说明
It is unacceptable to me that Alameda county has a very clear and specific ordinance against barking dogs (§ 5.08.060), and yet we are completely powerless to have this ordinance enforced when we are plagued by incessant barking.
Likewise, the county has very clear and specific ordinances against loud noise in residential areas (§ 6.60.050), and includes decibel limits for both daytime and nighttime noise. We are likewise powerless to have this ordinance actually enforced when our neighborhoods are victimized by noise polluting neighbors.
It really makes you question, what is even the point of having these ordinances, if our city government outright refuses to enforce them?
What is the point of having animal services if they can only cite owners if they personally witness the barking?
What's the point of that if their schedule is limited to only a few hours a week and they can't possibly be around to witness it?
What's the city's reasoning for their refusal to accept video footage as evidence?
It really amazes me what a worthless government we have in this town.
Has Alameda Animal Services even ever cited anyone for violating Alameda County Ordinance § 5.08.060? Has this ever happened even once in the entire history of AAS's existence?
Has the Alameda Police Department ever cited anyone for violations of Alameda County Ordinance § 6.60.050? Has this ever happened in the history of APD's existence?
I've talked to other people in the community and the recurring theme is that "noise ordinance is not enforced in Alameda", "barking dog owners are not cited here", etc. This is the same message I get from everyone I've talked to on this island. How is this even remotely acceptable?
Again: What is the point of even having these ordinances on the books to begin with if you outright refuse to enforce them, and go out of your way to make it as difficult as possible for Alamedans being victimized by noise on a daily basis to have the problem resolved? You won't even accept video evidence of barking, and you conveniently have your animal control officers only scheduled to work a few hours a week. They have to be there in person to witness it and have to witness it for 10 minutes straight. You've basically created an impossible scenario for us to have this law enforced. You've created a condition where Animal Control officers will never be able to witness the barking because of the extremely limited window of time they're actually available to do that, and you won't accept video evidence of barking dogs or noisy neighbors in general.
I have an entire year's worth of video documentation, literally every day dating back over a year, of my neighbors blatantly violating multiple county ordinances, and yet they have never and likely will never be cited because you apparently have absolutely no intention or desire to enforce the law in this town.
My only question is why? Is this just some tactic to avoid doing your jobs? To make your own jobs easier? What is it?
13 评论s
City of Alameda (官方验证)
City Clerk's Office 1 (官方验证)
City Clerk's Office 1 (官方验证)
TheyreCensoringOurCommentsOnThisSite (注册用户)
关闭 Wayland Gee (官方验证)
Within the Alameda city limits, the ordinances of the City of Alameda Municipal Code are applicable and enforced, not the ordinances of the Alameda County Municipal Code, which are only applicable to unincorporated areas of the county. All violations of noise ordinances in the City of Alameda Municipal Code are classified as infractions. This is also true of violations of noise ordinances in the Alameda County Municipal Code and likely most, if not all, municipal codes in California. Infractions are offenses deemed by lawmakers and the general public to be less serious than misdemeanors or felonies. In California, not just Alameda, officers must witness the infraction before they can take any enforcement action. Therefore, video footage may have value to confirm that a past violation of an infraction occurred, but unfortunately, it is worthless from an enforcement standpoint for a current infraction.
The City of Alameda currently has one full time Animal Control Officer. A second part time position has been open for some time but remains unfilled. Among their many other duties, the Animal Control Officer enforces animal related city ordinances, including the barking dog ordinance, and issues citations as necessary. The working days and hours of the Animal Control Officer are established in order to be most responsive during the times of the highest volume of animal related calls during the week, while also having some availability to work with employees at the Friends of the Alameda Animal Shelter.
I hope that this information has provided answers to most if not all of your questions. In the future, if you have a non-emergency situation to report that requires some immediacy or a timely response, such as an annoying barking dog, please contact the Alameda Police Department Communications Center at 510-337-8340 so that a call for service can be entered and dispatched to an officer. SeeClickFix is not constantly monitored and is not the appropriate platform for reporting crimes, calls for service, or any other situations requiring a timely or immediate police response. In addition, the reporting section of SeeClickFix is not a blog. It is not the proper platform to hurl insults at city departments or about city governance while venting your frustrations about city ordinances, recycling theft, construction noise, barking dogs, the homeless, or BBQ smoke. If you feel that you must continue, please contact one of your elected officials personally, make an appointment, and engage in a meaningful dialog with them. They will be happy to work collaboratively with you on solutions to your concerns.
