Code Enforcement Board - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. Welcome to tonight's Miami Shores Village Code Enforcement hearing. My name is Judalyn June, and I am the attorney representing the village in today's hearing. I am present as counsel to the board, but I am not prosecuting the cases tonight. All of the cases will be prosecuted by village staff, Mr. Mike Orta and Mr. Leopold Luis. Oh, I don't see him this evening. And some housekeeping matters. Everyone should have checked in with the clerk so that we know that you are here and your name is on the agenda. And everyone, please take a moment to silent your cell phone at this time so we can have a smooth and undisturbed hearing tonight. Now I will briefly explain what will happen tonight so that you all understand how the hearings work. There are three different types of hearings that will be heard tonight. The first hearing, penalty hearing, and request for relief. The first hearing is for individuals that have been issued a notice of violation, and this is their first time coming on that notice of violation. And the issue that will be addressed is whether there is a violation on the property. Now the chairman will call the case by address. If it is your case, please come up to the podium and speak directly into the mic so that your testimony may be recorded. As part of the hearing, the chair will ask you if you dispute the violation, and what he's saying is whether you agree that there is a violation on the property or should we put on evidence to adjudicate that fact. If you do dispute the charges, the village will then present its evidence and testify to the violation, and you have the opportunity to cross-examine the code enforcement officer about their testimony. Then it is your turn and you can put on your case to the board and present any evidence that you have. The board will then adjudicate the case by majority vote and assign a deadline of compliance. The second type of hearings are penalty hearings. These are individuals that have already been through the first hearing. They are given a date to cure the violation, and the issue on the penalty hearing is whether that individual met the deadline and is the violation cured. The board will impose liens if there has not been a cure by the deadline, and people who are here for penalty hearings can be heard by the board if they maintain that they did cure the violation on time or if they want to request for more time. THE LAST TYPE OF HEARING IS A REQUEST FOR RELIEF. NOW, THIS IS THE MITIGATION PROCESS. THESE ARE FOR PERSONS THAT HAVE ALREADY HAD THEIR PROPERTY THAT HAS BEEN FOUND IN VIOLATION. THEY'VE INCURRED FINES AND LEANS AND HAVE ALREADY CURED THE VIOLATION AND NOW COME BEFORE THE BOARD SEEKING TO SETTLE WITH THE BOARD BY OFFERING A NUMBER LESS THAN THE FULL AMOUNT OF THE LEAN. This is not an appeal process, but a settlement negotiation. And because of this, the board has a rule and will only accept one vote or one proposal per applicant per meeting. As a result of that rule, you will have the chairman at one point in the meeting ask you if this is your final offer. And what is met by that question is whether or not this is the final offer that you desire to give to the board. Once the board has voted on that number, that is the only number that the board will consider. Now, everyone that is going to testify in tonight's hearing, if you're here today to speak on behalf of your property, you have to be sworn in. So please stand and raise your right hand at this time. Do you solemnly swear or affirm the testimony that you give tonight will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Thank you.

All right, thank you for coming to this evening's code enforcement board hearing. This board is empowered to hear evidence in order to reach findings of fact and conclusions of law for the purpose of resolving cases that come before it. A finding of a violation in any case before us may lead to costs being assessed and a daily fine being levied for violations of the village's code of ordinances. The board is always interested in comments or statements that will help us make a determination in each case, and we are always interested in compliance rather than levying fines. If you have not already done so, please come forward and give your name to the clerk so that we may know you are here. If there is no objection, we will consider at one time all cases involving the same piece of property. Madam Clerk, would you call roll?

Board Member Hahn?

Present. Board Member Perl? Here. Board Member Rodriguez. Present. Board Member Berryman. Here. Board Member Buenconcejo. Present.

Chair Huber.

Here. All right. Thank you very much. Madam Clerk, do we have anyone for a first hearing?

You do. Sharon Smith.

All right. Let's see. What's the case number?

Case number is... Code-03-26-64-8707.

