YOUNGSTOWN City jails its first violator under new housing code

The housing code director hopes the new penalties will succeed where fines haven't.
By ROGER G. SMITH
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The city's housing code and demolition director has a message for property owners who've repeatedly ignored orders to correct violations.
"Beware. It isn't going to happen any more. This is no more slap on the hand," Mike Damiano said.
Sherry Clingerman found that out the hard way last week.
Clingerman, 44, of Steel Street on the city's West Side, is in the Mahoning County jail.
She pleaded no contest and was found guilty Friday in municipal court on a housing code violation. Judge Elizabeth Kobly sentenced Clingerman to 14 days in jail.
Judge Kobly added 10 days to Clingerman's sentence for contempt of court for swearing in the courtroom.
The jailing is the first since the city replaced its housing code with an internationally accepted code this summer.
Changes include raising housing code violation penalties from a minor misdemeanor -- a maximum $100 fine and no jail -- to a third-degree misdemeanor, bringing penalties up to 60 days in jail and up to $500 in fines.
Damiano estimates there are about 50 city property owners who risk jail time if they don't clean up their act, literally.
The new code gives judges the power to mete out meaningful penalties, which helps housing inspectors, Damiano said.
Before new rules
Damiano, with the city 26 years, can't remember anyone ever going to jail over a housing violation.
Far more typical, he said, was an offender who would ignore citations for housing violations. Eventually, the offender would go to court and receive up to a $100 fine. Then, months later, inspectors would find the same conditions, and the process would start anew.
"It was just kind of a joke," Damiano said. "We have the teeth now."
Clingerman is no stranger to housing inspectors.
Her housing file dates to August 2001. An inspector noted that violations remained from a previous inspection.
City records show Clingerman pleaded no contest and paid a $100 fine plus court costs in March 2002. Files also show two inspections in August 2002 and one in April of this year that found continuing violations.
October citation
The latest case started in October. An inspector cited Clingerman on Oct. 23 for failure to maintain her property and the outside of her house, city records show.
The order said she must remove trash and improve the outside of the house, siding, gutters, porch and steps. Pictures show miscellaneous items littering the porch, debris in the back yard, crumbling steps and peeling paint on the house.
Clingerman pleaded innocent the next day, then pleaded no contest Nov. 18 and was found guilty, according to court records. She was sentenced Friday.
Maureen O'Neil Farris, chairwoman of the city's Housing Code Enforcement Task Force, is glad the changes her group suggested early this year are being used.
But she'd hope jail is a rarity.
Other penalty system
Instead, she wants the housing department to use an administrative penalty system, which city council approved this summer with the new housing code.
The housing department would issue warnings and then fines for violations, instead of going right to court. There would be an appeals process, and court would be the last alternative.
Damiano said he is working on the administrative fine system.
Farris said city housing inspectors filed nine citations in August, eight in September and seven in October, the clerk of courts office reports. That pales compared with the thousands of violations out there, she said.
"We need to deal with these en masse," Farris added.
rgsmith@vindy.com