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It's an "Andy of Mayberry," "Aw shucks, could ya please ?" sort of approach. If this contact was <br />in person or by phone, I follow up with a friendly letter recapping the conversation. The letter <br />gives me a solid paper trail documenting the violation and how reasonable I was with them. It is <br />a great tool if I have to issue citations and go to court. <br />The second is "All Business." I am still friendly and personable, but I cut most of the <br />small talk. I am here to address this matter. I've had a previous contact where we reached an <br />agreement, and you haven't kept up your end of the deal. We were supposed to be in compliance <br />now, and the violation still exists. I again allow them great input in establishing a deadline for <br />compliance. "When will you meet the code or CUP requirements ?" This is usually a solid <br />deadline. Again, I document a verbal exchange with a follow -up letter documenting the contact, <br />the continued existence of the violation, and the new deadline. Generally, as long as people are <br />making visible, significant, ongoing progress toward compliance I will continue to work with <br />them in this style, even if it means extending deadlines because they didn't get it all done. <br />The third is "Hard Nose." I tend to be "not so friendly." I am still respectful and polite, <br />but there is no room for small talk. Because they did not live up to their side of the deal twice <br />before, I set a deadline. I let them know that if the deadline is not met there will be a citation in <br />with the next letter. Again, I write a letter recapping the verbal contact, including the continued <br />violation, anything we have done to help facilitate compliance, and the second missed deadline. <br />If this final deadline is missed I will issue a citation along with a letter recapping the whole case. <br />I'd have to write a letter to the City Attorney recapping the case anyway, so I just send a copy of <br />the case file, including the last letter, along with the tags to court and to the City Attorney. <br />I try to always start out as "Officer Friendly." I can always escalate to "Hard Nose" if <br />necessary, however, if I start off as "Hard Nose" "Officer Friendly" is no longer believable; the <br />first impression has been made. <br />Staffing Issues: <br />I am a retired sergeant from the Ramsey County Sheriff's Department. The P.E.R.A. <br />earnings cap for 2002 is about $11,000. That means that under the cap I can only work seven <br />hundred and thirty -three (733) hours in this job this year. Any more than 733 and I'm working <br />for nothing. I like the city and I like the people here. Also, I'm not really in it for the money. <br />Having said that, I'm also not willing to do it for nothing. Normally I work Monday through <br />Thursday, four or five hours per day. 733 hours works out to about 14 hours per week. My <br />schedule is very flexible. Winter is slower for code enforcement issues and I put in less time. <br />Summer is busy, and I've been averaging more hours. Currently I have about 360 hours for the <br />year, or about half. If something needs to be done on weekends, Holidays or at odd hours, I will <br />flex my time as necessary to get the job done, but if I hit 733 I have to stop for the year. <br />Realistically, there is enough work here, between the backlog in Ryan Industrial Park, the <br />ongoing Rice Street issues and the day to day fresh complaints coming in to keep two of me busy <br />for the next year. I am making progress against the backlog, but not very fast. There are <br />violations that I see but that I have chosen to ignore at this time because "my plate is full." If <br />you compare this job to juggling, I have about thirty balls in the air. I can't do an acceptable job <br />of keeping thirty -one there. <br />When I take on another task I want to know that I have the time to do it well. I'm <br />currently handling about all I can and still turn out quality work. Quality work means that we <br />achieve compliance with all parties still smiling, or being unable to do that, I put the case <br />together is such a way that the judge has no choice but to order compliance. I have to dot all the <br />"Is" and cross all of the "Ts." If the issue gets in front of a judge, and I have not closed off all <br />"wiggle room," I look like a fool and we start over again. I don't like looking like a fool in <br />court. I'm running at the highest volume level I can and still ensure the quality of my work. <br />-4- <br />