Modernizing Code Enforcement in Prince George’s County, MD
CJ Reading has worked code enforcement in Prince George’s County, Maryland for close to a decade. He was first introduced to Comcate in 2017 when he joined the Hyattsville, MD code enforcement team. When he first used the software, he said ‘Oh, wow. This is pretty straightforward. This isn't that complicated. This does the job.’”
After a few years with Hyattsville, Reading jumped around to a number of other Maryland municipalities in Prince George’s County – only to discover that not all code teams operate with the benefit of technology. “I got a little experience under my belt and I thought the grass was greener so I left,” Reading said. “Went to another municipality and realized not everywhere has Comcate. Not everywhere even has any software at all. They're doing paper and pen.”
Every agency Reading worked at after leaving Hyattsville used pen, paper, and physical case files to manage code enforcement. Having seen the benefit of another way, Reading worked hard to convince the town administrator or city council in each municipality to add a line in the budget for software – and in the process modernized code compliance for a number of municipalities in Prince George’s County. After a few years, a supervisor position opened up back in Hyattsville, and Reading went back to the city where his code career started.
“And so here we are. I brought Comcate to Cottage City, Colmar Manor, and Cheverly. And it started with Hyattsville where they had already had it so I can't take the credit there.”
Code Compliance in Hyattsville: High Inspection Volume, a Focus on Voluntary Compliance
While the other municipalities that Reading worked for had small compliance departments – several were only part-time roles and split resources with other nearby cities – as an urban suburb of Washington, D.C, Hyattsville has a larger population and a more robust team to handle its compliance work.
The department consists of a manager (Reading), supervisor, and three inspectors, and handles rental and business licenses in addition to property maintenance issues. Reading says the majority of the team’s time is spent on inspections. With 20+ apartment complexes, around 700 single-family rental units, and an array of commercial businesses all within less than 3 square miles, the team has plenty to keep them busy.
Voluntary compliance is a major focus of the department. “I am huge on compliance by connection,” said Reading. “I believe in getting out there and mixing and mingling with the community. Every year I tell staff, if citations have gone up, that means we're not doing a good enough job. If revenue from fines is going up, that means we're failing.”
With a high volume of required inspections and limited staff resources, it can be a struggle to figure out where to allocate resources to maximize operational efficiency. Readings cites their biggest challenges as “knowledge, experience and making the correct data-driven decisions. And I think that's where having a very user-friendly software comes in.”
With Comcate, Hyattsville can consolidate most of its code compliance operations to one system, which helps Reading keep tabs on what his staff is working on. The city’s ordinances have also been uploaded into the system for inspectors to choose from when documenting cases and generating notices, which provides officers with extra visibility on ordinance language to use when making decisions. “I’m big on ‘Is it in the code? Is that the code requirement?’ I can’t tell you how many times a day I say ‘Look at the code.’”
Consolidation of work also makes it easier to pull stats when it comes time to make the case for extra resources. “We use Comcate for reporting on case load and workload, especially when we’re around budget season, because we can say “Hey, we need more money because this is the case load. We need another person because this is the workload.’”
An “Entire Day Out of the Week Back”
With ample experience working code enforcement without the aid of technology, Reading knows the value of software when it comes to saving time. In comparison to utilizing manual methods, Reading estimates that software helps his team save about 20% of their total time each week.
“If everything that we're doing in a week was done with paper and pen, it would take an entire day out of the week” he said. “Formatting Word documents, copying and pasting code, mailing citations, and case management, especially tracking things. It would be a guaranteed entire day out of the week that we are getting back because we have software that is easily accessible, easily maneuverable and does the tracking and case management for you.”
The Comcate Experience
Over the years, Reading has looked at a number of other solutions on the market – yet always chooses to stick with Comcate.
Some of the other solutions Reading considered “had these fancy bells and whistles, but came with a little more technical wherewithal that I don't think everybody possesses. Some of them had so much that it wasn't user friendly. It was too much information. The average violation… you shouldn’t have to click 30 different things to try and get one simple notice out. It should be bada bing, bada boom.”
Comcate’s simplicity and user-friendliness appeals to Reading – but so does the human aspect of the company.
“Comcate has a solid team: very humble, down to earth and approachable. A lot of these bigger companies, they're very robotic, just black and white. They're not easy to work with. I think it's easier, especially for someone like me when I'm asking my director to upgrade and I can reach out to Paige and say ‘Hey, I need you to demo, and this is what I'd like for you to show them.’ Or I've called Kolten before to say, ‘Listen, I'm going to sell this tonight. I need you on your A-game. Tell council every great thing, but also be honest about what it can't do because I don't want to sell them sweet nothings.’ Having someone that I can have a normal conversation with goes a long way. That rapport I think is extremely beneficial.”
Responsiveness from customer support has also been a bright spot in the relationship for Reading. “There hasn't been a thing that I've asked you guys to do that hasn't been done within 24 to 48 hours.”
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