By SARA CLIFFORD and SUZANNAH COUCH, [email protected], [email protected]
For years, residents in violation of Brown County civil ordinances like illegal dumping and animal control have been asked to comply, but that’s about as far as it’s gone. Even citations could easily be fought.
Prosecutor Ted Adams said his office has wanted to enforce civil ordinance violations, but a “grey area” on whether or not elected prosecutors can do so prevented them from participating.
A new effort is now under way, with the state’s permission, to have one attorney in the county prosecutor’s office follow up on these cases in addition to his regular duties.
County ordinances are different from criminal cases, like felonies and traffic infractions, because they are enacted by the county, not the state. Though he is elected by Brown County residents, Adams, like other elected prosecutors, is paid through the state, and his chief deputy prosecutor is as well.
Adams told the Brown County Council last week that his office was advised by the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council they did not believe prosecutors are able to enforce ordinances for two reasons.
The first was a concern that the prosecutor would lose immunity enforcing county ordinances if the office was to be sued and the attorney general would not be able to represent him. “We do make people mad, so we do get sued,” Adams said.
The more important reason was because those county ordinance cases may not be covered under malpractice insurance.
“This has been frustrating since I assumed office in 2015. I would like to enforce ordinances,” Adams said.
“I thought maybe I could purchase some insurance from our office out of our budget in order to provide malpractice insurance.”
But after talks with the county’s insurance provider, it was discovered after a few months that the prosecutor’s office would be covered under the county’s insurance policy for no additional cost, Adams said.
The Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council then recommended that a county-paid prosecutor handle county ordinance cases. Brent Cullers, the child support prosecutor, is paid for by the county and his pay is reimbursed through federal funds.
The prosecutor’s office has received permission from the state child support program for Cullers to prosecute county ordinance violations as long as he does it outside of his regular duties.
“He will have to work his normal child support enforcement week, 40 hours, then anything additional he does for these county ordinance violations would be separate, and hence, they were comfortable with him taking the cases,” Adams told the council.
Adams attended the April council meeting to ask members to approve $2,000 from unappropriated general fund money to pay Cullers a stipend for the additional hours he is working. That motion passed unanimously.
Adams said that Cullers had already started doing the work in good faith as a way to show local law enforcement partners, particularly Animal Control, that the prosecutor’s office supports their efforts.
Animal Control concerns
Animal Control Officer Bethany Heldman said that before Cullers became involved, the most difficult part of enforcing the ordinance was that people who were cited did not always have to pay a fee if they decided to fight the citation in court.
“I found myself responding to the same places and dealing with the same animals numerous times for recurring issues because the owners knew there would be no penalty,” she said.
Residents can be fined under the animal control ordinance for a variety of reasons, such as not having an ID tag on their pet’s collar, not paying the county’s dog tax of $5 per dog, not giving animals their rabies vaccines, letting animals run at large, or not confining a vicious dog.
Penalties range from $500 for a Class A violation to $100 for a Class B and $25 for a Class C violation. The entire ordinance is posted on the county’s website on the Planning Commission page.
Cullers had screened about 25 to 30 ordinance violations as of April 19. Some of them were from a backlog that’s been building for the past two years. He currently looks over one to two cases that arrive on his desk weekly and also goes to court monthly on these matters.
“He has negotiated many settlements regarding that. The fees range anywhere from $25 up to $500. He does speak consistently with officers,” Adams said.
“I know our Animal Control officers are happy to have somebody that will basically give them some teeth in their ordinance violations.”
Commissioner Diana Biddle reported at last week’s county commissioners meeting that the commissioners will meet with the animal control commission to review the ordinance, make sure it is clear that Cullers has the authority to take enforcement action, and talk about where the fines are to go.
Illegal dumping enforcement?
Phil Stephens, director of the Brown County Solid Waste Management District, learned about this new partnership with the prosecutor’s office from Biddle at last week’s solid waste board meeting.
In the eight years he’s led the department, no property owner has been made to comply with the county’s ordinance regulating dumping through a legal process, and he doesn’t think it was enforced for years before he arrived, either. The dumping ordinance was passed in 2008.
It’s illegal to dump trash, furniture, chemicals, body parts or fluids, and many other items in Brown County, even on private property.
When he finds an illegal dump site, Stephens or the health department contact the property owner and encourage them to come into compliance. Some don’t; some do, and those who do sometimes work alongside other volunteers with the cleanup. But that’s definitely not the norm.
“The pervasive attitude among Brown County citizens is, ‘You don’t tell me what to do with my property.’ And I see people get hellacious feedback again and again on Facebook for this type of thing, including myself,” he said.
When Stephens has to go to a roadside and pick up a couch or a TV someone has dumped, he often posts photos to try to gather information on who did it and discourage other people from doing the same. It’s hard to find out who did those deeds. He’d welcome some help.
At one point, the solid waste district did have a compliance officer, but its budget does not allow for that anymore. The county’s ordinance allows for fines for people who ignore violation letters, ranging from $100 to $2,500, but those have not been collected due to not having anyone to follow up and follow through.
Four or five years ago, Stephens was working with April Reeves from the health department to go through the ordinance on illegal dumping and try to make it more enforceable. But then, Reeves moved out of state. The health department has more of a budget for legal help and has hired its own attorney to take some cases to court; the solid waste district only has a couple thousand dollars for legal guidance. There is still potential for a partnership there.
“If I could say any one thing (would help us), it would be a dedicated attorney who just deals with that,” Stephens said about compliance issues.
I think it might eventually happen,” he said, about the county’s arrangement with Cullers helping his department with enforcement. “It just needs time to gel.
“But am I hopeful? Yes I am.”
First of many dominoes
At the April county council meeting, Vice President Dave Critser thanked Adams and everyone involved in making this happen.
“We’ve been going through this for eight to 10 years of not having any bite in our county ordinances. I really appreciate what you have done, Ted,” he said.
Adams said he hopes enforcing the animal control ordinance is the “first domino in many dominoes to follow.”
The county also has other local ordinances, covering things like health codes and open burning, and Cordry-Sweetwater ordinances. Adams said that if his office is covered by the malpractice insurance policy, they would “certainly want to help the county attorney in enforcing these ordinances.” The county attorney, who works on contract with the county commissioners, is a staff person from Barnes and Thornburg.
Council President Dave Redding said enforcing various county ordinances “could really go quite far very quickly if we fund it properly and not starve it initially.”
“That’s why I think a broader plan might be worth seeing maybe the next time you come back to us,” Redding told Adams.
