Alachua County Special Magistrate Hearing - Dec 04, 2025

We'll call this hearing to order. I have a statement to read first. Welcome to the December 2025 meeting of the Alachua County Code Enforcement Special Magistrate hearing. The purpose of this hearing is to hear alleged code violations filed by various departments of Alachua County, Florida. The Code Enforcement Special Magistrate was established by Florida Statutes Chapter 162 and Alachua County Ordinances to obtain compliance with various county ordinances and regulations. I have no authority to change the ordinances or any of the regulations we will be addressing today. That can only be done by the Alachua County Board of County Commissioners. The Code Enforcement Special Magistrate can determine if a violation has occurred, set a date for full compliance, and levy a fine for non-compliance. My decisions can only be appealed to the courts and not to the Board of County Commissioners. The procedure will follow today as the Secretary, Gina, will call the case. County staff will present its case. The respondent shall have the opportunity to present its defense to the case. I will make a decision at a future date, and the respondent will be notified male of that decision. All persons testifying today will do so under oath by swearing or affirming that they will tell the truth. Any evidence in the form of documents or photographs must be submitted to the Clerk for inclusion in the record. Please silence your phones or turn them off so they don't interrupt the proceeding. Also, anybody who expects to testify today, including staff, please stand and I'll have the Secretary swear you in. So anybody testifying

today? So raise your right hand, please. Do you swear or affirm that the testimony you are about to give in these cases today will be the truth and the whole truth? Okay, thank you. Please be seated. I see case

number one is withdrawn. So if you want to call the second case, please. Case number two five dash zero

zero seven six three six Alachua County versus this location M M a M L F 160 dash 61 Gainesville LLC. So is there

someone here representing the respondent? A M a F 160 dash 71 G and L LLC, which is a corporation. Anybody here representing the corporation? Seeing none. County, please proceed. Scott Krzyzewski, Director of Code

Administration. This is a solid waste GFL pickup invoice thing that we've done a few times. Solid waste addressed it on July 22nd with a seven-day letter followed by a code letter, which was certified and signed on 7-28 of this year. There was no pickup as of 8-14. We did pick it up at that point. Gina mailed them a letter indicating there was a hearing and their invoice and that was signed on 10-16. They have not paid. The GFL invoice is $56.33. The administration fee is $70. We're asking to certify the invoice and

a lien for 126.33. So this is actually actually for a lien. Yep. Okay. All right. And again, somebody here representing the company. Seeing none, please call the next case. Case number two five dash

zero zero nine six one three Alachua County versus ACD properties, LLC. Someone here representing

ACD properties, LLC. Seeing none. County, please proceed. All right. Same issue of solid waste issued a notice on a September 10th, followed by a code notice, which was sent certified, but was not signed. On September 24th, it was not picked up. We had GFL go pick it up. We mailed out a notice with the invoice on 10-16. Well, early in October, it was signed on 10-16. Uh, this pickup, the GFL invoice was a one 1266, $70 administration fee, a total of 182.66. And again, uh, seeking a lien. Yep. Yes,

sir. Thanks. All right. All right. Thank you. All right. Case number four. Two five dash zero one zero seven zero eight Alachua County versus Ashford, Robert H. So Robert H. Ashford here is Mr.

Ashford here. Mr. Ashford here. County, please proceed. Case two five zero one zero seven zero eight. County received a complaint on October 9th regarding abandoned house with RVs, shed, junk, and the grass is high. Property is located at 2786 Southeast 15th Avenue, Gainesville in Alachua County. Identified by parcel number 1615300300. Owner of the property is Robert Ashford. Code administration initiated enforcement proceedings and found there to be a violation of the following sections of Alachua County code 404.82.5. Parking of trucks, recreational vehicles, and trailers. 74.20 B. Unservical vehicles. 74.36 Nuisance overgrowth, which is the landscaping, and 74.30 standards for repair, vacation demo, and boarding, which is pertaining to the boarding up or demolition of the hazardous and unsafe mobile home located on the property. The respondent was provided a reasonable time to correct the violations. Notice of violation was sent to the respondent that included corrective actions. Ongoing inspections conducted to date has determined that respondent remains of violations, said Alachua County code section. My last inspection of the property was on December 3rd. I have good service of notices and statements of violation to the respondent sent by certified mail receipt or postings. Copies have provided to the magistrate and are requested that be entered into evidence. I have had no contact with the respondent regarding the violations. Photographs being presented were taken by myself and accurately reflect the violations and asked that it be admitted into evidence. County recommendations respond to be found in violation of said section of the code. Order the respondent come into compliance with 30 days by complying with the corrective actions listed in the notice of violation and if not in compliance and pay a fine in the amount of $100 for each day. Violation continues past the dates that for compliance. County has incurred $420 in cost in bringing the action to hearing. Okay, I noticed in my paperwork it was also

