Codes Monkeys Take Flight This Thursday

[smcrorey]

smcrorey, I am not sure you never specified.

I was charged, not cited, for $150 on a bunk weed nuisance violation about 3-4 years ago. Would you care to know the details of the situation, or would you like to just draw your own conclusion based on the fact that I fought the city and got refunded the money they tried to extort from me?

Why would you be so hateful against a group of people you probably dont even know.

Because they misinformed, lied, and wasted my time (as well as city employee time) in order to extort $150 from me. No, they didn't target me, it was just unfortunate for the all involved that a contractor for the city of lubbock decided to mow my alley without authorization or citation, and then post me a bill for $150 that threatened property liens if it wasn't paid promplty.

The other people on here that you get all worked up have toilets and junk vehicles in their yard.

Ok... We're talking about 3 people here. Me, the OP. jross, who lives outside of city limits and isn't subject to the code of ordinances of the city of lubbock. Ironfoot who's either kidding, or not (hard to tell) but why hasn't he been reported if he's such a hazard. If you bothered to read the article, and comments, you would note that I did have to grudgingly give credit to Stewie and his flying monkey brigade on actively pursuing reported owners and properties. I guess I should have copied that over here too. My bad.

What exactly did they write you up for? I cant bellieve they would just write you up, just to write you up.

They didn't. I didn't receive notice on a single solitary thing. I left, came home, and part of my property had been mowed, I received a bill and threat. No notice. When I contested this, I had to actually speak with, at the time, the Assistant Chief of Police in order to sort this situation out. I was pretty embarrassed that the ACoP had to take time away from his day (for a couple of WEEKS) in order to investigate this incident, but at the same time, I just don't have the money to arbitrarily throw the city of Lubbock $150 for shits and giggles.

They had to have noticed something. in fact I doubt if they have the time to just go out and write up bogus notices with all the mess around.

Sure, they noticed something. The contractor noticed he could pick up another quick $75 in less than 10 minutes.. As long as I didn't have the time or inclination to fight his blatant disregard of policy by not first allowing an actual representative of the city to first cite my property and provide notice in TWO of TWO ways. At the time, the city was required to post notice to your property by way of taped notice to the door, fence, or mailbox. After an elapsed time, the city would send you a notice via certified mail. If you failed to receive the certified letter after two attempts, or if you refused to sign, the letter would be placed in a file at the code enforcement office with a green card indicating the dates/times of attempted delivery, and you were considered SERVED NOTICE. After this point, a contractor is offered an exorbinate fee by the city to correct the violation, and you are fined. Unfortunately for Walker, the investigation yielded zero proof of notice (I had received none) and the certified letter and green card that Stewie demanded he had IN HIS HAND were no where to be found when the ACoP finished his investigation. I guess I could thank them. Not only did I get my 150 bucks back, and an apology (not from Stewie, of course,) I also learned a lot about our ordinances. .. Nah, I'd rather give them the finger for wasting my time and trying to extort money from a family on a very slim income.

If I was an officer I could spend all day in some neighborhoods in town writing up stuff. I could think of even a few new neighborhoods I would love to write up. If you are a pig it doesnt matter what neighborhood you live in.

Perhaps you should go sign up.

[edit: Look, Tender, I'm not saying that Codes Enforcement doesn't serve a very necessary purpose. I'm simply saying that they imperfect, and citizens should educated themselves on the ordinances not only to protect themselves, but also so that they can know what exactly those ordinances state.

Since my run in with Code Enforcement, every single one of the provisions in the ordinances that I cited to protect myself in the situation I just mentioned - are gone. Poof. Today, I would be out $150, all because I ran to K-mart to buy some twine for my weedeater that ran out with less than 1/6 of the alley left to complete.]

[MrChairman]

ya know Sean, when they mention those code sweeps, it makes me think wtf?..the trailer park at I-27 is the biggest codes violation in Lubbock and has been making some ahole money for decades not to mention being a seething shthole of crime......codes violations ? what the hell?.....I wonder why ol Stewie doesn't get his sweep boys and hit that place...

[smcrorey]

Here's my post where I actually gave Stewie and his flying monkey brigade their due:

Posted by: wazoo at Mar. 8, 2010 at 3:15:41 pm
does the codes violations include THE ONE FOR MORE THAN 2 UN-RELATED PEOPLE OCCUPYING A HOUSE??

Parents and students LIE about that one ALL THE TIME!

Posted by: nicoli at Mar. 8, 2010 at 4:03:14 pm
I hope they look into the jungle growing around the meth lab looking dump next door to my friends house...Of course PETA might swoop in and claim it's a sanctuary for some rare subspecies of Grackle.

Posted by: smcrorey at Mar. 8, 2010 at 5:05:18 pm
nicoli-
You've forced me to concede that Codes Enforcement and, by extension, Walker does do something right.
According to quite a few folks I've spoken with, codes officers were prompt in posting notice to the properties and owners that had been reported. I've also been told that the officers don't tell the violator that they've received a report. Whether or not a report has been filed is irrelevant if there's a violation and potential money to be made.
Here's a list of contact numbers for Codes Enforcement:

http://codes.ci.lubbock.tx.us/contactUs.aspx

You can even file a report online from the menu on the right.

And then I got trolled for being a slob with junk vehicles and weeds! lol

Have you reportered'm, MrC? If not, you can do it online up there at that contact link. From what I've heard they're fairly quick to jump.. Of course at the time I posted this, I forgot about a time years ago that my grandmother reported overgrowth that created a gigantic blindspot for drivers turning onto 82nd street from her street. For weeks she would call in a new report to no avail, so her husband ended up mowing it for them.. He had no business due to health reasons to be doing so.

[BG2]

The problem I have with codes is that it can, and is used to harass people, and is used for filling the city coffers. I have always lived in the U.N.I.T. area, and have always been hasseled by codes. The thing with "junk cars" boils down to nothing more than have you paid the yearly registration for your tags. It could be a brand new Rolls Royce, but no tags= violation. 9 days to remove, or get it out of sight, or they will tow it, and crush it. I have a 61 Corvair station wagon. A very rare car, as no more than 33,000 were made in the first place, with probably less than 1000 left to be restored. Every time I pulled it out of the garage to work on it, within one day, it was tagged. A fellow down the street from me has a beautiful 63 Karmen Ghia(sp) convertible. It looks brand new, new paint, top, tires, etc, and it sits quietly in a side driveway of his house. It was tagged. I have found this can be solved with a car cover. Another time I had sprayed weeds in the alley. They all died, and dropped leaves, leaving nothing alive back there. I was sighted anyway because the dead stems were over 8" high. You have to remember, each time they sight some one, it generates two registered letters. One to the resident, and one to the owner of the house, which is usually the same person. Each sighting generates about $10 or more cost to the taxpayers. Someone has to write the letter, and registered letters aren't cheap to mail. Another time I was sighted for paint peeling. You could not see it unless you got within 10 feet of the house. Turned out it was a complaint from a neighbor who was going to sell her house and move to a better hood. She had 3 complaints, and all 3 were sighted, each house beside her, and across the street. Just remember, with over 8600 codes violations on the books, they can get you for most anything they want, and you could be next. More proof? Last year they changed the parking laws here. Parking the wrong direction on the street was a $10 fine, and they never ran farther than 24th street. Now, it is a $30 fine, and they cover the whole area. 19th to 34th, and University to Indiana, and they are making a ton of money, under the guise of safety. That is not what city government is for.