Code enforcement issues raised in Brockport

Code enforcement issues raised in Brockport

If the Village of Brockport has codes on the books, why aren't they being enforced? That was the question that resident Jack Wahl asked at the June 18 board meeting.

"I live beside the Sunflower Landing development and I know there's a code in the books for the ways dust is to be minimized during construction. It's not being enforced," he said. Wahl said he had called the village's Code Enforcement Officer, Scott Zarnstorff, and visited him on several occasions and nothing was done. Wahl also spoke with Mayor Mort Wexler and Village Manager Ian Coyle regarding the issue. He presented the board with photos he had taken of the dust blowing across the yards during recent windy day. "If there's a code on the books it should be adhered to and addressed. I was told the ground would be watered (to minimize dust, as it states in the code book), construction picked up the next day and there was no watering."

Wahl, a village resident since the early 1970s, said it shouldn't be up to the code enforcement officer to "determine whether something needs to be enforced," it is up to him to enforce the codes.

"I agree. You shouldn't have had to come to the board to make sure our codes are being enforced," Trustee David Wagenhauser said.

"I went to the person who is supposed to be in charge (Zarnstorff) but I didn't get any results," Wahl said.

Zarnstorff was on vacation and did not attend the June 18 meeting.

In an unrelated code matter, landlord George Brocious addressed the board again asking for responses to his questions on code violations as they related to housing with more than "four unrelated" living in the same dwelling. Brocious and the village are involved in a lawsuit and village officials have denied responding to his questions because of the pending litigation.

"I have come before you and given you more than 180 code violations and you still refuse to answer or address these violations," he said.

Wagenhauser said, "I understand your frustration with being found guilty and a fined (for housing code violations) but the village needs probable cause in order to effect an action," he said. "We can't generate an investigation because of an idea of what might happen in the future."

Wexler stopped the conversation at the end of Brocious's allotted three minute time frame. "If, come September when the students come back, you want to sign an affidavit and go in front of a judge with your allegations then do so. And the lawsuit between us is resolved, we will be happy to sit down with you."

Joan Hamlin spoke during the public forum and questioned the progress, or lack of, in the village's updating of its code book. She cited a meeting in April 2004 that pertained to outside building and moveable signs being in place. "That was supposed to have been addressed, but the problem still exists."

Hamlin requested the village consider bringing new codes up for review and public hearings at the rate of a few a month or half a dozen per quarter. "It's been years and very few codes have come up for public hearings," she said.