OxfordPress.com

An investigative report released by Oxford City Council last week calls corruption allegations that surfaced in an e-mail from former Code Enforcement Officer Chris Westfall false.

The six-page report by Lt. Bob Holzworth contains an additional 26 pages of supplemental material. The report was prepared in response to an April 5 e-mail from Westfall to the city manager. The e-mail voiced concerns of secret payment plans and citations being denied by the community development director.

While the Holzworth investigation found the allegations false, it revealed the speed of the citation review process and inconsistent communication between the Community Development Director Jung-Han Chen and Westfall created a "less than efficient (citation) review process."

Westfall claimed in the April 5 e-mail that Chen's reviews of citations had been done in a "completely arbitrary and capricious manner of fickle enforcement." While Holzworth explained there were some inefficiencies, Chen never abused his power in denying citations nor was he "arbitrary or capricious."

"While Mr. Chen's handling of the requests to cite were not consistent with Mr. Westfall's practice (when he functioned autonomously before the city was sued), that doesn't automatically demonstrate that Mr. Chen was behaving whimsically or erratically, the definition of capricious," the Holzworth report said.

In a Feb. 27 e-mail from Chen to Westfall, the community development director explained a number of citations were denied because of the time span between inspections. The citation process followed a "three strikes" policy in which a person was reprimanded for such things as trash or litter after a verbal and written warning.

Chen explained he was hesitant to approve citations with long delays between warnings.

"I did not approve your request on this one (because of) the span of the violation," Chen said in the Feb. 27 e-mail.

Chen noted in his e-mail some spans were as long as six months. Westfall countered saying policy should be changed on the books if the span between warnings and citations is a problem.

"If the same section (of the code) is violated again by the customer/occupant, no matter if it is weeks or a couple of months or even if I have or have not made personal contact, the policy has been to issue citations. Period," Westfall said in a Feb. 28 e-mail in response to Chen.

The Holzworth report also refuted allegations from the April 5 Westfall e-mail of secret payment plans. It explained that while there is no payment plan policy on the books, payment plans are a common practice with substantial documentation, which was provided in the report.

Westfall was removed from his position as code enforcement officer at the beginning of May after the city decided to outsource his position. He is currently appealing the outsourcing of his position to the Civil Service Commission.

To read the Holzworth report, which contains the April 5 Westfall e-mail, visit www.oxfordpress.com.