The Smoking Email

John here.

Carolyn obtained some help regarding the sewage on the ground at 6003 from Bernadine King in Commissioner Miller's office.   In the face of the ongoing refusal of the Code nonEnforcement to do its job, she turned again to Ms. King.  The ever helpful Ms. King provoked Jake Slater of Code to admit what long has been obvious: He's refusing to do his job.

From: Jake Slater [mailto:Jake.Slater@ci.tampa.fl.us]
Sent: Tuesday, September 13, 2011 12:57 PM
To: King, Bernadine
Subject: Follow Up on Code Enforcement Issue

 Good Morning Ms. King:

 Chief of Staff, Santiago Corrada, wanted me to follow up with you on the e-mail sent to the attention of Commissioner Miller, concerning the Code Enforcement issue at 6003 N Otis Ave.

The City of Tampa Department of Code Enforcement and other Departments in the City have been working with the property owner to come into compliance with various property maintenance issues. Code Enforcement in the City handles over 28,000 cases per calender year and works diligently with  property owners to allow adequate time to correct the situation before proceeding with punitive enforcement action.

This particular situation on N Otis Ave presents the situation of the home owner not have the resources or physical abilities to move quickly in correcting the problems.

Code Enforcement arranged to have the plumbing problems fixed and have coordinated with  a volunteer organization to work on repairing and cleaning this property on September 24th. Hopefully this event will be successful in complying those pending violations and providing a valuable service in improving the overall conditions of this neighborhood.

I'll be more than happy to answer any questions that Commissioner Miller may have on the history of Code Enforcement involvement at this property.

Regards:

Jake Slater
Director Code Enforcement
Business Tax/Community Affairs
102 E. 7th Ave,Tampa 33602
Office #- (813)-274-8380
Cell #- (813)-690-4039

So, at last we have the admission: Despite a history of violations that runs back over five years, Code nonEnforcement is unwilling to compel the owner, James Alverson, to obey the laws they enforce against the citizens who actually pay their taxes.  This raises several interesting questions:

•  Alverson has the "resources and physical abilities" to create piles of trash (that include a toilet, a tire, and open containers to breed mosquitoes); why then is he not to be required to get rid of that same trash?

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• Why is Code so feckless that Alverson continues to pile up trash, despite being first warned for the violation on March 30, 2009 and written up for the same violation sixteen times since then?
• Code nonEnforcement first cited the paint on Alverson's eyesore on March 22, 2006.  Alverson several times refused offers from the neighbors to help paint the structure.  Why must the neighbors still look at this, over five years later:

• Does Slater's ongoing refusal to do his job as to Alverson, while continuing to enforce the Building Code against other citizens, deprive my Sister Carolyn of her right to equal protection of the laws?
• How does a lack of "resources or physical abilities to move quickly" excuse a history of violations that extends over five years? 
• Why does Tampa take tax money from my Sister and other law-abiding citizens and use it to pay the salary of Jake Slater who is refusing to do his job?