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New Port Richey offers code enforcement amnesty

 
Published July 8, 2015

NEW PORT RICHEY — City leaders plan to offer amnesty to people owing code enforcement fines or outstanding assessments to City Hall.

Tuesday, the New Port Richey City Council unanimously approved the first reading of an ordinance launching an aggressive program to collect on more than $1.4 million in outstanding code enforcement violations and special assessment payment debts by offering discounts to violators.

In May, city finance director Peter Altman said the effort is intended to drum up revenue and close accounts by offering amnesty settlements to those who come forward to pay. Altman said he discovered New Port Richey had done little over the years to collect on code enforcement fines and unpaid street and sewer special assessments.

The city's $1.4 million in outstanding debt includes more than $851,000 in code enforcement violations, more than $140,000 in unpaid sewer assessments and more than $229,000 is unpaid street assessments. Additionally, the city is owned utility payments that are not part of the amnesty offer. Some of the debt goes back as far as eight years, Altman reported to Council.

The city plans to issue letters offering amnesty that could include reducing debts to the original fine or a discount of up to 90 percent on the outstanding balance, whichever is greater. Only those whose debts are older than six months will be offered amnesty, and the discount will be negotiated on a case by case basis.

City staff plans to deal with people who do not take part in the offer by turning over their outstanding debts to a collection agency. If that fails, the city said it will report outstanding debts to credit agencies, affecting property owners' credit ratings.

Council member Chopper Davis has been a supporter of the code enforcement amnesty program but added Tuesday that the city needs to put a time limit on the offer.

"I would like an aggressive approach to this," Davis said.

City Manager Debbie Manns agreed and said a cap for the program of a year will be added for a second reading on July 21.