Chattanooga may bring an administrative hearing officer on board this fall to combat neighborhood blight.
The administrative hearing officer, as envisioned in a proposed ordinance coming before the City Council on Tuesday, can levy fines of up to $500 per code violation instead of the normal $50 environmental court fine. For properties where the owner does not live, the fine can go up to $500 per violation per day.
Chattanooga Economic and Community Development Administrator Donna Williams
Staff photo by John Rawlston/Chattanooga Times Free Press Chattanooga City Councilman Chris Anderson“The administrative hearing officer is not about homeowners in low-income neighborhoods,” said Councilman Chris Anderson, who sponsored the ordinance. “It’s about slumlords who take advantage of the poorest people in our city.”
The hearing officer also will serve as leverage against banks that own foreclosed properties but do not want to clean them up.
For offenders such as these, the current $50 citation counts for little beyond the cost of doing business and amounts to a cheap alternative to taking care of dilapidated properties, Anderson said.