Again, cops called to burglary only to find out it is code enforcement

[sheclown]

from facebook:

The Municipal Code Compliance Office in our county has gotten out of hand and I'm soliciting your support to make them aware that this must not continue.

Below is the text from a letter I sent to the mayor and head of Duval County municipal code compliance this morning.

Yesterday, I received a call from one of my contractors that someone was stealing building materials from the rear fenced yard of my latest remodel project. He said the police were there and I should make the drive to the properrty. One of the neighbors had called the police to report the theft.

I drove to the property and learned that the "thief" was actually a contractor hired by the city to remove the building materials from my backyard. It appears that even though I had communication from them to the contrary, they leveraged a nuisance complaint for high grass on the city's right of way (outside of the fence) to take full jurisdiction of the property, remove the latch from my privacy fence, and remove the building the materials from the property. See attached photos for a perspective of the area outside my fence and a photo of the materials inside the contractor's dump truck.

Question: Does the attached picture look like a nuisance to you?




Someone needs to put a stop to the bold and inappropriate actions of this office: chasing properties for subsidizing revenue versus actually addressing the blight of the neighborhoods outside the historical areas of town.

The contractor himself told me yesterday that the code office specifically targets owners who they believe can pay the fines, not the properties with the true violations.

The cost to remove my materials and take them the dump?: The city is charging me over $3,000 for stealing from my own backyard!

It's time for change across the board! Support #LennyCurry for the next Jacksonville mayor!

Here's the letter:

Mr. XXX:

Can you please confirm receipt of the photos I emailed you yesterday of my property at 2165 Gilmore 32204?

I will also forward the email from your office dated August 21 (one day before the abatement order was issued) where it was communicated that no action would be taken against my property until the next hearing scheduled for this week, nearly 30 days later. I contacted your office regarding the entire property, not the house.

I am meeting with my good friend XXX with the Florida Times Union tomorrow to discuss this situation, and may contact my attorney XXX after that conversation.

I am an avid supporter of downtown revitalization (I have saved/remodeled 60+ homes in Riverside/Avondale/Murray Hill in the past 5 years), I am still in shock at how bold your office has become with the appearance of targeting certain areas, homes, homeowners. One of my properties was recognized as the Jax Historical Society and RAP remodel of the year last year. And, I pay more than $60k in property taxes.

Your contractor removed reclaimed heart pine flooring I was using for building materials from behind the locked gate of my backyard fence yesterday. I will forward the receipt from XXX for the flooring, and the owner of the company is prepared to provide an affidavit on the legitimacy of the building materials your contractor dumped. Your claim of it being "old wood," when in fact it was reclaimed 1.5" thick heart pine from the floor of the barrel room of the Jim Beam distillery, is mistaken. Many, if not all, sustainably minded residents would be appalled that this wood was trucked to the dump out of my fenced backyard yesterday by the city's contractor.

The irony is the materials were being used to renovate the home that your office is also taking action against!

Certainly there are more significant issues of nuisance in our county than a pile of wood and building materials behind a privacy fence, not even visible from the road (see attached photo)?

Even despite some of your offices best efforts to thwart downtown redevelopment within the urban core of Jacksonville, people like myself push forward for the benefit of this beautiful city.

I ask that you step outside of your office's box and consider this from my perspective as a homeowner. Certainly the last thing we want is our government leveraging a tall grass nuisance complaint (which is mostly city right of way, and yes I understand that it is my responsibility to keep mowed) to enter through a locked gate to a homeowner's private yard to remove their personal belongings - wood. And, the last thing your office needs at this time is another voice sharing this perspective with Jacksonville residents and the media.

Regards,
Payton

#firstcoast news, #lennycurryformayor, #alvinbrown, #mayoralvinbrown, #jacksonville, #duval, #floridatimesunion, #timesunion, #rap, #florida, #historicalrenovations #riversideavondale #jaxbusinessjournal #jacksonvillebusinessjournal #voidlive
— with Trip Stanly, Sean Larkin, Candis Fansher and 15 others.

