WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Multiple areas of West Palm Beach don’t have an assigned code enforcement officer, according to city records WPTV found online.
Those records show five out of 14 areas, about 35%, list the assigned code enforcement agent as vacant. A city spokesperson said existing code officers and supervisors are being deployed into those areas to ensure full coverage. However, people are telling WPTV they’re struggling to the city’s attention to public safety matters.
WATCH: Residents tell WPTV they can't get response on safety issues
Hugh Booker, who lives in a zone with a code enforcement officer assigned to his neighborhood, said he’s been trying to get code enforcement to look at two properties near his home. He said one of those properties is being used for commercial purposes with overgrown fields and trash in a residential area while the other property is an abandoned construction site.
"It's frustrating because when I came here they were real strict with everything,” Booker said. “Now you go out there and look at that property and tell me if you'd like to live in a neighborhood like that," Booker said.
He also said he’s even gone to city hall to get somebody’s attention. But nobody has done anything about either property.
"I tried so much to get somebody down here to do something that I don't bother anymore because you don't get any response," Booker said.
WPTV’s Ethan Stein talked with Booker at the home of Art Bullard Sr. in West Palm Beach. Bullard, who is a former city commissioner along with chief of staff to former mayor Lois Frankel, said he also can’t get anybody to act.
West Palm Beach
This city's downtown went 9 months without code enforcement
"I knew something was wrong,” he said. “Because you call and nobody shows up.”
Bullard, who uses an electric powered wheelchair, said the situation is frustrating.
City records show West Palm Beach divides code enforcement into 14 different zones. Those zones without an assigned officer include locations in the south (zone 1), north (zone 7 and 8) and west (zone 13 and 14) parts of the city.
WPTV started to look deeper into the problem after we learned downtown West Palm Beach went without an assigned code enforcement officer for nine months. Our news team started asking questions after we noticed the orange tape and code enforcement notices being posted on doors downtown around Clematis Street.
Kat Joy, a spokesperson for West Palm Beach and the mayor’s office, said the city recently hired two new code enforcement officers. She said those officers are in training and will get assigned to zones next week. Joy said the city is still in the hiring process for three remaining code enforcement officials.
“We anticipate having a full complement of code officers within a few weeks,” she wrote in an email.
