##VIDEO ID:5_4y397DK6Y## e e e e e e e e e Bob would you call the please yes ma'am oh you got the G her a piece her equipment she needs I'm so sorry thank you now it's and since my mic wasn't on I'll reiterate the code Board of the city of Tarpon Springs is now in session Bobby's going to call the role yes ma'am Miss weeks oh I miss weeks Miss Wade here Mr pido here Mr weeks here Mrs tillar is absent and excuse and M Archer is absent and excused um Dr MAA here and Mr oal here thank you that please your roll call thank you BBY if you all please stand we'll have an invocation and a pledge our heavenly father we seek blessings on the task before us bless our efforts with clear Insight our deliberations with wisdom our work with Clarity and accuracy and our our decisions with impartiality we pray that our work this afternoon will find favor in your sight amen amen amen oh okay okay believe I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all the code enforcement board procedures are as follows it is the intention of this board to promote protect and improve the health safety and Welfare of the citizens of Tarpon Springs by providing an equitable effective and inexpensive method of enforcing various codes within the city of Tarpon Springs any grieved party May ad appeal an admin final administrative order of this board to the Circuit Court such appeal shall be filed within 30 days of the execution of the order to be appealed Florida statute 28601 05 requires any party appealing a decision of this board to have a record of the proceedings to support such an appeal and here's the procedure first the city presents its Witnesses and Exhibits after which the alleged violator is able to ask the city's Witnesses any specific questions regarding their testimony second the alleged violator is allowed to make a presentation and present his or her Witnesses and Exhibits then the city can question the alleged violators Witnesses after both rounds of testimony both on the part of the city and the part of the alleged violator each party is asked to give a closing argument first by the city and then by the alleged violator after those three steps are taken the board will close the public hearing portion of the case to discuss it and take appropriate action before we begin the public hearing we'll ask any potential witnesses to stand and be sworn in by the secretary of the board and please if you have your cell phone please put it on silence or turn it off um is his testimony going to be official or does he need to stand that's just going to be public comments all right thank you do you swear the testimon about to give us the whole truth and nothing but the truth you thank you um item one on our agenda today is case number 24-8 z355 KDA properties 199 Grand Boulevard and this is in violation of a Life Safety Code issue good afternoon my name is Mike Rison I'm the code enforcement officer with the Tarpon Springs Police Department this case uh was brought to my attention by the fire marshall uh this is at 1 199 Grand Boulevard um the issue is that the original plans that were approved for a fire assembly were never installed and ultimately after kind of going back and forth this there was a lot of miscommunication between the ownership the other the previous Fire Marshall so nobody's really fighting we're all just getting on the same page now um per code and per the plans they are required to have a 4in fire assembly installed the ownership was expecting to be here but they had a family emergency and I've been in contact with them so basically what I'm asking the board to do is just understand what is required and then give them a final deadline to achieve that what they are going to need to do is go to utility billing and pay for an order that 4in fire assembly it will arrive within a few weeks once they have it they have to give the city 48 hours notice and then it'll be installed under the supervision of the city so all I'm asking is for the board to find that they are in violation and that to correct it they need to properly install this 4in assembly as was approved in their plans and under the supervision of the city and just give them an appropriate deadline to get that equipment ordered and installed no one is here for that case I had a question question when you say fire assembly that is a fire suppression system that's part of it Kevin as part of the system we don't want to assemble a fire we want to disassemble one it's it's a piece of the fire suppression system system okay and this is a multifam address that is correct and the owner does not live at the address no anybody else have questions for him yeah what what does it entail put this assembly in I mean is it four bolts and a a wrench or you know or is said something you got to rewire the whole house or what or yeah I'm gonna have Ray pagee come up and give you the more technical thank you good afternoon I'm Rond page I'm the utility superintendent for the city speaking to mic please yeah sure I'm the utility superintendent for the city so these individuals would have to hire contractor to dig down to the main waterline make a connection and extend that to the nearest point of connection for the existing fire suppression system um so there would be some time considered there um I have in my mind what I think would be an appropriate amount of time but I don't know what you know the board would want well that's what that's what I was asking you know because you now you're telling us they got to dig the street up and they're going to have to run the line you guys are going to have to check the pipe I would feel through my experience with construction that a 60-day period would be sufficient to be able to get that completed and in service um so anything beyond that would