Letter to Code Enforcement About Cockroach Infestation

Tenant Union Tasks
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Last month, @Adri_Martinez and I went to Stockton Code Enforcement (CE) to drop off the Letter to Code Enforcement About Cockroach Infestation. We spoke to Annie Swaim, the Code Enforcement Supervisor. I included some notes about the meeting below. I will outline ideas about what to do next in the following post - would appreciate others’ feedback as well on how we should proceed.

Safety Concerns

  • The primary takeaway was Code Enforcement saying they had safety concerns about entering the neighborhood; even sworn officers are apparently told not to patrol the area.
  • Previous proactive efforts, like the Neighborhood Betterment Teams, were previously pulled out of CalVilla.

Resource Limitations

  • Adri brought up the fact that this issue is widespread and asked whether CE would be willing to do a wider investigation. Annie turned down this idea because the department is understaffed and would likely involve a larger presence than they are willing to have in the area.
  • I asked if they had resources (pamphlets or even language) that we could forward to landlords to pressure them on our end. CE seems not to have those kinds of things prepared. We were told to just look up the regulations online.

Code Enforcement’s Current Plan

  • Alfredo Gomez is the Code Enforcement Officer in charge of the CalVilla region.
  • They are going to ask if it is safe to go in. If it is not, he will contact landlords and tenants by phone.
  • He will contact all the petition signers. I am not sure if he will be able to contact the people that did not leave their phone numbers.
  • He will be contacting the landlords of every unit in affected buildings. So as long as one unit is affected, the owners of all four units in the building will be called. We were not told the details of what will be discussed, but I assume they will be given a warning and time to address the issue.
  • Annie did not think this would be a legal issue for the HOA, but she needed to look at the actual language to make a final determination. She said usually this always comes down to a landlord issue, since the roaches can be kept from coming inside.

Guidelines for Tenants

  • Tenants should maintain cleanliness in their units to prevent pest issues.
  • Annie also told us to tell tenants to directly contact Code Enforcement, but we will not be doing that since we do not want this issue to die in CE’s hands.

Stockton Code Enforcement Contact Information

Annie Swaim

Alfredo Gomez