California Police Chief To Slap Cuffs On Negligent Bank Officials Over Blighted Foreclosed Homes?

In Indio, California, The Wall Street Journal reports:

• Officials at a Citigroup Inc. office in St. Louis placed a call to this desert town recently. The bank had caught word that Indio was coming after the lending giant with fines and threats of criminal charges. The offense: an algae-infested swimming pool at 79760 Eagle Bend Court.

• Citigroup wound up in charge of the foreclosed home, one of thousands of such properties it was managing across the country. But last year, Indio passed a law that allowed it to charge banks with a criminal misdemeanor if they allowed a home to fall into disrepair.

• "If I need to do it, I'll say, 'Mr. Bank President, if you don't come and take care of your property, we're going to come arrest you and take you to court in California,'" says Brad Ramos, Indio's long-serving police chief.(1) The hard-line approach is part of this town's attempt to gain leverage over some of the nation's largest lenders.

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• Mr. Ramos has organized his department to focus on this new type of crime. Uniformed officers make weekly sweeps through subdivisions, casting about for infractions like dead landscaping.

For more, see Banker: 'What'd I Do Wrong, Officer?' Cop: 'You've Got Algae in the Pool, Sir' (Fearing Blight, a California Town Makes It a Crime to Neglect Foreclosed Homes).

(1) According to the story, the City of Indio clipped Citigroup for a $3,450 fine. The bank also promptly sent a cleaning crew to remove the algae and otherwise clean the pool. BetaVacantForeclosure