Reopened TheyreCensoringOurCommentsOnThisSite (注册用户)
Clearly there is a gaping flaw in this municipal code, since as you said, without an officer around to physically witness the infraction, there is nothing that can be done.
Per your own admittance, the city government is far too severely understaffed to be able to properly serve a community of 79,000 people. It is literally impossible for 1 single animal control officer to be able to observe these infractions and action the offenders.
You have basically openly admitted here that Alameda effectively cannot enforce it's municipal code due to severe understaffing and your nonsensical policy of requiring an officer to physically witness an infraction to action the offender.
Now that you have admitted that you have this massive, gaping problem in the functions of our city government, what is Alameda's plans to correct the issue?
If the city government's plan is to continue their policy of only taking action against offenders when an infraction is personally witnessed by an officer, surely you acknowledge that only having 1 or 2 officers is grossly insufficient.
If that is the case, does the city government either plan to a.) hire MUCH, MUCH more animal control officers, who will be available around the clock, 24 hours a day to respond extremely quickly to calls and witness infractions while they are still in progress in order to action the offenders, or b.) remove the requirement for officers to personally witness the infraction, and amend current city legislation to allow video evidence to be accepted as actual proof that an infraction has taken place, rather than forcing one single animal control officer to scramble to different locations across the city in the hopes of maybe catching the tail end of one of these infractions while it's still occurring.
Also, I have in fact been contacting the Alameda Police Department every time I witness any unlawful act in Alameda. I have over a year's worth of video and written documentation detailing every call I've made to APD, every crime I've witnessed. I've got dates and times of every incident. Unfortunately, so far that has proven to be completely pointless as APD has not taken any meaningful action in any of the hundreds (if not thousands) of calls I've made. They have consistently allowed the offenders to get away scott-free every single time - and I mean EVERY single time.
Clearly, the police department in Alameda is broken and needs to be fixed. Having established that, what is the city's plan to fix the police department and get it working again? Right now APD are not serving any useful purpose and are a drain on the taxpayers.
If the city's plan is continue having a non-functional police department, I would suggest simply shutting it down permanently so that our tax dollars currently funding it could be re-allocated to something actually useful (like hiring more animal control officers, for example)
Clearly the way things are implemented in our city government now fall drastically short of the requirements needed to sustain a city of 79,000 people. It seems these were implemented hastily without any real concern for future population growth and the actual time and staffing requirements the city's duties entail. Clearly, the city needs to take a second look at how they're running our government, and make the necessary changes so that our government can effectively serve our population, enforce our local municipal code, and maintain order in our town.
关闭 Wayland Gee (官方验证)
Reopened TheyreCensoringOurCommentsOnThisSite (注册用户)
I didn't realize this issue was fake-closed by Wayland Gee who decided to fake-close it instead of answering the detailed questions I asked them. The site never even notified me. I guess SCF added an ability for them to stealthily close issues without even notifying us so they can sweep them under the rug.
Fortunately, I was reviewing my past submitted issues and saw that it been mysteriously closed by Wayland Gee who refused to answer my questions. Luckily I'm now able to re-open this issue before the site archives it and makes it permanently closed.
Re-opening because Wayland Gee/the city government is refusing to do their jobs and is refusing to answer basic questions.
Please answer the questions I asked. I will be closely monitoring this issue from now on so any further attempts to silently sweep it under the rug will be immediately thwarted.
TheyreCensoringOurCommentsOnThisSite (注册用户)
Or you can choose to continue ignoring me and refusing to answer the questions I asked, which just shows everyone that you don't care about doing your jobs and we made a terrible mistake letting people like you get into the positions of power that you're now in in the first place. if you want to demonstrate the taxpayers and voters of this city that you don't care about them and are not interesting in doing your job as a public servant, by all means, please feel free to continue refusing to answer my questions and silently closing this issue without actually addressing it. If, however, you'd prefer not to sully your public reputation and further cement every negative thing I've said about the police department and city government in this town, then I invite you to actually address the perfectly valid concerns I've brought up here and work with - instead of against - our community to address problems rather than continuing to sweep them under the rug and pretend they don't exist.
The "close" button on SCF is not a magic "make this problem go away" button, no matter how much they train you to believe otherwise. The people of this city are much smarter than you think, and every time you guys do this it just makes you look even more bad.
TheyreCensoringOurCommentsOnThisSite (注册用户)
Parrot Village Is a Dump (注册用户)
Parrot Village Is a Dump (注册用户)
TheyreCensoringOurCommentsOnThisSite (注册用户)