| LETTER TO EDITOR
ADDRESSED TO: BILL FUTON
MAYOR OF VENTURA
Letter To Editor
To: Bill Fulton
Mayor of Ventura
From: Nikki Alexander
Date: August 29, 2010
In June of 2007, I was gardening in my back yard when two code enforcement inspectors, a male and a female, strolled down my driveway and entered my back yard. They appeared without warning or invitation. They said the neighbor who borders my back fence had told them I had an "illegal rental" and that they had checked their records prior to appearing on site. The female said the record showed that I had a legal "guest room" attached to the garage that was built to code with permits at the time of original construction around 1940 and had therefore ruled out the accusation that the space was "illegal." They asked if the room was rented and I said no, showing them the interior, which was clearly being used by myself, the property owner. Having verified that the accusation was false the inspectors should have left.
Instead, the female inspector then backed me into the garage stating that she wanted to see whether that space was "up to code" while the male inspector walked up my driveway out of sight and entered my home through the front door without my awareness or permission. My neighbor observed this uniformed stranger entering my home, unaccompanied, and was alarmed. Unbeknownst to me he made a sweep of the house, opened closets and drawers and even looked inside the refrigerator. I know this because when he returned to join us in the driveway he catalogued his intrusions and belligerently declared, "No one is living in this house!" He then proceeded to argue with me about whether or not I live in my own house because, in his opinion, it was too sparsely furnished. It was all I could do to maintain my composure. I have lived in my house for 25 years, paying the salaries of city employees with city sales taxes and tens of thousands of dollars in property taxes. This public employee's accusation was not only false his intrusion was unlawful.
The female inspector took pictures of my personal belongings and private property. Six weeks later when new garage door hinges had been installed, Sue Taylor, the supervisor of the Code Enforcement department signed off on the final inspection and snapped pictures in every direction as if my home was a crime scene.
The Constitution of the United States, Amendment IV, states:
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
These city employees are not enforcing the law; they are violating the law. Code Enforcement's habitual practice of taking pictures without owner consent is just as illegal as invading private property without obtaining a warrant.
Continued Top Of Page Column 2
| LETTER TO EDITOR
ADDRESSED TO: BILL FUTON
MAYOR OF VENTURA
Background Details
These details distract from the legal principles that matter (in my opinion) but I offer them as context to help you understand the ridiculous and subjective behavior of code enforcement inspectors.
In February 2009, I sent the City Council a letter describing this experience because the Council was evaluating five options, at the request of Andrew Stuffler, to expand the authority of code enforcement. Brian Brennan responded with a phone call, apologizing for code enforcement's behavior and stated that he had also been subjected to this swat team treatment. He said a friend of his had sold her house and moved to Fillmore to escape from Ventura code enforcement's reckless policies. Carl Morehouse was the only other Council member who responded to my letter and he followed through by confronting Sue Taylor and Andrew Stuffler about their violations of Constitutional law. Their behavior has not changed. And why would it when they claim to have immunity from prosecution? There are no consequences for these city employees who violate our rights. In response to Carl's intervention, Sue Taylor called and assured me that my experience was an anomaly, excusing the inspectors' behavior because the female (Jamie Johnson) "was new" and the male was borrowed from the Fire Department. Is that department also unaware of the law?
In June 2007 when this event took place, I had been plastering the dining and living room ceilings and had moved the sofa and dining room table to the garage, as well as the wall paintings. The closets were still full of clothes and the kitchen cupboards full of dishes, pot and pans and utensils. My son's bedroom was still fully furnished because I wasn't plastering that ceiling. It should have been obvious to the Fire Marshall who unlawfully swept through each room that overhead repairs were in progress, because there were drop cloths and buckets of plaster on the floor. Having more arrogance than common sense he insisted that no one was living in the house and concluded that someone must be living in the garage because of the sofa and table. He was so shrill and insistent it was not possible to reason with him. Jamie Johnson was a mute spectator and did nothing to correct his perception. Instead, she took pictures of the garage and LEGAL guestroom and forwarded some kind of notice to the county tax assessor that resulted in increased property taxes for a "garage conversion." I explained to the tax assessor that abatement consisted of moving two pieces of furniture back into the house and that nothing structural had been done to the garage. Fortunately, the tax assessor was a human being capable of exercising common sense.
The two items that required "abatement" were garage door hinges and a fire door between the garage and guest room that was 1/8 inch too thin. I spent $1800 on a custom fire door and new garage door plus permits and inspection fees. In addition, I had to move my drafting table and art supplies to another location because Jamie Johnson said I was not allowed to use the garage for anything but parking. Anna Alvarez, who issues the permits, shrieked "Oh my God! There WILL be an investigation!" when she saw the drafting table in the photos. Six weeks later, Sue Taylor and Ron Tindall did the final inspection. He said, "You can put the drafting table back and all your art supplies. You can do whatever you want in your garage as long as you are not running a business."
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LETTER TO EDITOR
ADDRESSED TO: BILL FUTON
MAYOR OF VENTURA
At my age, 65, moving heavy furniture is not an easy task. Yet, if I do not comply with ridiculous orders I am subject to heavy fines, formal notices of "substandard" conditions and tax liens. No two inspectors have the same understanding of the law. We are at the mercy of personal whims and subjective interpretations accompanied by threats that have very serious consequences.
What brought these inspectors to my door in the first place was a plea for help from the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District. My neighbor has a boat in his yard with a diesel engine that he runs for twenty minutes at a time every week. The toxic fumes fill every room in the house faster than I can close the windows because I am downwind. He has been indifferent to my pleas for mercy. After ten years of this weekly poison I asked VCAPCD if there was anything they could do. They said that although California forbids diesel trucks to idle for more than five minutes within 100 yards of a residential neighborhood, there are no analogous laws regarding marine craft. They offered to speak to my neighbor and explain how deadly these fumes are and in retaliation for my complaint the neighbor accused me of having an illegal rental - which he knew full well was a lie. Code enforcement knew from their own records, prior to their invasion, that the detached guestroom was built to code with permits around 1940. In addition, they inspected the room in 1983 to sign off on a permit to upgrade the electrical wiring in that building.
In the end I was punished for moving furniture on my own property, which has no effect on anyone else, while my neighbor continues to poison our homes with deadly fumes. How can this paradox be reconciled with the pretext that pro-actively hunting for code violations protects the community from threats to public health and safety?
I am not at risk for any further penalties as my property has been fully inspected THREE times for the same false charge. But I can assure you, that if anyone from this department EVER comes to my home again without a warrant based on probable cause, signed by a judge, I will refuse them entry. Their relentless pursuit of revenue has nothing to do with public safety.
There are properties in Ventura that have second units that are not on file. Mine is not one of them. These second units would fulfill the State mandate for affordable housing if they could be legalized. The best way to ensure that these properties are safe and meet reasonable building standards is to authorize home inspections by independent professionals who do not have conflicts of interest, i.e. generating revenue for the code enforcement department and justifying their expensive salaries. I recommend that these properties be grandfathered with certificates of building safety by independent inspectors, without exposing community residents to the profit motives and erratic behavior of code enforcement employees.
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