Entries Tagged 'Code Enforcement' ↓

For several years the Pettigrew Heights and All Saints Neighborhoods have been volunteering their time to clean up the tracks owned by Eastern-Ellis RR that run directly through their neighborhoods. While the RR does provide a dump car and some employees, volunteers do most of the work. They walk through very tall grass that they won’t mow to pick up all kinds of junk including hazardous materials and needles.

This is something neighborhood associations should NOT have to be responsible for. Having BBQs, community gardens, neighborhood watch meetings, tree planting events, etc. are great examples of the associations getting together to better their neighborhoods. Cleaning up hazardous waste for an inept RR company SHOULD NOT be their job.

I have heard for several years that the city has been unsuccessful in getting them to clean up their property.

They claim it is a Federal issue because the RR’s are regulated by the Feds and are on Federal easement land. I have often felt this was a line of bull and a city should have local control over code enforcement issues, especially when it comes to cleaning up property and mowing.

I checked with Dusty Johnson to see ‘who’ is responsible for enforcement. His staff quickly researched the issue within a week and had this response;

I had Andrew Rasmussen dig into this a little bit and here’s what he found out:

• In conversations with both the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and the SD Department of Transportation (SDDOT), it was made clear the jurisdiction lies with the City of Sioux Falls.

• Both the FRA and SDDOT explained they are unable to enforce a local code or ordinance, particularly when it involves a private company.

In other words, the City’s Code Enforcement office ‘CAN’ enforce that Eastern Ellis cleanup their own mess.

I would like to thank Dusty and his staff for the quick response. 

Those crazy kids in Sioux Falls code enforcement are up to their old games again. This December 14th, 2018 pretend hearing has real consequences. A family reports vandalism at their property, tries to get police to investigate and a vengeful code enforcement department decides to punish them for having been vandalized. It gets worse. The town’s ticketing agents decide the family should be punished for not accepting their unknown punishments. What?

How does this even make sense? It doesn’t if you actually believe in a truly open and constitutional system. Our code enforcement system sees these crimes and punishments as just their average day’s work.

The kangaroo court system of enforcing property and health codes in Sioux Falls was declared unconstitutional after a previous city attorney with the assistance of the ticketing agent / enforcer were caught making up evidence, reports and transcripts just to win in their special court.

This questionably legal process has been operated for a long time.

In this example of the kangaroo court. watch the video for the snide reactions of the ticket agent. He shows his contempt toward the couple who are only trying to protect their civil rights. It also does if you understand the kangaroo court system was ruled unconstitutional by the South Dakota Supreme Court.

Even though the ticket agent for this trip to the kangaroo court knew the couple’s correct address, he still sent the notice to a totally different address and declared the ticket / citation still valid. Reminds us of the complaints leveled against the ticket agents when the fines were dropped in blue bags and left in water puddles to be found later when property owners were doing yard work.

There is something very wrong about the way our town’s code enforcers seem to think our rights are just suggestions and they are the only ones who matter. The ticket agents seem to think they have a right to climb over fences, climb up ladders to look into private property, assist in vandalism and other known crimes is all in a day’s work.

When is our town’s administration going to fire and prosecute these true lawbreakers? When are we going to quit seeing these kangaroo courts? Does our police department work in concert with this questionably legal process? We don’t know for sure but it does make us wonder.

I guess a group of teens are suspected in vandalizing construction job sites, specifically restoration projects. In the video below the suspect is bashing a truck window.

But as I have been hearing from other business and property owners, the SFPD won’t investigate. Pretty much claiming they don’t have time and they have bigger fish to fry.

One of the main thing the properties/businesses have in common is they are all small, usually family owned and have issues with the SF Code Enforcement office.

Has any other businesses had this problem with the SFPD in investigating petty crimes?

Neighbor9

The Fodness family is suing the City of Sioux Falls for Negligence over the Copper Lounge Collapse. The suit alleges that the city’s building services who provides building permits and construction inspections failed to heed the warnings of what was going on with the construction of the Lewis Drug.

More details to come. (Filed Doc: Fodness 2018-09-18 Complaint)

LLOYD PURCHASES LACEY ESTATES?

As I understand it, Lloyd Companies ultimately purchased the property after all and after the rezone may bring in a development much different (and more detrimental) to what they proposed originally. We will be watching.

CHILLERS AT OLD ICE CENTER JUNKED OUT?

The word on the street is that since the ice chillers were not in use and not maintained since the closure they are no longer useable and have to be junked out as surplus. When the place closed I guess they were still operable and thought they could be sold eventually but it seems since they were not maintained they no longer work. More tax dollars in the burn barrel.

