Thank You For Making Me Feel Special …

As we continue to celebrate October as National Code Enforcement/Compliance Month, I was thinking back to a conversation I had recently with a cohort regarding educating, teaching, and sharing.

As a teacher and educator, I’ve always tried to augment my teaching with anecdotes, situations or paths I’ve traveled. Sitting in an educational environment listening to someone drone on about technical matter, can be daunting, boring, and let’s face it - sometimes just plain “UGH!”. Storytelling is such an effective tool to helping bridge your technical information into real world use and when used effectively, keep people engaged.

One of the classes I’ve taught over the years evolves around effective communication, mental health, and code compliance. As CEOs (code enforcement officers), our goal is compliance and sometimes the road to achieving that is up, down, twisted, and who knows what before we achieve that goal.

One of my “go to” examples: I received a Monday morning call from a resident regarding a bonfire, large party, and grading of the rear property that had taken place over the weekend prior. I took some information, did some research, and noted in a Calls For Service report both a fire department call and a police department call. The concerns that fell under my scope of work were grading without a permit, a bonfire without a permit, and the installation of an above-ground pool without a permit. Throwing it onto my list of things to check out, I went over to do a door knock to have a chat with the owner. As I chatted with the occupant, the information provided both through research and the resident didn’t add up. My spidey sense sent me down the path toward a potential “squatter”.

A plethora of research and notices, the occupant coming into city hall with forged documents (the owner didn’t really sign the permit) attempting to obtain a pool permit, and a few rounds in adjudication finally motivated the occupant to remove the above-ground pool, but not without a simple, personalized message to me.

There’s a lot of frustration in the world; at least this individual was able to express himself.

“Hey kid, have you been over to your property on the south end of town?”, said the mayor in a quick morning catch-up phone call. “No, sir, but it’s on my list of things to do today,” I responded. “Earlier rather than later would be great, and PD will be by there shortly.”

I went through a wide range of emotion upon seeing my message. From being embarrassed to sad, and ultimately settling on a bit of amusement as to the creativity that had taken place, I immediately thought that this moment would be something that I would never forget. “You can’t make this s&#% up” still resonates with me to this day.

The point is that we affect people every day in this role. It’s not always an easy job and we are often NOT the popular person at neighborhood watch meetings, city council meetings, adjudication, or even cruising through town. We are tasked with enforcing the rules as approved by the municipality and voted by the constituents/residents. In this case, a permit was required, a permit would not be approved because the occupant was not the owner, and the occupant felt that I was unfair.

The take away is to always be respectful, even when what you’re receiving is not what you’re sending. Having a support system and “champion” helps makes these moments much easier to absorb. The city mayor was, and is, a wonderful man and very dedicated to the community and all of the departments at city hall. As I left his office that day, he said, “Keep your chin up.”