7.74.30. Is that not part of the... Yes, I read that, sir. Okay, I didn't hear it, so okay. Yes, sir. Okay. Okay, anything else? No, no, you're on. Again, someone here representing Mr. Esford. Seeing none. Okay,

thank you. Next case, please. Case number 25-009951. Alachua County versus Watson Sherry. Someone

here representing Sherry Watson here. Someone representing Sherry Watson. County, please proceed.

Case 25-009951. County received a complaint on September 19th regarding hazardous land dangerous structure. Property is located at 20929 Northeast 101 First Avenue, Erlington, Alachua County. Identified by parcel number 1-8-5-0-5-0-0-0-0-0-0. Owner of the property is Sherry Watson. Code Administration initiated enforcement proceedings and found there to be a violation of the following sections of Alachua County Code. 404.140b. Improvement of property prior to issuance of a building permit, which was regarding to the recreational vehicle located on the property and the temporary power pool installed back in 2022. And 74.30 standards for repair, vacation demo, or boarding, which is the boarding up or demolition of the house located on the property. The respondent was provided a reasonable time to correct the violations. Notice of violation was sent to the respondent that included corrective actions. Ongoing inspections conducted to date have determined the respondent remains in violation of said Alachua County Code section. My last inspection of the property was on December 3rd. I have good service of notices and statements of violations the respondent sent by certified mail receipt or postings. Copies have provided to the magistrate and a request to be entered into evidence. I have had no con- I have had contact with the respondent regarding the violation, which was on October 23rd by email, and we have also communicated by phone as well. Photographs being presented were taken by myself and accurately reflect the violations and asked to be admitted into evidence. County recommendation is to respond to be found in violation of the said section of the code or to respond to come into compliance within 30 days by complying with the corrective actions listed in those violations. If not in compliance, then pay a fine. The amount of $100 for each day the violation continues past the date that for compliance. County has incurred $350 in cost and bring the action hearing. Did the uh respondent

give you any idea of when or why they weren't able to come into compliance? Um, no, they did not your honor,

but um, they actually did submit the pre-approval application. All they needed to have was um an engineer. So they're waiting on that, but they withdrew their all whole application on the 3rd,

December 3rd. So they still need to reapply. Okay. All right. Thank you. Again, someone here representing

the respondent. Seeing none. Next case, please. Case number 25-009267 Alachua County versus Green

Airs. Someone here representing the Green Airs. I recognized you. So you want to come over to that

podium over there? County please proceed. Morning. Michael Williams, code officer Alachua County. Uh, in code enforcement case 25-009267, the county received a complaint on 93-2025. The property located at address 15-409 Northwest 237 Terrace, High Springs, Florida in Alachua County. And identified by parcel number 01531-001-000. The owner of the property is Timothy M. Paletti. Code administration initiated an enforcement proceeding and found there to be a violation of the following sections of Alachua County Code of Ordinances. For 4.22.5 recreational vehicles, uh, 74.36 nuisance overgrowth, 404.82.5 parking of trucks, recreational vehicles, and trailers. A notice of violation notice of hearing was sent to the respondent by certified mail on 10-8-20-25. In that notice, corrective actions were included. The respondent was given a compliance date of 12-1-20-25. An inspection of the property was conducted on 12-3-20-25. It was noted that the RV remains, um, at the location. And also, um, it was noted that code section 74.36, um, which deals specifically with the, uh, nuisance overgrowth, uh, was complied as of 12-3-20-25.

That was complied, you said? Yes, sir. Okay.

