Further Petition to Governor Scott

Your Excellency:

In my Petition of September 11, 2011, I asked you to suspend from office the Tampa Director of Code Enforcement, Jake Slater.  I showed that his failure to perform his duties surely amounts to neglect of duty and I further mentioned that informal information from his subordinates implies that his failure to act is deliberate and, thus, misfeasance and malfeasance.

I now have an email from Mr. Slater admitting that, despite a five-year history of Code violations at 6003 N. Otis that include some seventeen instances of accumulations of trash and garbage, he is refusing to enforce the requirements as to accumulations, albeit the owner of the property now has created new piles of trash and has the ability to remove that trash.  In short, Mr. Slater has admitted that he is deliberately not performing his duties.  That is, he admits to misfeasance and malfeasance.

I renew my request that you suspend Mr. Slater.

Carolyn A. Butcher
6005 N. Otis Ave.
Tampa, Florida

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?

(click to expand)

• 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?

Code "Enforcement" = Nuisance Preservation

John here.

Code nonEnforcement first wrote Alverson for "Accumulations" (of trash) on March 30, 2009, 894 days ago.  More recently they wrote him (the fifteenth time) on July 5, 67 days ago.  On July 26, they marked the "Accumulations" "complied;" the same day they sent him a 2d Notice (sixteenth writing) for the "Accumulations."  (Your tax dollars at "work.")  On August 15th they sent yet another 2d Notice (no. seventeen).

Today, we still have those "Accumulations."

 (The toilet and tire are particularly attractive.  As are the open containers that are breeding mosquitos.)

Then we have some new ones.

Code first wrote Alverson for "Soundness" (in this case, paint and minor structural repairs) on September 22, 2009, 718 days ago.  More recently they wrote him (for the seventh time) on July 5 and sent 2d Notices on July 26 (number eight) and August 15 (nine).  As of yesterday, the "Action File Recap" at the City's kiosk showed that they extended the deadline to "have time to get this homeowner into the diversionary program."  There is no notation as to why they did not do this two years ago.  For sure, the place remains an eyesore.

We recall in passing that Code wrote Alverson this year for raw sewage on the ground on Feb 16 and April 18.  They did not bother to write the July sewage incident that brought out the Environmental Protection Commission, which got the sewage cleaned up and the plumbing fixed in less than a week.  That effective behavior poses a nice contrast to Code nonEnforcement which has spent over two years preserving the nuisance at 6003.

Here is the pivot table by violation from my summary of the Action File Recap that goes back to March 22, 2006:

And the feckless fools at Code nonEnforcement have the nerve to tell Carolyn she will have to be "patient."

So Steve and Katie at 6001 and Carolyn at 6005 and their neighbors, who pay their taxes, must be "patient" and suffer this assault upon their health and property values while the City protects Alverson, who pays neither taxes nor water bills.  Meanwhile, the City thumps its chest about "Green Tampa (pdf)."