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# Council: Code enforcement lax
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/council-code-enforcement-lax/
- Published: 2005-11-28T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T08:14:42.000Z
- Author: Ryan Hyatt
- Tags: Government & Politics, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*Staff expected to return with more information*

CITY HALL — Elected officials hope laws intended to improve the quality of life for residents will soon be better enforced.

The Santa Monica City Council last Tuesday unanimously approved the re-evaluation of its code enforcement program. The decision comes after the council reviewed a staff report that indicates City Hall’s code enforcement efforts for the past three and a half years have mostly focused on responding to complaints.

In addition to addressing complaints, the council asked staff at the Nov. 22 meeting to look at ways it can more aggressively enforce some laws, specifically those pertaining to the seismic retrofitting of buildings, noise pollution and, if possible, mold. These are concerns that elected officials believe should be higher priorities than they have been in recent years.

Currently, City Hall is budgeted to staff 10 code enforcement positions. Of those, eight have been filled, two of them as recently as September, said Tim McCormick, the city’s building official.

Approximately 80 percent of code enforcement staff are spending most of their time responding to complaints, according to the staff report. These include issues related to construction work, substandard housing and zoning, the staff report said.

City Manager Susan McCarthy explained to the council that staff has focused on responding to complaints for the past three and a half years mainly because residents previously felt their complaints weren’t being addressed.

As a result of this focus, proac-tive areas of enforcement have been largely neglected, McCarthy said. With a full staff, at least 65 percent of efforts would still be oriented toward complaints, officials said.

“This is not an excuse, but it may be time to take a new look (at our priorities),” McCarthy said. “We’re in a policy arena here, so we need your guidance.”

However, some councilmem-bers said that staff had already been directed on the appropriate Councilman Richard Bloom said that under the budget that was passed earlier in the year, it was his understanding the code enforcement program would be adequately staffed. Last Tuesday, he said he expected the division would have already made headway on what the council had identified as areas of concern during previous meetings.

“I’m looking for staff to come back with a plan because that’s what we’ve set out in our guidelines,” Bloom said.

Calling code enforcement a “broken system” that was “embarrassing,” Councilman Bobby Shriver said it was imperative staff try a new approach in dealing with its responsibilities.

“I’d like to see something different, but different in a way that’s effective,” Shriver said.

Shriver and other councilmembers agreed staff needs to look at realistic ways in which it might better tackle code enforcement issues — especially as they pertain to noise and building safety, which they said have been lacking sufficient progress.

Staff has been asked to analyze options to improve its code enforcement program in coming months, including reasonable expectations of what it may be able to accomplish with various levels of support. Some councilmembers said that these crucial components were lacking in the staff report presented to them last week.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 28, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/112805.pdf?ref=smdp.com)