Common complaints include trash being left around construction sites and parking violations.
Polly McLean, Hideout’s attorney, said at the town council meeting Aug. 14 the rules already exist – they’re just not being enforced.
“The main thing to know is that we have all the legal requirements for code enforcement – whether it be criminal, civil or administrative,” she said. “All those are in place in our code, and now we need to implement it.”
McLean said public works staff have previously issued tickets, but that’s not a good solution because it strains their working relationships with contractors.
She recommended hiring a third party to enforce the code, maybe a new part-time town employee or maybe asking the Wasatch County Sheriff’s Office to help.
Once the town starts issuing tickets, it also needs to follow through with fines.
Interim mayor Ralph Severini said the town needs to update some of its forms.
“The actual summons booklets don’t have an address of where to send the payment to,” he said. “So, it’s like a blank summons. Nobody’s going to pay attention to that.”
He also raised safety concerns for whomever the town hires.
“You wouldn’t want to have people writing summonses without some protection, because you don’t know if these guys are drinking out there or – I mean, we’ve already seen a crime, big crime in our town, just road rage,” he said. “God forbid, I wouldn’t want to repeat that.”
Town staff will do more research to recommend the best way to move forward and how much it would cost to hire someone for code enforcement.
