The typewritten letter was slipped through the

Review office transom this week: “SUBJECT: ABANDONED VEHICLES, Bainbridge Island Fire Department. Bucklin Hill Road Fire Station: Why does this facility have at least 10 or more parts of and complete unlicensed, abandoned automobiles, shipping containers and semi trailers? Phelps Road fire station: In a fenced area, more autos and parts of autos, complete with an unmarked wrecker… Who is responsible for this JUNK YARD AND ILLEGAL EYESORE?”

Who knows whether the letter (signed by pseudonym, naturally) also made its way onto Meghan McKnight’s desk over at City Hall, but it’s the classic example of how a code enforcement case gets started: someone with a beef against their neighbor calls the city instead of the neighbor.

The code office has been in the news quite often of late, since the youthful McKnight was promoted from permit planner to the enforcement post in May. A spate of disputed clear-cuts have jostled for headlines with compliance actions against several mom-and-pop operations, prompting some to ask where the city’s enforcement priorities are. At the same time, there’s been an unfortunate campaign to impugn McKnight’s credentials. Things reached a nadir this week, when one council member patronizingly suggested that the code office needed “adult supervision.” We’d expect this kind of ad hominem attack in the local blogs, but it should be beneath the dignity of the council.

Dispense with the rhetoric and you’ll find there are objective measures by which the code official’s work can be judged. If someone feels a compliance action is unfair, they can appeal to the planning head or hearing examiner for redress; if enough appeals prevail, it would be clear that the enforcement office is poorly managed. But McKnight has hardly had time to do the job at all, let alone do it badly, so it seems a tad early to dismiss her performance.

One can easily (and probably accurately) conclude that such gripes are agenda-driven, and that the only code violations the noisemakers really care about are tree cutting and wetland filling; anything else, and the enforcement officer will be accused of beating up on the little guy while developers run wild. But rules are rules; the city cannot adopt a double-standard for compliance actions, pursuing some and ignoring others based on sob stories or political cachet.

Truth is, the majority of enforcement cases on Bainbridge these days aren’t actually related to current development projects. Most complaints are generated by established households and businesses that, say, put animal pens too close to property lines, plant gardens in protected buffers, build storage sheds to improperly expand commercial uses, or hang out illegal signs. A neighbor gripes to the city, and an investigation begins.

Now, if the city code is so labyrinthine that the average citizen can’t help but blunder into violations, then the council should rewrite it. Until then, criticizing the code officer for doing her job – enforcing the highly prescriptive land-use rules islanders profess to want – is disingenuous.

Oh, for what it’s worth, those junk cars outside the fire hall were used for accident-response training, and the fire chief says they’re going to be hauled off soon. Amazing what you can find out with a phone call instead of a complaint.