It's the second to last one on the first page. All right, so we are here for 8707 Northeast 4th Avenue Road, Code Section 64A, Unauthorized Construction, Expired Permits. First, do you agree that there is a violation?

I disagree. Excuse me, I disagree.

All right, so Leopold, go ahead and start us off.

Good evening, everyone. Leopold Lewis, code compliance officer with Miami Shoals Village. Case number 03-26-64, property address 8707 Northwest 4th Avenue Road. The unknown record, Ms. Sharon P. Smith. Violations of section 6-4A, unauthorized construction without permit. The corrective action was to obtain the permit for work performed and close permit by code deadline. The case was created on 3-19-26. The inspection, the deadline was 4-27-2026. And there's still no compliance.

Okay. Ma'am, would you state your name and address for the record? I'm sorry.

It's Sharon P. Smith, 8707 Northeast 4th Avenue Road, Miami Shores, 33138.

All right. So, Louis, what was the construction?

The kitchen.

Kitchen? All right. And ma'am, you think you pulled the permit for the kitchen?

My kitchen cabinets have not changed. They're old. What happened is that I received, well, let me sort of go back just a drop. I had some things, sorry, sorry. I had a wardrobe in my extra bedroom that I needed to get rid of. I placed it outside. Actually, I spoke to a worker, and they said usually they come through on Wednesdays. So Tuesday evening, my guy came by and took it outside. I tried to make it as neat as possible. I was told that I was in violation because I had building materials out there. I had 30 days to remove it. So I asked for someone to come out to the violated site and just take a look at these items. This was a three-piece... wardrobe it was approximately 40 by 40 deep by about 36 three pieces and it was about 10 feet tall um it did break down in two pieces but i the the doors are mirrored and i do have pictures of the mirror doors um My kitchen, I also brought along my, well, I should have, I made lots of photos, but I seem to only brought one photo of my kitchen cabinets at this moment. And they're like 20-something years old, so I think you can tell they're very old. And on another note, I was told I had 30 days to remove these items. I emailed, I called, I left a voicemail. Please come out to the site. take a look at this stuff, and that way I could get rid of it because, of course, I didn't want it there longer than it needed to be. It's an eyesore. I assumed someone would pick it up on Wednesday, but I was also told, well, no one picked it up. They said I was in violation. I didn't know what I did exactly wrong. May I share my photos?

Yeah, you can enter them into the record. Do you have them printed? Yes. Perfect.

I hope they're not all repeats. Some of them might be. It's very hard to do online. Included is a scratch down the wall, the newly painted wall, when they were coming down the stairs with this very large item. Where do I take it?

You can give it to them.

These are the same. Okay.

But from the outside, yeah.

I thought she was going to show the picture inside.

Yeah, that's right.

Like what, a broader photo?

Well, no, where it was in the house.

Oh.

In your kitchen. Yeah, I mean, if you show it assembled, you know, if you showed it assembled, it would be...

Assembled? Yeah, but she wouldn't have took a picture of it right before.

Well, maybe she had a picture from before, maybe in the past, you know.

I have lots of photos, but I didn't print them all. I do have some on my cell phone. I did print, I don't know, I don't know. Like I said, I did this at FedEx, and it's a little complicated to do.

Okay. I mean, that's kitchen. That's the kitchen.

I have a question for staff.

Is this the only evidence of construction on the site or were there other materials visible or workers documented?

No, that's the only. Did you ask for access to the property to verify?

No, I have never spoken on it. Okay.

What's that? That's the scratch on the wall.

I saw. All right. Do we have – Mr. Berryman, I'll take a look at the pictures. Do you have any questions?

I would just say I think these board meetings, a lot of people show up and a lot of people watch. And all I would like to say is that as an educational part of this is for individuals – Because we see a cabinet here. There's no timestamp on it. There's no wide range on it. There's nothing to indicate when that photo was taken. So I just put that out there so individuals, there's plenty of apps on the phone. realize some of the foreign apps. But there's plenty of apps on the phone that you can use that are time-stamped, because I use those for my job, where you're able to take a photo of it and really delineate when it was taken. And it would have been much better than the photo you have there. Again, just for educational purpose. Hopefully.