be excessive and anything sooner than that would really be hard hard to meet that deadline thank you very much sure yes sir we just always get concerned when you say fire and no suppression and it's a rental property so certainly yes thank you did you have a question is yes this U apparatus is it like a a a fire hydrant or does it actually no it's a device that will it will only allow the water to flow one way into the system it's a loop system system this is a system that would automatically activate in the event of a fire it senses it where a hydrant you would need to make a physical connection you know what I mean I have a piece of paper here with five exhibits itemized and nothing to back up up any of this does the city have anything in writing or on paper of what the the exact violation is it's all online now and he can show it up here if you need I see a picture a photo and this is the backup data that was previously sent to the board and he's just getting a hard copy as a reminder you want this is Kevin the Fire Marshall and he'll kind of explain what these photos are that you're looking at uh Kevin woodrich Fire Marshall city of Tarpon Springs this is a picture of the domestic uh water assembly on the south east corner of the property this supplies water to their faucets and their sinks and their washers and dryers so it's just uh that's their 2-in assembly that runs to the domestic this is the Northeast side of the property where the 4in fire line should be but it's not located in this picture just all of our notices and documentation that we gave them and the various notices of VI violation and paperwork and we've been in we've been in contact with the owners myself uh the fire marshal they are not denying that this is not there they're their issue was that they felt there had not been clear directive of what they needed to do that's what this is we're memorializing it they need that 4 in assembly and it needs to be installed which they they have made every indication they intend to do so you need us to find them not in compliance and a suggested length of time to come into compliance corre anybody would like to make such a motion it should be Motion One I'm moving case number 24-8 0000 355 find the respondent KDA property LLC in violation of the city of Tarpon Springs code of ordinances um section NF paa 101 Life Safety Code for the property located at 199 Grand Boulevard and to assess a fine the amount of $250 per day beginning on 14 March 2025 second let me finish up until compliance is achieved and order to the respondent to contact the code enforcement division to arrange for reinspection of the property to verify compliance with the board's order second roll call please Dr Mata second I hi I ask Mr Ogle I had my finger over your name I'm sorry Mr ogal I Mr Pudo I miss Wade I just in our notes so for people that are listening We seld Them first time around issue a fine of that magnitude but anything anytime the fire department is telling us this is not not safe we really stress that that's the biggest part of our job is to keep things safe so just so that that's recognized normally we would not put a $250 fine on a first uh order so just for the record thank you and they will be getting documentation about this case number two is apparently incompliance but we're going to rule on it so that it's officially done case two is 24-8 00279 Brisco and Joseph Sero yeah they came into compliance we had just already had put it on the agenda so there aren't any pictures Dr Mato because it's in compliance now but we want to issue the order that so that they don't ever become a repeat violator so we want to put them oh you don't I I might not have made my I don't need an order on it we you don't even want order didn't yeah we just they had come into compliance before we could get it off the so no we're fine so remove that from the agenda completely move on I'm sorry I misunderstood that's my bad I might not have made it my intentions clear got it well that's what we want to do make people in compliance case um C3 so this is just an update you guys as a board asked us to stay on top of them and keep you updated uh this is the Lime Street uh properties the apartments M I did not give the case number do you wish me to do that you can give the case number if you want we're not even really at a point yet where we're I'm just just purely updating you guys on where we're at so they have been making some phenomenal progress in fact the building department was so pleased they didn't even feel they needed to show up they've already finalized I want to say he said four inspections they had five more today so these guys are out there they got multiple Crews um tearing up the place they've already installed several stair cases that have been inspected and approved they've replaced several Landings balconies there these are some pictures of the others that they're currently building so I just wanted to update the board and let you know that the city's position is we are very pleased they're cooperating and they have made way more progress than we expected them to have at this point especially with the two hurricanes so um we will bring it back around if there's an issue but I just wanted to let you guys see the results kind of of your your previous intervention and it it's had some good in this community thank you so there's a lot of them they've done a pretty good job keeping their work site neat and clean and everything I have to say I agree with you then we'll address the update on C4 Point Alexis yes this is another one same thing we are just just wanting to update the board so just to refresh your guys' memory this was a home that had had a large amount of unpermitted Works they had enclosed the bottom floor had interior