Daily $250 penalty

MOSES LAKE — Moses Lake residents will be penalized $250 per day for ordinance violations.

The Moses Lake City Council approved a new ordinance and amended 23 old ordinances to expedite the infraction process and to avoid drawn out court processes Tuesday night.

The ordinance was then placed on the consent agenda and adopted with little discussion during the meeting.

City staff who determine a code was violated issue an Order to Correct, Notice of Violation or a Cease Activity notice. The accused violator has 10 days to take action. If no action is taken, the individual is automatically found in violation.

"These ordinances will allow the designated city officials to issue administrative orders which become final and binding if they are not appealed within 10 days to the hearing examiner," City Attorney Jim Whitaker noted. "The enforcement of nuisance violations and related cleanup ordinances is a primary focus of the proposed changes. These changes will potentially shorten time by months in situations where the violator is unwilling to respond to initial enforcement actions."

If the individual does not think they are in violation, they can request an administrative hearing with the hearing examiner, City Manager Joe Gavinski said.

The individual can either agree or disagree with the hearing examiner's decision. If the citizen disagrees, the matter can be appealed in court.

After a final decision is made and the citizen is still declared to be in violation, a certain amount of days are given to fix the ordinance violation.

If the violation is not corrected within the time period allotted, a $250 penalty is issued for each day of the violation, Whitaker said. The penalty stops growing at $5,000.

The ordinance is adopted from a version used for the City of Pullman, Whitaker, said.

The 10-day time period and the penalty amount were chosen because it was the same in the Pullman ordinance, he added.

Citizens can request a copy of the ordinance from Moses Lake City Hall, Gavinski said.