[sheclown]

you may remember this from last March:

http://www.metrojacksonville.com/forum/index.php/topic,21163.30.html
reply #39.

An east Springfield woman received a notice last Thursday for trash in her yard --debris she is cleaning up from a fire which recently destroyed her home. She is working in getting estimates from contractors and slowly cleaning up the interior. 

So imagine her surprise when contractors hired by code enforcement began cleaning up the yard.  And to do so, they knocked down a portion of her fence to get the equipment in.

She called JSO.  Three cars showed up.

After much heated discussion, the contractors and the city left, but not before returning a wheelbarrow full of trash to her front yard.

"The letter said I had 15 days and I only received it last Thursday!" she said.

As the contractors drove off she yelled after them "I"M NOT PAYING FOR THIS"





She said "it wasn't the greatest fence, but it is MY fence."

[sheclown]

from an email thread on DART funding, we found this in an email from Kim Scott to her boss dated Aug 2013:

"At this rate, MCCD will have no funding, excluding lien revenue utilized by regular nuisance abatement (cutting/clearing) to support board-ups and demolitions in the City of Jacksonville."

To see the entire email thread go here: (reply 24)

http://www.metrojacksonville.com/forum/index.php/topic,20164.new.html#new

replay #36

http://www.metrojacksonville.com/forum/index.php/topic,21163.30.html

[sheclown]

Posted: 9:57 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2014

Local contractor cited while trying to clean blighted properties


By Amanda Warford

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. —

Payton Rogers purchased a rundown Riverside home eight months ago. It's one of dozens he's been working to renovate over the past six years.

"Fix the blight. That's all I want to do is fix the blight," Rogers said.

The process has been challenging, however.

Rogers says he's been cited by code enforcement three times, including recently for high grass.

He's believes he's a target.

"There seems to be a pattern," says Rogers.  "As soon as I close on a property, they come in like wolves at the gate."

On Tuesday, Rogers says a city contractor placed a dumpster in his backyard, and began loading up recycled heart pine flooring that he says he was collecting to build with.

Rogers stopped them, but was fined $1,200.

"So I'm still paying them to remove my building materials to the dump, when the building materials are actually here to combat another violation, which was to fix the front porch," he said.

Action News shared Rogers concerns with Councilwoman Denise Lee, who heads the city's anti-blight effort.

"I'm glad to know that code enforcement is doing their job," Lee said.

Lee believes code enforcement isn't targeting anyone specific, but rather working harder since Operation Blight began earlier this year.

"The city had not taken on this issue of blight previously, which is a chronic problem in our city, and because we have upped the ante people have not seen this kind of energy before."

Lee admits the process still needs work, however, and she agrees with Rogers that they need to work together to combat the blight problem.

"We need to come together," says Lee, "and I welcome the public to become part of the process to clean up the entire city."

"Some things take time and I feel like we're succeeding in spite of the city's efforts,"  says Rogers, "but I feel like we should be succeeding in partnership with the city's efforts."

Lee says the Blight program will have more structure in a year from now, and that she is working to rid the books of "antiquated legislation" that she says no longer fits with the city's needs.

- See more at: http://www.actionnewsjax.com/news/news/local-contractor-cited-while-trying-clean-blighted/nhTf2/#sthash.5Fq9faNa.dpuf

[urbanlibertarian]

Using fines and liens levied by a government agency to directly fund that same agency is a conflict of interest.  You might call it legalized theft.

[AuditoreEnterprise]

Using fines and liens levied by a government agency to directly fund that same agency is a conflict of interest.  You might call it legalized theft.

Indeed, but when you are the same institution that has the power to levy fines and are directly backed by the same group that writes codes and ordinances who will crack down on it. It's really sad to see something of that magnitude though it is a shame they went so far as to literally use the machine to tear down her fence. That had to be very scary indeed.On top of that to return with the trash and dump it is uncalled for.