to enforce. Right now the community services division handles grass complaints and snow removal, but that will eventually be handled by the code enforcement division.

“We’re basically going to have a one-stop-shop for when someone has a complaint out in the community, whether it’s grass, junk vehicles that have been left on a property that don’t have plates on it, a car parked in the grass in the front yard or trash and junk on a property — pretty much anything,” Muckler said.

Citizens can report code enforcement issues online at www.newtongov.org/729/Code-Enforcement. There is a link web users can click on to report violations.

A lot of residents have used the online submission form, which Muckler said is an easier way for them to report issues — even anonymously. With more CSOs to respond to these complaints, the curb appeal is expected to get better and better.

“We’ll now have a little bit more resources behind cleaning up neighborhoods.”