Newburgh Judges: Hold Building Codes Violators Accountable

We, the undersigned, urge Newburgh City Judges to discourage repeat codes violations by increasing fines and Urge City Officials to establish minimum penalties.

Currently, the Code of the City of Newburgh requires no minimum penalty and contains no provision for increased penalties for repeat or unremedied violations. 

According to a January 2010 report from the City of Newburgh Fire Department, only $34,000 was assessed on 2,419 codes violations referred to the City of Newburgh Courts in 2009.  This is an average of only $14.00 per violation.  

Essentially, each code violation would have to cost less than $14.00 to repair or resolve in order to incentivize remediation by the violator.  The result: It is cheaper to pay the fine than fix the problem.  Violators know they will not get many additional summonses because Newburgh's Codes Officers are already overburdened. And if they do get a summons, they know the fine will be nominal.  Data shows that the violators are correct. 

Further compounding the problem: Most violations are issued at buildings owned by absentee landlords, which comprise 70% of Newburgh's structure.  These owners have even less incentive to fix the problems because they don't live and/or work here.

But we do, and this dynamic fuels the structural decay of our community. This structural decay leads to social decay, because it:

Erodes resident confidence with visual evidence that the city does not run properly;

Erodes morale of city workers by undermining their efforts to curb violations;

Bolsters violator confidence by assuring them there is no real consequence for violations of City Code;

Bolster criminal confidence by implying that even greater crime will be tolerated.

 

Please help us tell our judges and city officials that we expect them to hold more accountable the individuals and entities who compromise Newburgh's quality of life.

 Mothers & Others for a Better Newburgh is sponsoring this petition, with support from the local organizations listed below, to urge our elected and appointed judges, Peter Kulkin and B. Harold Ramsey, to better support the City of Newburgh and its residents by beginning immediately to impart on all codes violators fair and consistent fines that are high enough to 1) Incentivize the remediation of codes violations and discourage future violations; and 2) Cover the administrative costs of issuing and enforcing violations without added taxpayer contribution.  

 

Further, we urge our city officials to change Newburgh's Codes so there is a minimum penalty on all codes violations and graduated minimum penalties when violators fail to remediate the violation.

 

Thanks for taking the time to read our petition and for your support.  If you believe in our cause, please forward our petition link on!

 

Mothers & Others for a Better Newburgh (MO'Betta); Community Voices Heard; The Lyceum Group; Mothers for Upward Movement (M.U.M.); Newburgh Heights Association; Pathstone Community Improvement of Newburgh.