Macchi (Public Works Dir. Randy Macchi) said he is revamping the inspection process to ensure inspectors stay on top of violations until corrected, rather than spending the majority of time performing initial inspections. The city is also ramping up the hiring of code enforcement inspectors. Macchi said the goal is to have at least 100 inspectors working to address code violations.
The City, not too long ago, was bragging about how many people had taken early retirement; among them were some who had gone to investigate code violations, especially residential inspections. Now, like the idiots in Washington with their DOGE, they are desperately trying to find crucial employees to keep Houston looking good.
Never unestimate how stupid people can be. I will always remember the words someone told me, “If we taxed stupid, we would not need any other taxes.” He was Greek; the Greeks gave us brilliant people.
I am glad that the City, at least in words, has realized that it screwed up. Whoever advised the head-in-the-ground mayor should resign for convincing him that crime was always what people complained about, even though this past weekend was very violent. Did Whitmire really think that throwing money at something brings a solution? Throwing money and increasing salaries does one really good thing: police are less likely to take bribes, as is too often the case in other countries.
Click2Houston Article
HOUSTON – The City of Houston is revamping its entire inspection process to better deal with the number of complaints regarding derelict residential and commercial properties.
Recently, the city combined inspectors from the Dept. of Neighborhoods and Public Works into one division; Community Code Enforcement.
Prior to this change, Dept. of Neighborhood inspectors handled code violations at residential properties, while Public Works handled commercial properties.
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“If you think about it in Houston, where we have no zoning, every single street has both residential and commercial properties on it,” said Public Works Dir. Randy Macchi. “We needed to make sure that we were combining our forces, using our resources wisely.”
A database of residential property inspections obtained by 2 Investigates shows 95,688 inspections were conducted by 33 inspectors since Jan 1, 2024. These inspections include everything from high weeds, to junked cars to abandoned buildings.
Macchi said he was still familiarizing himself with how Dept. of Neighborhood inspectors operate, but concedes the volume of complaints is a hurdle.
“There’s problems everywhere we go. We have residents who call 311 and they complain, and their complaint is, how come I call 3-1-1 and nothing happens? Well, a lot of it has to do with the amount of work there is to be done and how thin we are in terms of resources,” said Macchi.
Macchi said he will also be meeting with City of Houston municipal court judges to discuss whether city code needs to be revamped to help ensure violations are corrected.
“The types of enforcement we’re doing are intended to help drive down crime, beautify the area, it helps drive economic growth,” said Macchi.
If the following is not a top concern, what is?
Really, Mr. Macchi, we have a property that has been abandoned for years. A few years back, a body was discovered in the backyard. The neighbors knew that there was something dead back there, but just figured it was a stray dog or something similar.
