More and more small cities are learning what big ones have long known: that robust enforcement of municipal codes is the key to cleaning up abandoned properties, abating vermin issues, and preventing fire hazards.
Now, the City of Spur will have some help.
Newly hired codes enforcement official Michelle Bilbrey—succeeding Barry Ferguson, who has relocated to Lubbock and stepped down—will have the backing of Texas Communities Group, LLC (TCG) in identifying and citing violations of ordinances regarding vacant and dilapidated structures, accumulated rubbish and debris, weeds allowed to grow out of control, and junk vehicles on lots within the city.
The process is a muchneeded trigger for redevelopment, Barrett said, taking property that’s foreclosed on or abandoned, cleaning it up, and making it attractive for new owners. “I’ve often thought …we’re fighting for lives of West Texas.”
Multiple challenges in small towns. According to Danny Barrett of TGC, who himself grew up in small Texas Panhandle town, code enforcement hasn’t been done effectively for 30 to 40 years in some small communities where populations, budgets and revenues in towns have steadily declined. For a small annual fee, their organization has turned its talents to helping bolster local efforts. (The amount of the fee the City of Spur is paying was not disclosed in our conversation, or after a request to city hall, but Barrett described it as “ridiculously low.”) “Code enforcement was put to the back burner,” Barrett told The Texas Spur. “But just because you live in a small town doesn’t mean you want to live next to a dump.”
Finding ways to address tax delinquencies.
TGC, affiliated with the Lubbock-based tax collection firm of Perdue Brandon Fielder Collins & Mott, saw an opportunity back in 2017 to help cities deal with their backlog of small but vexing problems. “We started looking at things in the tax code that could help,” said Barrett.
Often on a delinquent property, Barrett said, there’s no one available who can convey a good title to it, so the house or lot just sits and deteriorates year after year, with no one paying the property taxes.
Where they turned was Section 3391, which empowered cities to compile a list of five-year-delinquent properties into one tax warrant action and prepare them for public auction in about three months’ time, rather than bring costly foreclosure suits one property at a time, something few small taxing entities can afford.
To get the ball rolling, what TCG needs from the taxing entity (or a person or firm who knows the history of a dilapidated property) is a signed affidavit that it is vacant and abandoned. Then a month’s public notice is posted (at the county courthouse, but also the TCG Facebook page and website, and other relevant places). “We send out notices to every name they can find associated with a deed,” Barrett said.
Code enforcement is the flip side of the coin. That process doesn’t change ownership of the property; it focuses on abating the nuisance.
“Pretty much every city in Texas is under the state’s Health and Safety Code,” said Barrett, “with cities, counties, state parks, national parks setting the standardsforhowyouneed to maintain your property.”
In Spur, there are perhaps 70 properties currently in violation of the city’s ordinances, he said. “It took us 50 years to get here, but how are we going to remedy it quicker than another 50 years?”
When TCG is going through town, he said, they note obvious violations. They’ll work alongside local staff in talking with property owners, to solve the problem. They plan to implement a code enforcement phone app that will send the violation from the field right to TCG for action.
Barrett then relies more on enforcement—mowing yards and cut weeds that haven’t come into compliance, or demolition—than on citations, which often don’t have much effect in small cities. Instead, “the city mows and sends the bill.” And a big part of the program, he said, is education: perhaps offering a buy-back program for junked vehicles with a clear title to be hauled off voluntarily; or tag vehicles when necessary. TCG has partnerships with junk dealers to handle hauloff and disposal as well.
Substandard properties slated for demolition or other action then go before the city council for consideration, and interested parties have an opportunity to step forward.
For more information.
“The city and staff of TCG ask for your assistance and support as we begin the implementation of Codes Enforcement and invite any and all questions you may have,” reads a flyer that manyhaveseenpostedpublicly by now. “If you would like more information about this topic, contact TCG at 806-839-2724 or email us at info@texascg.com.”
