##VIDEO ID:It04AgfYDNg## I'm calling to order a code enforcement hearing in the City of Cape Canaveral uh today's date is August 27 2024 my name is Richard Geller I'm special magistrate appointed by the city council to hear Code Enforcement cases pursuant to article six of the city code and Florida Statutes chapter 162 this is a quasi judicial evidentiary hearing the burden of proof is upon the city to show by a preponderance of the evidence that a code violation exists in other words I would determined from the evidence presented to me this evening whether it is more likely than not that that a violation has occurred the alleged violator will have an opportunity to submit any rebuttal or exculpatory evidence including testimony at my discretion I may allow a member of the public with relevant personal knowledge to testify even if not called by either the city or the responding party and anyone who would like to testify should uh so indicate upon request an alleged violator may ask relevant and material questions of any City witness and the city may ask relevant and material questions of any witness for a responding party I may exclude evidence that I deem irrelevant material or repetitious in determining the amount of any fine I will consider the gravity of the violation any actions taken to correct the violation and any prior violations uh committed by the respondent under the city code and Florida Statutes I may assess and order the payment of fines of up to $250 per day per violation for a first violation and up to $500 per day per violation for repeat violations in an extreme case I could order the imposition of a $55,000 fine for damage that is irreparable or irreversible excuse me I may also um award the cost of any repairs made by the city at the conclusion of the hearing I will issue findings of fact and conclusions of law based on the evidence of record and I will also issue an order uh that will be both here on the bench and in writing which I'll Endeavor to do tomorrow the city will record a certified copy of an order imposing a fine which will become a lean against the land where the violation uh is deemed to have occurred as well as any other real or personal property owned by The Violator any order I issue may be appealed by any party uh to the Circuit Court for Bard County Within 30 days it is the responsibility of the appealing party to obtain a record of these proceedings and appeal is limited to the record that is presented to me the city's agenda packet will be administratively accepted into evidence as City's exhibit one and it's PowerPoint slides which I have a printed copy of for this evening uh will be administratively marked as Exhibit 2 um I have signed and approved of the minutes uh from May 28th 2024 and I've given them to our secretary Miss Roth our next meeting uh will be September 24th 2024 and um uh Mr Palmer you may be the only witness here this evening uh can I just swear you in evidence swear swear you in please do you swear that the testimony you're about to give shall be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you God yes sir thank you sir so the first case the first case is uh 23- 391 alleging violations of 34- 96 uh and 34- 97 of the city code and I'll let you proceed sir okay I'm Brian Palmer deputy director CED code enforcement manager this is case number 23391 Jackson residential land trust number 40 406 next slide will show the um address at 406 Jackson Avenue the legal is on the is on your slid there and along with the partial ID uh duties and uh the violation is for duties and responsibility for maintenance all right the partial ID comes from the official records of Bard County yes sir thank you the next uh next slide uh we'll show the notice of viol not notification summary um the notice of violation s on 59 to 2024 uh to Jackson residential land trust number 406 the um the PO the the it came back it was returned to us so the property was posted accordance with Florida session 16212 notices and the required posting at City Hall on 59 2024 notice of hearing was set 8:15 2024 to Jackson residential land trust and it was post the property was posted um in accordance with Florida statute 16212 notices and the required posting City Hall on 8:15 2024 the same day this is if you uh go to your next slide this is the property in question next slide on 119 of 2023 a patrol of the city revealed a damaged parking lot contact with the management company was made and they said they would look into it on 112 2024 officer Robinson spoke with a representative about the parking area and that it needed to be repaired or completely repaved she advised she would speak with the owners and inform them 122 of 2024 the violation was had remained and no permit had been obain obtained on 3:13 of 2024 a courtesy letter was sent 45 of 2024 check of USPS tracking found the letter had not been delivered the property was posted with courtesy letter 56 of 2024 no permits have been applied for and the parking area remained in violation 59 of 2024 a notice of violation was sent to the property owner on 522 of 2024 I'm sorry the next slide on 522 of 2024 the notice of violation was returned as unclaimed the property was posted 619 of 2024 officer Robinson conducted a site visit and observed half the driveway had been patched and sealed however the remainder which is the worst condition remained in violation 621 of 2024 officer Robinson left the employment of the city and the code enforcement