Case Studies Revitalizing a City’s Code Compliance Program

Code Enforcement Solutions for Roswell, GA

Reducing backlog of compliance cases

Roswell is a City in north Fulton County, Georgia. With an estimated population of nearly 95,000, Roswell is the state’s eighth-largest City, a suburb of Atlanta including an affluent historic district.

According to the Economic Development and Business Advocacy Organization, Roswell serves as a catalyst for a sustainable, innovative and vibrant business community. Their vision is to be the best place in the region for innovative, community-minded businesses and entrepreneurs, focusing on four main areas of work—business attraction and recruitment, business retention and expansion, industry support programs, and business development.

In 2018, SAFEbuilt’s Code Compliance Supervisor, saw a need to provide a more robust and responsive code compliance program as there had been issues around residents and City leaders not having status updates on tracked violations. The software system, SeeClickFix (SCF), was being used, however, there were incidents of some violations not being transferred from SCF to the City’s code compliance software platform in a timely fashion.

SAFEbuilt SOLUTION

The SAFEbuilt team led an effort to clear the backlog, assigning 20 violations per day per Code Compliance Officers until they eliminated the backlog. During this time, the officers visited and verified each old SCF complaint one by one until each violation was resolved and feedback was reported to each citizen. Since then, it has become policy to combine Munis—current software—with SCF to respond to violations within 24-hours. Once a violation is submitted, the complainant receives feedback same-or-next-day as to what’s going to happen and when, or what was done to remedy the situation. As the case changes status from “open” (when reported) to “acknowledged” (once assigned), an email notification is sent directly to the citizen indicating a change in status.

To streamline the process each SCF complaint was assigned to the responsible officer’s area, an email of the complaint was sent to the appropriate officer, and the case entered into Munis. The officer then completes a site inspection and responds back with observations and initial actions, and then documents their findings in the case file. Comments can then be made public on the SCF forum that includes the status of the complaint and action taken.

Due to the length of time involved in due process of issuing notices/citations, the SCF complaint is closed once a Munis case has been opened and initial action is reported. Code Compliance Officers are then responsible for tracking progress, issuing appropriate notices of violation, and then re-inspecting for compliance. If contact is made with the violator, and resolution is complete at the time of contact, resolution information is published on SCF, and the complaint is closed.

Client Benefits

Roswell citizens and City leaders now have much quicker response times, as well as the ability to receive answers to more complex questions and situations personally. By utilizing both systems together, the SAFEbuilt code compliance team is able to make direct comments and give a more personal touch as they are now able to hear directly from a supervisor. This aids in helping the public feel more connected to the process and solutions. In addition, citizens are invited to contact the Code Compliance office or supervisor directly with any questions they may have.
Since implementing this new, revamped process, cases are now acknowledged via SCF on the same day and most cases are then moved into Munis just as quickly. This process helps to ensure a timely resolution to each code violation.