Lime of My Life

John here.

It took two days but somebody finally put down some lime and the stench of the sewage on the ground at 6003 N. Otis is gone.


I say "somebody" because Alverson, the owner, was at work today when Jeff Sklut of the Environmental Protection Commission called Carolyn to say that the lime was down. Sklut didn't say that Alverson had put down the lime but only that it was down. Even if Alverson limed the sewage, we have to wonder why it took two days to get a $3.98 bag of lime and sprinkle some on the wet spot.

To the good, as I said, the smell is gone. Sklut also reported that SHIP (apparently the Senior Home Improvement Program) is willing to fix the plumbing for free. In light of Alverson's limited plumbing skills (as evidenced by the multiple sewage incidents) and the duration of this problem (Code nonEnforcement first wrote Alverson for sewage on the ground on Feb. 16) this is particularly Good News.

Now we'll see what Code nonEnforcement does (or, more likely, does not do) about the trash and the paint.

So Much for the "Very First Affirmative Act in over Two Years"

John here.

Below (in inverted order and with the headers removed) is my email exchange yesterday with Jeff Sklut of the Hillsborough Environmental Protection Commission:

Butcher to Sklut:

Jeff,

Can you share with me a copy of the order you issued to Alverson?

John

------

Sklut to Butcher:

Mr. Butcher,

As Ms. Butcher was advised, the EPC will remain involved in this case in order to support the efforts of Tampa Code Enforcement and the Health Department. However, a little clarification regarding your reference to Section 15 of the Hillsborough County Environmental Protection Act is offered. The Emergency Order is a formal legal document that passes through several levels of review prior to being issued. We will normally go through 2 or 3 additional steps between initial receipt of a complaint and any formal enforcement proceeding.

Again, we will remain involved in this case but felt this clarification was needed.

------

Butcher to Sklut:

Mr. Sklut,

Thanks for the reply. Do I take it then that my sister misunderstood when she thought you said you had issued an order for Alverson to shut off the water in the downstairs bath?

John

------

Sklut to Butcher:

Sir:

May have been a slight misunderstanding. We can’t verbally issue an order without backing it up Administratively. Mr. Alverson was instructed to undertake the corrective actions as discussed previously.

------

Sklut to Butcher:

As another follow up, Mr. Alverson was instructed to secure the water to the ½ bath. He indicated he would discontinue using that bathroom. As I mentioned to your sister, if the blockage is down the line, then a discharge could occur from the other bathroom. Your sister indicated she would keep an eye out for any additional discharges and advise accordingly.

In short, Carolyn was mistaken as to an "order." Indeed, there is not even a writing. Just "instructions." Let's hope this is not a sign that EPC has the same need for a backbone transplant as Code, Health, and Wastewater Collection.

For sure, as of yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon, photos show TP and cigarette butts, but no lime.

(click to enlarge)

Carolyn reports that it still smelled (of course).

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.

Poop and Population

John here.

We were wrong about the downstairs half bath

An email last night from Alverson’s ex closes the book on the downstairs half bath and asks an interesting question:

Carolyn,

When the house was bought there had at one time been a half bath down there in the shop. Toilet and sink were replaced when the downstairs was remodeled. That was around 2000 or 2001. Never had any problems with it draining or anything. But then there were only 2 people living there. Never dug any sewer lines, just set toilet on existing pipe in downstairs.

I bet there is a septic tank back there and that is what that one half bath was piped into. It probably has collapsed and that is probably the problem.. Remember there was a well on that property also out in the front where that slab of concrete is.

* * *

Hope this helps..

Belinda

So we were wrong about the downstairs half bath.

The new question is whether there is a septic tank back there, perhaps attached to the downstairs bath. If so, that’s another issue for Mr. Davidson. Carolyn is going down to the Code kiosk this afternoon to search the permits in case there’s something to be found there.

But we can count

They have moved a teenaged male into 6003. Carolyn thinks he's a friend of the boyfriend. In any case, the Tampa zoning atlas E-12 places 6003 N. Otis in an RS-50 zone. The zoning ordinance at § 27-77(a)(1) tells us:

RS-50 Residential single-family: This district provides areas for primarily low density single-family detached dwellings . . .

