Smiley hears from marshal about code enforcement

The Smiley City Council met for their final meeting for 2024 Wednesday, Dec. 18 at the Municipal Building.

Smiley Marshal Jason Torres talked to the council about the city’s ordinances.

The goal of the presentation was to help residents understand how the process works and communicate with Smiley residents about ordinances.

“This report or this presentation is being given as kind of a response to our town hall and also the meeting right after it, in regards to a property that was in question in regards to city warrant violations,” Torres said. “Last week, I was able to make contact with (the property owner) and as of today, he has picked up all of his trash off the city easement.”

Torres said the city has a book of ordinances that cover “the basics of what we have right now and we are doing, we have something to take care of it.”

“That covers stagnant water, overgrown weeds, and grass we have,” Torres added. “We also have our city ordinances for animals or junk vehicles.”

As city marshal, Torres is considered the “ex-officio chief of police of the city of Smiley. With that said, I enforce all city ordinances.”

He said the Occupation Code outlines code enforcement as “more of an administration position in the city.”

“They don’t issue citations. They issue notices of violations,” Torres said. “They’re asked to come to court. If they don’t come to court, the judge issues a summons for them to come in.”

If a marshal or deputy marshal is the one issuing citations, the subject receiving the citation is forced to come to court, as opposed to a notice issued by an administrative position, Torres added.

Torres referenced an article from the 2014 Gonzales Inquirer after the city established its municipal court the year prior. Then-Municipal Judge Gary Schroeder had petitioned for the establishment of the marshal’s office.

At the time, Schroeder had said the city had a large number of cases regarding code enforcement in which a code enforcement officer had been writing up citations to people violating city ordinances and few people were happy about it. Unfortunately, the code enforcement officer had no power whatsoever under Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE) so it limited what that person could do.

“If someone doesn’t go to court for one of the citations he issues, he can’t do anything about it,” Schroeder said in 2014. “If I issue a warrant, then it has to go to (Constable) John Moreno, and he’ll serve it. There’s nothing wrong with that, but John has a lot of area to cover too.”

Schroeder, who passed away earlier this year, advocated for a marshal’s office to enforce code violations at that time.

When Torres first started as marshal, his primary focus has been on traffic enforcement, whereas code enforcement was “as I get complaints or I notice something is severe, we’ll make contact with that people and address the issue at that point.”

Torres said he will need the council’s support for stronger code enforcement and advises it’ll cost money.

“From the fuel for the vehicles running out there to all the stationary supplies there will be for notices and postage,” Torres said. “There will also be court fees and attorney fees — a lot more than just me issuing a citation. There’s also the time of the officer doing it, because once we start a case, that officer is tied into that case until it is finished.”

Torres has a deputy marshal with a background in handling code enforcement cases and said that person will take lead on code enforcement with the other deputies augmenting and following up.

“We're going to divide the city into coordinates and quadrants where each augmenting officer will take care of that place or that problem, and then our officer that's in charge of the city ordinannces will take the lead on most of those cases,” Torres said.

This was not an action item and no vote was made

The council went over the five percent trash rate increase, effective Monday, Jan. 20,

“The reason for this is that we received a letter from Republic saying that, starting in January, their rates were going up, and in order for the city to be able to pay that bill, our rates are going to have to go up the 5 percent that they asked,” Mayor Lisa Benavides said. “Again, we don't have a choice. It isn't a city call; it's a Republic call.”

The council approved the increase by a 5-0.

In other business the council approved the following agenda items:

– approved to table changing the council meetings to noon

– approved to table zeroing out closed utilities accounts greater than two years

– approved to send utility men to water certification training.