Hopefully.

All right. So who finally took the debris?

It's in one of those photos. Miami Shores came and picked it up the next morning.

Well, I'm surprised they did because it was longer than six foot. Yeah, it's got to be shorter than six foot.

It was definitely larger than six foot. It was definitely larger than six foot.

I mean, even the bulk, though, they balk about.

Yeah, they balk about. So then this is for unauthorized construction, but really it's just. I mean, I don't.

I mean, my personal opinion is that's not a kitchen cabinet with the mirrored doors. It's a wardrobe. It's a large built-in wardrobe, yeah. Yeah, I mean, I think in your situation, if I had been in your situation, I would have called Leopold and said, hey, do you want to come take a look at the kitchen? I can show you. I did. Okay.

I never received a call back. I did try emailing him. And honestly, what I did, the first thing I did, because I was at home, excuse me, I was at work. I got home. Well, I caught a flat on I-95 on my way home from Brickell, but I got home. I saw the notification. I canceled my doctor's appointment the following day, took care of the tire first thing in the morning. The second thing I did was came directly here. I spoke to Ms. Rodriguez. She told me everyone was out. I left an email. I left a voicemail. I had a conversation with her. Never heard back anything from anyone. Here I am. So I really did try to, and honestly, I did not know about the six foot thing. I tried to do everything in my power to do it the right way. I spoke to one of the workers who was at my complex. Hey, when can I put this out? And he said, Tuesday evenings were the best time. And they're usually through on Wednesday. This was on Thursday. It was still there. So I was like, okay, what do I do now? Then I noticed the door. with a wonderful violation notice. So I did attempt to do the right thing. You live, you learn. I love my apartment. I've lived there for 38 years. I want it nice. I don't want to.

No, I mean, sometimes we get it wrong. I mean, my reaction would have been little poles driving by, too, that somebody threw out a bunch of kitchen cabinets.

Yeah.

All right. Do we have any further discussion? Hearing none, do I have a motion?

Yeah. Let's see. How do we make this one? Yeah, regarding case number 03-2664, I move that there's no violation in this case.

All right. Do I have a second? Second. All right. Madam Clerk, would you call roll?

Yes.

Yes.

Yes. Yes. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you. Madam Clerk, do we have anyone else present for first hearing? All right. At this time, Chair observes that there have been no appearance by anyone on behalf of the alleged violators in connection with case numbers 0124541, case 012630, case 01266, case 022639, case 022647, case 022652, case 0725188, Case 0925312 and Case 1025342. Mr. Director, do the case files on each of these matters contain affidavits attesting to the existence of the code violations alleged and demonstrating proper notice to the alleged violators of tonight's hearings?

I do, Mr.

Chair. All right. At this time, I will entertain a motion for summary adjudication.

Mr. Chair, I move for summary adjudication of all such cases to include a finding of fact and a conclusion of law that a violation exists as charged in the respective notice of violations issued therein and that, in each case, the offending party shall correct the violation within the time period specified by staff in the staff recommendations for these hearings and immediately notify the code enforcement officer when the property is brought into compliance. In each such case, if the violation is not brought into compliance within the time period, the code enforcement officer may report this fact back to the board in accordance with the board's rules and regulations, at which time a fine is hereby authorized to be automatically assessed against the violator the respective daily amounts specified in staff's recommendations for tonight's hearing retroactive to the original compliance deadline and which will constitute the lien on the property of the violator Further, in each such case, costs in the amounts specified in staff's recommendations for tonight's hearings are hereby assessed in order to recoup the village's expenses in prosecuting the violations to date.

All right, second by Rod. Madam Clerk, would you come roll?

