Instructor-Led Class
Enforcing Public Health Nuisance and Anti-Dumping Laws
6 Continuing Education Hours

Description
Communities need to use all their options to reduce habitat for mosquito breeding, including using a full range of state criminal laws. This class will focus on the laws that local governments can use to reduce problem areas, including (1) public health nuisance and/or public nuisance laws, especially THSC Sec. 341.013(c); (2) the Texas Litter Abatement Act THSC Chapter 365; (3) controlling dumping into and adjacent to water through using TWC Secs. 7.145 and 7.147. The class will include a detailed presentation of current state provisions for controlling scrap tires (including any new statutes created by the 2017 state legislature -- such as the pending SB 570). Various policy and officer safety issues involved in enforcing or filing to enforce these provisions will also be addressed.

Who Should Attend
Local code enforcement officers and registered sanitarians; local peace officers; local health department officers; specialized environmental enforcement officers; fire marshals and firefighters; prosecutors; city and county staff and elected officials needing a good understanding of the approaches available to control illegal dumping and public health nuisances; state agency officers needing a good understanding of the enforcement powers available to local governments.

Certifications
Six (6) hours code enforcement/RS continuing education credits will be awarded for successful completion. For code enforcement officers, this class includes one hour in "Legal / Legislative Update Related to the Profession of Code Enforcement." Six (6) hours TCOLE credit may be given at the discretion of participant's agency (Lesson Plan and Instructor Biography will be provided to Agency Training Officer). Peace officers seeking to earn TCOLE credits for completion of Class 3880 should verify with their Training Officer that this class meets Agency requirements prior to registration. In some cases TCOLE credit will be filed by the local agency hosting the class.

Instructor
Your instructor for this class is John Ockels, Ph.D, Director of Texas Illegal Dumping Resource Center. If you need to contact him for any reason, you can do so at ockels@tidrc.com.