The Neighborhood Improvement Task Force moved Wednesday to send a draft ordinance to Salisbury City Council that would prohibit upholstered or interior furniture and appliances outdoors, including porches.

The task force also will send to council an ordinance spelling out civil penalties for residents who leave their rollout garbage containers on the curb for too long.

“We have to start somewhere with something and get it on the books,” said task force member Norde Wilson, a landlord.

Residents who violate the proposed ordinance on rollout carts and recycling bins will receive a warning sticker for their first offense. Second and future violations would result in a $25 fine for each offense.

The task force initially looked at addressing indoor furniture and appliances outdoors as a nuisance to be abated, rather than fined. Nuisance abatement generally involves removing the nuisance and billing the property owner (or attaching a lien) for the costs.

In a memo to city staff, City Attorney Rivers Lawther cautioned against this approach, noting that abatements are generally applied to stop situations that pose “an imminent threat to public safety and welfare.”

While the draft ordinance attempts to describe indoor furniture used outdoors as creating a potentially hazardous situation and a threat to public safety and property values, that claim may be shaky in court, City Manager David Treme warned.

The city would not be granted immunity from civil liability if the courts decide later that the ordinance, with an abatement provision, violates a person’s constitutional rights.

So task force members agreed Wednesday that violations of the ordinance should be addressed through fines, though a dollar amount was not given.

The proposed ordinance would prohibit:

• “Upholstered or other furniture designed or manufactured exclusively for indoor use left exposed in an open area, including porches.”
• “Any worn-out, deteriorated or abandoned household or office furniture, or appliances of any kind which are kept in open areas, including porches.”

The proposed ordinance on garbage containers and recycling bins says they shall not be placed on the curb earlier than dusk on the evening prior to the day of collection and no later than 7 a.m. on collection day.

Containers would have to be removed from the street by midnight on the day of collection.

The present ordinance says containers should be out by 7 a.m. on collection day and back off the curb by 7 p.m. the same day. So this revision would actually be more lenient as to how long the containers can be on the curb.

But the present ordinance has no provision for fines.

Julius Waggoner, a landlord on the task force, said the city should make sure it puts a system in place that fines the occupant of a home or apartment and not the landlord. Public Services Director Vernon Sherrill said numbers on the garbage carts are already matched to tenants, not landlords, in a city data base.

Members of the 12-member task force meet monthly and are supported by Wilmington consultant Glenn Harbeck, 16 city staff members, Mayor Susan Kluttz and Councilman William “Pete” Kennedy. The group expressed some frustration Wednesday with how slow it’s moving and hoped the proposed ordinances to council would help jump-start its work.