Hazelwood City Council Mulls Vacant Housing Issues, Alcohol Sales Requirements at April 13 Work Session

had an active work session on April 13, conversing amongst each other and Hazelwood code administrator Pat McSheehy, regarding various issues pertaining to city code and effective enforcement.

At the top of the meeting, the council discussed vacant housing stickers and related copper theft, an issue Ward 1 Councilwoman Carol Stroker asked be placed on the work session agenda at the March 16 city council meeting.

Stroker was concerned the city's orange, vacant housing stickers were attracting criminals to the area for the purpose of copper theft, something she noted as an issue.

McSheehy reported that the city manager, Edwin Carlstrom, had given the OK to temporarily try out a new process for the past six to eight weeks involving vacant housing. The new process involves affixing an infraction notice to the door instead of the orange sticker.

The most estimate Hazelwoood's vacant housing population to be at 6.8 percent. Still, councilmembers want to see a decrease in petty theft related to criminals stealing copper from vacant housing.

"If you only knew how much copper has been stolen from the City of Hazelwood. It would blow your mind," Stroker said. "Those orange stickers meet like a red flag, and this is just a little less unobtrusive."

But some members still feel posting a letter instead of an orange sticker is not an effective measure. Ward 2 Councilman Robert Aubuchon posed a question as to why the city couldn't simply mail the letter to the homeowner and post nothing on the door of a vacant home, thereby not differentiating it from other houses in the neighborhood.

"What's the difference between a white envelope and an orange sticker?" he asked.

"It's going to work for a while, but looking ahead, you gotta be able to react in other ways when they catch on to the envelopes," Ward 4 Councilman Mike Conley, said. "They are crooks, but they aren't dumb."

Conley said with the prices of copper increasing, thieves will eventually begin trying to cut it out of occupied houses. "They'll get bolder and bolder," he said.

Mayor Matthew Robinson replied that foreclosed real estate and vacant homes can be a complex situation.

"Sometimes it becomes very difficult to find out who owns the home," he said. "When we asked staff to look at this, it was supposed to be a temporary thing to come up with other methods than the orange sticker. We'll continue to tweak it."

Stroker, however, said the letter is a much better alternative to the sticker that she added can be seen for miles. "I detest the orange stickers," she said.

McSheehy also informed council that the city's notice isn't the only item identifying a vacant home when looking at a row of houses.

"Quite honestly, with foreclosed homes, a lot of times the bank doesn't let us know who (the owner) is," he said. "But they will have a notice of it being foreclosed on and a notice of the property being winterized, so there's a lot of paperwork (on the front of house) than what is put on by the city."

Another topic that was heavily discussed during the meeting was regarding code enforcement and how to prosecute those who break the laws. Currently, the only law in place to prosecute repeat code violators pertains to unkempt grass, McSheehy said.

"It's up to the judge," he said. "We try to make (the judge) aware of repeat offenders, because there are a few repeat offenders out there that would be happier to pay their fine."

Aubuchon expressed his disdain with the process, especially when it comes to residents he said "know the system."

"People that know the system know they'll get cited, they come to court and get a slap on the hand," he said. "They may go back and do a little bit to clean it up, but they don't really correct it. I have a couple people in my ward that are always in court, and it's easier for them and cheaper for them to just pay the fine, and it take another six months to a year to get them in court again."

Aubuchon asked what could be done to make the enforcement process more stringent. McSheehy said that would involve council revisiting the actual ordinance. McSheehy said the citation process does extend all the way to issuing bench warrants for ignoring citations and fines.

"I detest bench warrants," Conley said. "I think they should issue a warrant, bring them up here and go in front of a judge in cuffs if they have to. People say, 'Do you want to be known as the city that does this?' and I say yes," he said.

"We've got to be tough and maybe then they will do something at that point," he said. "I don't have a problem arresting people."

Hazelwood City Council also discussed liquor licensing. At the March 2 city council meeting, Bill Cameron, the owner of , expressed concerns with the affect of the new on his business. He spoke to council about a possible closure he would be facing because of a dip in sales due to the ban, coupled with the city’s liquor license requirements.

At that time, Cameron asked the council to consider alternatives to its city code on  liquor licensing because he foresaw only a few more months in business as it stands currently. As a result, he said, he and his wife may lose their home in Hazelwood, and his employees would lose their jobs. Cameron said he is currently not meeting city code regarding the license, which is a requirement of more than 50 percent food sales for the drink liquor license. He said he can’t raise his food prices to meet the requirement.

Stroker asked to place the matter up for discussion at the work session because "times have changed," and she wanted council to confer with Hazelwood city attorney Kevin O'Keefe to see if anything can be done to create an equal playing field for the smaller area restaurants and businesses. She asked to looking into changing the ordinance to make it comparable to what surrounding cities have.

During the work session however, other members of council felt strongly about keeping the current requirements in place because they feel it keeps drunk driving and other intoxicating behavior at a minimum.

"The city has to weigh the rights of business owners to conduct business with that of public safety," Ward 8 Councilwoman Mary Singleton said. "Crime can increase if people become more intoxicated. Why change something that is keeping crime down?"

Aubuchon agreed and said the city should be setting its own precedent.

"We need to stand on our own and stand our ground," he said. "When we sit here and say what does Florissant do, what does Maryland Heights and this city do, why can't we take a stance that makes people ask what the City of Hazelwood is doing?"

No action was taken during the meeting, as it was just a work session. The next Hazelwood City Council meeting is Wednesday at Hazelwood City Hall, 7:30 p.m.