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Michael Harvey said his purpose in attending was to give the Commissioners an update an where the county is as far as code enforcement issues. He said that he will identify current issues that are ongoing, what staff is attempting to do to resolve these issues, and to propose suggestions and ask for guidance on making minor changes to the ordinance that will assist staff in addressing a lot of these issues. He said that the county has approximately 160 open zoning cases as of February of this year and they hope to clear 40 of them by the end of this month. There are 20 cases that citizens have already abated by their own volition and the remainder will hopefully be completed by February of 2006. He said that they are properly enforcing the ordinance in terms of insuring that they are continuing to follow interpretation of previous staff members and the Board of Adjustment to insure fair and equitable compliance. The common complaints haven't changed much and the mast common complaint is still the illegal storage of junk andlor wrecked motor vehicles on private property. The second item involves a number of complaints, as well as open code enforcement cases, as to how to deal with the illegal storage of goods outdoors. It is considered open storage of items whether it is construction materials, auto parts, lawn care or maintenance devices, or general storage boxes; that is anything stared outdoors. They have cited homeowners for the storage of gravel, asphalt, concrete, etc. and they have encouraged them to put on tarps and covers. The third issue they have dealt with is illegal dumping and land filling. They have seen an increase in causal complaints on some open cases of trucks dumping various debris items off- site on property throughout the county. The fourth item that they are continuing to deal with is the illegal location of signs, including political signs. The next three items for which they receive fewer complaints and have less open cases are abandoned mobile homes, illegal use of property, and encroachment (least number of complaints they get). Michael Harvey said that the BOCC has a report on zoning enforcement in their agenda packets. Michael Harvey said that his office responds to complaints, first and foremost, as soon as possible. He said that citizens do not always accept what zoning officials tell them, so staff tries to explain the codes to them and give them follow-up steps. Staff tries to make sure the citizen understands that staff knows where the citizen is coming from, that they will listen, and that while they are sympathetic, they have rules and regulations that they have to follow. They also make sure the citizens understand that if they do not agree with the decision there is a procedure they can follow in order to have someone oversee their work. The next item is the process itself, which requires 60-90 days to abate to address a problem. What they have done at the staff level is institute a field notice of non-compliance. Included in each packet, is an example of site violation literature. Zoning enforcement staff gets greater conformity when they explain the process to citizens. Michael Harvey said that `citizen means' is the most important thing and for example, they have a citizen on Hwy 57 with hundreds of vehicles on their property and no way to get them off in the time frame normally allowed. Zoning enforcement staff set him up with steps to resolve the issue. Michael Harvey said that he has worked with this for years and he understands that many citizens don't have the resources to address their violations and sometimes, they have had to have grants to assist them. The fourth enforcement challenge is the refusal to accept notices of violation. In some cases staff has no way to get in touch with the citizen to bring them into compliance. The fifth challenge is lack of follow through with violators. Part of the problem they have at the staff level in trying to be nice and grant what they think is appropriate time -the process then goes on for months and even years. He said that lack of facilities ties in with citizen means and part of the problem staff has is that there is no existing county facility that allows abandoned cars, etc. These are the challenges that staff is facing with the chief challenge being citizen's means and their complaint that there is a lack of facilities. In order to address problems, staff is proposing that in the cases of junked vehicles, a viable solution is to find a common ground for storage for these cars, or allow the citizen to cover them with tarps, etc. They would also like to tweak the ordinance in terms of creating what they would call a hobby car accessory use, which would allow individuals to tinker with their cars. Citizens may awn two old antique