Code Enforcement Board - Regular Meeting

All right. We will now call this evening's Code Enforcement Board hearing to order. Judalynn, if you want to start us off. And we're going to skip the documentation for the first and second hearing.

Not the full thing. Is this testing?

OK.

So welcome to tonight's Miami Shores Village code enforcement hearing. Present this evening are board members who are all volunteers and are residents of Miami Shores Village and they are your neighbors. They are charged with enforcing the code and are interested in compliance with the code. As for me, 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 and I'm not prosecuting the cases tonight. All of the cases will be prosecuted by village staff, Mr. Mike Orta and Mr. Leopold Luis. Now some housekeeping matters before we start. You should have checked in with the clerk so that we know that you're here today and your name is on the agenda. And then if you haven't done so, can you please silent your phone so we can remove any interruptions during the meetings. Typically, I would explain the three hearings that would be heard tonight, but since we only have a request for relief, I will explain the procedures for a request for relief. A request for relief, also known as the mitigation process. The request for relief is for persons whose properties has already been found in violation and have incurred fines and liens. That individual has cured the violations and now come before the board seeking to settle with the board by offering a number less than the amount of the lien. This is not an appeal process, but a settlement negotiation. Because of this, the board will only vote on one proposal per applicant per meeting. And at some point during the hearing, the chair will ask you a final question. And that question is, is this your final offer? What is meant by that is, is that the offer you want the board to vote on. You can raise or lower the offer, but once they vote on a number, that is all the board will consider. Now that concludes my explanation of tonight's hearing. And as part of the hearings tonight, if you are seeking to testify, you must be sworn in. So if you plan on testifying, please raise your right hand. Do you solemnly swear or affirm the testimony you give tonight will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

Thank you very much. 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 daily fines being levied for violations of the village code of ordinances. The board is always interested in comments or statement that will help us make determinations 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?

Mr. Hahn?

Here.

Chair Huber?

Here.

Mr. Rodriguez? Here. Mr. Pearl?

Here.

Mr. Congiano? Mr. Vickers.

All right. Do we have responses from them?

I don't believe Mr. Vickers is with the board anymore, and Mr. Congiano is currently on vacation.

Okay. All right. Thank you very much. Is anyone present for first hearing?

No.

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 0525121, case 0525137, case 0625157, case 0625162, Mr. Director, the case files on each of these matters contain affidavits attesting to the existence of code violations alleged and demonstrating proper notice to the alleged violators of tonight's hearing.

They do, Mr. Chair.

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

Mr. Chair, I move. I move for summary adjudication of all such cases to include finding a fact and a conclusion of law that a violation exists as charged in the respective notice of violations issued therein and that in each such case the offending party shall correct the violation within the time period specified by staff in the staff's 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 such 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 in the respective daily amounts specified in staff's recommendations for tonight's hearing retroactive to the original compliance deadline, which will constitute a lien on the property of the violator. Further, with respect to each such case, costs in the amount specified in staff's recommendation for tonight's hearing are hereby assessed in order to recoup the village's expenses in prosecuting the violations to date.

Do I have a second? Second. Second by Mr. Hahn. Madam Clerk, would you call roll?

Chair Hubert?

Yes.

Mr. Rodriguez? Yes. Mr. Perl? Yes. Mr. Hahn?

Yes. All right, Madam Clerk, is anyone present for a second hearing?

No.

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 0425102, Case 042594, Case 042596, Case 0525104, Case 0525122, Case 0524295, and Case 0923333. Mr. Director, the files in all these penalty cases contain an appropriate affidavit demonstrating in each such case the violations referenced in your request continue to exist subsequent to the date on which they were to have been corrected in accordance with the previous order of this board and that to date no one has contacted Neighborhood Services to advise that these violations have been corrected.

They do and they have not.

I will now entertain a motion to impose fines.

I move that in each such case currently remaining on the penalty docket for tonight's hearing, each respective violator 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 on the property of the violator.

All right, do I have a second? Second. Second by Mr. Hahn. Madam Clerk, would you call roll?

Mr. Perl? Yes. Chair Huber?

Yes.

Mr. Hahn? Yes. Mr. Rodriguez? Yes.

All right, thank you. Madam Clerk, is anyone present for a request for relief?

