Nuisance enforcement bothers locals

TUCUMCARI - More than 20 residents shared their concerns and suggestions to city officials Thursday at the Del Norte Center regarding the city's nuisance ordinance.

City Manager Britt Lusk and commissioner Ralph Moya officiated the town hall to give residents a forum to discuss the ordinance.

"It seems as if the enforcement staff is nitpicking when it comes to the issuance of tickets for ordinance violations," said Larry Perkins, Tucumcari resident.

Perkins said he had to remove mesquite from a property owned by his mother because of the ordinance. He said to be compliant with the ordinance, he cut the mesquite down, but feels it's not good practice, or at least inconsistent, for the city to have properties of its own with mesquite issues.

"The city should not only enforce the ordinance, it should follow the ordinance," said Toni Leal, resident.

Leal said there are properties across the town owned by the city that are in violation of the ordinance statues.

"How can the city issue tickets to residents for violating the ordinance they are not following?" she asked.

Lusk said a city crew has been assigned the duties of cleaning the city properties. He said the city must and will follow its own ordinance.

"I'm still new to the job, it won't happen over night but the properties will be cleaned," Lusk said.

Perkins said the officials also need to look at updating the language of the statutes in the ordinance. He said the statutes are often not well-defined, leaving the resident confused on why they are being ticketed.

"I received a letter telling me I was in violation of a statute because of my fence, but when I asked them to look up the statute they could not find it," said Perkins.

Perkins said many of the statues of the ordinance are not fair to the residents.

"The other issue is the manner that the code enforcement staff collects, records violations," said Ignacio Armijo, resident.

Armijo said the staff walked onto his property to take pictures of items they felt were in violation of the ordinance. He said the staff claimed to take the photo from the street, but that he has photos of them on his property.

"There are items that were on my property that I was going to restore," Armijo said. "The staff came onto my property to take the picture then sent me a letter to dispose of the items."

Armijo said he has spoken with other residents who have shared similar incidents where the staff acted unprofessionally in acquiring photos.

"We will look into these matters to ensure resident's rights are not being violated," Lusk said.

Moya said the forum was a success with several suggestions and ideas shared with officials. He said the residents needed a forum to give them a chance to speak about the ordinance at length.

"We have to work together for the improvement of the city," Moya said. "More meetings like this need to take place in other districts for the residents to have a chance to speak out."