New London – The city has hired a new blight officer whose aim is to help the city boost the quality of life for residents.

Kenyon Haye, 33, a city resident since 2011, was hired last month as the new blight property maintenance reviewer. Haye is working in the city’s building department where Mayor Michael Passero said more manpower was sorely needed. Building official Kirk Kripas and Housing Code Inspector Jamie Salmon already have their hands full with inspections and permitting, he said.

Haye will be solely focused on handling complaints and tackling blighted properties, developing relationships and in some cases prodding some homeowners and landlords to take action on their properties.

“You just can’t get ahead on these issues in the neighborhoods unless you have somebody out there,” Passero said.

He compared the new position to that of the human resources director, another new position added since he was elected mayor that is focused on a need that was not being addressed.

“You can’t have a great quality of life if you’re not involved in some important aspects of the city,” Passero said.

Almost every street has one of “those properties,” Passero said, whether it’s the home with the porch roof that has been hanging off the building for the past several months or another home where the bamboo has completely taken over the property and is impinging on the neighbor’s property.

The hiring comes a year after city council approved a new blight ordinance that, along with maintaining the ability of the city to levy its own civil penalties, allows the state to enact criminal penalties against owners of nuisance properties.

Violations can be handed out for things like boarded up windows or doors, the constant presence of garbage, overgrown plants, graffiti and abandoned cars – things creating an eyesore or even impacting neighbors’ property values.

Passero said he expects Haye to use the “carrot approach,” when working with offending landowners or absentee landlords – speaking to them and encouraging them to clean up their act. Penalties are in place with the new ordinance, however, that will better encourage compliance.

The new blight ordinance, spearheaded by the city’s Economic Development Commission, incorporates some of the wording in a City of Groton ordinance and now allows for criminal infractions in which property owners can face fines of $250 a day and find themselves in front of a judge. The city also maintains its ability to issue $100 day penalties for properties in violation of the ordinance.

Haye will earn an annual salary of $50,000. His salary and benefits are funded through annual grants to the Office of Development and Planning from the Community Development Block Grant program.

Passero said Haye’s work will also involve developing policy.

“We don’t have anyone pursuing a strategy of corrective action for some problems that are systemic. This gives us the opportunity to develop that program,” Passero said.

g.smith@theday.com