Modern Software Helps Build New Code Compliance Department in Dalton, GA
Code enforcement has a long history of being passed around among different agencies in Dalton, GA. Having previously been located under both the fire department and building inspections, code enforcement most recently lived under the Dalton Police Department until 2022 when the mayor wanted to see an improvement in the city’s ability to respond to complaints and questions regarding ordinance enforcement.
At that time, city administration elected to move code enforcement to city hall, and the department made some changes to adjust to the transition. “It was a non-sworn, non-law enforcement, non-gun toting position,” said Jake Hollis, Inspector with the city of Dalton, GA. “We actually changed the name from Code Enforcement to Code Compliance, and Officer to Inspector – just trying to change some of that nomenclature so that it allowed the public to have a little bit more softer view.”
With the transition from police to city administration, Dalton’s Inspectors were left to build a department from scratch. “As my boss, City Administrator Andrew Parker, said, ‘we’re building this plane as we fly it,’” said Hollis. “For the first year, we had no records management system. Prior to Comcate, I was using Steno notebooks to keep up with things, so if there was an open records request or if there was a question about a case, I literally had to go back and pull paperwork to find that. We had no forms, no letters, no stop work order notices.” Pictures were put into Word documents and turned into PDFs that could be printed out for court and “took up a massive amount of space on our computers.”
To improve the department’s efficiency and provide the visibility that leadership wanted from code enforcement, Hollis, Parker and IT Director Jorge Paez set out to find a suitable software solution.
When code enforcement had operated out of Dalton PD, the department had been able to use Spillman software. “But that's not really economically feasible for us being code enforcement. We didn’t really have a large budget at the time.” While attending the Georgia Association of Code Enforcement (GACE) conference, Hollis put out some feelers to see what other agencies were using. Once he assembled a list, Hollis sat down with Dalton’s IT director to field test the different solutions, eventually settling on Comcate’s Code Enforcement Manager software. “I was looking for something that was user friendly, but yet still gave us what we needed for case management,” said Hollis. “Comcate was good for us as far as the price, and the ease of using it.”
Improved Case Management and Abatement Tracking
In the first eight months of its existence, before transitioning from manual methods to code enforcement software, the new Dalton Code Compliance department handled about 190 cases. Since implementing Comcate in January 2023, the team has managed almost 1,000 cases – an increase of 161% on a monthly basis.
The software’s case management abilities help Dalton’s Inspectors more efficiently keep track of the details of individual cases, as well as store vital contact information, pictures and notes. This helps with the department’s proactive approach to code enforcement, as well as with new initiatives they are running, such as Dalton’s Spring C.L.E.A.N. (Creating Lively Environments and Neighborhoods) Initiative, in which the city’s code team will focus on property-related maintenance, upkeep and safety issues in one of the city’s founding neighborhoods.
Better case management also helps the code team to build cases on repeat violators. “Before Comcate I didn't have any way to document these cases other than just letters and our printed file. Now I've been able to actually pull up the Comcate report and print it off for the judge.”
This ability has been particularly useful as the new code department starts to get into forced abatements. After a year of back-and-forth with a resident concerning a rotting fence, the code team was able to serve a citation and use their case documentation to exact a fine. “I was able to give the judge the report from Comcate that showed the initial pictures and notes from every time I talked to that person, including him telling me “just fine me.” The judge asked about that conversation and he told her ‘I told him to write me a ticket and fine me.’ And the judge looked at him and said, ‘Then that’s exactly what I’m going to do.’”
Better Visibility for Increased Transparency
Centralizing all case materials and notes in a cloud-based system has also helped Dalton’s code team increase visibility on their activity to city leadership. “With the political situation that it is in code enforcement, Comcate allows my boss, the assistant city administrator, when he gets a phone call from a politician at night, instead of saying ‘Let me talk to Jake in the morning and see what’s happening,’ he can pull up the case in Comcate right then and know what’s going on.”
It also helps Dalton’s code team to stay above-board with complaints in the field. If Hollis has a difficult interaction in the field, “I can call my boss and say ‘Just want to give you a heads up this happened.’ He can immediately pull the case up, look at the narrative in the notes, and know what's happened if any complaints come in.”
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