Editorial: County needs cleanup clout that city has

A new ordinance has given the city of Spokane the means to more quickly identify the owners of abandoned properties and try to hold them accountable for their condition.

Spokane County needs more tools to address similar problems.

The recession wrecked the dream of home ownership for thousands in the city, and the abandoned properties they left behind frequently become a nightmare for their former neighbors. Windows are broken, lawns grow shaggy and walls get scribbled with graffiti.

If unattended long enough, thieves strip out the copper, and squatters despoil everything else.

The distant financial institutions holding the paper on the homes are shy – to say the least – about stepping up to take responsibility for their maintenance. Chances are, if they are big enough, they are the reluctant owners of thousands, if not tens of thousands, of homes all over the country.

In Spokane, the situation has caused code enforcement officials to twice seek additional money to keep up with the problem, which can fester for years while foreclosures move forward.

The nuisance and resulting drop in neighbor property values are frustrating.

With the new ordinance, the city plans to hire a company that specializes in finding owners who will have to register, pay a fee and provide a local contact. If the properties deteriorate, the city will be able to move more quickly to secure them and use liens to recoup expenses. It’s still a messy process, but it imposes accountability until the homes can be sold.

The county has a different problem with a Mead landowner who has thumbed his nose at officials and neighbors who have worked for more than 20 years to rid themselves of an eyesore that has been an epicenter of property crime. Fed-up officials are pressing civil and criminal charges, but the minor penalties have been no deterrent.

A District Court found him guilty of a code violation in February. Six months after he was ordered to clean up his properties, the task remains undone and punishments have yet to be imposed.

More typically, an owner facing a civil judgment removes just enough debris to convince a judge he or she is making the effort that additional enforcement action is unnecessary. Junk starts to build up again, the county goes back to court, and the process repeats itself.

If such properties are sold to satisfy tax liens, the cost to the county of securing and cleaning up the property is subordinate to other claims. The county, with the support of the Washington Association of Counties, has submitted legislation that would pay cleanup costs before other claims were paid.

Lawmakers did not even give it a hearing.

Nobody is proposing property owners be denied due process. But counties that undertake appropriate measures to enforce codes and satisfy aggrieved adjacent landowners should not have to bear the costs when public safety matters consume so much of their budgets.