Table 4-1 in the same ordinance lists the permitted uses. Primary among those is Dwelling, single-family, detached.

The definitions in the zoning ordinance provide:

Family: Any number of people related by blood, marriage, legal guardianship, or adoption or not more than four (4) unrelated persons living together as a single housekeeping unit, using a single facility in a dwelling unit for culinary purposes. The term "family" shall not be construed to include a fraternity or sorority, club, roominghouse, institutional group or the like.

Dwelling, single-family: Where used in this Code, it shall mean single-family attached, single-family detached and single-family semidetached.

Now living at 6003 we have:

James Alverson, owner

Jessica

Jessica’s infant

Jessica’s boyfriend

Newly added teenager

Five is more than four. Two are related (Jessica and child) but none is related to James. Do you suppose that poses an issue under the zoning ordinance? If so, do you suppose the Zoning people may be willing to actually do their jobs? We'll find out.

Some Action; Maybe Some Progress

Carolyn here, with contributions from John:

Email to the Mayor Gets Action

Here is yesterday’s email to the Mayor (and a lot of other people):

The house next door has raw sewage running into the back yard, where it feeds a jungle of weeds. The owner put in the current cesspits (and a downstairs bathroom) without a permit and without an inspection by Code Enforcement. The occupants have two dogs that have bit me in my own driveway and attacked a friend out on the street. This is just the current state of a public nuisance that has been going on for over four years. Do you doubt that if any of this happened next door to the Mayor the City would have it fixed in a matter of days?

In this situation there is only one question to be asked: What is wrong with Code Enforcement and the Health Department? I don't know the answer so I suggest you go ask them.

9:58 AM today: Carolyn was walking Mario. Emily Deere (phonetic spelling), a lawyer with the Health Dept., left a voice mail requesting permission for Erika Frotman to walk on Carolyn’s property to reinspect 6003.

10:21 AM: Called Frotman's cell phone. She said she was on her way over. Told her she had permission to walk on Carolyn’s land.

10:43: Frotman and two men showed up in front of 6003. James came out and they walked toward his back yard.

10:48: James walked all three back to their van.

But no Results from Health or Code

10:49: Knocked on Carolyn’s door

Bill Davidson Code Enforcement

Erika Frotman

Doug King Environmental Supervisor, not Frotman’s supervisor, who is out of town

Said they had done the inspection in back yard, picked up pieces of fence, jumped on it, no visual evidence of sewage, no odor. King complained that my blog said sewage was there now.

Davidson said he was going to write up the code infractions he saw and was going to try to get some money (from city? some fund?) to paint the house.

Davidson said James told him that he did not add the bathroom just put a toilet in it so they can't move on that. Davidson also said James did not need a permit for the repair.

Let’s take this one bit at a time

Sewage there now?

Scroll down and you’ll see that this blog talks about specific incidents when there was raw sewage on the ground. It talks about the owner’s repairs and the very healthy weeds growing (1) where the sewage was on the ground next to the house and (2) at the end of the trench the owner dug to repair the system. The blog below (and the email to the Mayor) says there is sewage running into the back yard. Looking at the weeds it is manifest that there either is a cesspit back there or the new pipe is reconnected to an old pipe that is leaking. The fencing on the ground (at the end but not along the length of the ditch) suggests it’s the cesspit.

It’s interesting that Code earlier (ca. 2 years ago) cited the house for paint and it still has not been painted. If you'll look here, you'll see where the neighbors, before complaining to Code, offered to buy the paint and help apply it but James refused.

Did Not Install the Bathroom?

Both James and his (now ex-) wife have said that James himself put in the downstairs half bath. Zillow, however, says 1-1/2 baths, so we may be wrong about this one.

Does not need a permit?

Let’s start with the Tampa Code of Ordinances:

5-105.1 - When required.

Any owner or authorized agent who intends to construct, enlarge, alter, repair, move, demolish, or change the occupancy of a building or structure, or to erect, install, enlarge, alter, repair, remove, convert or replace any required impact-resistant coverings, electrical, gas, mechanical or plumbing system, the installation of which is regulated by this code, or to cause any such work to be done, or to do any site related work shall first make application to the building official and obtain the required permit. (emphasis supplied).

