WE INVESTIGATE
Garfield Avenue in Alhambra, CA (Photo – Ken Lund).
Public records show that the City of Alhambra paid out over $18,500 in overtime (OT) pay to code enforcement officials from Dec. 2015 to Nov. 2017 (see code enforcement OT 2016_2017).
By Sean McMorris
Alhambra code enforcement officials clocked a total of 359 OT hours over the two-year span. The lion’s share of those hours were clocked by current Code Enforcement Supervisor, Rafael Perez, who recorded 188.5 OT hours, totaling $10,635. Perez averaged nearly 8 hours of OT per month over the two-year span, or about $443 a month in OT pay.
Code Enforcement Officer, Eduardo Villegas, recorded the second most OT hours in the same time span, clocking 108.8 hours, totaling $5,551.
Unusual reasons?
Perez and others in Code Enforcement list covering shifts, holiday patrols, city events, and special investigations as reasons for much of the overtime pay. But there are some unusual reasons given for OT pay as well. For instance, Perez lists an hour of OT for completion of a records request; 3 hours for an HCDA committee meeting; 2 hours in one instance and another half hour in another instance for picking up a trailer; 4.5 hours for a city council meeting; a total of 11 hours for meeting prep and messaging for a proposed ordinance; and 8 hours in which no reason was given at all. Kristy Escobar lists 4 hours for a neighborhood watch meeting and 3 hours for vehicle pick up and assignment. Eduardo Villegas lists 1 hour for not eating lunch (see code enforcement OT 2016_2017 and actual time cards 2016 & 2017).
Most OT pay coming from General Fund
The City stated in an email that no CDBG funds were used to pay Code Enforcement officers overtime in 2016 and that a total of $256 in CDBG funds was used to pay Code Enforcement officers overtime in 2017 (see code enforcement PR requests’ emails).
Should CDBG funds subsidize Alhambra code enforcement activities in low-income areas?
A portion of Alhambra Code Enforcement officer’s salaries are paid for with Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds. Data available on HUD’s website shows that the City has allotted a percentage of its yearly pool of CDBG funds to code enforcement every year for at least the last 15 years. The City’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2016-2017 Annual Action Plan states that CDBG funds currently supplement 20 percent of the overall Code Enforcement budget (see Alhambra’s Annual Action Plan 2016_2017).
The amount of CDBG funds Alhambra receives each year is based on Alhambra’s population of low and moderate income (Low-Mod) residents. In fiscal year 2015-2016, Alhambra allocated $117,057 in CDBG funds to code enforcement, or 9.8% of its CDBG budget; in fiscal year 2016-2017, Alhambra allocated $217,300 in CDBG funds to code enforcement, or 7.3% of its CDBG budget. In contrast, the cities of Pasadena, Monterey Park, and El Monte did not allocate any CDBG funds to code enforcement during the same period.
The amount of CDBG funds paid to an Alhambra code enforcement officer depends on how much time they spend policing a CDBG Target Area, or Low-Mod area (see code enforcement PR requests’ emails).
Opponents of using CDBG funds for code enforcement believe that the practice incentivizes greater property-policing and citation in Low-Mod areas; the people who can least afford major repairs or upgrades to their properties. Proponents of CDBG Code Enforcement subsidization argue that people in Low-Mod target areas may qualify for CDBG funded assistance to bring their properties up to code.
The City’s FY 2016 – 2017 Consolidated Annual Performance Evaluation Report states that:
568 code violations were investigated, of which 399 violations [70%] were located in low and moderate income areas. Code enforcement staff made 649 referrals to the Housing Rehabilitation Program, 604 of which were for properties in the low and moderate income areas.
However, there is no guarantee that CDBG assistance will cover all or most of the costs of major repairs or upgrades, or that CDBG Housing Rehabilitation Program supply will meet year-on-year Code Enforcement demand. Critics contend that code enforcement officers will police all areas of the city anyway (at least they should), therefore, the money code enforcement is getting paid to police Low-Mod areas would be better spent on housing rehabilitation programs that help Low-Mod households pay for the upgrades code enforcement demands.
In FY 2015-2016 Alhambra earmarked $296,716 in CDBG funds to Housing Rehabilitation compared to Code Enforcement’s $117,057 allotment. In FY 2016-2017 Alhambra earmarked $193,007 in CDBG funds to Housing Rehabilitation compared to Code Enforcement’s $217,300 allotment.
However, there is a significant CDBG spending gap over the long-term that greatly favors Code Enforcement over Housing Rehabilitation in Alhambra. From 2002 to 2013 the City spent on average 7.4 times more CDBG money on Code Enforcement than on Housing Rehabilitation (excluding administrative overhead). In 2011, Alhambra spent 18.7 times more CDBG money ($179,095) on Code Enforcement than on direct Housing Rehabilitation ($9,577). That same year Alhambra allocated $51,376 in CDBG funds for housing rehabilitation overhead, or 5 times the amount the City allocated for actual repairs and upgrades to Low-Mod properties.
This is a blatant misuse of HUD funds.