Conditional Moritorium on Demolitions

[ChriswUfGator]

Chris, there has been a lot of pain inflicted on the residents of Springfield for the last 10 years.  I know, I had that particular bull's eye painted on my butt a couple of times.  

Code enforcement reacted to what the local preservation organization wanted them to do.  Kimberly Scott is not a preservationist -- never claimed to be.  What she wants is public safety.  If she is told that these buildings are a threat to public safety, her department is going to clean up this town.

But that was yesterday.  But that is also how we got into this jam.

Today... there is every indication that code enforcement is going to whole-heartedly follow and even support this plan.  There is also every indication that the HPC is going to put its foot down and once again become the protectors of our historic fabric.

We are seeing the seeds of new policies and great leadership.  We can't fail.

Well, yes, it was literally just yesterday that all this was still going on. Hence my concern.

It is not my intent to dwell in the past. Rather, my concern is that the Code Enforcement process has been so grossly perverted by a variety of irrelevant factors, mainly personality confilicts between individual Code officers and property owners, bogus code complaints, SPAR, etc., that were never relevant to the decision to destroy hundreds of historic properties, that in my mind some kind of re-training on these issues is warranted for the Code officers.

The police realized many years ago that there are a certain subset of people who have personality problems, both in their own ranks and in the general public. They have training in place for their officers on how to conduct themselves professionally with the public, and on how to avoid letting their personal biases or likes or dislikes cloud their professional judgment. Additionally, there are measures for dealing with members of the public who habitually call in false complaints or file false reports in order to use law enforcement as a tool to settle petty personal conflicts.

I doubt any equivalent training or remedial measures are presently available for Code Enforcement, or else this whole debacle would not have happened. Part of the problem here is that the entire C.A.R.E. system is basically an honor-system, which assumes each complaint is valid and Code Enforcement is forced to "close" each complaint by taking some form of action, ranging anywhere from property inspections to citations and fines, regardless of whether or not there is a pattern of harrassing complaints about the same property which were previously investigated. Depending on how badly things go wrong, demolition is sometimes the final result. Additionally, the timelines and methodology that work in Ortega or San Marco do not necessarily work at all in slowly gentrifying areas like Springfield. The current system makes no differentiation, and "one size fits all" does not work in this context.

The biggest problem that contributed to this mess is that there is no method for preventing abuse of the system, or for identifying and flagging bogus repeat complaints. The system lends itself to the rampant abuse that has occurred here, because each new case entered in the system requires investigation, regardless of whether or not similar complaints from the same people have already been investigated. Some property owners faced code inspections every few weeks for years, because of the same complaints getting called in over and over again. SPAR took full advantage of this with its mass code-enforcement call-in campaigns, which tried (and succeeded in many cases) at harrassing people they didn't like out of the neighborhood.

Silas Jones' open letter to COJ is a perfect example, because it includes the C.A.R.E. complaint information showing that a group of SPAR-associated people had called in multiple complaints, and several of them had each called in 3 or 4 separate complaints in a single day. One of them called in 3 separate complaints within the span of 20 minutes. That clearly demonstrates an intent to abuse the system, but C.A.R.E. isn't able to identify that type of pattern, and this flaw allows the City of Jacksonville to be used as a tool for harrassment while shielding the people behind all of the B.S. from any liability.

My concern is that, without some kind of re-training on these basic issues, and without some additional mechanism in the system for dealing with C.A.R.E. complaints that would allow bogus repeat complaints to be identified moving forward, this whole thing may eventually repeat itself. This debacle was not any one person's fault. The whole methodology of the C.A.R.E. system is somewhat flawed, as I've described above, and were it not for these deficiencies these very serious behind-the-scenes problems in Springfield would not have happened.

The system should be a tool to assist well-trained officers in performing their duties. The officers should not be slaves to some computer system that forces them to reinspect the same property again and again, even though the same complaints from the same people were already investigated. COJ would do well to address these deficiencies, so there is not a repeat of this disaster. Just a suggestion, but Code Enforcement could pick up a thing or two from JSO on how to fix these issues with its crrent system. Police departments developed procedures that largely resolved these same problems long ago.

[Springfield Chicken]

This is such great news.  I'm still interested in doing a presentation of befores and afters but have received only a couple of photos.  If you own a home that looked pretty ragged or was condemned when you bought it and it has since been restored, I'd love to have the photos.  Monica and John are a perfect example.  Looking at their home in the state it was before restoration and now would make a believer out of anyone.  So please send your photos my way.

[sheclown]

@ Chris.

I agree.  The system is flawed. 

If you call in bogus complaints to DCF, you get yourself in hot water really quickly.

If you call in bogus complaints to INS, same deal.

Same needs to happen here.

[Miss Fixit]

After last night's HPC meeting I have such high hopes for the future of Springfield!

Thanks to Gloria, Nicole and others involved with Preservation SOS for all of their efforts.  We wouldn't be here without you.

I spoke to Mr. Killingsworth during the meeting.  It was my first time meeting him and I was thrilled by his obvious grasp of the issues.  When I thanked him, he said something that really summed things up:  

"It's the right thing to do."

[nvrenuf]

^ +1
I have a very tiny hand in Preservation SOS but I have still been walking a bit taller today. Congratulations to those who stood their ground many times very late into the night at HPC and Council meetings. I believe iloveionia has a nice little saying about persistence.

[iloveionia]

"Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'Press On' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race."
-Calvin Coolidge

[Steve]

"Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'Press On' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race."
-Calvin Coolidge

+1 - Excellent Quote. My college fraternity requires all pledges to memorize this, as Calvin Coolidge was a Brother in my fraternity

[Steve]

I'm speechless - in a good way.  Congrats Springfield, this is VERY good news for you guys.