Um, I have good, uh, service of notices and statement of violations to respondent sent by certified mail. Copies have been provided to the magistrate and I request that they be entered into evidence. I have had contact with the respondent, uh, regarding the violations, um, in addition to, um, communications that have gone forth, uh, with regard to the, um, property. The, um, I, um, I'm in receiving a receipt of an email dated 12-1, which was sent to Holly Banner, uh, who's the zoning administrator, zoning administrator, um, with growth management, um, where she did, uh, send an email to Mr. Poletti, uh, detailing what needs to occur in order for the RV to be complied, um, she did send a rather lengthy email with all of the details and, um, she did also indicate to him what inspections would need to, um, be facilitated in order for the RV to be, uh, um, in compliance with the, uh, county's ordinances. Um, the photos, uh, presented, uh, were taken by myself and accurately reflect the violations and I asked that they be admitted into evidence. The county recommends that, uh, respond to be given 60 days in order to comply, obtain all necessary permits and final inspections. Uh, if compliance is not achieved, then a fine of $100 per day be imposed. The county has incurred $140 in cost, uh, in bringing those actions, uh, to hearing.

Okay. Did you identify your, with yourself and also, uh, what your relationship to the property is?

Okay. My name is, uh, Timothy Michael Poletti. Um, I filed Florida Constitutional Homestead on this property, uh, last year around Christmas time. Okay. And, um,

Are you the owner of the property? What's that? You're the owner of the property?

Uh, yes, sir. It's in a trust, uh, Florida statute, 689.071 ill revocable trust. Okay. And I'm the trustee.

Okay. And also the beneficiary of the trust as well? Right. Okay. All right. Just want to make sure we're clear the right to what the relationship was.

So please proceed. And I guess the constitutional homestead kind of overrides everything.

Well, it doesn't in terms of RV parking.

Right. I, I, I understand. I got the complete list of things I got to do.

Right. So, so for me, the question is, do you think that you in 60 days, you can come into compliance with what the county has requested? Is that adequate time for you to?

Yeah, I can do it one day if it was up to me, but I gotta, I understand there's lots of paperwork and

stuff like that. So what I'm asking you is that it's, it's clear to me that you've been here before is that you want to come into compliance. So, um, but I want to make sure I give you sufficient time so that you don't have to come back again. I think that's fine. 60 days.

Are you comfortable with that? Okay. All right. And, uh, I would like to have these documents scanned in just to kind of give my point of view,

the overview on it. Sure. Can you hand it to Gina? And do you want us to put those in the record? Yes. So, so those, uh, okay. We keep those or do you need these or do you need copies made? You probably need to copy it. Okay. We can, we can arrange to do that. Okay. But if you want to put it in the record, we need to have a copy of it permanently for the record. Okay. So go ahead

and tell me, go ahead. Yes, sir. So I can come back later on. Yes, sir. Okay. Yeah. If you want to,

we would need time to make copies and then, um, you can come back to later and get your originals at that point. Okay. So they're going to make copies for you right now. So go ahead and tell me about your,

what you, what you put in it, what you're putting into evidence. Okay. That's, uh, I made a copy of Florida constitution, uh, article X section four on constitutional homestead. Right. And that's not an

issue here because there's no doubt that your homestead, that's not being contested. Right. Basically what is issue here is your parking of an RV on it and what that requires by county. Right. What I did,

I contacted Holly in the, uh, growth management department and she sent me an email. Michael Williams mentioned that. I think that's probably already in the record, but that's what it is copied too. And she said that she was okay with it. The RV was permitted in that zoning. And, uh, she said, what I would need is a letter of, uh, no objection from the, uh, health department on the septic tank. The septic tank has been there since at least 1995 working septic tank, no problems or anything like

that. Right. It is plugged in. And so the RV is hooked up to the septic tank is what you're saying.

Yeah. So I think we'll be all right on that. Had to pay a $90 fee for that. And then there's another $75 fee to, uh, the building and zoning, I think department. Right. Growth management.

Now, are you building a shelter for the RVs? Is it just, they're standing alone? What? Are you building a cover or shelter for the RV?

No. What my intentions is, is to do a, uh, agricultural barn out there, a forestall horse barn. Mm-hmm. And, um, the barns of America over in, uh, Dixie County, they do quite a bit of these barns. Right. And, uh, he said to do the agricultural barn, he's got to have the agricultural classification on the land. And so that's probably my biggest hurdle right now is to get the, uh, property appraiser to accept that, to give me the classification so I can get the barn built. Understood. So your goal is to be able to put the RV in the barn? I would be able to, yes. It's going to be a 40 by 60 with 14 foot height. And so I could put it

down to that. Yeah. Many people do. Okay. Yeah. I just want to make sure that we understand what you're trying to achieve with the property and that we don't have to have you come back again.

