A disgruntled resident made a dramatic plea for change at Tuesday night’s city council meeting, littering the podium with a can of oil, as well as glass bottles, a dirty diaper, and rocks larger than her hands.

“Your point is well taken,” said Mayor Michael Sweeney.

The ordinance was passed unanimously Tuesday night, which will provide the Hayward Police Department with a quicker process to abate what it calls “social nuisance behavior.”

Residents and members of the Rental Housing Association in attendance applauded the city council’s work.

Police Lt. Mark Koller primarily authored the ordinance. In a previous meeting, Koller defined “social nuisances” as crimes that lower quality of life for residents of Hayward such as drug dealing, drug use, prostitution, gang activity, drunkenness and noisy activities during late hours.

“Now we have some leverage to deal with these chronic problems from landlords,” Koller said at Tuesday’s meeting. “We’ve done outreach before but they ignore us.”

He promises this ordinance will not overreach, and will target only the worst landlords who do not comply with abatement.

Hayward residents brought up chronic issues relating to loud music, littering and mattress dumping, drug use and sale, prostitution, and improper disposal of motor oil.

Under previous laws, it would take years of lengthy court battles to evict “bad tenants” or demolish a home, even if there was an evident cause.

Police Chief Diane Urban and City Attorney Michael Lawson presented a report detailing the ordinance.

“It’s another tool,” said Urban, “it allows the police to take some enforcement on the rare occasions when we don’t get cooperation from the landlords.”

When asked about any legality issues, Urban who has 28 years of experience as a police officer was unconcerned.

“I don’t anticipate any [legal] issues,” said Urban, “We’ve had it thoroughly reviewed by the city attorney and I’m confident it will hold up in court.”

Bob Safarian, owner of Cypress Apartments in Hayward, spoke previously at a city council meeting in support of the ordinance.  As a property owner, Safarian has issues dealing with tenants who are involved in this kind of behavior.

“Under the current laws of Hayward it is tough for us to evict tenants. It’s really expensive and the average cost to evict is $7,500 which leaves the burden on the property owners,” said Safarian.

Hayward resident Jim Drake added his support for the ordinance, and he feels there is a need for more police officers and better security in Hayward.

Previously, the city relied on civil litigation to address these kinds of behaviors. The abatement process could take two years or more necessitating expensive staff time and expenses.

The ordinance would require the city to send out a courtesy notice to property owners suspected of nuisance behavior, with the goal of coaxing owners into solving the issue themselves, said Koller.

Stockton, Vallejo and Woodland all have similar ordinances, and have seen over 90 percent of property owners voluntarily abated their perceived social nuisance behavior after the first warning letter, their respective police departments have reported.

According to Koller, within the past five years, two individual properties generated over 230 police calls combined with 800 staff hours and ultimately cost taxpayers over $86,000,00.