Yes, Mr. Robert Netkin at 1200 Northeast 94th Street.

All right, if you would approach the podium and state your name and address for the record.

Yes, sir, it's Robert Netkin, N-E-T-K-I-N, currently living at 1200 Northeast 94th Street, 33138.

all right okay thank you we're here for a case five seven six three twenty nineteen non-dwelling structures and fences the fine amount is thirty one thousand five hundred and fifty dollars the amount proposed is two thousand five hundred dollars please explain why we should accept your offer

Yes, sir. First of all, thank you everybody for allowing me this. I purchased this property back in June of 2019 and there was a title search done at the time. There was no violations, there was no liens, there was nothing at the time. I got title insurance on the 17th, I believe, of June. And just to give you a bit of a timeline, I think we closed on the house on the 24th of June 2019. The deed was issued for the house on July the 5th, 2019. Apparently there were some violations for the home that was on the property at the time when I bought the property. I was not aware of any of this. Apparently these violations, I believe, if I have my dates correct, if I read everything properly, I believe the violations were on August the 22nd. At that time, the person that I bought the house from was living there with his two sons. and I believe it was August 22nd, 2019. Those violations apparently were not recorded until November the 13th, 2019. Again, if I'm following my paperwork properly, I had absolutely no idea. Now, not saying that maybe I didn't get a letter, but I didn't get the letter. It is possible that it came to Mr. Dalba, the previous owner, because we've been getting letters for Mr. Dalba since last week until last week so and we've spoken to the post office and everybody so i was totally unaware of any violations of any kind or believe me they would have been looked after i promise you that so recently we uh we and i've been living in the shore since the early 90s i love the shore you can go anywhere else sorry and my wife and i lived just down the street at 1266 for 18 years We bought this property in 2019. I rented it back to the gentleman and his kids until we were ready to build, which was in 2021, I believe. Mr. Orta was kind enough to come out just a couple weeks ago, I believe on June the 17th, I think was the date, and just to do his inspection to see that the house was no longer there. We built a brand-new home, and... certainly beautified the neighborhood. If you've ever been by that house, it's a one-story, beautiful, it's called a resort-style home, modern, contemporary. It's a U-shape with a pool in the middle, and I think it does a lot for the neighborhood. But with all that said, I was completely unaware until we did a title search about a month ago because we entered into an agreement to sell the house, which came out of nowhere. We just moved in last July. Took us three years to build it. Moved in last July. Out of nowhere, we got an offer on the house. And, you know, I'm getting a little older. And I'll be 63 in a couple weeks. But anyway, so anyway, we entered into this agreement to sell the house. And it was when we did the titles, when the attorneys did the title search on the home, that we found these violations. So I came right in because we're actually supposed to be closing on Monday, July the 7th. on the home, but obviously this has to be corrected before we can close on the house. So I know the original lien amount was $103,000. Mr. Orta was kind enough to backdate it, I think, from the date that we maybe started construction or got the license or the permits to begin construction. So he was kind enough to bring it down to the $31,000. Again, I knew nothing about it until a month ago. I made this offer of $2,500. I understand there is paperwork, there is time. Emily's been a great help to me as well. and and i know there were some expenses on your part on the on the city's part incurred and i'm more than willing to to do that if that's acceptable to everybody but that's basically what happened i knew nothing of any of this um and i just i'm here to to try to do the right thing all right understood um mike the it's kind of hard to read here is the case established uh june 22nd 2019

Established June 22, 2019. All right.

Yeah, so that's why it didn't show up on the lien search on the 24th. Because it wasn't a lien. It wasn't even a closed case yet. It wasn't even an enforcement order. They didn't even have their first hearing. All right. The properties for sale you haven't you have a contract it was not for sale Yeah, but you have a contract on it. How much is the contract for? $6,750,000

I had to take it. What can I tell you?

Can't fault you for that.

My wife's not happy. My kids are not happy. But, you know, I have a lot of bills to pay. My kids are in college. We had to do what we had to do. And we're also renting a house in the Shores. We're staying right in the Shores to rent for the next year. So we love the Shores. We've been here 30-plus years. All right. And we support everybody in the Shores.

Does anyone have any questions or comments? I do.

Okay, go ahead. What was the violation?

Dirty driveway.

Dirty driveway. That's it?