Right. The agricultural part is, uh, I've got, my family got quite a long time relation with agricultural here in Alachua County. I kind of farmed with, uh, uh, my partner, Ben McLaughlin, who was born on 10,000 acres in Marion County. And he was my partner for like 25 years before he died. Uh, and he kind of taught me about the agricultural, uh, tax classification is very important. Yes. On trying to save taxes. Uh, an example he used was, uh, DuPont, uh, the fellow that married the DuPont daughter. Uh, he, uh, was one of the largest landowners in the state of Florida, the Florida national banks, Florida East coast railroad. And, uh, he always put on his tax returns. He was a farmer for, you know, he had all that land and timber land. And so he put down, he was a farmer. And so I fall into it with horses. I've had horses for 45 years in Alachua County and Gilchrist County. And, uh, my brother Mark's got horses, him and his wife, Jill Burns over there at the clay electric. When applying for the clay electric, I see, he goes, oh yeah, I know your brother, Mark. They buy hay from me. She's, I'll help you out with getting the agricultural electric turned on, you know, for your well and your horses and all. And so, so far, everybody's been pretty good to me, you know, five stars for everybody. Michael Williams, I really enjoy him. You know, he does a real good job. And so I appreciate, we appreciate hearing that five stars. Yeah. We appreciate hearing that. And you also, uh, magistrates in, you know, I really appreciate everything that you do. You've got to put up with quite a bit with all this going on. And so I appreciate the way you handle it. Right. Okay. Well, I appreciate you

working with us. And so, um, and again, you're comfortable 60 days. Yes, sir. Okay. All right. Well, that's what my order will include. Okay. All right. And, and stay in touch with Anthony, Mr. Williams. So stay in touch with Mr. Williams. If there's a glitch or something, you know, if you're not getting the permit as quickly as you thought you would let him know so that they can work with you. Okay. So please stay in touch with him in the process. All right. Okay. Sounds

good. Right. Thank you for coming. Okay. Thank you. Appreciate it. I believe number seven is up and

this is a zoom case. Do we have the zoom people on board? Um, we may be having a little bit of an issue.

Uh, I've been receiving emails from them. They're not able to get in right now. Uh,

and I forward them the info. Why don't we move on? Do we have, how about number eight? That's also zoom. They're still in the same issue. So seven, so let's go ahead and move on to case number nine.

Okay. So case number two, five dash zero, zero, five, nine, one, three, Alachua County versus Corp. Barry jr. Barry Corp jr. Here. If you want to have a, come over to the podium over there.

Good morning. Good morning. So in code enforcement case two, five, zero, zero, five, nine, one, three, the county received the complaint on six, nine, 20, 25 regarding the property located at address three, one, zero, one, Southeast 27th Avenue, Gainesville in Alachua County, Florida and identified by parcel number one, six, two, zero, six, zero, five, seven, zero, zero, zero. The owner of the property is Barry Corp jr. Code administration initiated an enforcement proceeding and found there to be a violation of the following sections of Alachua County code of ordinances, is 74.36 nuisance overgrowth. The respondent was provided with a reasonable time to correct the violations. A notice of violation was sent to respondent that included corrective actions. Ongoing inspections conducted today have determined that respondent remains in violation of the said Alachua County code of ordinances. My last inspection of the property was on today. I have a good service notice of notices and statement of violations to respondent sent by certified mail or posting. Copies have been provided to the magistrate and I request they be entered into evidence. I have had contact with the respondent regarding the violations. The photographs being present, being presented were taken by myself and accurately reflect the violations and acts they be admitted into evidence. The county recommendation is that respondent be found in violation of the said sections of the code. Order responded to come into compliance within 30 days by complying with the corrective actions listed in the notice of violation. And if not comply then pay a fine the amount of $50 for each day the violations continue past the date set for compliance. The county has incurred $280 costs in bringing this action to hearing. Okay it's your turn would you please

identify yourself for the record and your relationship to the property. My name is Barry Corp jr.

