Never has local government leaders been challenged to perform as much as they have since the COVID 19 pandemic affected their economy and their community. Coronavirus has, in many communities, inspired new industries, created new careers, and revealed incompetence of many local government leaders across the nation.

These local governments face a complex and challenging future and will be responsible for developing a new tech sensitive and transparent approach to governance (and local leadership) that caters to the priorities of all community groups. This is the newly realized local leader in government, and these skills will be necessary to succeed in this post “new world”. This shift must happen in all aspects of local government services including community development, regulatory compliance, public works and public safety. By developing new strategic goals, changing public service delivery and “leaping forward” in operational effectiveness a new age in governing will emerge.

“Restorative Management” within local government is the key, and communities will have to hold their leadership responsible to choose effective governance over the potential desire of negative self-interest. Realistically, positive self- interest can be an incentive for local government administrators with career concerns in mind. This positive self-interest can be reflected in the way by which management applies their efforts; this exemplifies their self-interest in their role. Effective local governance is efficiency in the practices and procedures that maximize community safety and economic performance, and the local administrator’s self-interest should fuel this process. Effective and responsible governance provides a structure that works for the benefit of everyone concerned by ensuring that the organization adheres to community needs, ethical standards and newly developed best practices, yet negative self-destructing self interest costs lives.

About the author: Marcus Kellum, MMPA CCEA
Marcus Kellum has worked with local governments, private businesses and professional organizations across the country to train their regulatory, compliance and enforcement officers and inspectors. He spent nearly three decades in public service working with various cities and counties in Georgia, Colorado and the City of New York. He has held positions as code division manager, chief of enforcement, and department director. Marcus is a Certified Code Enforcement Administrator and holds a BS in criminal justice administration, and a master’s degree in management and public administration.

Can you ever be ethical and moral and follow the law at the same time?

Ethics and morals relate to “right” and “wrong” conduct. While they are sometimes used interchangeably, they are different, especially as they relate to code enforcement, building inspection and all other forms of regulatory enforcement. How many code officials are required to enforce rules and regulations that they do not fundamentally agree with? Instead of considering the needs of the resident, interjecting common sense into the matter, taking on a bit of personal risk on behalf of an individual and making a simple accommodation; should you just stick to the code?

Before I open that can of worms, let us clearly define some terms.

As aforementioned, ethics and morals relate to “right” and “wrong” conduct. Ethics however refers to rules provided by an external source (i.e. workplace rules), and laws of course have “enforcing authority” derived from the state or local jurisdiction (like property maintenance and building codes). A person‘s morals however refer to that individual’s own principles regarding right and wrong.

Morals and Law differ because the law demands an absolute subjection to its rules and commands; so is following the rules the safest option?

MetricOne Training and Consulting offers this class and other courses which are designed to explore these concepts in a regulatory environment, and help officers and inspectors develop practices to stay abreast of the right and wrong things to do during their daily workday.

If you are interested in the next time this course is being offered, please CLICK HERE

Please leave a comment below if you agree with the statement: “The Rules are the Rules”

One of the key principles of the standards known as GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Procedures) is the consistency principle. The GAAP consistency principle states that when a business has fixed a method for the accounting treatment of an item, it will enter all similar items in the exact same way in the future. Can code enforcement officers adopt a similar approach to enforcement activities?

The oxford dictionary defines consistency as “conformity in the application of something, typically that which is necessary for the sake of logic, accuracy, or fairness….The achievement of a level of performance that does not vary greatly in quality over time”; so for the purposes of this writing, I will use the working description of officer consistency (as it relates to code enforcement) as someone who handles similar situations in the same way, has the same attitudes towards people or things, or achieves the same level of success in resolving issues. With that said, is this practice productive in the regulatory code enforcement arena?

Should the community you serve expect a level of consistency from you and your code enforcement team? Should you be consistent in the quality of your work, in your reliability as a regulator and in completing (or following up) on the tasks you commit to?

Your answer should be a resounding yes!

For public service, especially regulatory enforcement, consistency is especially important. Just like a visit to your favorite restaurant results in the expectation of the same good food all the time, consistency builds reputations. In the case of enforcement, residents expect the same standards. Years of field work has shown me that each individual interaction (or each case) may be different, but the last thing people want is to be treated different than their neighbor– they want a certain level of predictability (the city gives everyone 10 days to cut their grass).  As a regulator, how do you measure your level of effectiveness if what you are measuring isn’t performed consistently?

Lastly, if you want the community you serve to know that you are serious about compliance, establishing and maintaining a level of consistency maintains your message. In other words, the best enforcement efforts will fail without a dedication to consistency.

