Orchid and Onions

John here.

It looks like the EPC is able to get results while Code nonEnforcement reamains unwilling to do its job.

Orchid to EPC

Jeff Sklut of the Environmental Protection Commission called Carolyn Monday morning, July 25, and visited 6003 in the early afternoon of the same day (with a posse of the Code and Health and Collection System bureaucrats who had earlier demonstrated their profound fecklessnss). By Wednesday there was lime on the ground atop the raw sewage behind 6003. By Saturday there was new sewer piping in the ground (and a report from the SHIP plumber that he had cleared a blockage in the main pipe).

Despite some tap dancing from Sklut about how he was there only "to support the efforts of Tampa Code Enforcement and the Health Department" it is clear that Sklut got results in less than a week.

I'll say that with 99% confidence, albeit the process was opaque. Carolyn has been dealing with raw sewage on the ground at 6003 for the better part of a year, with no effective action by Health or Code nonEnforcement to deal with what turned out to be a blocked sewer. She has been living with trash accumulations, et al. for over four years:

Indeed, the count down at Code nonEnforcement overlooks the July 25 visit that found raw sewage ("public nuisance") a third time:

So, an orchid to Jeff Sklut and EPCHC.

And Onions

As set out above and passim in this blog, Carolyn and her neighbors at 6001 have been living next door to a Third World assault upon their health and property values for over four years. Code, with "me too" support from Health and Wastewater Collection, has been worse than unable to fix the problem: They are unwilling to fix it. The most recent example of this deliberate nonfeasance came on July 26 when Code inspector Bill Davidson, whose deliberate ineffectiveness raises a serious question whether his bosses would be better fitted for other work, marked the weed and trash ("overgrowth" and "accumulations") notices at 6003 "complied."

The place had enjoyed a mowing the previous Saturday so the weeds mostly were gone,


But the trash abided:



A glance at the Code nonEnforcement How Do I page suggests that trash is not trash if they can't see it from the road:

Things that most people would not normally use to decorate their yards are usually accumulations. Things such as lawn mowers, concrete blocks, lumber, and buckets for example should be stored away in a storage building or garage. At the very least, they may not be visible from the street and should be behind a fence or wall.

At the end of that para, they cite to "[19-49]." Indeed, Section 19-49 of the Tampa Code of Ordinances speaks to the subject:

Sec. 19-49. - Excessive accumulation of debris, rubbish, trash, etc., declared a public nuisance.

The existence of any accumulations of debris, rubbish, trash, garbage, refuse, garden trash, snipe signs and junk, as defined in this chapter, upon any lot, tract or parcel of land, improved or unimproved, within the incorporated boundaries of the city, to the extent and in the manner that such lot, tract or parcel with nuisance vegetation which exceeds a height of twelve (12) inches over the majority of the parcel or may threaten or endanger the public health, safety or welfare or may reasonably cause disease or adversely affect and impair the economic welfare of adjacent property is hereby prohibited and declared to be a public nuisance (emphasis supplied).

It seems that Code nonEnforcement has elected to read the bolded language out of the ordinance and replace it with: "And if we can't see it, it's not a problem."

This is, of course, shameful and unlawful. And it indicates that the lawlessness at Code nonEnforcement goes beyond Davidson and infects his bosses. We'll have more to say about this shortly.

In the meantime, a truckload of onions to Tampa Code nonEnforcement.

Et tu, Wastewater Collection?

Carolyn here.

Tuesday July 6: Just talked with Frank James of Wastewater Collection Systems and it looks like the fix is in. He was tap dancing but essentially he said that they could not go on private property and that his worker should not have put his camera in James' sewer pipe. I asked about his worker's opinion that there was a collapsed or ruptured line. He said the worker should not have run the camera up the line w/o permission.

A few minutes later, I asked if it was possible that there was a septic tank problem; he said that the first time they were out here he got his camera up 20 or 30 feet and saw no sign of a tank.

So it is illegal for his worker but legal for him to run the camera up the sewer pipe?

He said that if sewage was not visible or could be smelled he could do nothing more. He told me that as far as he was concerned 6003 was hooked up to the city sewage line. He also said that he was assuming that there were some minor repairs which were being addressed by code.

His entire attitude was changed. When he had come to my house the day before he was relaxed and spoke fluently with few pauses or hesitations. He was also very funny and openly friendly. On the phone he sounded tense and was not fluent. He paused often as if searching for words. He was very abrupt. He told me there would not be any further attempt to observe 6003's sewage pipe and as far as he is concerned the sewage is hooked to the city and the matter is closed.

July 7, 12:00 PM: Frank James called. Told me he was in contact with code. Asked if there was any visible sewage. I said no. Said he would get back in contact with me after "code did its thing." He also told me to call him if the sewage became visible.

Guy in suit with briefcase sat on swing at 6003 with James Alverson (about 11am). After he left, James started hauling junk from the yard out to street. A few minutes later, guy in new shiny truck put all the junk in his bed and hauled it away. The junk behind the house now looks to be gone; that east of the shed (and not really visible except from my porch) is still there.

Sigh! There already has been a most welcome reduction in the amount of junk piled in the yard at 6003 and this further activity can't be anything but good. But we have what looks like a systematic effort to do as little as possible about learning whether sewage is now running into the ground instead of the City pipe, which surely is a more important problem. And until I wrote the Mayor and everybody they were anything but aggressive about the other stuff. This systematic fecklessness may or may not have started with the field people at Code but the instructions to Mr. James had to come from above. So it looks like someone high, or at least medium high, in the Tampa government has a reason to safeguard the assault at 6003 on the health and property values of the citizens Seminole Heights.