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This department is NOT gutted either:
Staff
Mark Woods, Code Compliance Manager, mwoods@lakeworth.org
Carol Mahoney, Code Compliance Technician, cmahoney@lakeworth.org
Jasmine Mayers, Code Compliance Technician, jmayers@lakeworth.org
Pamella Sawyer, Community Code Coordinator, psawyer@lakeworth.org
Compliance Officers
Gerald Coscia, Code Office, gcoscia@lakeworth.org
Larry D’Amato, Code Officer, ldamato@lakeworth.org
Marc DiNardo, Code Officer, mdinardo@lakeworth.org
Philip Gracia, Code Officer, pgracia@lakeworth.org
Nicholas Petrino, Code Officer, npetrino@lakeworth.org
Yolanda Robinson, Code Officer, yrobinson@lakeworth.org
Al Vega, Code Officer, avega@lakeworth.org
Click here for the Code Complaint process
12 comments:
Well what the hell do they all do then? Why is this city so damn blighted then still? Just drive down any of the alphabet streets, major dumps, or look at 1306 or 1320 Lucerne Ave or any of F Street, or 204 North E Street. If we have such a great code office in this city, why do we look so blighted and have so many deplorable conditions of properties here? Where is the compliance? Why are slum owners still allowed to keep this city so dumpy Lynn? What are they doing? When, if ever, will we see "real" improvements?
I sure would like to know what they do. I've repeatedly reported, over several years now a property that is near my rental. This is a property with numerous safety violations being used for crime, prostitution and drug dealing and there was a murder there. Still no code case open, but I'm glad to hear the City is fining the historic church located on Lakeside for an AC permit issue.
If they didn't have a permit they deserved the fine. I have seen what our new code enforcement is doing. People, almost 20 years of the ole boys club, corruption and negligence cannot in a year or two be fixed. They are making great strides, I have seen the results and actually thrown my hat in the ring and I volunteer to be part of the solution with the smaller issues, like fines for homes not being painted or yard clean up so they can concentrate on the bigger fish to fry. Let's chip in instead of denigrating a whole team of people working their hardest to play 20 year catch up. I wonder how many of the ones so quick to throw stones would be willing to step into their shoes and do a better job than they are doing now. We had a former commission that even changed the name from CODE ENFORCEMENT to code compliance and the reason stated by "Cara Jennings" was that "enforcement" sounded to harsh and sent the wrong message!!!! WOW! I am going to stay supporting them and contributing to the positive instead of throwing them under the bus undeservingly! I say bring by the Code Enforcement name and let them continue to do the work they are doing.
Code-ingly your,
Mark A. Parrilla
Not throwing them under the bus--not at all. Just want to be sure that they are not throwing any property owners under the bus in their zeal for more revenue.
As far as the name being changed to c ode compliance, don't know about that one, Mark...that's a new one on me!! I thought it came about when William was hired who was trying to upgrade the department and the ordinances.
Thanks to Al Vega, code enforcement officer, who stepped in when I had a truly scummy landlord who told me to go hire my own plumber when sewage backed up into my bathtub. Vega called the landlord personally and told him to get a plumber to my apartment pronto. Without him stepping in, I honestly don't know what I would have done as I didn't have $200 for a plumber and had not done anything to clog the sewer line. Turns out it was ficus roots that get in to the line every year or so. Truly wicked of the landlord and property manager to try to shove off this cost on his tenants. Thank you, Mr. Vega, for your help. I have not forgotten that kindness.
This code compliance department, or whatever it's called now, is the most professional, no nonsense department we've possibly EVER had and our best chance for seeing some REAL results with all the issues that plague our city.
As always they have to start somewhere and unfortunately they go for the "low hanging fruit" which at his moment are the businesses and initiating foreclosure proceedings for properties with long standing code liens.
One of those long standing liens addressed was that of $540,000.00 (that's right, half a million dollars) for a poor Haitian church on North Dixie Highway.
Since a commission instituted a policy awhile back that took much of the discretion of code fine abatement out of the hands of a code board or the special magistrate by making everyone wishing to get an abatement of the fine pay a $400 fee to just make the application and then the best they could hope for, by ordinance, is a 90% reduction, the policy has had mixed results.
I remember being on the code board and having poor widows living on social security having huge fines initially for not painting their house or some other small infraction, which they could not afford. The fines would build and accrue till they were tens of thousands of dollars because the only thing a code board or magistrate can do is levy a fine of a certain dollar amount "per day" until the case is complied.
The little old lady would show up at some point once her church or volunteers painted the house or cut the yard or whatever to finally comply and now she had a $10,000 fine on her one and only asset. And it was worth only $20K. We, as a board, would abate the fine either entirely or down to $100. We would also take a lot of flack for doing so by all the hawks in the city.
Back to the Haitian church at 806 No. Dixie, they agreed to pay 10% of the fine, $54,000 to keep the city from foreclosing on the property.
Sleep well tonight fellow Lake Worthians.
Thanks to 6:12. It was a big shock yesterday on some of those cases and it reminded me of years past when the city actually seemed to be on a mission to purposely take the property of owners through humongous fines--and did.
One more thing that I keep forgetting about--Susan Stanton wanted to revamp the code Dept because it was not effective. She took a lot of flack from people who did not understand what she was doing. The very same number of officers, etc. under her is the same number today. If those who want to keep slamming her down for "gutting code" then talk to this commission. Another thing, there were some excellent guys in that department when she was here--I miss Joel Rutsky who was promoted and Ronnie Beltran.
How can our memories of what happened with code and Stanton be so different? I remember 5 code officers, one for each zone and a floater and then possibly one or two in the office. Whatever the make up, it was not anywhere near as professional as what we have now. Even the Magistrate stated quite emphatically that this code department is WORKING and not spending all day "googling". I was impressed by her professionalism also but concerned about her limitations on fairness issues. Case in point, the man who needed an interpreter to keep his house that he just bought and Woods stated he thought he was going to flip it. Turns out he bought it knowing full well it had $70K in fines. The previous owner is who should have paid the fines as he was the one who caused them.
This entire morning did not take a serious tone on many occasions from the magisgtrate. The magistrate/judge is paid by the city of Lake Worth, is she not? It is not her place to make a comment about Googling. She was not here then nor did she know our code people who all worked hard. I got the feeling that everyone was adjudicated "guilty" or they wouldn't have been there in the first place. To make a statement about an owner who is only there to "flip" his property is based on opinion and not an acceptable comment. that never would have been accepted in a court of law. Sometimes there are circumstances that need to be weighed. Owners are not supposed to read between the lines, understand all the laws and mail does get screwed up. It's tough to be poor in this city but yesterday they were going after some 'businesses' that might have more ability to pay or so it seemed.
@ 8:52.
Did you read what Wayne Bergman said? 11 people in the code department under Stanton. How many do we have now? 11.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Honestly the City and County Code departments have LEGAL OBLIGATIONS. They can Fine Fine Fine all they want but the law protects the property owners more than the CODE Departments. SO PLEASE do not blame Code for the job they are already doing but blame or help change the laws so that their words mean business.
I know the City has passed many ordinances to help enforce code however I'm not sure that the legal systems or the Magistrate can uphold all the new ordinances.
If code had the power in my personal eyes I would target them on every rental property in our city and help keep that lot in compliance and THEN target all the homeowners who simply do not give a damn as to what they do as code does nothing or have power over them.
Lets be real and lets put down the BATS and start thinking of a reality and not a bat dream! Enforce what we can and worry about "pipe" dreams later!
Sincerely,
Robert Waples
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