A new Oak Harbor ordinance is supposed to give police a new tool for dealing with repetitive criminal activity on specific commercial or even residential properties.

The council discussed the proposal at a workshop meeting this week and will talk about it further at a future meeting.

City Attorney Hillary Evans presented the draft ordinance, which is similar to ones in Bremerton, Seattle, Everett and other communities. The purpose is to address properties that regularly require police or code enforcement attention, according to Evans. The code would allow the police chief to identify properties with frequent criminal activity and then a notice would be sent to the building owner and occupants, notifying them that they need to correct the problem or face fines, closure and even liens.

Councilmember James Marrow said he was concerned that the code would only create a game of whack-a-mole, with criminals moving from place to place. Still, he emphasized, it is a positive step in the right direction to help businesses.

Like Marrow, Councilmember Eric Marshall said he is in favor of this ordinance.

“I believe in giving the police chief and the attorney and the mayor all of the tools they need to keep our communities safe,” he said.

The ordinance, Evans detailed, allows police and city officials to identify properties that have repetitive violations of the law, including drug use, fighting and more.

Commonly, these properties are leased to someone else, so the property owner might not know about illegal activity on their property, Evans noted. Therefore, the city would send the property owner a notice directly. Then, the police chief, the mayor and the property owner will come up with a way to rectify the problem with a reasonable requirement, be it eviction of tenants, enforcement of the lease, building of a fence or installation of other security measures.

If the property owner does not comply with the agreement, the city attorney would turn to the legal system and the property owner’s fate would be up to a judge.

Currently, Oak Harbor officials work with Island County Public Health to close those properties that tend to be hubs for criminal activity. But the city currently has limited enforcement authority, so the options are limited if there are no health-related problems, like the lack of sewer and water, Oak Harbor Chief of Police Tony Slowik explained.

“This is really just a carrot and stick for the city to incentivize the property owners to do what they can do to reduce crime in the area,” Evans added.

Evans’ law firm has represented several cities with similar ordinances. The ordinance is a useful tool to address the property and the property owner rather than the people getting arrested from a specific criminal hub, she emphasized.

Slowik noted he doesn’t believe there are many properties that this ordinance would apply to.

“Over my 22-plus years, I can think of probably five different properties this would have applied to,” he said.

Mayor Ronnie Wright stated his support of the ordinance’s goal to address the public’s concerns about safety.

“This was something that was very important to myself and the administration,” he said. “This gives us an opportunity to be more proactive and actually hold people accountable.”

This ordinance will be discussed at a future council meeting.