That’s clear enough: If you are going to repair the plumbing, you need a permit. Perhaps there’s an exception?

5-105.2. - Work exempt from permits.

* * *

3. Plumbing.

(a) The repair of leaks, unstopping of sewers or waste pipes, repairing faucets or valves or cleaning of a septic tank where such work is located within the property lines, or for the stopping of leaks in drains, soil waste or vent pipe; provided, that should any trap, drain pipe, soil waste or vent pipe be or become defective and it becomes necessary to remove and replace the same with new materials in any part or parts, the same shall be considered as new work.

(b) The clearing of stoppage, or the repairing of leaks in pipes, valves or fixtures, when such repairs do not involve or require the replacement of fixtures.

Back when he dug the trenches, James told Carolyn that he was going to pick up the new pipe. This repair, then, was more than a clearing of stoppage; this was a repair with new pipe installed, to be treated as “new work.” That means it needed a permit. And needing a permit means the work was to be inspected:

5-109.1. - General.

Construction or work for which a permit is required shall be subject to inspection by the building official and such construction or work shall remain accessible and exposed for inspection purposes until approved.

5-109.3. – Required inspections

* * *

Plumbing

3.1. Underground inspection: To be made after trenches or ditches are excavated, piping installed and tested, and before any backfill is put in place.

Code nonEnforcement

So what do we have here:

· Davidson adopts the standard that if you can’t see or smell sewage, there’s no problem.

· Davidson says that no inspection is required for a repair that the law requires to be inspected.

· Davidson ignores the clear evidence of the weeds and the fence on the ground.

But Wastewater Collection is Another Story

About noon Frank James, a Maintenance Supervisor with Wastewater Collection Systems, and three workmen showed up in the street in front of 6003. Mr. James said they were there to see if 6003 is discharging to the sewer.

They went for lunch and one of workmen came back with their camera on a long, flexible probe. The kind (he shared his insect repellent) and helpful workman showed Carolyn the view: The 6” pipe to the sewer is fed, just a few feet from the sewer, by a 4” pipe. The camera would not go all the way up to the house because it wouldn’t go into the 4” pipe. The workman said the haze in the pipe – it looked like cigarette smoke - was condensation, which often indicates a break. As well, the camera showed dirt in the 6” pipe, apparently coming out of or from around the 4” pipe.

He said it looks like a blockage, maybe a break. They will come back some time when somebody is at home so they can flush a toilet and see what, if anything, comes through.

The nobody home problem poses an interesting puzzle. Carolyn saw the owner getting his mail just as the City workman was arriving behind the house. Some fifteen minutes later, the workman knocked on the door to get access to a toilet and (1) there was no answer and (2) the dogs did not bark. When nobody is home, those dogs bark when Carolyn walks in her back yard. These data suggest that the owner was home but hiding out. Sigh.

John here. The 4"/6" pipes suggest three possibilities:

1. 6003 is not connected to the sewer at all. Call this the cesspit theory.
2. The owner connected a 4" pipe to the house and stuck it into the existing 6" sewer pipe w/o sealing it off. That would explain why the 4" pipe goes almost all the way to the sewer.
3. Same as #2 but there is a break in the 4" pipe.

Any way you slice that it looks like a Code violation. I think we'll have some business for Mr. Davidson even though it's clear that he really doesn't want it.

Stay tuned.

Organic Fertilizer in the Yard

Carolyn's brother John here.
I asked Carolyn to shoot a picture through the fence at 6003 to get a measure of the height of the sewage-fertilized weeds there. She sent along this one, which provided the bonus information that there is a nice tree limb now serving to trash the yard:

To the point of the well-fertilized weeds, she also sent along this one:

The fence is 40" high so the weeds surely are well over the 12" limit in the ordinance. To the same end, clicking on the first photo to expand it shows weeds well over 2 cinder blocks high; one block is 8". This looks like an opportunity to see whether the feckless Code inspector, Bill Davidson, can again avoid doing his job.