manager took over the case on 626 of 2024 I conducted a site visit and observed the parking area was still in violation today I conducted another site visit and the parking lot is or the parking area sorry is still in violation next slide this is a photograph that was taken in November of 2023 you can see in the the large um portion of the parking area actually missing um here's just another uh angle of it you can see the um the Brown building to your left that is 406 and and does do you know where the property line U begins or ends here it goes pretty much right down between those two fences if you're on are you on the and I'm I'm looking at the second photograph here there two poles yes they visible yes so I assume one of those poles is the property line one the the left pole is I would imagine would be your property line if not right down the middle of those two poles okay next photograph shows the area um the the left area left side of the parking area to be paved actually it wasn't paved they used cold patch on on it and then they sealed it after that did and and did that meet the uh was that to the city satisfaction they can use cold patch we discourage the use because it will not last and they will eventually be replacing it later on however if they did go through with cold patch and put that on there and then sealed it it would meet the code they would you know cuz these are technically potholes so it would um we would find them in compliance but probably in a year they would be in violation again so okay we we discourage the practice here's another angle this is in June um of this year as you can see they've uh they've done portion of it um they haven't done any more to it I assume um because they're not accepting um the city's mail but there been no there's been no contact with the owners or or or I guess the management company also as the why'd you only patch half of it once you do the whole thing or anything like that yes I'll explain that a second I'll give you a little bit of more background in a minute all right this is just another angle on June 26 just showing that you know only half of it was was corrected um and that's today as you can see it's still in the exact same condition that it's been in since June yeah the next photo just another closer closeup of it I wanted to make sure I got everything on it the next photo shows just a wide angle this is the one with the red car in the in the picture is that a tenants car do we suspect more than likely yes okay you can see there's there's two units in 406 uhh and you can see the the parking stops there's two on the right two on the left the two on the right say uh say a one on it and the two on the left have a two on it so that actually once again denotes that it goes to 406 and you'll understand why I said that here in a minute and then the next photo I think is my last one and it just shows the other half let me let me let me just make sure I'm understanding here so four or six is on the left this is apparently a duplex yes sir and and and the the can I approach real quick I'm sorry can I approach real quick yes you may and is the the uh the ownership is of both sides of this building and then cludes the area that it's not patched yes sir the the entrances are here on the left side of this 406 of this building here and then you have unit one and unit two and then you have one here and then two here have both have two parking spaces a piece right and it and it's and so 46 is the address for the entire building it's not like they can claim oh you know we only did half of it because the other half is is 407 or some such nonsense yes sir that's that's why I was making sure that you sol that I got it I got it and the one and the two and everything the the owner or the an individual on an unknown date contacted the permit Tech okay and informed the permit Tech that she didn't understand why there was a posting because they had fixed the parking lot uhhuh she was informed at that time that they only fixed half of the parking lot and she said well no that's the whole parking lot and we said no that's not the whole parking lot so it kind of went a back and forth on it um so we told her to contact the property owner M and informed them that they only did half of the parking lot for the um Bard County Property Appraisers yeah you can see clearly that the whole that whole area is your parking area and the um and it also denotes we also said you know it denotes on the parking stops unit one and unit two the um the owners the owner not receiving the letters through the um USPS due to the fact that the address in Bard County Property Appraisers is a storage area in I want to say Melbourne I can look it up for you real quick yes in Melbourne off of North Wickham it's a it's actually a storage facility it's not there's nobody there actively every day so um so basically the the owners have given the property appraiser an a a mailing address that they themselves uh are unable to to access mail from yes I'm not sure they may get mail there but they're of course not going to sign for a um a registered mail certainly not they would you know let the they they would leave a sticker or whatever saying hey you have mail and then you have to come and get it yeah um now every time we post the property the the the notices have been removed okay and we have had contact with the management company and then this um this lady who called anonymously I guess to uh per Tech she just