Over Zealous Department

[Keystone]

City's 'nitpicky' fines for tree stumps, blinds trigger civil rights lawsuit

Fox News

Valerie Whitner, 57, has lived in the St. Louis suburb of Pagedale for nearly two decades, at first without any major brushes with the city government. But then, the tickets started arriving in the mail. Read the full story

 

[Keystone]

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/12/28/city-s-nitpicky-fines-for-tree-stumps-blinds-trigger-civil-rights-lawsuit.html

 

[Msradell]

What a joke! 18% of the city budget comes from municipal fines? Think they are fine happy would be a major understatement. Unless they've already bought off the court this case should be very interesting.

 

[conarb]

I saw a street sign that said "Ferguson Blvd", maybe the blacks had a right to riot with regulations like this in effect. I've said before that with unethical regulations like Accessibility, Green, and Energy Codes, you guys should refuse to enforce them, otherwise you are no better than the Nazi soldiers.

 

[ICE]

When I was a kid my father had a shoe box full of parking tickets. His trucks were ticketed whether they deserved it or not. He didn't pay the tickets and he told me that every contractor in the town had a shoe box full of tickets.

The lady in the article has 33 citations.....and I would guess that she has a shoe box.

 

[conarb]

Who should be liable here, the CBO or the individual inspectors?

 

[linnrg]

google says Soldotna Alaska to St. Louis is 3854 miles via Alaska highway - yep glad I ani't near that kind of a community. Got a chuckle out of the article though and accidently emailed to a city manager and some planners!

One of the reasons our enforcement is limited is due to the cost of a municipal attorney.

I am currently dealing with a fire damaged (dangerous building) home that is a neighborhood nuisance and we have spent thousands in legal fees just to get started, and there has been a lot of my time spent too. Zoning code enforcement is not what I do thankfully. Just leave me the buildings thank you.

 

[linnrg]

just to let you know here is where I am

https://vimeo.com/149176696

 

[Keystone]

The individual inspectors may be culpable but the officials in charge should be charged with crimes

 

[conarb]

The individual inspectors may be culpable but the officials in charge should be charged with crimes

I'd say the main culprit should be the CBO, city managers, mayors, councilmen etc. are always going to try to get more money, but the CBO should be the point where the buck stops.

 

[tmurray]

We can charge for offenses, but the revenue goes to our province so the only benefit of ticketing is that if the individual pays the ticket and then we take them to court to get an order for compliance from a judge, they have already pleaded guilty to the earlier offense by paying the ticket. I've never actually written a ticket. Court orders are what we get, but then again we don't regulate the foolish things described in this article.