That's it.

Okay, thank you.

Any other questions?

My question is, based on the timeline you gave me, just so I'm clear, the violation took place in 2019.

It took place June 22nd, 2019. Correct. Their title search occurred on June 24th. They bought the house June 26th or 27th.

To your point, it didn't even register.

It wouldn't have showed up for at least three months, and it looks like it was November.

And it was only caught when you did the search now. A month ago.

Which was, at the time, the search, 100-something thousand. Yeah. Okay. 33,000. And he bulldozed the house. And the driveway. But you backdated it to the day that they demolished the house so that this amount, we know it no longer existed. The problem could have existed up until this day. It could have been fixed before then, but definitely not after.

And theoretically, they weren't living in the property. He had rented the property out.

Well, to the same people that caused the problem.

Correct. So he's the owner. He's obviously on the hook for it, but the people that caused it were the people that owned it prior and now we're renting it. Correct. Got it. Yes, sir.

All right. Do we have any other questions or comments? All right. Hearing none, the fine amount is $31,550. The amount proposed is $2,500. Is that your best and final offer? Yes, sir. All right. And how long would you need to pay?

30 days? Yes, sir. All right.

The offer is $2,500 payable in 30 days. Do I have a motion? I so move. Mr. Hahn moved. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Barry. Madam Clerk, would you call roll? Yes.

Mr. Hahn?

Yes.

Mr. Rodriguez? Yes. Mr. Pearl?

Yes. All right, motion carried. Thank you very much. Thank you, everybody.

Thank you very much. Do I go give the check during office hours to the office here?

Yeah, it's going to be a little tough for Monday. Okay, the estampa letter, do you need me to come by Monday morning? Please. Okay, I can come by.

Thank you very, very much. You're welcome. Okay, guys, appreciate it. All right, thank you. Have a good one.

Bye. That just... Well, we haven't ended yet. We have housekeeping to do. We got... She is already in July the 4th mode. She's got bunting in her brain.

I just want to say something about that case. That's real stand-up of you, Mike.

Yeah.

I really mean that from the bottom of my heart, that you really, you know, that you stood up and said, hey, you recognize, like we did here now after clarification, what was the problem, and for you to do that, it's real stand-up of you, you understand? So I wanted to put that on the record because... You know, after he articulated and we figured it out. So I just want to put that on the record. All right.

Well, since not receive minutes to review. It's it's OK. I'm just it's fine. We can table it to the next. So we'll table the minutes for the next. Do we have any points of discussion?

Briefly, when I was at the council meeting on Tuesday, there was discussion about attendance on the various boards. And since we have a whole bunch of new people coming in next month, maybe it's a little early, but I gathered that Problem is not just with the code board that a lot of the other boards were also having an issue with Not being able to get a quorum and people and there was some discussion about rules and attendance and stuff and it's a possibility that each of the boards may be Looked upon to come up with their own policies And I was listening to all this conversation and thinking, you know, if we start to get that picky We're not gonna have anybody At the same time, you know, people need to make a commitment to be at the meeting.

Oh, absolutely agree.

And as far as excused absences versus unexcused absences...

think it doesn't make any difference why you're not here if you're not here at least three quarters of the time it's hard to do your job yeah well so the board does have some guidelines right i think it's three unexcused absences in a period and and Then we would have, and we've done this. We've only done it one time in living memory to remove somebody that had not attended multiple occasions. We had had, you know, other issues that have caused the lack of quorum, which is a huge problem for us, right? Because we only meet at best 11 times a year. Some years it's only 10. So one missed meeting is huge. Um, so I agree. Um, and that's why, you know, that's why I ask now when people are out, you know, if we received a response or not, but I know we have one board member that resigned one board member that's term was up and we don't know the outcome of that. Did they have a vote? And then, you know, the, the third board member, I'm hoping that we got an email from. Yes. Yes. Okay. So I agree. And that's why I'm trying to be a little bit more in, you know, following up on that a little bit more informative with that because it is it is a concern here and we just barely made quorum today. And it would have been a problem for this particular resident. It's weird that we had basically a housekeeping meeting with only one person, but it was important for that one person to get that out. And if you think about selling a house for almost $7 million, the amount that that just increased the tax, not just the 2,500 we received for the previous owner's lack of judgment, but the value of the, yeah, the taxable value that just jumped up is huge for the city. I mean, that's quite the jump. So that's where we're at. yeah if i remember he bought the house for like 700 000 yeah it was not it was a teardown it was not in uh in good shape yeah um so then i have a a couple of things um uh one thing i wanted to do was to follow up on the um and i'm drawing a blank on the term that we used but we had a um an agreement with a Yeah, there you go. The conditional mitigation, they did countersign it because I was concerned as I drove by it the other day that they might be in violation of the conditional mitigation process, and I definitely don't want that to fail.

