Failing the Smell Test

John here.

This morning (Monday, July 25) Byron Bartlett of the Hillsborough Environmental Protection Commission called. A while later Jeff Sklut of the Commission called to say that Byron had assigned the case to him.

I gave him Carolyn's number. Then I Skyped Carolyn to pass along the News. Jeff called her just as I was warming up. She set an appointment to meet him at 1:00 PM.

At 1:00, Jeff showed up at Carolyn's door with an entourage that included the feckless Mr. James and, Carolyn thinks, the head of Code nonEnforcement, among others. Jeff clearly would have preferred to just speak to Carolyn and Alverson and try to figure out what was going on. I think he had the phalanx of bureaucrats thrust on him because of the effective phone calls from Bernadine King, Aide to Les Miller. (If so, THANK YOU MS. KING!!)

In any event, they all marched over to Alverson's property. Here is Carolyn's account of the event:

1:00 PM Jeff parked across the street. As he walked over to me, a Code vehicle pulled up with Code people and Frank James, the supervisor from wasted water. We wound up with Jeff and four bureaucrats. Jeff was clearly disconcerted and gave me a very rushed and only slightly coherent explanation of all this activity. Evidently he had planned to talk to me alone and then to James. Someone called him and told him they would meet him here at noon to which he replied that I would not be home until 1 PM and that was when he was coming. Apparently, everyone decided to come at one also. Everyone at this meeting was of supervisory rank according to Jeff. I asked him if it would facilitate this process if I went inside the house. With what I took to be relief, he replied yes.

I went in and the five gentlemen went into James' [Alverson's] yard. They talked for a few minutes and then adjourned to the back of the building. One of the gentlemen came striding up my driveway heading back; he did not seem timid about trespass. I heard someone knocking on my door and when I opened it, Kate Cain who lives on the other side of 6003 Otis, was there. I was concerned that I would have several angry city employees on my porch attempting to be exquisitely polite while excoriating me, as happened on July 5. I was grateful for the backup.

About ten minutes later Jeff knocked on my door. After introducing him to Kate, I inquired as to the outcome of all supervisory frothings and foamings. Jeff responded that he had ascertained at least part of the problem. What I took to be a metal pipe cut flush with the ground, was actually an old clean out port. He determined that the problem was with the downstairs half bath and ordered James to seal it so that no water was being used, especially the toilet. He also gave James instructions to disinfect the area with lime or diluted bleach (it still stank, despite James' efforts with shovel and hose). I assume that when health department workers take microbiology they, in contrast to Jeff, skip the part about fecal pathogens and how to palliate them. All the times they were out here before I never heard any requirement, or suggestion, for sterilizing the site of the shit dump. Code I can understand. They probably never took microbiology and don't realize that these lovely little devils such as bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites can cause serious illness and even death (e.g., tetanus from Clostridium tetani, Hepatitis A (a virus), Giardia (often through dogs which have it (did I mention five dogs and a rabbit and a two month old baby next door?) and Cryptosporidium, and gram negative bacteria such as E. coli).

Jeff also told us that Code Enforcement has discretionary funds which could be used to hire a plumber to fix the defects around the house. He cautioned us, however, that Frank James (yes that Frank James who told me that he was assuming that James was hooked up with the city sewer and he was not going to investigate my complaint any further) thought there might be an obstruction in the line somewhere between the house and the city pipe. (His workman figured that out on July 5!) If this were to prove to be the case, there might be more feces down the road.

Jeff Sklut was a pleasure to talk with and seemed to offer steps toward at least a partial abatement of the year long sewage problem. He also was very specific as to the scope of his power, which I appreciated.

Truthfully, I am too enraged and discouraged with my government to feel much hope, even after today. I have never needed much in the of way of assistance from the city but always felt surely that it would be there when I did. This past four years have exposed me to ineptitude (or worse) in the city. Unlike Mr. Sklut these people define public service as self service and ineffectual incompetence. (I have also dealt with a few civil servants who were truly civil and very competent (thanks again Dee).)

I am more hopeful than Carolyn. Jeff's order is the very first affirmative act in over two years directed at solving a problem at 6003. If the "order" is, as it seems, an Emergency Order of the Commission, it has real teeth:

SECTION 15.
EMERGENCY ORDER;
PENALTIES.
In the event a violation of this act or the rules
and regulations promulgated pursuant to this act
creates an immediate health hazard or threatens
immediate serious damage to the public health,
or threatens or causes irreparable injury or
damage to aquatic life or property, the
environmental director shall have the power and
authority to order immediate cessation of the
operations causing such conditions. Any person
receiving such an order for cessation of
operations shall immediately comply with the
requirements thereof. It shall be unlawful for
any person to fail or refuse to comply with the
requirements thereof. It shall be unlawful for
any person to fail or refuse to comply with an
emergency order issued and served under the
provisions of this section.

Moreover, Carolyn reports that the head of Code nonEnforcement was back this afternoon, with an aide, talking to Alverson. There is at least some hope that the matter now has gone beyond the feckless Mr. James and the obstructionist Mr. Davidson and the helpless Ms. Frotman, whose lawyers are cosmic wimps.

On the subject of wimps, the Code paperwork and the reports from Carolyn contain a cacophony of excuses from Code nonEnforcement and others that they need landowner permission to go onto Alverson's (or anybody else's) property. To the contrary, the Tampa Code tells them they can go in there and do their job, permission or no:

Sec. 1-16. - Right of entry.
The official, in enforcing the provisions of this Code, shall have the right of entry upon real property and shall be immune from civil or criminal prosecution for trespass upon real property while in the discharge of his duties of enforcing the provisions of this Code. The same immunity shall inure to his authorized agents, assistants, employees, and contractors employed on behalf of the city in connection with such enforcement as provided by law.

The endemic pusillanimity of Code nonEnforcement and the other Tampa bureaucrats would be hilarious if the Third World public nuisance at 6003 were next door to the Mayor. With the mess next door to my sister, it just makes me glad I don't live in Tampa and wish she didn't either.

I worked for the Virginia government for over thirty years and concluded that the bureaucracy is a great, miasmatic swamp, with occasional islands of excellence. I am hoping that we have, at last, found two of those islands in the Tampa morass.

So, my money is on Jeff Sklut. He seems to think he should actually do his job. And on Bernadine King, who thinks that Tampa citizens should not have their health and property values threatened by this kind of mess.

Stay tuned . . .