Board Member Berryman? Yes. Board Member Buenconcejo? Yes. Board Member Rodriguez? Yes. Board Member Hahn? Yes. Board Member Pearl? Yes. Chair Huber? Yes.

All right. Madam Clerk, is anyone present for second hearing? No, sir.

All right.

Also on tonight's agenda is a matter of staff's request for orders imposing previously adjudicated fines as a penalty for lack of timely compliance. With the Board's prior orders, I will now call the penalty cases on the agenda. Case 01-262, Case 04-24-268, Case 06-25-174, Case 07-25-183, Case 10-25-357, Case 12-25-390. And we have to wait for Mike to come back. There he goes. Okay.

Oh, that's the one that was making the noise.

All right. Mr. Director, do the files on all of these penalty cases contain an appropriate affidavit demonstrating in each such case the violations referenced in your request continued to exist subsequent to the date in which they were to have been corrected in accordance with the previous orders of this board, and that to date no one has contacted code enforcement to advise that these violations have been corrected?

They do, and they have not.

All right. I will now entertain a motion to impose fines.

Mr.

Chair, I move that in each case currently remaining on the penalty docket for tonight's hearing, each respective violators be ordered to pay the daily fine previously adjudicated and authorized to be imposed against them by prior order of the Board. Retroactive from the day the violation was to have been corrected, that upon recording the Board's order in this regard will constitute a lien In the property of the violator.

All right. Do I have a second? Second. All right. Seconded by Mr. Berryman. Madam Clerk, would you call roll?

Yes. Board Member Pearl?

Yes.

Board Member Rodriguez? Yes. Board Member Hahn? Yes. Board Member Berryman? Yes. Chair Huber?

Yes. All right. Thank you very much. Madam Clerk, do we have anyone for a request for relief?

We do. First is Omer Dror.

Okay. If you would approach the dais, we're here for Omer Dror, 1201 Northeast 97th Street, case 1265-2022. I don't know what the case was. I'm guessing permit. Fine amount is $62,600. All right. Please state your name and address for the record.

Omer Dror, 1201 Northeast 97th Street.

All right. And please explain why we should accept your offer of $3,000.

So I honestly have no idea what the offer should be. I assume that there would be some, you guys would let me know. The entire process of doing work without permit was that my wife was pregnant with our second child. She wanted the upstairs bathroom done. I went on Nextdoor. I hired a GC. The guy came out, started doing work. Then he disappeared. I thought he got a permit. Turns out he didn't get a permit, went to Hawaii, had some guys doing work in the bathroom. Ultimately, he didn't finish the work, kept asking for more money, as GCs do, ultimately asked for all of the money, even though only 3 quarters of the job was done at most. And when I refused to give him the last 5% of the money, he called the police who came and looked around and thought he was a nut job. And then he left. And that's the last I heard of him. I went to some architect, to some GCs. Everyone said to get permits for someone else's work that's already sealed and finished is difficult. I don't know how to go about even beginning to do that. So I had no idea what to do in that situation once I saw the notice on the door. Couldn't find anyone to do it. Being here, it's a great community, Miami Shores. We have this amazing Dads Chat that has 300 dads in the Shores with kids under 10. And so I asked about that. And recently someone proposed, Aroni, who was really great, came out, said, hey, let me know whatever you need. Go and do it. Spent $70,000 on the first guy, $10,000 on Aroni, but he cleared the permit. So the permit's been cleared. The time frame, I have no real control over the time frame. It's based on days. I don't think the city is necessarily hurt by the length of time that it's not taken care of, as long as it ultimately gets taken care of. I did what I could to get it taken care of. It's now taken care of. I came up with the number because that's a proximate. I asked a few people. They said that's a good suggestion. But if for any reason people are going to vote against that, just let me know a number. I just want to be done with it.