I'm the owner of the property. Okay and what can you tell me? The pictures she has okay now they've got the current pictures. So I have begun clearing the property. As I told Officer Webb over the summer I have had health issues. Understood. I was not able to get out in the heat and work in it. Many of us aren't. So yeah. Now that the temperatures have cooled I began working on it but I still have issues where I can only work for so long and then I become completely exhausted and dehydrated. Right. So

so for my question for you like similar thing is 30 days enough in your opinion for you to finish. I

should be able to get everything. I'm halfway there already so I should be able to get the rest within 30

days. Okay. You know because the county would have any objection to 45 days since he's making progress?

No sir no objection. Mr. Corp does have health issues. I've had this complaint numerous times on his property so I have been working with him over the past two years with the nuisance overgrowth. This is not the first case I've had but this is the first time I've had to bring it to special magistrate because of the consistent overgrowth like it'll get cut and then they're overgrown and I I do understand the health issues so 45 days is is fine but that's the reason why we're here today

because of the so I'm going to give you 45 just so you know okay if you have health problems and it doesn't allow you to do that don't wait until the last minute stay in touch with her right and let her know because the county can we can work with you because you're clearly making efforts to to do it

right we want to make sure you don't have to come back and just you know I don't know if you've gotten all my messages because I have left messages on your your voicemail but we no longer

have voicemails so I haven't been receiving any um like the direct line that you used to calling my extension we don't have that we have a different system um so as far as I've checked I haven't seen any voicemails from you but you can also contact by email like you've done before and I will get those easy yes sir so I do apologize if you have left voicemails and I haven't received them um but if you email me I get those just fine then I'll stick yeah I would say rely on the email

but then if you can so I appreciate you being here and my order will have you 45 days and I appreciate you taking the effort and understand but again if your health issues crop up and it prevents you from proceeding please stay in touch with her and let her know okay yes sir thank you for coming thank you have we had any luck on the zoom yes yes okay all right so we're going to move back now to case number seven

two five dash zero zero three four eight zero alachua county versus vargas and vargas okay who we have

on zoom okay can you repeat who do we have on zoom um this is david cunningham currently okay and what's your relationship to the property i'm married to veronica cunningham and live on the property with her and she's an owner with her father okay and is she a vargas uh she's cunningham now but she was a

vargas okay that's why i'm just trying to make make clear because the record has vargas as vargas

okay so so go ahead um they're they're trying to get on right now i believe um my wife and her parents her her and her father on the property i'm on the property with her and she's married to me so okay

that's i just want to make clear what the relationship was for the record since we're not here in person um do you prefer us to put to wait until they get on i would like them to be on yes okay so how about if we postpone this momentarily your case and see is number eight the zoom here

where's that one the zoom as well yes okay okay is she on yeah uh it would be willy willy cunningham that's probably that's the one for vargas okay willy cunningham though so i'm

assuming that they did not there's no person by the name of willy cunningham this is case number

eight we're talking about oh okay because we're going to see if we can move to another case while

you're waiting to get the other people on board yes sarah would need to get in to this case this

number eight no um number seven sarah is veronica cunningham's previous market okay uh mother so

i'm not sure who that would be if you let them in they may be one of them yeah my my wife's mother

is sarah who's married to david vargas who owns the property with my wife yeah we also have anonymous

zoom participant they don't they're not identified so i would go ahead and let them in see who it is as well as sarah say again they need to unmute their okay you have to unmute for those people

on zoom please unmute sarah and the anonymous person would need to unmute to be heard um jeffrey wagner oh that's that's a different case that's a different case okay the anonymous one is is jeffrey wagner he's on the reduction so that's later yeah that'll come on later okay veronica cunningham yes

that's for vargas present okay so are there anybody is there anybody else on the vargas

and vargas case that needs to get on board um my mom says she's having trouble with her audio but that's sarah okay and does she need to be on yes she does mom and dad david and sarah vargas okay all

right i'll tell you what for time purposes we're going to go ahead and hold off on vargas and vargas until such time as we get everybody on board we'll move into the penalty hearing hopefully by the time we get done with that everybody will be on board okay so call case let me read the penalty that

would be number 10 yeah this is a non-compliance right correct so we have case number two five dash zero zero zero seven five four yeah and let me read the oh i'm sorry let's move on a penalty here

