The Wages of Code nonEnforcement

John here.

You may recall that Code nonEnforcement cited Alverson for the verdant weeds on his property and gave him twenty-one days(!) to mow them. Saturday, July 23, was day eighteen. That afternoon, Alverson brought in a lawnmower and Ms. Martindell and then her boyfriend and finally Alverson mowed. The (belated) result (Why did Code give him 21 days to do a job that took only a couple of hours?) looked much better

except for the puddle of sewage behind the house.


The brown splotches are what you would expect in sewage. Ditto the white ones. Click to enlarge and you can clearly see the happy colony of flies. To the same end:


The pictures don't show the aroma.

Carolyn took another pic this morning (Sunday) that she says shows the pipe from which the sewage flows. I can't see the pipe but I have no problem seeing the effluvium.


BTW: The main sewer looks to be at the side of the house:


So it's not clear whether the discharge in back is from that sewer or from the add-on half-bath downstairs. My guess is the latter.

The feckless Mr. James of Wastewater Collection chose to ignore the opinion of his own employee that the fog and sand in the pipe leading to the main sewer suggested a break in the line and that it needed only a toilet flush, while the camera watched from the sewer, to settle the question. He joined the feckless Mr. Davidson of Code nonEnforcement, seconded by Ms. Frotman of the Health Department, in the position that there is no sewage problem unless they could see or smell it. If they'll visit today they'll see it and smell it; if they hang around for a short while they'll enjoy a visit from some well-fed flies.

Code nonEnforcement wrote Alverson for "public nuisance," i.e., sewage on the ground, on Feb. 16, and marked it "complied" on Feb. 22. They wrote it again on April 18. Without inspecting the work (Duhhhh! Now we see why the ordinance requires them to inspect that new pipe Alverson installed. Again, the neighborhood pays the price of their nonfeasance), they marked it "complied" on May 16.

We'll see whether they can do their jobs this time. It would be a welcome change.

The photo of the mowed yard, above, shows that the fencing that was on the ground has been moved. It takes another photo to show where it moved to:


Looks like we'll also see whether moving the trash around constitutes compliance as to the "accumulation."


Note added Sunday afternoon: Here comes the coverup. Note the shovel. We've gone from sewage on the ground to ground on the sewage. And the vent pipe is back.


Note added Monday, July 25: About 7:30 this morning, someone in a Code uniform showed up and chatted with Alverson. After he left, Alverson went out back and got busy again with shovel and hose. My money says that Code and Health won't be able to find anything when they next show up.

Carolyn just had a call from Greg Rotler, Erika Frotman's supervisor. He says his legal people tell him that photos and witnesses are not enough; one of his people has to see or smell the sewage. So this goes beyond fecklessness; this is institutional pusillanimity. And as to Code nonEnforcement, of course, it's more like conspiracy with the violator.

Byron Bartlett of the Hillsborough Environmental Protection Commission called me this morning about 6003; his associate Jeff Sklut called to follow up and made an appointment to walk the property with Carolyn.

Carolyn also had a call from Bernadine King, Aide to Les Miller. Ms. King recognized that the extraordinary history at 6003 represents a problem; she said she would talk to Jack Slater in Code and Santiago Carato (phonetic spelling) in the Mayor's office to ask them to try to resolve the situation. We'll see.