Brian McGinnis (Nuisance and Housing)
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Unknown: What's interesting about this position is, we
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mentioned a typical day, our days typically aren't typical,
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because it's ever changing. Ultimately, every, every address
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every case is going to be different. It just is. You may
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have a renter, you may have an owner, you may have something
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that's vacant, sometimes the ordinance, you have to discern
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how you're going to handle a tree falling in someone's yard,
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then it falls into the neighbor's yard. Well, whose
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fault is it who needs to clean up the tree? Well, it's on both
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properties. So sometimes there's a lot of discernment that you
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have to make as well. That's the part of the position again, that
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I enjoy just determining how to handle certain specially your
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your more intricate cases. And there's always those cases
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you're going to have that's just that's tucked into the woods
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that you didn't even know existed and they've got a
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junkyard going on, and we don't even know it was there. So all
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cases, you know, whether it's just your simple, tall weeds and
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grass, to your neglected conditions where they have 28
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cars on the property. So there's varying degrees of complexity to
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it.
Alexander Davila (Nuisance and Zoning)
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So we have an ordinance that's written the city has written in,
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and there's certain specific things that would be considered
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a nuisance violation. So when it comes to bulky items out on a
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property, high weeds and grass, the litter, having rollout
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containers out on the street, after day of pickup, these are
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things that are a small part of the bigger ordinance as written
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on the nuisance. Our job, again, is to go out there and enforce
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this stuff and make sure that people are abiding by this
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ordinance and making sure that the properties are clean and
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well maintained.
Maggie Rodriguez (Nuisance and Housing)
1:58
As soon as I arrive in the parking lot, because I always
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try to come here first. And I'll usually be sitting in the
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parking lot out front. But normally, I will come in, I'll
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sit out in the parking lot, I will refresh my mobile app, I
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will start up my laptop, get all my things situated all
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everything I need to work. And the first thing I do is I look
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at my itinerary
The Day Begins for the Code Enforcement Officers
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he's playing when I walk in what I'm doing, one of the first
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things that I'm doing is, I'm going straight to my itinerary.
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itinerary is gonna let me know, any new cases that might have
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come in overnight. So those are the things that I have to take
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care of that's priority. Now, one of the things that that's
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very helpful for us is the QC code app. And I'm going to go
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into it now. So this app right here is very good app, it gives
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us a map of the textbooks that we handle. So the green dots,
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those are all my zoning cases that I have opened the red ones
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on the nuisance cases. So what I usually do, when I come in, I
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usually go ahead and look to see where I'm at. That's the blue
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dot. And I work my way back. So my first case i'll probably hit
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will probably be up here. I'm gonna work my way from here. And
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I'm going to circle around, come take care of the cases that are
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in the middle, and eventually make it back to the office.
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For nuisance cases, I have my parking on the lawn information
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card. And these are final warnings. And then this these
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are just nuisance ones that we put on there when we're doing a
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new complaint. And I have my building inspection tags as well
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as vehicle tags. So I try to keep everything in this little
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packet here so it's
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readily available to me. So I keep that back here
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from day to day, I'll work on however many cases that are in
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my itinerary that day. Now this case here so I've read this and
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this again, going into what I what I tried to do try to get
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acclimated, I like to get an idea of what I'm walking into
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the caller says that there's a Aldi that's wrecked black with
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no no tag, whole front end rack so they're saying that this is
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an abandoned vehicle. So at some point today I'll go out to this
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property and try to locate this car to see if it is in fact
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abandoned. And I'll tag it as such
Abandoned Vehicle
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so I'm filling out the paperwork. Now I'm going to
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place a sticker on the vehicle so if someone owns this car they
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know to come remove it within the seven days they have a date
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on here they have my name, my number to reach out to me to say
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hey, this is written and abandoned. But it can't stay on
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the street like this, we do allow for street parking. But we
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don't allow people to store vehicles on the street. So in
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this case, it doesn't have a tag either. And it's wreck. So it's
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definitely would be considered abandonment in this case,
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because it's reg. A hazard as well. So what I'll do is I'll
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get the VIN number. And we'll run a plate to insure or run the
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van to see if we can get in or any information, I'll send the
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owner, the yellow copy of this, if I can, if any information
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comes back, sometimes there's no information that comes back, I
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try to put it in a way that's very conspicuous to where folks
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can see it, whether they're coming. Or going, in this case,
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I want to make sure I can get the picture of the red sticker
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plus the damage to the front of the vehicle. To illustrate the
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fact that I've listed it as a hazard. All right, and that's
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it. And what I'll do, whether I do it in, in the field, or in
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the office, I'll input the data into the case of what we found
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for zoning, a nuisance inspector, for me, most of my
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stuff can be handled on the field. And this is my, you know
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what, this is my office, we have a cubicle, but basically, you
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know, we won't, you know, we're with our laptops, everything
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that we need to be done from here.
Neglect of Premise
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This address right here has a lot of bulky items in the front.