this is non-compliance hearing or strictly to evaluate if an order that has been created by the special magistrate has been followed or not been followed i will not rehear the case as a special magistrate has no authority to revisit its previous action the policy is determined if respondents in compliance or not in compliance give the county and respondent an opportunity to speak on the non-compliance or compliance make a decision regarding compliance or non-compliance and have found in non-compliance placement of lien on behalf of the county so county let's call case number 10 case number two five dash

is 000 754 alachua county versus plumber richard a and arlene e someone here representing the plumbers

you want to come over to the podium there county please proceed case two five zero zero zero seven five four plumber richard and arlene prosecution cost of 280 dollars and that's all they owe is the prosecution costs so they're guilty but in compliance and the county requests that a lien be placed okay what

can you tell me and please identify yourself uh yes my name is kirkland handy i am their grandson of arlene and richard plumber okay um i to be honest with you i'm not exactly sure what's going on i was told to come and represent because they are okay so they're old and they are forgetful and they so what happened is

that they were found guilty but in compliance but the county is owed prosecution costs of 280 and what the county is asking for me to do is authorize them to file a lien against the property for 280 um if they pay the 280 then they would that would satisfy the lien and it would go away

how would we go about doing that my grandparents no longer live on the property we uh my family my immediate family my mom and my brothers and sisters and i we all live on the property my grandparents live in um interlocking on a farm with my uncle so they are legally the owners but they are no longer responsible in any way for anything to happen understood so the way they can do it is you make

payment to the code enforcement office which has been in this case downstairs on the first floor and if they make payment what they can do is i can authorize the county to file a lien but if you can come in and pay that they won't file the lien and it'll go away so how long do i have to do that so if you're pardon how long do i have to do that we can you know county we can probably give you a county be willing to hold it for 30 days that's more than sufficient time my mother has a county comfortable good paying jobs you comfortable with that yes okay because what we're interested in getting payment and get it done so yeah so what i'll do is i'm going to authorize the county to file the lien but as long as you get it done within 30 days that won't be filed yes sir i'm actually glad

to hear that because i thought this was another violation i was just saying we just cleaned the property we

were doing no it's not another you're in compliance that's good but because they had to go through the process of a hearing and stuff um the county's entitled the prosecution costs 200 usually my mom

handles this thing as she's like i'm busy today can you hand it i was like okay well you got you got

some civics education today just paying fine that's how it's the processor well thank you for being here as you saw a lot of people don't bother to show up yeah so we appreciate you and we appreciate you cleaning the property up so gina do you have a card she's going to give you a card and that way you can

get with her and make arrangements to have the payment i left them if you if you'd like yes

thank you thank you for coming all right let's go ahead and call case number 11. case number

two five dash is zero zero four zero three eight that's alachua county versus um address six five zero zero southwest 53rd avenue gainesville florida 32608 there's someone here representing thomas

thorkuson someone here representing the respondent seeing none county please proceed yeah code

officer gerald sap uh he was guilty not still not in compliance um prosecution cost is 280 uh his total fines uh four thousand one hundred eighty dollars and when did you last inspect the property uh yesterday

today again somebody representing the property owner here seeing none okay thank you county okay case

number two five dash zero zero one six three three at alachua county versus arano and arano okay if

you want to go to the podium here okay if you want to go to the podium there county please proceed

case two five zero zero one six three three arano and arano guilty not in compliance prosecution cost is 280 dollars daily fine a hundred dollars total fines five thousand seven hundred and eighty and the county requested for a lien your honor when was the last inspection on that uh yesterday the third 12 three all right i'm going to put some uh pictures on the screen okay what are we looking at that's just the the property in question okay all right could you please identify yourself for the record uh yes

my name is fred arano uh i've my father has owned this property since the uh 60s it has been a uh a business in the community of melrose

wait just a second again i assume that's coming through okay sorry about that electronic like i said

