Wearin' the Pointy Boots
In a recent letter to the editor regarding Code Enforcement Officer Jim Young, the writer left out at least one fact that I know of.
Fact: During Jim Young's tenure as a "law enforcement" officer working in Key West code enforcement, he allowed me to be railroaded before the Special Magistrate, accused of a felony (impersonating a contractor, for which there is jail time if convicted) solely on the word of one of his minions who spent weeks after Wilma harassing me. Jim could have stopped it. Joe April could have stopped it. But they didn't. They allowed it to continue relentlessly. As far as I'm concerned, they may as well have been wielding a staple gun themselves.
The hearing was a farce, a waste of everyone's time and money. Said minion - the county's star, er, only witness - did not show up to the hearing. Without his testimony and with no other evidence to present, the charges were dismissed. Said minion was later quietly transferred out of the county. He should have been fired.
Jim Young knew his minion would not be there that day. He knew the case would be dismissed. Forcing me to hire an attorney and show up to this Kangaroo Court was part of my punishment. With plenty of time before the hearing date, why didn't they reschedule for when the minion could be there and convict me for the criminal they alleged me to be? Because they didn't have a case. In a real court, this would never have been brought to "trial." This was an exercise in showing me who's the boss.
As a Key West resident since 1978 and an uppity former property owner, I have suffered more than once at the hands of code enforcement with no recourse. If you are a property owner, you don't have any rights when it comes to code enforcement. They hold ALL the cards. And they will tell you that to your face with a smile on theirs, like a Mafia don.
A former head of code enforcement told my husband his job was to protect contractors. He said it right out loud. In front of the three other code enforcement minions he'd brought with him in an attempt to intimidate unintimidate-able Hal. It takes four people to inspect a stair install? Hardly. If you've been at the receiving end of the pointy code enforcement boot, you know egg-zactly what I'm talkin' about. If you've never had the pleasure, ask any property owner who's ever set foot inside the building department.
In 12 years as a real estate broker in Key West, I've heard countless stories of code enforcement harassment. If you ask me, they should all be fired. Not just the perps, but the silent witnesses as well. Any government employee who has observed harassment of a taxpayer by a fellow employee and who does not speak up, has screwed the person who pays their salary. In the real world, they call this "violating the public trust."
Code enforcement is a shake-down racket. It ain't about public safety. It's about Who's The Boss. The truly screwy thing about Key West's code enforcement racket is that they don't harass you for money. They don't ask for bribes. That I know of, anyway. They do it just for fun. Just to show you who's the boss. And because they have nothing better to do.
A note on recourse. Try getting an attorney to represent you against the city. HA. I called all the big names, none of whom would take the case. "Futile," one of them warned. "I have my own case with code enforcement going on," another lamented. "Settle with them, right or wrong," all the others advised. In the end, I found a brilliant local attorney to take the case, someone no one had heard of. I won't write his name here solely for fear of reprisal against him by code enforcement. Scary.
Daring to dream as I do, it looks like the current administration is doing something about the local protection racket. Key West may be liberating itself from the old guard. I'd suggest a code enforcement Citizen Watch Dog to go along with it. An uppity property owner would be perfect.