Yeah, it's just getting the permits takes a while. Okay. Yeah.

Well, it looks like they finally mowed the yard the other day because it was a little windy over there. Not that I'm going to complain, but I was worried that we hadn't gotten the countersign.

No, it's a valid concern.

When did you drive by? I drove by today. right before it started to rain, and they had started laying out the tile on the lower part of the structure. And then the rain came, and then they stopped. So they looked like they had... On the roof?

No, that roof tile's been up there for a year and a half.

No, it was stacked. Last time I saw it... So there's been tile on the roof for years. There's been tile on the roof for years, but it looked like it was...

They moved it around maybe and cleaned it up, getting ready to work on it, hopefully? I don't know. It looked like it was laid... Well, as long as there's... There's movement. As long as they countersigned it and we're good to go.

They have a deadline. If not, everything just starts over again. Correct.

then the the next issue is that I'm and I'm going to write up a document to submit to the council which is to recommend that they give the parking privilege of the meter parking privileges to the code enforcement board so that we don't we before some of you are on the board we agreed to to post this up Haven't gotten a chance to do it. There's been other things going on. But basically, we had some parking issues where we were finding the owner of the area. And while that's the only recourse we have right now, if we requested that the town council gives neighborhood services parking enforcement ability, then they can ticket the vehicle owner instead of the property owner. So it will make, I think, some things streamlined. So I've been working on writing up a request for that to submit to them.

I'll co-sign it.

All right. Yes.

You're the chair. It's not fair to punish somebody whose neighbors and neighbors' friends and neighbors. But we're in a difficult spot. But what do you do?

You can only use the tools that are in your toolbox.

And the property owner can't make them leave.

Yeah.

Okay. That swell along the edge of the road is designated parking.

Yep.

Anybody can park on your grass.

Yep.

Yeah, and while people are getting a little, what can I say, savvy, if you will, I just got a call today of an issue that I addressed years ago, and it's on 92nd Street right in front of Publix, and it's a fourplex. And what they did was they put a sign on the inside, on their property, facing the swale, like about this big, that said, no parking, car will be towed, whatever.

It's harsh well yet you know but they want the parking so then you know because in the park you're talking about the side road from chick-fil-a down towards public switches now just riddled with cars yeah that's the one we'll just start hitting him for the grass.

We are We've been a little lenient with them. But yeah, you're right. You're absolutely right. But they took down the sign. Now it's up again, the same one. I mean, it looks like it's signed from the 70s. I mean, it's like rusted, whatever. But it says, is it on their side of the sidewalk? Yeah. Yeah. And it's on a and it's on a four by four. poster that looks like it's on its last leg. I think it was lumber, I think, from the Titanic. What's that?

Did they get a permit to put that post in? It's $100.

The post, it looks like a pencil, like a sharpened pencil, but it's above the ground. From the guy with the weed eater going by every day. Exactly. And they have it tie-strapped up against the fence. Like, I mean, it's a made-shift sign. But the problem is that, yeah, it's a raw deal because the owner directly in front of that swale has to maintain an area that's grass. And so if anybody can park there and you can't say anything, I mean... There is something called common courtesy, but that is... What's that? Not common.

Common courtesy. Never heard of it. Exactly.

Yeah, so, yeah.

All right. This isn't something that we can give to the police department to do ticket parking?

No, they will only do egregious things like parking in the middle of the road and things like that. Or blocking the driveway. Yeah, blocking the driveway. Blocking inappropriate, yeah.

Okay.

Do we have any other discussion? Hearing none, do I have a motion to adjourn?

So moved. Do I have a second? Second.

All in favor say aye. All opposed say aye. Aye. Ayes have it. Meeting adjourned.