City of Kent cuts large backlog of code enforcement complaints

Residents should find complaints to the city of Kent about litter, rats, graffiti, abandoned homes or other gripes handled much quicker than in previous years.

Changes over the last several months in the code enforcement department to make it more efficient helped eliminate a backlog of cases that had bogged down the division’s two officers for years.

“We have made some great strides,” said Matt Gilbert, city planning manager, who oversees code enforcement, to the City Council during a May 17 workshop. “It has really benefited the public in that we are able to be more responsive to the complaints we receive.”

Code enforcement had a backlog of 82 cases brought down to zero at one point in March. The backlog sat at 18 earlier this month, but that’s still a huge drop.

As part of the city’s new effort to be more efficient in each department, Gilbert and other employees began to look at how to improve code enforcement while keeping the number of officers at two.

A facilitator led a series of weekly workshops where employees discussed ways to improve the department.

The changes include a rewritten initial letter to property owners that makes clear the violation.

“People didn’t understand the wording that was full of legalese,” Gilbert said. “People would call and ask what does this mean? We put it in plain English and the rate of callback on those letters dropped by about 80 percent, which we hope will result in cases being closed faster because people understand they have a violation.”

Officers also shortened how long they give people to resolve the violation.

“Officers often gave violators more time and that led to a delusion about our will,” Gilbert said. “People were perceiving that we weren’t serious, they could put it off. We are not as easy with extensions although we still will work with people.”

Another change involved putting every case on a large, colored sticky note that is posted on a wall chart.

“We put it in living color on a wall,” Gilbert said. “It’s a low-tech solution but it works fantastically. You can look and in a second know where things are backing up. Before we had cases that were not even investigated. Now we can redeploy resources very quickly without clicking through complex databases.”

Gilbert also thanked the council for adding a part-time administrative assistant last year to the department. That person handles the paperwork that the two officers had to do, freeing the officers to respond to more complaints.

Overall, the changes resulted in the capacity of adding another full-time employee, Gilbert said.

The department receives about 810 complaints per year based on averages over the last five years, Gilbert said. Most of those involve complaints connected to Kent’s 42,500 households spread out over 30 square miles.

The improvements impressed the council so much they gave Gilbert a round of applause after his report.

“I really appreciate what you guys have done,” Councilman Les Thomas said. “I’ve had three areas of major complaints that I called in over and over and nothing happened for a long time. This year, all three have been cleared up. I just want to say a lot of people I have been talking with appreciate what you have done.”

With new found extra time, Gilbert said officers plan to go to known hot spot violation areas to file reports even before residents complain.

Councilman Jim Berrios likes the changes to help the code enforcement officers.

“These guys were overwhelmed and frustrated and I don’t know if anybody saw light at the end of the tunnel,” Berrios said. “You came up with some answers and I know you are just getting started. I love that we are being proactive. I know our community was frustrated when they saw what we were seeing and wondering why isn’t anybody doing something about this?”

Who to call

• Got a complaint? Call the city code enforcement department at 253-856-5409 or email CodeEnforcement@KentWA.gov.