Yeah, we can't offer you a number. But also, it wouldn't have gotten to this if you had stayed in contact with the code enforcement. And if you're pulling a permit and working on it, and they see that you're actively trying to hire somebody, then it doesn't get to the stage it never becomes a fine because they have basically an unlimited leeway where they can continue to extend it but when they don't hear from you or they don't see a permit getting applied for then they you know we we have to move on right yeah no no i completely understand that i couldn't reach out to them to say hey i'm in the process of getting a permit because i wasn't in the process of getting a permit i'm not a gc Yeah, I mean, but I'm trying to find a new contractor, or my contractor, he quit on me, and we lost him. Just keep in contact. You'll find it a lot easier, and we can skip all these steps. Yeah, no worries.

Do you happen to have a copy of a police report from when you had the police?

I don't, but I'm sure I can get that. I don't.

And when was that that that happened?

My daughter's a little over three, so I would guess that would have been – What, 22?

It had to have been November or October.

Yeah, like October of 22, I would say. I mean, it was like she was just about to give birth. So it would have been about October of 22 because she was born November of 22. Yeah, and I told him. I said, look, he said, oh, I'm going to sue you for the last 5%. I said, that's wonderful. I'd be happy if you did. Then that gives me an opportunity to countersue. But no, I never heard from him again. No, he went away.

All right. Any other questions or comments from the board? I do. Okay. Go ahead.

Whose case is this? My case. Do you have anything to add? Is that Mr. Dror's scenario about? That was accurate. Okay.

She's pointing at the microphone.

Sorry. I don't have any comments.

All right, any other questions, concerns?

Oh, just the usual ones.

Okay, yeah. So we're here for fine amount of $62,600. The amount proposed is $3,000. Is that your best and final offer?

Yeah, I guess.

How long would it take you to make the payment? We're getting there, Barry.

I mean, I could...

I thought you forgot.

If you take TAP to pay, I can pay it right now. 30 days?

Yeah, you have to give staff time to get the paperwork and everything ready. All right, so the offer is $3,000 payable in 30 days. Do I have a motion? So moved.

I move to accept.

All right, do I have a second? I'll second it. All right, Madam Clerk, would you call roll?

Board Member Rodriguez?

Yes.

Board Member Buenconcejo?

No.

Board Member Berryman? Yes. Board Member Pearl? Yes. Board Member Hahn?

Yes.

Chair Huber?

Yes. All right. Thank you very much. You don't need to rush. You can get with them the end of next week. No, no. Don't come in the morning. They won't be ready. Yeah, so the end of next week.

It takes about a week to get the paperwork ready. All right. Thank you. All right. Thank you.

All right, Madam Clerk, do we have anyone else present?

Yes, you have Roberto Aguirre on behalf of Midtown West Properties.

Okay, if you would come up and state your name and address for the record.

It's not Roberto, it's George Torino. Okay, and your address is? 941 Northeast 92nd Street.

You live at this address? I do not. Okay, so what's your address?

It's 2550 Southwest 135th Avenue.

Okay. So we're here for 941 Northeast 92nd Street. Case is 012310. The fine amount is $46,000. It is also a permit. The offer is $1,500. Please explain why we should accept your offer.

I mean, I really don't have a reason. I just threw a number at it. As he said, I didn't really know what to say. This was a mistake. It just kind of fell through the cracks. I wasn't aware of it. Okay.

Did you receive the notice?

I didn't receive the notice.

You didn't receive the notice. Okay. Is the property for sale or for rent?

It is for sale. It's under contract right now.

Okay. And what's the contract for?

I think it's like $4.2 million or something like that.

Okay. All right. Do we have any other questions, comments from the board? I do. What's the closing date?

No. What's your relationship to this property?

I'm the contractor. That property doesn't belong to me. I'm not making $4.2 million. I promise you.

So you're not the owner? I am not the owner. You're not the owner's attorney?

No. They gave me the power of attorney.

They gave you the power of attorney so you could talk to them tonight. Okay. Do you know anything about the history of this?

You're a contractor. Are you the one who did the work? I built it from the ground up, yes.

Without a permit?

I had full permits.