walls up bathrooms installed the whole nine they this is just the one picture I took this was that bottom floor to give you an idea this had walls it was bedrooms and they have completely removed all of this they still have more work to do like months to go so we'll continue to update you but this is another one I wanted to let you guys know they are cooperating they've been making strong strides out there in correcting what the problems were but things are going in a very good direction and they have permits right there are no affidavits of non-compliance but we do have several Affidavit of compliance C5 and C6 can be considered as one item they are adjacent structures within one property it's case number 19-8 00221 Michael Mena Senor is trustee this is at 435 Hibiscus Street you guys probably know it as a cumar property this is a property we brought to you guys and i' submitted an Affidavit of compliance uh because they were inspected by building everything was good we were happy with it what we learned later kind of doing a little bit of a internal audit was that there were they had opened three cases on the entire property because of the way it was parceled off so we are just making that right today by submitting two additional affidavits of compliance to bring it in line with that first affid Affidavit of compliance because they have done everything the city has asked and we do need to make this a motion y it would be a motion to accept the affidavits of compliance with uh outstanding fines due so in your book it's tabbed as C5 and in the FR where the Motions are listed this would be an Affidavit of compliance with fines due so motion six so just for my edification B5 and C6 these are rolled up into one so it's only one $200,000 finers are two $200,000 okay the amount the horrible amounts of fines are for each project each okay that's fine and they will have to come to the city commission to okay fix that I think yeah I know would you like to I move in cases number 19-8 0000 221 and 19-8 0 00222 to find the respondents Michael McKenna Senor truste did correct the violations but not did not pay the amount of the fine of $22,000 $22,700 for each of these cases and to accept the Affidavit of compliance second roll call please Bobby Mr Ole I I Mr I miss W yes thank you please roll call and this is a C7 is a similar issue case C7 17-8 000000 594 Katherine J Amy Gregory G pelo 960 Sunrise Drive again the violation has been corrected there's a huge existing fine that was not corrected but we need to make sure that we have it in the paperwork that uh they are in compliance it'll be a similar motion as what we just did motion six thank you that's my you want to go Mr O Okay I move in case number 17- 800000000 594 uh to find the respondent Katherine J Amy and Gregory gor I'm not sure TR to pronounce it your ell okay sorry which that terribly anyway um did correct the violations but did not pay the fine in the amount of of 100 No 2 50,7 37.50 and to and to accept the Affidavit of compliance and in compliance would you like to second second roll call please Bobby i i i i there are no requests for uctions at this time um did we have minutes submitted for approval I'm sorry am minutes for approval yes ma'am they're on your agenda they were in that attachment correct yes ma'am we could do this by Voice vote yeah move that we approve the minute um I move that we we approved the minutes for 8 August and 12 September all in favor I thank you and we are we do have some folks in here for public comments but and I'm appreciate that you have come to us before we do that I want to once again thank the city the police department the fire department all the people that work for the city for cleaning up the city as beautifully and as quickly as they did for being so helpful lots of people put in a lot of extra hours during all this storm time and our town looks so much better than most and we got hit pretty hard but thank you to all of you who have just done a beautiful job thank you kudos to Tarpon because people could flush their toilets After the Storm yes people in St Pete six days good job Tarpon we were limped along but we folks just really worked hard thank you and now I understand that you have some comments on a property that we all have significant concerns over and I would really appreciate your coming today just tell us your name and your address and then we'll look at the evidence that you brought we understand do you need to speak in the microphone and tell us your name and your address please yes uh my name is Denise Ramirez my address is 1203 Castle Works Lane I'm directly next door to the property in question when I bought the house I just thought well nobody has turned them into code enforcement because the house I bought was not in wonderful shape either and I'm going to fix it up and this is going to be great well it's been a year and I've been complaining and complaining and nobody's doing anything as I understand it they've amassed over $50,000 in fines and they have no intent to ever do anything so the only way it ever gets solved is foreclosure and if that's not going to happen then I can't even sell my property because nobody's going to buy next to that so I've just lost my entire savings it's very disappointing and worse I've got rats there are snakes there's a boat that's rotting in the backyard there are multiple appliances in the front yard I called the police because I'm a prior before I got I have cancer and I'm sick now but I was a pediatric nurse and we had a kid who died almost being shut inside a refrigerator so they find him it didn't do anything they finally came and took at least the doors off so nobody would get hurt but it's like my front yard is a junkyard there's like seven or eight appliances