I believe those to be very fair criticisms. I am not picking on style or grammar or the fact that a joint meeting between City Council and the Recreation Commission is scheduled for Tuesday, February 11th (and February 11ths in 2005 that fall on a Friday do not exist in our particular reality).

The City designates various people in its adminstration to update different parts of the web site. What that means is that it’s someone’s JOB to keep this information current. Someone has a responsibility that they are not upholding. The City is in the midst of a financial crisis, but the current administration sees fit to allow employees to be paid for not fulfilling all of their job requirements.

THAT, is the point.

It’s currently someone’s job to enforce ordinances. I believe the Ordinance Enforcement officer is understaffed. Instead of hiring more workers to help enforce ordinances, City Council is pushing to adopt the Vacant Buildings Ordinance. The Vacant Buildings Ordinance won’t add staff, but they believe that by doing something, anything, they are are helping fight blight. They don’t want to correct the root cause of the problem. They want to add more restrictions that must be enforced to an enforcement staff that can’t effectively enforce the ordinances that exist today.

I’ve had fights with the City over ordinance enforcement during my life in Ypsi. I’ve had the City confirm that violations existed in my neighborhood. I thought these violations to negatively impact my quality of life. When I asked the City to enforce these existing ordiances, I was told it was not their problem. I fail to see how a City Code written to protect me can be used to punish me.

To allow the City Council to adopt the Vacant Buildings Ordinance would perpetuate the myth that doing anything is better than doing the right thing. Stand up and tell City Council they need to begin solving problems, not just acknowledging them.