So which one was missing? The fence permit. Okay, so not all the permits. Is this yours, Mike? Yes, it was a construction fence. Oh, it was the construction fence? Yes. Oh, so this... You need a permit. Yeah, but was this noticed at the beginning of construction?

Well, the fence was just deteriorated. I think there was a storm that came through, I think, at one time.

And that's when you noticed it didn't have a construction fence permit? Okay. And it was posted on the property?

I don't know if the permit was posted, but the permit was.

No, no, not the permit. You posted the notice. Oh, no, on the fence. Okay. Yeah. Okay.

Oh, at least the portion that was standing.

Yeah. I got you. All right. Do we have any other questions, comments?

When's the closing date? My question now is when's the closing date. My question is how did the building permit on the house get closed out if there was an open violation? Good question. How did that happen?

Well, it's not a tie-through. A construction fence isn't a tie-through permit. And since they're disjointed, the code enforcement and the building department, they ran through all of their joint master permits and everything and closed it out. Yeah, it should have been attached at some point. There's got to be some software work done in the back end. I think we talked about that last time. When is the scheduled closing date?

They're trying to close it for the 15th. They extended it to see if I can resolve this issue.

Okay. And you heard the instructions that we only vote one time for a piece of property?

Yes, sir.

Okay. Any other questions or comments? All right. Hearing none, we are here for a fine amount of $46,000. The amount offered is $1,500. Is that your best and final offer?

Yes. Will I have a chance to defend myself a little bit, say a little something?

I mean, yeah, we're still in the stage where you can say anything. I mean, we're...

Okay, there's a lot of process. I had two things that happened there. One was a Sprinker violation. They gave me a warning. I took care of it immediately the second day. I took the rock out. It was a rock in the valve. Took care of that. They cleared it out. And then another one was when I took down the original fence behind the property. There's an alley back there. My... My permanent fence got delayed by a couple days. I got a call. I had to put up a fence. Again, next day or the following day, I had a permanent fence, a four-foot fence put up so that nobody can cross in, nobody could fall into an open pool. I tried to take care of everything as soon as possible. I would have never let this reach this point if I would have known about it. I would have taken care of it immediately. Like I said, this is just something that fell through. I would have never let this happen.

Okay. Do you have anything to add, Mike?

I don't.

Okay. All right. So we have a fine amount of $46,000. The amount offered is $1,500. Is that your best and final offer?

Yes.

All right. And how long would you need to pay?

As soon as possible.

30 days? Yeah, we don't. Yeah, it gives everybody time to take care of everything. All right. Do I have a motion?

I propose with the payment of $6,500 that we accept an offer on this.

All right.

Do we have any discussion?

I'll second it.

Do we have any further discussion? Okay. Yeah, they second it but we're still in the how about mr. Hahn. How about five? Okay, will you read your second Oh every second all right Remember when consejo for member Berryman remember Rodriguez.

Yes. I remember pearl. Yes. Remember Han.

Yes. I

Chair Huber.

Yes. All right. So because the board decided to make an amended proposal, you can choose to accept it. So you have 30 days to pay it. If you don't pay it in 30 days, you have to come back. She's not going to be able to get you an estoppel letter till at the very earliest to end the next week. So it'll be really close to your closing. You know, but maybe you're Talk to the title people. But you said the 15th, right? Yes, sir. I mean, it'll be right on, right, is it about Friday to have an estoppel letter ready?

That's Mr. Orchard.

Just about, yeah. Call them Thursday evening and see if they'll have one for Friday. All right? All right. All right, thank you very much. Thank you, guys. Thank you. Madam Clerk, do we have anyone else present?

MS. Not for request for relief. Not for request for relief. MS. But you have a public comment related to request for relief.

Okay. Is that – do we have – is that on the – MS. No one on the docket.

Okay. MS. But there is a request that was not added to it.

Okay. You know about this, so you're going to start us off? Yes. Awesome.