in the yard yes and like what can be done do I need to sue her or the city for not doing it I just don't know what to do I'm at my wits end it's a year it's terribly frustrating we do understand a year and the owner of the property is different than the person I'm going to just say it on the record than the person that hoardes correct and that is part of our problem she's 87 she's scared of him to be frank and she loves him it's her son yes he doesn't even live at the property he uses it for a Dumping Ground he goes around and picks up trash from Tarpon that he tries to reuse to run a business and it is I mean to descri I can't even describe how bad it's gotten it was bad when I bought the house it is a million times worse since the storm and you realize officer Boon clinged it out one time p his own time CLE and it hoarded right back it's going to hoard right back I I don't know what to do other than forecloses if she won't force her son to take care of the property because it is literally ruining the enjoyment of the entire neighborhood and now with the rats and the I mean what do I I can't live next to rats coming in my yard and is there anything that can be done we'll talk about that in just a minute did you also wish to speak sir well no I at the same subject uh she was running late and in case she wasn't able to make it I was going to speak on her beh I understand so we're we're fine I live near there I understand and would you like to address some we we will we have discussed it and we will be moving forward with an action on behalf of the city which means what they're just going to keep finding them because they don't care now we'll bring it to the court thank God we I'm so sorry that you've had to deal with it the steps that are involved legally for us are horrible not nearly as horrible as what you have to put up with but we just want to make sure that I'm so sorry hun I'm facing cancer people on the other side built that radiation and then I'm trying to deal with this and it's just like and I call and nothing ever happens I know there's stuff on the roof there's stuff in the sidewalk oh it flew into my property on the hurricane I had projectiles coming into my house I understand I'm so so sorry so dangerous and somebody's going to get hurt or killed and then the city's going to get sued so I mean it's in your best interest to mitigate this before something really awful happens we we we feel for you so much we going to move forward and there is a workaround and we have gotten to there we're as frustrated with this as you are I've offered to clean it up and pay for it she doesn't want that because she says he'll be angry with me if you take the appliances and and I think it's it's Mr Crawford that heads the police department he's also talked to her and you know he said I can have these appliances removed it first she said yeah do that and then she's like no he's going to be mad at me I almost feel like it's elder abuse she's 87 and Incredibly vulnerable and he is causing her like let's say she needs long-term care she has to sell the house now she's got all these fines to pay that are going to reduce what she receives for the house it's it's untenable officer Boon might also be able to give you a number that you can call if you do suspect elder abuse I don't think he's hitting her I think he intimidates her and I am a repor is an RN so I know the process but I don't think it's going to do any good because when they go out there she's just going to go I'm okay I'm okay cuz she's scared and and cuz she loves them it's her son you know we've met them thank you I'm so sorry oh he was in my he was going in my yard and stealing um metal from a little renovation I did that I was taking up and like taking stuff and it's it's a bad situation it's a horrible mental illness and it the city is a little bit handicapped but we are able to go one step further thank you so much for coming thank you going to give us a little time this doesn't happen tomorrow I know as much as we would like it to I know it's been a year and R it up to the next level thank you so much for coming thank you thank you so much I'm sorry you've had to go through all this me too happy appreciate does anybody else have I just wanted to share with you guys some statistics for the end of the year um so in 2024 we had let's see here 361 cases were opened and that kind of got curtailed at the end from the Hurricanes obviously of those 361 we closed 263 of them uh in compliance before we ever got to to the next step um but additionally I wanted to and this number is kind of hard to quantify we did our best we estimate we had somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 to 400 Community contacts where we went out and addressed an issue whether it was overgrowth junk and debris failure to maintain private property things that we got corrected within a week or two before we even had to open a Cod case and send a courtesy letter so and that's just been from communication just trying to work with people and get them into compliance before we even have to start the formal code enforcement process and we've closed around 20 to 30 cases that are going back all the way to 2013 that we've been able to work with some people and get them over the Finish Line on things that we're just kind of lingering so that's where we're at for the year and we're going to start all over P yourselves on the back that's a remarkable statistic and it shows also even though this is in our Police Department you can address people in a helpful way and you are going to get more with sugar than with vinegar so we appreciate that you've made the contacts more pleasant for people called community policing right there y that's all for me anything else meeting is adjourned e e for