1st Ward Community Forum Recap

New Regulatory Services Director Nuria Rivera-Vandermyde led a spirited discussion about inspection issues and the new direction of this key City department in the most recent 1st Ward Community Forum on August 28. She outlined her priorities for making Regulatory Services a more focused and responsive arm of government, including a strategy that emphasizes customer service and the incentivizing of good behavior on the part of homeowners, landlords and businesses. Director Rivera-Vandermyde explained that these activities will clear the way for her department to focus resources on the relatively small number of the most egregious offenders. She mentioned that the City had only 774 properties in the Tier 3 program (based on volume of complaints) out of 24,000 rental properties in the City and she is currently analyzing those properties to explore how a cross-departmental approach could resolve their issues.

Over the past twelve months, the Regulatory Services Department has been re-organized to give it a more acute focus, with functions such as business licensing, developmental review and environmental management being placed under the purview of other departments. The committee that oversaw this re-organization, of which CM Reich was a member, will continue to monitor the Regulatory Services department to ensure its effectiveness. Director Rivera-Vandermyde also intends to return to a 1st Ward Forum in a year’s time to discuss the department’s progress.