And just for, if I may, I'm not sure if everyone was here a couple meetings ago when we had amended our agenda for a public comment section. Unfortunately, this applicant was not part of the agenda. Therefore, we did not comply with all of the notice requirements. But they are present and want to be heard. And I guess the board... can decide if there's anything they can do for the applicant. They went through the village manager, and that's how they've come before us today. As it relates to any background information for this particular case, Mike can give you any information that you need. All right. Oh, and this is not an item that you'll be voting on. Yes, understood. Since it was not part of the agenda.

This was a decorative I believe it was a decorative portion of the front entrance of the house that was attached to the roof It has been repaired and the properties in compliance We have somebody here that wants to speak

POINT OF ORDER BEFORE WE GO ANY FURTHER. I'M FAMILIAR WITH MR. FINNEY. I'M GOING TO HAVE TO ABSTAIN FROM THIS ONE.

THERE'S NO VOTING.

THERE'S NO VOTING. YEAH. OKAY. I'LL LISTEN.

OKAY. Thank you. All right. Please state your name and address for the record.

My name is Brian Finney. I live at 9025 Northeast 4th Avenue, Miami Shores, Florida, 33138.

All right. And what did you want to address with us?

I'VE LIVED HERE FOR 26 YEARS, AND MY BRIDE AND I HAVE DECIDED THAT WE WOULD LIKE TO REMAIN IN MIAMI SHORES, AND SO WE'VE WALKED DOWN THIS PATH OF RENOVATING OUR HOME. OVER THE LAST YEAR OR SO, I PUT A NEW ROOF ON THE HOUSE, PERMITTED, NEW AIR CONDITIONING, PAINTED THE HOUSE, AND I'M CONTINUING TO DO THINGS TO UPGRADE MY HOME. IN THE PROCESS OF GOING THROUGH MY FINANCING AND REFINANCING MY HOME, I DISCOVERED THAT I HAD A LEAN ON MY HOUSE TO THE TUNE OF $249,000. That lien was the result of an action taken in 2013 where I mistakenly assumed that in order to come into compliance, I had to demolish a portion of the entrance to my home. And when I came down to the city, I filed to open the permit. When I returned, I was asked to provide a sketch. I provided a sketch, and they did not accept the sketch because they wanted it done by an architect. I went back and got an architect who looked at what I had to prepare, who was a friend of mine and said, Brian, this is not structural. It's a piece of wood. So we repaired it. Poor communications on my part. Since I wasn't given the green light to move forward, I assumed I didn't have a permit. I'm not a builder. I can crunch a financial statement until the cows come home, but I'm not a builder. So I assumed that everything was okay. I addressed the situation. Since that time, I've gotten permits for a roof. We went through everything. I had to move bees and everything. It never came up. until the other day. So I'm asking for relief because it was my fault, because it was a communications issue, but I didn't do any demolition, which was what the permit was for, demolition. Never did any demolition. My home has been inspected several times. It's in great condition, and I just want to continue living here and improving it.

All right. Now, I'm guessing you're refinancing.

Yes.

Okay. And you have already have a closing date for the refinancing? About three weeks, yes. All right. Yeah, I mean... And we'll have some further discussion from the board. But you're not in the process of foreclosure or anything. So the best thing to do is to talk to the bank and just kick it back. We'll have a meeting next month. Yeah, we have a June meeting. Your paperwork is already in, right? It just didn't make it in time for the agenda. So you'll be on the next meeting. What's the date on that? Okay, fourth. So I would talk to the bank and set your closing to after June 11th. That'll give enough time for the estoppel if your motion passes. I think that's your only avenue because we really can't adjudicate this without the proper notice period. You know, these are state laws. But anyone have any other comments or questions? Discussion?

Yeah. I'm curious what the actual infraction was. It was an unclosed permit? I'm sure it's a facade.

No, yeah, it was like a decorative feature as part of the design of the front of the home. No, it was just a deteriorated portion. It wasn't working. He got a permit. Okay.

So it's not slightly. All right.

Correct.

