Parma Heights considering nuisance abatement ordinance to deal with repeat criminal activity - cleveland.com

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PARMA HEIGHTS, Ohio -- A criminal activity nuisance ordinance is a piece of legislation communities use to penalize property owners related to repeat incidents of illegal activity.

While first discussed but not acted on in 2009, Parma Heights officials are in the process of finalizing details for such a nuisance abatement.

Parma Heights City Council President Marie Gallo commends the administration and police department for their work on the ordinance.

“This provides our officers with another tool when attempting to address nuisance issues so that our residents and businesses can live and operate in peace,” Gallo said.

“We’ve had two public meetings so far to address any questions and concerns from council members. The administration is still in the process of fine-tuning this ordinance and will be reviewing amendments with council at a later date.”

Parma Heights Police Chief Steve Scharschmidt said he expects the legislation, which is currently being tweaked while in work session, to be passed in late June.

“There are a number of cities that have this and make it work effectively,” Scharschmidt said. “We’ve never had a criminal activity nuisance ordinance. It’s certainly that something that’s needed for repeated calls for service to the same properties.

“We certainly feel like it’s going to be beneficial for us. At the same time, we don’t ever want to discourage any type of victim from calling for fear of us deeming them a nuisance. This is not what this is. We want to help victims.”

In layman’s terms, the nuisance abatement relates to repeated calls to commercial or residential properties.

The list of offenses can range from dogs running at large, barking dogs, disturbing the peace, fireworks and health violations to narcotics, drug abuse, gambling, alcohol violation, sex offenses, neglect, assault and littering.

Scharschmidt noted the city has criminal ordinances for individual offenses but the criminal activity nuisance ordinance is related to repeated behavior with police being called out -- in some cases, 60 to 100 times -- to a certain location for the same offense.

The potential penalty for nuisance abatement properties is a fine.

“We’re talking about a formula with calls of service for the officers,” Scharschmidt said. “We’re taking a look at what other cities do. We’ve got to make (the fine) hurt or we’re not going to change behavior, that’s the bottom line. We’re discussing fines such as $200 residential and $500 commercial.”

For commercial properties that violate the criminal activity nuisance ordinance, there’s the potential of the landlord or business owner losing city permits to operate in Parma Heights before potentially getting the courts involved.

“It just makes your city cleaner and keeps riffraff out,” Scharschmidt said. “What we want is for the behavior to stop. We have some residents in the city who say they can’t enjoy their backyard because they’re dealing with fireworks, disturbances or any type of criminal calls.

“The goal is for them to live in a nice community. This gives us another tool to keep this city safe and preserve peace in the city.

Read more news from the Parma Sun Post here.

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