Buena Park Will Expand Popular Cleanup Program

A popular program to clean up blighted neighborhoods will expand with the help of federal funds.

At a workshop Monday, City Council members voiced support for a staff recommendation to hire a coordinator for the year-old Neighborhood Improvement Task Force.

“If we don’t continue to proceed with this program, I see us falling backward,” Councilman Don Griffin said. “We have done a good job but we need to do more.”

The task force, consisting of the chief of police, department heads and other high-level officials, uses a multi-pronged approach. Code enforcement officers and representatives of health, fire, police and other agencies all inspect buildings at the same time, issue citations and then follow up to make sure orders are obeyed.

The City Council had been reluctant to use a $150,000 federal grant to create the coordinator position because the funding must be renewed annually.

With a $2-million city budget deficit likely next year, council members said, they would not want to hire somebody whose salary would have to be paid from the general personnel budget if the federal block grant dries up.

City Manager Kevin O’Rourke and officials from the Development Services Department offered a compromise: Fill the position with a “contractor” who would not be eligible for the benefits of a regular employee.

Having a full-time person to manage the task force would free other officials from the responsibility of monitoring the task force, O’Rourke said.

The council has set a vote on the proposal for its meeting Monday.