What a nuisance

The New Rockford City Commission doesn’t believe they have the cooperation of the Eddy County Sheriff’s Department when it comes to handling nuisance vehicles.

That's according to several commissioners’ comments made during their regular meeting on Monday, Oct. 7, where nuisance vehicles were among the primary topics of discussion.

According to city officials, the contention stems from an incident on Friday, Sept. 27, when an attempt was made to tow one such “nuisance vehicle.”

Public Works Superintendent Bruce Hirchert told commissioners that a sheriff’s deputy was present to ensure the towing went smoothly, but the owner began to protest the removal of his vehicle. And then at some point “they called the sheriff and the sheriff told them not to tow it,” Hirchert explained.

Evidently, the incident left some commissioners feeling the local sheriff’s office isn’t on board with their efforts to address the problem within city limits.

However, when asked for comment, Lies told the Transcript on Wednesday that this is the first he’s hearing of such an incident. And after looking into it, he said it was actually Chief Deputy Jesse Anderson who called off the tow, and that he did so because the owner was refusing entry onto his private property.

“The city needs to get a civil warrant to enter the property and seize things,” Lies said. “All the sheriff’s office does with these nuisance vehicles is keep the peace, that’s all we’re there for. We don’t have the authority to enter private property and enforce the seizure of a vehicle.

“We’re more than happy to work with the city on nuisance vehicles, but it’s up to the city to follow the legal process,” he added.

No mention about the necessity of a civil warrant was made at Monday’s commission meeting.

According to Chapter 10-03-03 of the New Rockford city ordinance, “Police department may remove junk automobiles or abandoned vehicles. The police department may remove or cause to be removed any junk automobile or abandoned vehicle, or parts of either, from any unenclosed private property after having notified, in writing, the owner or occupant of such property of its intention to do so at least 48 hours prior to such removal.”

Much of the discussion Much of the discussion during Monday’s meeting was about how the city might streamline the process moving forward, and potentially adjust their ordinance.

Commissioner Jim Belquist seemed particularly adamant that more needs to be done to resolve the nuisance vehicle problem, even placing part of the blame with themselves.

“Our process just isn’t working,” he said.

Back in June, the city commission approved a list of 27 nuisance vehicles, and notices were sent out to the owners on June 25, notifying them that they had 14 days to remedy the situation.

Belquist said that by July 15, six of those notices were returned, having not been received by the owner, and only three vehicles have been towed since.

He then suggested the city begin sending out additional notices as soon as possible to the owners of other vehicles, in an effort to keep the process moving. The local impound lot only has room for about 12 vehicles, so they can only address so many at a time.

The conversation eventually moved back to the sheriff’s office and how they might work better with them moving forward, noting that the city can issue notices but must rely on local law enforcement to enforce city ordinances.

Commissioner Jacob Dauenhauer asked, “How do we get [the sheriff department] on board with what we’re trying to do?”

In response, Commission President Stu Richter said, “I think we need to go to the county commission, and just have a better game plan between the county, the sheriff’s department and the city.”

And regarding the sheriff’s cooperation, Richter added, “I thought he was completely on board with it, but he evidently is not.”

“The only thing missing is for the sheriff’s department to get on board, that’s it," Commissioner Justin Ystaas later added. “We talked about this five years ago and nothing’s changed ... it starts with them.”

City Attorney Travis Peterson suggested looking at city ordinance and potentially making some changes, and several commissioners suggested looking at other cities of similar size to see if the process can be improved.

Commissioners seemed to end the discussion with an understanding that they would do just that, and in the meantime the city would attempt to work through the county commission to establish some kind of game plan.

On Wednesday, Oct. 9, New Rockford City Auditor Andrew Presnell said at least five similarly-sized cities had already been contacted regarding their nuisance vehicle process.

Meanwhile, Lies told the Transcript that by Wednesday afternoon, he was already contacting the city commission about the process for removing nuisance vehicles.