"Army of One" Code Enforcement Department Tackles Mounting Issues in Growing City
Randy Ulery serves as an “army of one” for code enforcement in Logansport, IN (pop: 22,000). Located in northern Indiana, Logansport has experienced a population growth in the last few years that has put increased pressure on Ulery’s one-man code enforcement department. “Last year I had almost 1,400 trash violations for the year. So you can imagine my workload is insane,” Ulery said.
As if high case volume wasn’t enough of a stressor, the department’s manual processes cut into Ulery’s ability to efficiently manage the workload. Code enforcement in Logansport used to operate out of the building department, but was moved under the umbrella of the police department in 2023 for budgetary and safety reasons. Under the building department, Ulery had access to a software program, but “when we moved, we actually didn’t have a system for almost 9 months,” Ulery said. “We were doing everything in Excel sheets, on paper, by hand. For one violation, it was taking us anywhere from 30 to 35 minutes. It was very time consuming.”
Notices in particular were a headache to get out. While in the field, Ulery would leave a notice of violation on the property, but also had to get a letter in the mail that same day – a time-consuming process considering that all notices were being generated by hand. “Those letters have to be sent that same day, so there were some times I’d have to stay late to make sure those letters got out. A lot of overtime was going in.”
The manual record keeping also meant that tracking previous violation history was a struggle. “If a property had a violation and we had to go back six months later on that same property, the information wasn’t carrying from one violation to the next.” As part of the police department, Randy had access to Spillman software to look up issues on the property, but these generally only pertain to law enforcement issues, and the software lacks the ability to issue or print notices.
Looking to Make Case Management More Efficient
Ulery had previously used software while based in the building department, but struggled to make the department’s software function well for his work. “Not to say anything bad, it just wasn’t working for code enforcement,” Ulery said. “I’ve been to other cities and seen the softwares that they use, and I was never happy with anything they were using, because most softwares out there aren’t based for code enforcement. They’re based for permits, or building and zoning issues, but not code enforcement.”
Tired of managing the caseload using manual processes, Ulery set out to search for code enforcement-specific software, which led him to Comcate. “When I came across Comcate, I started watching some of the demos that explained how the software would work and that was enough to pique my interest and move it further.” Ulery got the Chief of Police and others on board and pulled together funding as quickly as he could. He said he didn’t encounter too much “bureaucratic red tape” with signing off on Comcate because “the cost is pretty effective compared to what a lot of companies are charging for their software.”
Less Time in the Office, More Time in the Field
Implementing code enforcement software was a huge help for Logansport code enforcement. “The biggest change in my day to day is I don’t have to sit in the office for three to four hours, and sometimes an hour after my shift, to get these letters out,” Ulery said. Now notices can be generated with a single click, pre-populating violation information stored in the system and pulling in property owner information from the case details. “I like the fact that I can put those letters in the queue and Sandy, the administrative assistant, can pop right in and print them out at any point in time. So there are times I come back in and it’s already done, the letters are out.”
All of which helps Ulery get through his day’s work faster – and not put in so much extra time. “Now by 3:00 I think ‘Hey, my day’s almost over!’”
Increasing Case Capacity
With code enforcement software, Ulery says he is able to do more casework than before, which is helpful as the number of code violations increases with the city’s growth. “I feel like my caseload went up quite a bit this year. In June alone, I had just shy of 500 inspections I went out on. Some of them are follow-ups or the third and fourth inspection we did on that property, but when you average it out, I think we were running anywhere from 30 to 35 inspections a working day with just me doing the work,” Ulery said.
While having code enforcement software helps Ulery get through more work faster, he says some of the real gains come from being able to devote extra time to the problem properties. Instead of spending a minimum amount of time at each location because he needs to get back to the office to do paperwork, “Now I’ve actually been able to spend extra time working with people and going into more detail about the violation issue. Sometimes you have to do baby steps with people to get them to do what they need done.”
Improving Community Relations
A perhaps unlooked-for benefit of new software has been the way it’s improved relationships with those in the Logansport community. “All around, since we’ve had Comcate, we’ve had better communication with the public than we did before,” Ulery says. “It really helps because we are able to get our information to them faster. They have better lines of calling us if there’s a problem.”
The ability to include pictures with the letters has also helped compliance rates, Ulery says. “I think being able to see the picture of the violation and see what everyone else is seeing, from a different perspective, it’s kind of pushing them to work harder to clean it up. And it’s actually getting them to contact us more, so communication lines are better.”
“It’s almost paid for itself in two months.”
One of the features that Ulery likes best about the software is the way it’s improved his ability to track the history of violations on any given property, which has been beneficial in many aspects, from better informing city officials of his work to tracking forced abatements.
“If I get a phone call or the mayor’s office wants information, I love the fact that I can go to that property, print up that report, and it shows everything that I have done step-by-step, like my first inspection, when the inspection was, what the fine was,” Ulery said. “We never had that before unless we did a lot of manual work to get to it.”
The ability to better track violations has not only been beneficial but also profitable for the city of Logansport. “Just a rough estimate, we did almost $40,000 in fines last year and we didn’t get a quarter of that back,” Ulery said. “Since I’ve been using Comcate, we’ve done about $10,000 in fines and we’ve gotten well over half of that in already, so it has almost paid for itself in two months.”
The Future of Code Enforcement in Logansport
With the city’s growth, Ulery hopes to add another code enforcement officer to the department at the beginning of next year – and the hope is that with an intuitive program like Comcate, it should be easier to get a new officer up to speed sooner. “I was looking for something that would be very easy for me to train somebody to use and easy to manage, and so far that is what we’ve gotten out of Comcate.”
Overall, Ulery feels the move to code enforcement-specific software has been a good move for Logansport. “It was well worth our investment to get it. I see the future on what we can do with this and where we can turn it to benefit us in the long run.”
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