City Government
How Do You Get Help At City Hall?
July 30, 2015 
The following is a message we receive all too often from GUARDIAN readers who are at wit’s end
when it comes to help from City Hall where the standard line is “You have to file a written complaint.” What ever happened to enforcing the law?
DEAR GUARDIAN–
Please direct me to someone I can talk to about my neighbors multiple code violations. I have already contacted code, and they seem unwilling to help. Neighbor will not mow his lawn,the front of his home is atrocious! He just completed an 8 month home improvement which involved chopping down multiple mature trees, adding a 4×8 structure to the side of his house, a 500 square foot concrete pad to his backyard and all this to drive his behemoth mobile home over grass to park less than 3 ft from our property line. Setbacks on the property are 5ft. side & 15 ft. rear. Also has Multiple out buildings that are in violation of code. The kicker here is he works for ACHD!!! Is there anthing that can be done…Shame Shame on this #$%^&*.
If there is an official out there who will help, we will put the reader in contact with him/her.
HERE IS THE RESPONSE!
I just read the article from someone who claims they had a problem with weeds on a property. If you would please give them my name and contact information I will be happy to set up a code enforcement case and send one of our code enforcement officers out to take care of the concern. And I will be happy to contact this person who has the concern.
A thank-you from the GUARDIAN as well.
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Comments & Discussion
Comments are closed for this post.
Jul 30, 2015, 11:43 pm
My next door neighbor is running an illegal car, truck, motorcycle and boat repair shop out of his house. My assigned Boise City Zoning Officer says it is too much trouble, and too expensive to prove it, so the city will not do anything about it. I asked for a camera to be installed to show the neighbors multiple mechanics coming and going every day, as well as a steady stream of customers and vehicles, but they will not. It seems they only enforce the law when it is convenient, or suits their purposes.
Jul 31, 2015, 7:03 am
If he has constructed building projects without a permit, get the building department on him. That’s money the city didn’t get. They’ll hop right on that.
Call the building dept and check on permits pulled for this property address.
Jul 31, 2015, 5:19 pm
I think there is no one that will help. We do not have, in the city of Boise, code enforcement, we only have complaint response and that is even poor at best.
Complaints are filed and the code enforcement officer I have dealt with is not equipped to manage the complaints. If someone confronts him he lets them continue with what ever they are doing.
Additionally filing a complaint against a neighbor does nothing more than create a bad neighborhood environment.
I truly sympathize with the writer of this email.
Aug 1, 2015, 11:21 am
I emailed City Code about dog waste at the rental property next to my rental property and even though they said it wasn’t their beat and I should have contacted Animal Control, a City Code guy went out, knocked on the door, spoke to the woman and took care of the issue.
I’m usually the first guy in line to complain about state and local government, but in this case they got the job done.
Aug 1, 2015, 8:08 pm
If you have a Neighborhood Association ask an officer of that Association to monitor and report. A group often commands more attention than an individual.
Aug 3, 2015, 6:18 am
Yep. Contacted Code Enforcement about the nearby property that seems to be the source of our neighborhood skunk infestation. The inspector told me that while there are several unused (dilapidated) buildings, and the property is maintained in a casual way ( with tall weeds and accumulated junk), there are no actual code violations that the city can enforce. Huh?
Oct 2, 2015, 8:53 pm
Document the problem extensively with photographs. Have witnesses do the same. Take your information to a property attorney and ask them to file the code enforcement complaint. You may be able to get this done probono because it deals with the city government. They are our government not an entity unto themselves. Put all of your correspondence with the code people in writing with cc’s to . . .someone.
Nov 23, 2015, 2:36 pm
Code Enforcement???
What a Joke!!!