CITY'S PROPERTY STANDARD COMPLAINTS FEW

The supervisor of city building inspectors, Rick Murray, says as long as he can handle complaints of minimum property standard violations an additional inspector isn't necessary.

"We don't have the number of complaints I envisioned, nor do we have the repeat offenders I anticipated," Murray said.

When the Cape Girardeau City Council voted to enact a minimum property standard ordinance in October, money was to be made available for an additional inspector.

"I wanted to wait until at least the spring to see how many cases we would get before hiring another inspector," Murray said. "I guess the only other way to do it would be to spread the work out among the rest of the inspectors, but so far I've been able to take care of it."

Murray is in the process of compiling a report on minimum property standard violations. He will deliver his report to the City Council at the next meeting Feb. 20.

Murray said his inspections have been made on residential and rental property. "We're getting a wide spectrum of complaints," he said. "Many of the residential complaints are made on homes that are vacant or lived in by the owner."

One of the provisions of the minimum property standard code is that false complaints draw a fine of no less than $25 and no more than $500.

"We're having a very good success rate on property owners making repairs," Murray said. "So far there is only one person who has failed to take care of the problem that was identified."

Murray said property owners are given more time to fix a structure and less time to attend to heating problems. "If a furnace doesn't work, that would have to be taken care of in a matter of days, but if it's a roof, we would give the person weeks to comply."

Once a complaint is made and the inspector deems it a legitimate problem, a summons is issued. "Once that happens the person who has violated the minimum property standards must deal with the court system," Murray said. If the inspector discovers, upon a second or third visit, that the problem has not been dealt with, an additional fine is assessed.