Funny, as a homeowner you are not allowed to have non-operable vehicles in front of your house or in your driveway, but apparently the city can just park them in a park (Frank Olson) for weeks at a time. Maybe someone should call code enforcement. Oh, that’s right, the city doesn’t have to follow it’s own rules.

We are often told by the city councilors at meetings how talented are city staff is. Some of them have multiple skills.

Just look at Mike Cooper, not only was he once the Parks Director he got promoted to the Planning Director (which oversees code enforcement).

He apparently has a knack for art history, especially African inspired abstract impressionism and American Folk/Street art.

When he was the Parks Director he determined that the Mural on the horse barn by Ethiopian artist, Eyob Mergia, was NOT a mural, but a ‘large painting’ (like there is a difference) therefore it could remain without the approval of the Visual Arts Commission.

Recently, under his direction, the code enforcement office has determined that Mr. Bendo was NOT advertising, but ‘ART’ so he could have a pipe in his hand. He also made this determination without consulting the Visual Arts Commission once again.

Is Mr. Bendo art? Or is he a sign? I would go with neither on this one. While called a ‘street sculpture’ I would say this is more of ‘decoration’ than anything. He is a mass produced fiberglass sculpture that could be determined kitsch, folk or Americana, but if I had to make a determination if he was more a Michelangelo or more like the McDonald’s golden arches, I would go with the arches.

Let’s just be honest here. The code enforcement office looked like fools and they were trying to save face, so they backed out on their decision without admitting ignorance by using Cooper’s old trick, ‘It’s art’ excuse.

So the next time code enforcement says your junk truck can’t be parked in your driveway, or your grass is too long, just look at them and say ‘It’s Art’.

After it was recently decided that Mr. Bendo ‘could’ still hold an unusually small pipe in his hand by the city’s code enforcement office, something else came to realization,

“We just thought, WOW, another decision that had to be overturned by the code enforcement office. They really are the smartest people working in city government,” commented Bill Da’Tool, HR Director.

Unlike the Public Works department that must depend on engineering numbers and science or the IT department that has to depend on complicated software coding, it seems the code enforcement office is content with just pulling rules and regulations right out of their asses, than over turning the decisions later, either based on how the wind is blowing that day or by direction of the SD Supreme Court who has consistently found them to be unconstitutional.

Da’Tool continues, “Of course, second place for geniuses was the traffic control department. Even with millions of dollars in camera equipment, software and plush new offices, they still make you sit at a light for 5 minutes with no cars coming in either direction.”

A South DaCola foot soldier told me this retaining wall fell down months ago and still nothing has been done to clean it up let alone start to rebuild it. The stone wall fell onto city property and now the area is blocked off with plastic fence. They have school kids needing to walk to school in about three weeks. We also have winter weather coming. I think it would be interesting to hear just where this is with the city. Remember the city was warned that this wall would probably fall over and did nothing to stop it, now they are doing nothing to fix it. I guess they are more concerned about making sure a hotel is built downtown.

Last year I found out that you cannot hang a sign on a business unless you are a certified sign installer with the city (There is a yearly licensing fee) And this isn’t just signs that require electrical hookup, this is any permanent sign. A downtown business owner told me that after having one of his employees make a custom wood sign for his business (no electrical or lighting) he was NOT allowed to hang it himself, he had to pay a certified sign installer to bolt it to his building. I guess drilling a couple of holes and holding a level requires a special license.

(Image: Siouxfalls.business)

Now the city is considering a pipe in a statue’s hand as a ‘sign’

Initially, city officials told him that according to zoning rules there wasn’t sufficient square footage on the property for the addition of the fiberglass statue. He hired a lawyer to work through that issue, but he couldn’t get the city to budge on another one: Mr. Bendo will go up without the pipe in his hand because that makes him a sign and the business already has one.

“I’ve never heard anything so dumb in my life,” Wallenstein said.

That’s because code enforcement under Former Mayor Bowl Cut & Buck Teeth didn’t want to allow people to have anything that looked out of place or to kitsch. That’s why people were getting tickets for 8.5″ grass, including a city councilor.

Some on FB have suggested they dress up Mr. Bendo. One person said they should make him into a Pirate. I have suggested they make a giant dress for him and have him in drag. Or put a bullwhip in his hand and a bondage ball in his mouth. Let’s see what code enforcement says than?

5/17/2018 (c) southdacola.com