About the Author:  Marcus Kellum, MMPA CCEA

Marcus Kellum has worked with local governments, private businesses and professional organizations across the country to train their regulatory, compliance and enforcement officers and inspectors. He spent nearly three decades in public service working with various cities and counties in Georgia, Colorado and the City of New York. He has held positions as code division manager, chief of enforcement, and department director. Marcus is a Certified Code Enforcement Administrator and holds a BS in criminal justice administration, and a master’s degree in management and public administration.

Code enforcement fairness and effectiveness depends upon community respect and confidence in local government. Community cooperation with code enforcement is a product of its trust that officers will act honestly and the officer, as the public’s initial contact with the enforcement of codes and regulatory standards, must act in a manner that instills such trust. It is really all about integrity, fairness, consistency and impartiality. A program with proper leadership and dedicated staff allows these qualities to be the basis of their efforts.

As a regulator, you should be able to effectively determine a customers (resident) underlying need beyond that which is obvious or initially expressed, and proactively communicate methods to work towards compliance. Regardless of whether the resident lives in a hotel, an apartment, or in a single-family home; people deserve respect and have a right to proper living conditions in all cases. The municipality that is committed to regulatory compliance will be able to control the quality of life of the residents with an effective program that enforces codes and standards.

The code enforcement officer is responsible for maintaining the quality of life in a community. The fact of the matter is disorder and crime are usually inextricably linked. According to the broken windows theory, if a window in a building is broken, and is left unrepaired, all the rest of the windows will soon be broken. This is as true in upper income neighborhoods as it is in lower income neighborhoods, and the same theory applies to vehicles that are considered junk or inoperable.

In many residential communities, it is considered a nuisance and unlawful for any property owner to have a junk or inoperable vehicle located on their property. For clarification purposes, a vehicle is traditionally defined as an automobile, truck, motorcycle, motorbike, boat, trailer, or camper. Bottom line is this, if a vehicle  cannot be lawfully operated on a public street due to circumstances such as lack of current and valid state license or registration; nonexistent, insufficient or inadequate safety or other equipment required by law for legal operation, then that vehicle should be considered junk or inoperable by a code enforcement officer and qualifies as a violation. A car cover does not make the violation go away!   

If you observe a vehicle that cannot be mechanically operated due to circumstances such as an inability to start and/or operate as designed and intended due to a mechanical or physical defect or damage; deflated tires; broken or inoperable turn signals; or broken or inoperable headlights; then that vehicle should be considered junk or inoperable by a code enforcement officer.  

If this specific language is not in your code of ordinances, then you as the advocate of codes in your community should work towards amending your ordinance. Your role is to visit the location, conduct an inspection, and provide direction on how residents can come into compliance with the regulations. Enforcement is a tool and compliance is the goal!

Having staff that are well trained in their roles can improve a municipality’s business performance in many ways.  Staff satisfaction is very important, and if code enforcement officers are satisfied with their role, morale is increased, which in turn, increases work output. Training helps to make people more confident in their role.

• Better training means better processes. Tasks can be performed much faster if employees know what they’re doing, and the quality of work will also improve. Mistakes are far less likely to occur if individuals have the best training for the job that they do. There is also a chance that particularly well-trained staff will be able to see where improvements could be made.

• Well trained employees can become an asset to local government. They add value to both the municipality and the residents, and a fully trained workforce can be trusted to operate independently without making mistakes or slowing processes.

A local government with well trained code enforcement staff, strong management and enabling legislation can ensure that buildings and structures are permitted, maintained and zoned in a manner that reduces the risk to human life. This allows greater opportunity to utilize the city’s services to restore neighborhoods and address key quality of life issues pertaining to building, zoning, property maintenance, sanitation, tall grass, and blighted structures.

A commitment to training will result in many community improvements; and continuous learning develops a core of well-trained individuals who will enhance the government’s abilities beyond a level that is consistent with growth and high performance.  

Code enforcement leaders are forced to make decisions every day and there are a variety of decision-making models available that can be used to accomplish this goal. Various scenarios require different types of responses; structured, step processes and sequences; however, one should not underestimate the emotional and human element of that decision. The decision itself should be about more than one person. Traditionally, when one uses rational decision-making skills, decisions are based on the factors that make the most common sense. In order to rationalize these alternatives, they can use certain intuitive decision-making principles. Traditional business climates support concepts like decision trees and the grid analysis, but due to the new business climate, like web-based businesses and global outreach, not to mention the complexities of code enforcement, leaders are forced to sharpen their intuitive decision making skills.

The decision-making process should be a melting pot of many models. In addition to the rational and intuitive, many situations in the regulatory field call for group decision making. The benefit of the greater amount of knowledge and the greater range of viewpoints during this process can help a good leader when she must make the hard call. Often time, the stakeholder who will benefit from the decision isn’t in the room and his or her voice isn’t represented so make sure you can trace your decision to a prioritization process that use objective criteria and involved multiple inputs such as what is best for the residents, best for the team and that which is ethical moral and legal.