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This is neglect right here. You see how you have garbage bags,
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you have some material, a pallet, you have all this stuff
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thrown out. So I'm gonna go ahead and write them off. So
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this here, will be in neglect the premise, it looks like
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there's a lot of trash and stuff on the property. And they also
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have a parking on the lawn issue. So we're gonna address
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the neglect the premise issue, I'm gonna go ahead and write
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them up for it. And I'm gonna go ahead and start the process. And
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the process for me is pretty simple, it's just the same as
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the other ones, we're gonna go ahead and take our pictures,
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we're gonna go send them a notice of violation, we're going
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to come back and re inspect and if they haven't cleaned it up,
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we'll try to make contact with them. If they still haven't
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cleaned it up, we'll go ahead and abate the property.
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Now, as you can see, we have a little vicious one out the door.
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So a lot of times when you have a dog like that, protecting his
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home is a good time. Sometimes it's good to just keep your
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distance, you don't want to get big safety first. You know, you
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take your picture you get in your truck, you write them off,
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you don't want to take the chance that the dogs aggressive,
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it doesn't matter if he's a small dog, or big dog. Safety
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first, always be safe. Sometimes people don't understand that
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going on to the property and telling them what to do with
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their property and what permits they have to get in order to do
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certain things on a property is the challenging part. Because a
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lot of people and I'm be honest, you know, before working for
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code enforcement, I wouldn't have understood that myself. I
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buy a property I figure I can do whatever I want to do with the
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property. Well, yes and no. If you want to build this huge
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structure and have people living in it, well you have to go
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through the proper channels and see if it's even allowed in the
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zoning designation. Because once you understand and this is what
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I get for most people, anytime you educate somebody on
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something and they understand that then they understand why
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I'm there
Unsafe Building
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what I'm going to do today is just put up my posting for an
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unsafe conditions unsafe building, I had a referral from
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CMPD regarding a fire at this location. I've already conducted
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my inspection and ordered my title search for the property.
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The property is definitely very unsafe. So I'm going to be
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posting this on the property now to keep folks from injuring.
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So the property also had a lot of debris due to the fire Of
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course, and the owner has since picked up all the debris that
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was out here at the time of the initial inspection. So now my
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case, as far as the paperwork, a portion of it, and the
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inspection portion of it is complete. So now we'll just wait
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for the owner to deal with her insurance companies and
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adjusters and to try and figure out what they're going to do
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with the property either they're going to demolish it, or
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renovate it and bring it back up to code.
Collaboration with CMPD (Officer Contreras and Officer Castro)
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We're at another housing case, I got two of my community policing
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officers. We have officer Contreras here with me. And I
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also have officer Castro, they are part of the Community
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Policing Team in this area. And they assisted me with this
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particular housing case that was called in as a complaint due to
11:02
a vacant house being occupied. without authorization by
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squatters. So the city did receive that complaint, we came
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in with the assistance of CMPD, we completed the inspection in
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the interior, as well as the exterior, the case was opened,
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we did get in touch with the owner, they are actively or were
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actively making renovations, when we first took the case,
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they are on a time limit, they do have 60 days, I did provide
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an extension. So I gave them another 30 days to show
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improvement of the renovations in the property at that time,
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then I'll come back out, do another inspection and see where
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they are with repairs and bringing the property up to
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code. The property is secured, it's boarded up to prevent any
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more squatters from entering the structure. So the case is still
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active until the all the renovations are completed and
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all the permits are closed, and everything passes and meets
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code, then at that time, it'll be closed. But right now the
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case is still active with the city of Charlotte. So that's
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where we are with this particular case.
Community Engagement
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I pride myself on the human aspect of things. As far as I'm
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going to use a home that looks neglected. And I've gone into
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properties before for a nuisance complaint. And I've literally
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thought the price the place was abandoned. And I go to the
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property. And I leave my door hanger, I leave the information,
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I take pictures of all the really the dilapidated
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conditions of the grounds. And I get a phone call. And they
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explained to me, you know, they asked, well, what's wrong with
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my property? And I explained to them, and I'll also say, what is
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everything? Okay, because when I came to your property, I thought
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that it was abandoned. That's how bad it is, you know? So I'll
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ask this person, are you okay? Do you need help? Because we do
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have city resources that can go out and help folks that are in
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need. Right? So community engagement, we tried to get them
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in touch with folks who maybe they need some help with their
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landscaping, maybe they need a new roof. We do have resources
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for those folks. So not only and again, I can't speak for all
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inspectors. But when I go out and see something like that, I
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think goodness, there's got to be something else going on. So I
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really tried to use that human aspect that that reaching out to
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someone say, are you okay? You know, because we all go through
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difficult times, right? So, you know, we want to make things
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better. We want to improve the city, we want the city to look
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nice when folks from out of town can see it. We want to keep our
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city vibrant and growing and, and educating folks think that
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this job is amazing. I think that I'm not gonna let me
Job Fulfillment
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rephrase. I know the job is amazing. Because you get a
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fulfillment from the job. You know, it's it's one of those
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jobs that you can see something where you started at A and ends
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at Z, and you saw the process go through. And when it gets to Z
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when you finally closing a case, you feel fulfilled, and you did
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a great justice to the community. Now the community is
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looking better. You can take pride and say, I bet that and a
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community is very appreciative of the job that you do. So if
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you want to feel fulfilled, you want to work with a great team.
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You want to work with great management. This is the place