Neighbor Feuds Costing City Time And Money
Centerville Council Session Scheduled To Address Problem
CENTERVILLE - It's more a case of neighbors from hell than love thy neighbor in Centerville these days.
At the City Council meeting on Dec. 12, council members heard from city staff that a handful of people were proving to be responsible for 80 percent of the staff 's workload in dealing with their repeated complaints about neighbors.
In response, the council proposed a work session in February to tackle the issue.
Centerville Mayor Mary Capra told the council, "In the meeting I had yesterday, it was about 15 residents taking up about 80 percent of their [city staff's] time, and the staff would like a procedure for how complaints should be processed."
Public Works Director Paul Palzer said one particular issue had taken up several hundred hours of staff time, potentially amounting to about $8,000 to $10,000.
He told council members that the complaints were often varied in nature, covering civil matters and those based on ordinance violation.
Palzer said, "Many times, they [the residents] will call six staff members on the same issue, so they will have taken up 15 minutes of time with each member of staff."
Speaking further after the meeting, he added, "I would say the most common complaint would be about structures or other things in the easements or near their house on the property line.
"But these are neighbors who are already feuding; they will make one complaint, then they will come up and get the ordinance and read through it with a fine-tooth comb and then make seven more complaints."
Mayor Capra proposed holding the work session with staff and engineers early next year to formulate a city-wide policy on dealing with residents' complaints about their neighbors.
Two of the suggestions made during the Dec. 12 meeting were: making City Administrator Dallas Larson the sole point of contact for complaints to guard against duplication of phone calls; and sending city staff out to investigate all ordinance violations on the part of the alleged violator AND the complainant when any concern was lodged.
Council Member Jeff Paar said, "Once it gets to $10,000 and several hundred hours, that's ridiculous.
It's childlike, and it's wasting time where staff cold be doing other stuff and I've no patience for that. I say, bill them."
Mayor Capra added, "We certainly want to serve our citizens who have viable complaints."