Wheat Ridge, Colorado faced a problem wth increasing signs of neglect in certain parts of the city.  These properties might have had health or safety violations.  Other issues reduced quality of life for inhabitants.  To solve this problem, the city turned from a standard criminal/due-process model to an administrative enforcement model.  In this process, administrators were charged with finding violations and delivering warnings to residents, followed by two fines.  If property owners still did not comply, the process ended with criminal enforcement.  This change in program led to zero criminal charges for nuisance and code violations, increased city response time for violations, and new revenue collections for the city.

This case study was nominated for ICMA's Annual Awards Program.