City outlines plan to cut code-enforcement backlog, add staff and leverage early notices and text alerts

Planning and Neighborhoods Director James Wagner and code-enforcement manager presented a multi-pronged plan to reduce a backlog of roughly 3,324 received cases that staff attributed to increased reporting and staffing gaps. Wagner told the council that the department had added budgeted positions and would focus on voluntary compliance through early notification postcards, text messaging to water-account holders and targeted courtesy door contacts. "We are actually worse than last year right now," Wagner said, describing current backlog trends and the approach to address them.

Staff said the department hired new positions (code officer 1 roles) and expected full staffing for the new roles by early October, with training windows of about 6–8 weeks for new hires. Manager Brent (transcript: Bridal Fitzgib) reported voluntary compliance rates had increased from roughly 77% earlier in the year to about 81–82% after piloting the approach and noted plans to track first-contact timings in the software system. Council members asked about timelines to resolve priority cases, the app-based reporting tool, and mechanisms for handling after-hours violations; staff said priority-one public-safety cases are still handled quickly and that their goal is to get most new complaints contacted within the first week and inspected or enforced within 30–60 days depending on compliance.