City of Lakewood News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 1, 2010
LAKEWOOD MUNICIPAL COURT TO LAUNCH NEW DIVERSION PROGRAM FOR BUILDING, HOUSING & HEALTH CODE VIOLATIONSTom Ostromek has been hired by the Lakewood Municipal Court to assist with the probation department for building, housing and health code violation cases. Tom is a retired building inspector with the City of Lakewood. Since his retirement, Tom has worked with the Building Department for the City of Fairview Park.
Beginning this year, the Lakewood Municipal Court, with the cooperation of the Lakewood Law Department, Building Department and
LakewoodAlive, will establish a diversion program for building, housing and health code violation cases. The purpose of the diversion program is to assist homeowners to fix their homes and achieve compliance with the housing and building codes.
The diversion program will be primarily limited to participants who own and live in the property. The City’s Prosecutor’s Office has the right to review and approve or object to participation in the diversion program. Factors to be considered for eligibility in the diversion program include prior code violation and other criminal history, the nature and number of violations, costs of repairs, impact on the community and other mitigating or aggravating circumstances. If admitted into the diversion program, a compliance schedule will be developed to abate the violations. The participant must agree to cooperate with the persons or agencies designated by the court. Participants may be terminated from the program and returned to the Court’s regular criminal docket for noncompliance.
Tom Ostromek will be working on a part time basis, with his salary paid out of the Court’s Probation Supervision Fund which will avoid the need to seek additional funds for the Court’s operating budget. Tom will be coordinating efforts among the Court, City’s Building Department and LakewoodAlive, as well as other agencies, to assist in compliance with building, housing and health code violations.
Tom will also be conducting inspections of properties for cases filed in court involving building, housing and health code violations. In the past, building inspectors were required to appear in court to report on compliance status. A large part of these duties will be assumed by Tom Ostromek as the court’s probation housing court specialist. In doing so, building inspectors will be able to spend more time on code enforcement and inspections and less time in court.
The diversion program will help to streamline code enforcement procedures by reducing the number of compliance inspections and time both prior to and after filing complaints with the court. The Court’s housing code diversion program is being implemented with the assistance and cooperation of the City Administration, including Mayor FitzGerald, the City’s Law and Building Departments and LakewoodAlive.
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For more information, contact the Lakewood Municipal Court at (216) 529-6700.
