Foothills Sentry March 2022

Page 3 Foothills Sentry March 2022 7540 E. Chapman Ave. Orange, CA 92869 (714) 639-9792 MEAT&DELI, PRODUCE, BAKERY, FRESH FISH, GIFT BASKETS, WINE MON-SAT: 8am - 9pmSUN: 8am - 8pm www.Pac i�i cRanchMarket.com $ OFF Excluding alcoholic beverages and tobacco products. With coupon only. May not be combined with any other offer or discount. Limit one coupon per customer. Valid only at P aci�ic Ranch Market. When You Spend $25 or More * EXPIRES: 03/31/22 5 OC’s Premier ProduceMarket Members of the Orange Park Association elected three board members to complete the nine-member board at the group’s annual meeting, Jan. 29. Sherry Panttaja, left, and Laura Thomas, right, were reelected to three-year terms. Jim Jackson, center, was elected to serve his first term. The annual meeting featured talks on trails, community accom- plishments, the statewide initiative to protect single-family neighbor- hoods and the unexpected fee increase for horse manure pickup in the county portion of OPA. Orange code enforcement spread thin A report on code enforcement presented to the Orange City Council, Feb. 8, revealed that the city has fewer enforcement offi- cers than similar jurisdictions. The status report, requested by Councilwoman Arianna Barrios, noted that Orange has one officer per 39,968 people. Costa Mesa has one officer per 11,911; Tustin, one per 22,818, and Huntington Beach one per 20,026. Code enforcement answers resident complaints about graffiti, substandard housing, unpermit- ted construction, trash and debris and short-term rentals (STRs). The department receives 1,700 to 1,800 complaints per year; however, that number went down during the pandemic. Those calls are answered by three full-time and one part-time compliance of- ficers. A supervisory position has been vacant since 2019. Recently, one position from public works and one from the police department were trans- ferred into code enforcement. The public works officer deals with public right of way issues, the police transfer with graffiti and code compliance issues asso- ciated with illegal activity. Staff increased, as did responsibilities. Despite the perceived staff shortage, Interim City Manager Tom Hatch pointed out that city staff, the police department, the city manager’s office and city attorney’s office work together to support each other. “We do have a good number of resources,” he said. He also reported that complaints about STRs are now a “fairly low number.” Barrios noted that her interest in code enforcement resulted from the large number of complaints regarding short-term rentals. The city put a cap on the number of allowed STRs, required them to have licenses and pay temporary occupancy taxes (TOT). “When we started collecting TOTs,” she said, “we promised our constitu- ents that those fees would fund additional code enforcement re- sources. Has that happened?” Interim Community Develop- ment Director Susan Galvan said that the finance department had just received its first payment of TOTs, and it was too soon to pro- vide numbers. There is no mecha- nism in place, however, to ensure those fees get earmarked for code enforcement. “We talked about it, but sounds like we didn’t take that final step,” Barrios observed. She noted that the community benefit of regulat- ing STRs was to better fund code enforcement. Residents are reminded that the Orange 24/7 app allows them to report issues (graffiti, potholes, debris) immediately. Launched in spring 2021, the app drew a re- ported 341 complaints that year, 27% of the total. Photo by Tony Richards