Since Madison’s new environmental court was created last month, 12 cases have come before the city, making citizens ensure their properties are clean and well-kept.
The new court is to help expedite criminal court proceedings within the city as well as property code violations.
“If they clean the properties, they don’t have to come to court,” Director of Building and Permits Ken Wilbanks said. “Our goal is to just make sure you get it cleaned up, and most citizens are doing that.”
Wilbanks said some of the cases involve citizens that have not complied with the city’s property maintenance code for many years.
“For some time now, the mayor has wanted to establish an environmental court,” city attorney Dale Danks said. “The primary purpose of it is that, a lot of times, environmental issues get bogged down because of other cases of a criminal nature.”
Formerly the prosecutor in the city’s regular court, John Reeves has been appointed as judge pro tem for the environmental court.
The regular court’s prosecutor vacancy was filled by former city attorney John Hedglin.
“That’s all he’ll do, is be prosecutor,” Danks said. “It’s more or less a part-time position. This way, there’s a separation of cases. The environmental court will deal with code infractions — properties that become deteriorated… housing, permits, that type of thing.”
Michael Cory, Danks’ associate at Danks Miller & Cory, will serve as the prosecutor of the environmental court alongside judge pro tem John Reeves.
Rick Mitchell remains city judge alongside judge pro tem Jim Streetman in the city’s regular court, alongside John Hedglin as the new prosecutor.
Mitchell was appointed city judge after Hedglin’s retirement, allowing Danks to become the new city attorney and vacating the city judge seat.
“This is an effort not only to address environmental issues, but to ensure quality of life and that environmental violations are resolved in a speedier manner,” Danks said. “Hopefully it will divide the jurisdictional issues relative to cases that come before the court.”
Danks said Madison Mayor Mary Hawkins Butler had spoken about creating an environmental court when Danks was still serving as city judge.
“It seems that across the state, municipal courts appear to become involved in separate jurisdictions for environmental violations,” he said. “It helps address prospects of deterioration and quality of life.”
However, the city will have to modify the court according to any initial setbacks, if any.
“Adjustments will have to be made as time goes on. We’ll look to have more cases brought to the court than in the past, just by virtue of enforcement, proper permits and things of that nature.”
Last summer, the city stepped up its code enforcement efforts with the addition of its first code enforcement officer and adoption of new international property codes.
Police officer Chris Henderson was hired in August to issue warnings and citations to Madison citizens that don’t comply with the 2012 International Property Maintenance Code (IPMC).
Prior to coming to the city of Madison, Henderson handled city ordinances in the city of Pearl for five years.
“There are things I can do that a civilian officer can’t do,” he said. “I can issue citations for noncompliance with city ordinances.”
Previously, civilian officers would need to post the ordinance at the residence before the matter was discussed at a public hearing.
Henderson’s first task when he sees a code violation is to issue a 30-day courtesy letter, which alerts the resident of the violation and gives him or her 30 days to come into compliance with the property maintenance code.
“At the end of 30 days, if (most of the issue) is complete, I give them a one-time extension for another 30 days… It’s at my discretion whether to fight or give them an extension,” he said.
If a resident does not comply within 30 days, he or she will be issued a fine of up to $1,500 per day until action is taken to fix the issue.
“I’m agreeable to work with people… I’m having good success with just that courtesy letter. My goal is to work with people, leave a good taste in their mouth. But, at the end of the day, I’ve still got a job to do.”
Henderson said the most common violations he sees are rotted wood, faded paint, tarps on roofs and cars in front and side yards. The IPMC includes fence, landscape and burn ordinances.
“If it’s a violation, it’s a violation. I’m willing to give people a fair chance to get it cleaned up — no harm, no foul. If not, unfortunately, a ticket is the option… It’s under my purview to enforce.”
Visit https://archive.org/details/gov.law.icc.ipmc.2012 to view the entire maintenance code.