Plus c’est la meme chose

Carolyn here:

Thursday, June 23, I was walking my little dog in my backyard when I noticed a roughly circular area next to the back of James' house where the vegetation was dead. Around that circle the vegetation was growing lushly, as if receiving lots of water and natural fertilizer. In the middle there were several wads of wet toilet paper. Steve took this picture and tells me the white blob bottom center is TP:


Note the lush foliage. My brother, the retired lawyer for the Virginia State Water Control Board, tells me the clincher will come when pepper or tomato plants emerge from that miasmatic swamp. But, given the history we don't have to wait for that to have an opinion: Looks like the septic pit has failed. Time for another complaint to the feckless Frotman and to Code nonEnforcement.

See no Shit; Smell no Shit; Don’t Do Shit

(Carolyn speaking. In the face of the City's massive fecklessness, Steve has given up and is looking to sell. My brother, the retired lawyer, took one look at James' back yard and said if I won't sue the City (he said something about 1983 and denial of equal protection; he also talked about public nuisance) I must at least see if I can embarrass it into doing its job. So, here we go.)

After the media exposure last year, Judy and her kids moved out to a house in Carrollwood (Section 8? In Carrollwood??). Her oldest son, Josh, then moved back in at 6003 with his pregnant girlfriend for a few months. Although the house was still multicolored with screens from the second floor lying on the roof of the porch and part of the porch rotting out, it was at least quiet.

For a while.

Josh purchased a car which he parked front out in James' driveway. He moved his speakers from upstairs into the car and begin to play rap with the bass boosted so high that my windows rattled. After several weeks of this James asked him to leave. Shortly thereafter, Jessica, another pregnant young woman, moved in with her boyfriend and a couple of dogs.

The Price of Quiet: Raw Sewage on the Ground

About this time, summer, 2010, I was having all of my plumbing replaced. I kept smelling sewage but assumed it was from my pipes. My plumber took me out one morning and pointed out a pile of feces and toilet paper next to James' house just a few feet from my property line.

I emailed a complaint to Code Enforcement. Shortly thereafter I noticed that James had piled dirt on top of the sewage so it was not noticeable. Apparently Code signed off on the problem as solved.

Within a couple of days the sewage had again begun to accumulate. With the raw sewage came a horde of flies. I stopped going in my back yard or using my clothesline for fear of disease from the flies going from the feces to me or my dog. Aside from having my own back yard off limits, I was concerned about a pregnant woman living with raw sewage but she did not seem concerned or at least not enough to move out.

In February the pile was growing as were the flies so I wrote out another Code complaint (February 14, 2011), called the Health Department, and sent an email outlining the situation to my city council member, Charlie Miranda. On the 15th Erika Frotman, from the Health Department, came by and took pictures of the pile of shit next door and said she would move on it as fast as possible (“fast” in her case seems to mean months). More helpfully, one of Mr. Miranda'a aides thought this was as disgusting as I did and had wastewater and Code out here within a few days. The wastewater people checked the sewage pipe in the alley and determined that it was functional and that James could hook up a pipe. The gentleman from Code was not pleased with all the Code infractions he could see from the street. He told me he would address the problems immediately.

The Health Department sent James a letter and several weeks later came out to do another inspection. Dirt had been piled on top of the sewage so they “could not do anything.” I gave them a call several days later to come again as the sewage was piling up on top of the dirt again. They did and sent another letter. When this got no results they turned the case over to their legal department. They sent a letter and James started digging and, he said, putting in a sewage pipe.

When I went out and looked he had only dug a trench about half way to the city pipe and had placed two pieces of his wooden fence over the end of the trench and another about two feet toward the house. I asked my plumber to come out and look at it; he and I both think that James ran a pipe out and then dug a cesspit.


With the two recent rains, the dirt under the closer pieces of fence is beginning to sink in and the fencing partly obscures it. When I showed it to the health department, Ms. Frotman said that as long as there was no sewage visible all she could do was close the case as in compliance.

Frotman gets paid for not doing shit
My neighbor and I get to smell it

So there you have it: A house bubbling sewage into the back yard. A homebrew repair. No building permit. No inspection. And a Health Dept. inspector who can’t see or smell, and won’t do anything about, raw sewage on the ground. And for this we pay taxes!