Code Enforcement Board will remain in city of Ocoee

The Ocoee City Commission unanimously voted Tuesday, April 7, to maintain the city’s current Code Enforcement Board rather than moving forward with a special magistrate.

District 4 Commissioner George Oliver III was absent. 

District 1 Commissioner Scott Kennedy made the motion after hearing feedback from members of the board stating a special magistrate would represent Ocoee unjustly. The proposed ordinance would have amended Chapter 7 of the Code of Ordinances to replace the citizen-run Code Enforcement Board with a special magistrate system.

City staff also will advise the commission on the effectiveness of the Code Enforcement Board, and if needed, it will reevaluate the decision to maintain the board at a later date. 

During public comments, Code Enforcement Board Vice Chair Warren Lewis said the justification for eliminating the board was based on inaccurate information about its performance. 

“For months, I’ve asked that the public record be corrected,” he said. “Those errors have now become the foundation for a major policy decision.” 

Lewis discussed a recent Code Enforcement Board meeting where the board approved seven out of nine recommended fines and said this demonstrated the board’s willingness to enforce penalties. He proposed a hybrid model that could combine a special magistrate with the preexisting citizen-run board, which would preserve efficiency while maintaining the citizens’ involvement. 

Board chair Joe Bandur shared similar concerns. He emphasized the importance of having local residents — not a single official — decide the cases that impact the community. 

“This is our city,” he said. “We believe neighbors should be part of that process.” 

Bandur also presented to the City Commission a petition with more than 100 signatures from residents in Ocoee who supported maintaining the citizen-run board. 

Following the City Commission meeting Tuesday, Feb. 3, during which the commission heard the presentation of the proposed special magistrate system, Bandur and Lewis met with many commissioners one-on-one to discuss the repercussions of removing it. 

Kennedy said those discussions are what changed his mind about the decision, and everything presented in a public hearing needs to be accurate, but there were misstatements during the Tuesday, Feb. 3, presentation. His issue with the board was the slow response time — sometimes neighbors have to wait six months or more for a resolution to come. But he saw how receptive Bandur and Lewis were to the feedback. 

Mayor Pro Tem Richard Firstner said he thought a special magistrate would be less personal and could be detrimental to the community. 

Commissioners will move forward with evaluating the board’s performance. They sited the lack of training, legal guidance and insufficient communication between staff and volunteers as main issues that can be corrected without dismantling the current system. 

District 2 Commissioner Rosemary Wilsen said moving forward, the board needs to ensure it meets a quorum, rather than go extended periods without meeting, which has left code violations unresolved for months and frustrated residents who want action. 

Utility enforcement changes

The City Commission also saw the presentation of the utility billing policies and procedures assessment.

Currently, there is more than $2 million in unpaid utility bills, which prompted the commissioners to approve changes to how the city enforces water billing and collections. City staff told commissioners that $439,000 of that total is more than five years old and legally not collectable, which requires formal write-off approval. 

Many of the enforcement practices were weakened during the COVID-19 pandemic and have not been reinstated. The issues revealed are property owners not being held accountable for tenant water bills, liens weren’t placed on delinquent properties, payment plans lack structure and late fees were inconsistently applied. 

To correct the issue, commissioners approved a series of reforms including: reinstating policies that hold property owners liable for tenant debts; placing liens on delinquent properties, with foreclosure for nonpayment; sending unpaid accounts to collections; increasing water tampering penalties; raising customer deposits for new accounts; and increasing reconnection fees. 

City staff cited one rental property with more than $10,000 in unpaid water bills as tenants cycled through without settling balances. 

Citizens who are in a low-income household also have the option to utilize the Orange County CDBG program, which is a bill pay assistance program and also has a home repair program to help fix any leaks.