Greer

With nuisance abatement and code enforcement continuing to gain traction as one of the most discussed issues within the city of Marshalltown, Mayor and Acting City Administrator Joel Greer used his public Facebook page to announce that he intended to assemble a seven-member advisory committee focused on the topic back in mid-April. Three weeks later, however, he shared that the trickle of candidates has been slow for the group, which he intends to aptly dub NARC (the Nuisance Advisory Resource Committee), and he is still looking for more residents who are interested.

“Because there had been so much buzz about enforcing the nuisances, I thought that I’d get 20 names overnight,” Greer said. “I’ve only heard from less than a handful of people, so I need to do a little more public recruitment.”

When asked how exactly NARC will function, the mayor said he wasn’t sure of the exact structure and whether proposed members will be subject to formal council approval, but he did cite the current group gathering periodically to discuss homelessness in the community and the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee as examples to follow. Greer plans to make more phone calls and hopes to have his names by the end of May.

The goal is to meet monthly and assist the city’s nuisance enforcement officer, Joe Trowbridge, in implementing best practices like the distribution notice process and fine schedules from other similarly-sized communities.

“I’d love to know what other cities are doing so we can pick and choose from the ones that seem to be doing the best on getting those things done,” Greer said.

Another key aspect will be how complaints are processed and how appeals will be handled, whether through the city administrator or an administrative law judge, with Greer indicating that he would favor the latter. In discussing the matter more broadly, the mayor said he would love to see code enforcement happening faster and have more resources dedicated to it.

“To make our town look better, be better and to help the neighbors that are prayerful about their property values, we need to step it up,” Greer said.

One priority, he added, is carving out enough money in the budget to hire a second person dedicated to nuisance enforcement, and he even suggested the idea of a hybrid position partly focused on nuisances and partly focused on parking enforcement, which is handled by the Marshalltown Police Department. Trowbridge’s office used to be housed inside the police department, Greer noted, and the mayor is open to moving him back there and placing him under the supervision of the police chief.

“I heard today in a meeting that there’s concern by the police force that they don’t want to have the responsibility of helping out on this stuff so much, but in terms of a priority in the community, are we looking at speeding or potholes or nuisances or things like that,” he said. “This is higher on the list than some of those other things, and I know the police chief (Mike Tupper), when he interviewed here, was big on code enforcement and broken windows syndrome and fixing that, so I think that’s why he’d be a good supervisor of our code enforcement person. And I hope the police don’t mind being part of the effort to help clean up the cars that are parked in the wrong place.”

Second Ward City Councilor Mark Mitchell, who made code enforcement a major plank of his campaign last year, called the formation of the advisory committee “an important step” and said he looked forward to learning of Greer’s appointments.

“Things I expect that will need to be reviewed by the committee are codes and looking for consistency, (making them) easier to understand, and enforce when necessary by city staff. They will need to be creative in solutions so codes are fairly applied to everyone regardless of their address or socioeconomic situation,” Mitchell said. “I would like to see a program put in place where neighbors can help neighbors, or our students are encouraged to volunteer time to help those needing assistance while earning the Silver Cord award. This could also include scouting, youth groups and other programs. My hope and prayer through these efforts are that Marshalltown will look better, regain pride in our homes and encourage future economic growth.”

Anyone interested is encouraged to email Greer at mayor@marshalltown-ia.gov or fill out a form at city hall. His original Facebook post from April 12 can be found at https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid07ReZm8ePiFLYuFcv9SoZYBmZbY3JASC93htQ5JpLCtwgeAGdybYgbjpCk2JXrJgal&id=100068862304624.