Yeah, I would also suggest that you bring any documentation showing when you repaired it, like if it was in the past.

It's been inspected by you.

No, I know, but a lot of times, so like this number is from 2014. This number has gone up to almost 250,000, right? If you can show that, you know, hey, I repaired this on 2015, right, we'll look at it in a different light than as if you repaired it yesterday.

I'll see what I can find with that one.

Yeah. I mean, even a Street View picture showing it's repaired. You know, you can set the different dates in Street View. You can go back every time it's driven by your house. You know, if you have a bill that you paid the guy to fix it, anything like that, I suggest you bring with you because it'll help us look at a smaller number rather than looking at this really large number. It was a $300 job. No, exactly. I paid the guy cash. Yeah, I understand. But 15 minutes of research on your part, if you can find a street view from 2017, 2016, it makes that $250,000 number to us look like a $15,000 number. And then we can vote on a more appropriate sized number. It makes it easier for us to work with you. If we're looking at a quarter million, it's a different story, right? So if you can say, hey, look, I'm sorry it took so long, but I fixed it in 2015. I found a street view in 2016 that proves that I fixed it, right? So it's just a suggestion. I really don't think it would take you more than 15, 20 minutes on a computer to find something like that. We just can't do it for you.

Okay, so all right. So what is the contingency to get on the next agenda? I think you're already on the agenda. Your packet's already in. In order to... to address my issues, I need some additional documentation.

Well, if you want a more favorable number, you want to lower the fine amount in our mind, right? So if you show us that, yeah, I'm sorry, I just didn't communicate with code enforcement, but I fixed it January 2015, right? So now we're only talking about eight months of fine instead of 12 years of fine, right? So we're talking about a $15,000 fine that we're working to work that number down rather than trying to work $250,000 down.

Okay, so it's – okay.

Yeah, it only helps you. It makes our lives easier.

I'm trying to set a ceiling. If I can find it, I will. Yeah. I just – I have heartburn now because it's – Yeah. Trust me. If you go, you'll be able – I mean I don't even use – I've just started to use these fancy phones.

Talk to a younger person. I guarantee you they'll help you out. It shouldn't take you more than 15 minutes.

Very easy. Just go to Google Maps. Put in your address.

Go to Street View. Go to Street View. Go to different dates.

And then on the bottom, you'll see the different blocks with the time of the date, actually, the year.

And then screenshot it.

Just click on it, and it'll show you the house. in 2013 and it'll show you exactly how the house looked and then you go to the next year 2014 and if it looks the same well hopefully we don't know if it drove by every year but whatever you have if you have that and you go to this to the image that's captured if it did drive by they can capture the before and then the after then it proves that it was taken care of And then based on when it was taken care of, it helps you reduce this crazy number here. Because now instead of 12 years, it could be a year. It could be two years. You understand what I'm saying? So all you got to do is just go to Google Maps, Street View. You'll see the photo of your house. And then at the very bottom, you'll see little photos with the years underneath it. And then you just got to click on them and look. Okay, there's the house with the O. structure, whatever was in there, and then the one with the new one. That's how easy that is.

Thank you. I believe there's a symbol of a clock. Yeah, correct. When you see that, then you'll get those images. It's really... It's like how you made it worse. It's not that complicated.

That's why I said, find a younger person and get a computer, not a phone.

Yeah, I thank you for your time and but again again, it was poor communications on both sides it happens We didn't do any demolition. We didn't do anything. We just fixed it All right.

Thank you. All right. Do we have any further discussion? All right hearing none has everyone had a chance to review the minutes Do I have a motion on the minutes?

All right. Do I have a second? Second. All right.

Second by Mr. Hahn. All in favor say aye. All opposed say nay. Aye. Ayes have it. Thank you very much. And I believe we already said this, but there's no further discussion. Do I have a motion to adjourn?

So moved.

All right. Rod seconded. All in favor say aye. All opposed say nay. Aye. Ayes have it. Meeting is adjourned. Let us know when we're off the record.