Porter County officials say they're making progress on code enforcement, but county council members say they aren't moving quickly enough.
Development & Storm Water Director Bob Thompson says the current system with a hearing officer is considerably better than what the county used to have. And the county now has the funding to deal with unsafe buildings, following changes to permit fees in recent years.
"We would sit there and say, you know, 'If you don't get out there and clean this up, we're going to take you to court' and everything. We were bluffing, because we had no funding to take us there and get us to that point. So now, we do," Thompson told council members last week.
He said nine unsafe building cases are currently before the hearing officer, with five more expected soon. The county is also dealing with four property maintenance cases and three illegally-placed businesses going through the court system.
But council members said residents still aren't happy. Mike Brickner felt the county needs to be more aggressive.
"I really think that property maintenance, blighted areas, junk cars, weeds going over — that's a quality of life issue for our county, and it affects a lot of different things," Brickner said.
He suggested that one code enforcement officer for the entire county may not be enough. Others felt the county could do more to update residents on the progress of their code enforcement complaints.
