Okay, I totally get it, collecting ‘garbage’ behind your house is not a good idea, and it is certainly against the law. People who urinate on other people’s property, also against the law. Are some of these people mentally ill. Maybe, maybe not, but it is not the job of the city’s code enforcement department to determine who is mentally ill;
The team includes law enforcement officials, zoning personnel and a newly hired mental health professional.
Sometimes a property owner is struggling with mental health concerns or physical limitations that prohibit him or her from completing cleanup and maintenance tasks.
A fellowship grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is paying for a health professional to be part of the enforcement team. It’s a two-year program.
Am I the only one to find it a bit ironic that a department that has been found to be unconstitutional, several times, in applying city ordinance is now questioning the mental health of it’s citizens? Isn’t ‘denial’ a mental ailment?
Is there a difference between ‘collectors’ and ‘hoarders’ – in some cases, yes. But if someone owns their property and they want to store a Beanie Bear collection on that property, that is their prerogative, whether they are mentally ill or not. See, in this country, it is not against the law to be ‘crazy’.
If someone is committing a crime, and they are mentally ill, leave it up to law enforcement and trained medical professionals to deal with those situations. If someone isn’t mowing their lawn, maybe they need to see a lawn mower repairman, not a shrink.
I believe the intent here is to help the enforcement officials learn how to handle THEIR interactions with people more than to diagnose/commit people. But of course, that approach just doesn’t fit with the “everything’s a government conspiracy” POV, so it must be poppycock.
Oh, and just an FWIW, in the mental health industry, the person(s) paying the bill are the ones considered to be the client (I.E., the city enforcement folks) and the ones being “helped”. Yipes!! that means the city has admitted it has a problem (step 1) and sought out professional help (step 2).
Ruf, you must not have seen my earlier post about this that I edited. I suggested that the first peeps to see the new shrink should be the employees of the Code Enforcement office, anyhoo, like I said, we can play all ‘trying to help people’ card, but just because people don’t live to your standards doesn’t mean they are mentally ill, it means they are individuals.
Can’t see this ending up without some kind of discrimination lawsuit. No doubt filed by rich white guys hoarding corvettes.
This was all inevitable with Mike Huether and Kevin Smith in charge.
anom – Leave Jerry out of this.
Neighbor, A Federal grant to hire a code enforcement shrink? That’s the kind of crap they do in ‘real’ cities like LA and NY. I chuckle when certain peeps in local government think we are a ‘big city’ because they yearn to live back in a ‘big city’ the only problem is that they were a tiny little fish when they did. I suggest they go build a lake home on a lake that no one else lives on . . . wait.
I know the District has only been open a short time. But I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say they make it big time. We were there last Friday nite. Went early, ate some food. Drank some beer. Watched a pretty good show made really good by sound and lighting. The food was OK. Only complaint it might have taken a little longer than normal to be served. Understandable tho. The place was packed. Food prices also not out of line. Beer selection was more than enough to choose from. I drank Ethos IPA. Good stuff, and about what I paid for a watered down domestic beer at the arena.
Been to enough sporting venues at the arena to know there is nothing electric about an event where two out of three seats are empty. The District? Packed. The music, lighting, sound, all really good. My gut tells me this place will make it.
Whoops. Wrong thread. Never mind. 🙂
If it is not to diagnosis the citizens than what is it? Does it cover staff lying and cheating? It would be interesting to see the mental health professional’s reports on the entire code enforcement staff including the attorneys.
Strangely our resident nut job is silent when we start talking about code enforcement and the mentally ill people they are forced to interact with.
“It would be interesting to see the mental health professional’s reports on the entire code enforcement staff including the attorneys.”
I could see the doctor’s notes after reviewing their leader, “She seems to be confused as to whether a rabbit is food or a pet. And she can’t stop talking about chickens.”
AG- You just had to pimp him, didn’t yah?
Entertaining comments. What if the mental health professional is a secret agent for the attorney general investigating Huether’s Gestapo? How bout federally sponsored management consultants for the executive level at the city. Realistically they’d be undercover FBI & IRS agents gathering corruption evidence.
Oh! Oh! I get it. If citizens are deemed mentally ill it becomes the county’s problem. Then Huether can eliminate the planning and code enforcement staff. More budget he can skim from. Genius.