related to me she said she didn't get a name or anything this is just what she said said so the person who called the permit Tech did so anonymously the person just wouldn't give their name or or or just we just don't have a record of the name I I we don't have record of it I believe that the individual said I'm calling in reference to 406 Jackson okay the um and it was relay to the permit Tech that we have the owner has has fixed the parking area um the they came back to me and I said no the parking area has is only half fixed they went back up and explained to the lady and then she just H up hung up okay all right anything further that's it any uh any since we don't have anyone uh to represent the the owner here or the management company representing the owner uh do you have any recommendation as to how long uh they should be given to fix the other half and also also in terms of how much of a fine that well actually the the fines will be determined if they don't get it fixed sir on your your last uh your last sheet there it's the recommendation based on the testimony and evidence submitted at this hearing staff respectfully request the magist find the respondent in violation of no violation and give the respondent until September 24th to come in to compliance with the notice of violation and have compliance confirmed by the code office here now September 24th is the next meeting okay if you would like to give them the week before what have you um it would actually have to be two weeks before to be able to get them in uh we have we have Labor Day in the middle let's I'm going to give them a fair opportunity to get this thing fixed and I I suspect they will not Bas on past uh you past P past performance but um I I we're going to bend over and be fair here to that's you'll hear this again in in octob October I have a I have I have a a suspicion we will be back about this in in October very good let me I'm I'm prepared to to rule on this um I I I find that the um the respond in Jackson residential land trust uh is the owner of the subject property um I would note that um inspections were conducted on November 9th uh November 22nd 2023 um that a courtesy letter uh about the violations was given on U March 13 2024 four additional inspections were uh were made by by by Officer Palmer on uh June 26 2024 and then uh August 27th which is today 2024 that the uh notice of violation uh was uh first served by certified mail uh on May 9th 2024 it was returned unclaimed then on uh May 2 2 2024 the viola notice of violation was posted at the subject property and at City Hall uh the notice of violation gave the respondent 30 days to uh to make the correction which I find is reasonable the violations were not corrected a notice of hearing was served by certified mail on August 15 2024 uh by posting um uh the attempt at certified mail uh which we presume was not received however was posted in accordance with the law uh at a subject property and at City Hall uh uh a an unnamed individual did contact a peritech of the city who informed the individual that the property was uh the driveway there or parking lot should we call it a parking lot or or driveway I just I was calling it a parking area the parking area the parking area I like that was um was only half repaired um I find that the city served the notice of violations the notice of hearing and compliance with city code and Florida Statutes find the uh responded is in violation of section 34- 96 uh pertaining to um maintenance and upkeep for all improvements in the city and to uh keep uh the exteriors of properties in the city in a clean sanitary and safet condition I do not find and and also that they should be maintained in safe repair capable of Performing the function for which the feature was designed or intended I find all that to have been uh been be to be in violation exterior properties must be kept free of all nuisances and conditions which may create a health hazard um I'm concerned that someone could trip on this uneven um poth hold asphalt find there to be a trip Hazard and a and a violation of of Public Safety I find additionally a violation of 34- 97 sub paragraphs 83 of the city code which uh imposes a duty on every owner of every commercial or multiple family uh dwelling in the city to maintain the premises free of Hazards including holes brakes which shall be filled and repaired where necessary to eliminate hazards with reasonable dispatch upon their Discovery uh these uh respondents have had more than reasonable dispatch after discovery I'm ordering the respondents to come into compliance by acquiring all necess Neary permits repairing all potholes and missing asphalt um in the parking area of the subject property by no later than September 24th 2024 and to have their compliance confirmed by the U by the code officer if there's a failure to timely comply and correct the violations I would uh instruct the code officer to schedule a hearing before me for the imposition of fines presented the Massie case in which case fines may be entered uh up to $250 per day per violation and that any fines that I may impos may become a lean in favor of the city on the subject property as well as on any other real personal property of the respondent pursuing to the city code and I will uh put all that in writing and I'll Endeavor to get that to the city tomorrow is there any other business this evening that's it sir we'll easy very easy we'll we'll adjourn it thank you very much second