the uh property has been a uh a business within the melrose community for the entirety of my life and uh we have a uh a sawmill on the front property an 1895 frick mill that has run that my father operated he's gotten up in age now and can't do it anymore it's and it's somewhat of just of a novelty but i do i cut slabs for people and you know provide a service for the community in that way uh i have worked quite a bit cleaning the property and uh in the three years that i have been involved with it like i said my father is uh 81 or 82 now he still works every day but he can't do what he used to so understood uh in the meantime my uncle passed away who had a machine shop and multiple other things several thousand dollars worth of tools uh vintage tools you know world war one and two mills lays and uh i uh i went and got all of these things and rescued them and brought them to our property and the means of doing this i had to increase some of the roof structure on the property now i had been in texas where all this you can't tell me what to do on my property in texas right so i did not realize what was going to happen for me fixing the roof and taking care of my possessions so so here i am in front of you now since all this has gone on since i've come in violation of the codes here in alachua county uh i have uh remarried my ex-wife who has serious health problems i uh our financial situation is is not good i cannot afford the uh engineer currently that it would take for me to to get things inspected and i'm talking about dirt floor pole barns right that i upgraded so now i have to bring them up the current code which pretty much means that i probably need to tear them down and start over again right uh and i uh you know i i've been in construction since i was 14 years old i'm very good at it built some very nice homes here in gainesville 10 000 square foot stuff hayes glen uh pale plantation all over uh and the things that i have done are structurally sound in my mind and i know that carries no weight in here uh until i can come up with the means to hire an engineer it's it's almost impossible for me to do what is being asked of me currently just for financial reasons okay uh and you know i want things to be on the up and up we have this wild flower music festival that's moving out on the road which seems to be which nobody wants there's a sign in every yard on the entire road that i live on protesting it but we don't matter right i guess the people have enough money to get what they want so so i'm stuck now with everybody riding up and down the road that i live on which is a dirt road in the woods i don't live in a community right and uh i i just i i'm trying to do what i can but financially i cannot overcome what's taking place here okay so let me explain

the procedures i think that would be helpful to you okay the county's asking me to authorize and file lien against the property for the fines and as they accumulate as you'll see today if you stick around a little bit if you choose to there's a rescission process where you can ask for the fines and liens to be reduced essentially down to almost nothing if you have good cause and reasons and

health and financial abilities are some of the factors that i am somewhat aware of that actually kelly uh let me know about that yeah last time i spoke with her so yeah so i would say at this

perspective at this point don't worry so much take care of your family take care of your wife and stuff and when you get to the position where you can take care of the problem let kelly know so that when you

do finally come into compliance the fines can be stopped i do have a question that might be easily answered right here uh i was i started off was going to get an rv permit and uh there's already uh there's a tax valorum within public records that states that there is a a mobile home a septic tank well on the property and uh i i'm and there's already homestead exemption filed on the property my father your father i was not aware of all of this yeah is your father still living on the property okay so he's there okay yeah and uh i what i'm wondering is is is what since i don't have to do that then all i need is the uh after the fact permit i'll leave that to kelly is that what's required at

this point currently he does need the after-effect permit um but he did uh contact the zoning department and so they were going through the process but the zoning would be the the one who actually can

answer those questions right see this is the problem that i'm having i can't get the information that i need it's i call i get told this that i need to do that and then i look into it and i find other things out and you know it's i don't have time to be on the phone and not get clear answers and what i would like is i would like in writing something sent to me with clear outline of you need to get this contact this so that i can take care of this because i'm having a very hard time navigating the system over here understood do you have access to email yes i do okay and i would suggest

that probably that's the most best vehicle for that because you will get something back in writing and you don't have to wait on the phone so and as you heard earlier perhaps that you know the

telephone system is somewhat awkward yeah some some of this is my fault too because just for the fact that i i wasn't real i didn't really understand exactly what i needed to do and it's caused me to change my mind of what i was going to do when i found out more information so you know all being said that has led us to this point right here so okay well i can go ahead and give you a business card so

email me a list of what you need and i will forward it to zoning and the building department

they can collaborate i don't know what i need that's my problem okay well then email me well

what you can do is tell them what you want to do exactly okay and then they can tell you what you need

to accomplish that right i understand and i'll forward it to them and they'll collaborate and

get exactly what you need you comfortable with that yes okay thank you for coming and appreciate you helping take care of your wife all right thank you okay let's move on to case number 13.

okay so we have case number two five dash zero zero four four four one and that's alachua county

versus nathan dean is dean nathan here somebody representing dean nathan county please proceed case

two five zero zero four four four one nathan dean guilty not in compliance prosecution cost is 350 dollars daily fine is 75 a day total 4 250 and the county is requesting a lien be placed and i have

some pictures for the case file okay and when was your last inspection uh the third okay again is the

respondent here uh case number 14 uh 24 dash zero zero four zero eight one that's alachua county versus

lewis jen and jenny okay is janine lewis here you want to come over to the podium there okay county please

proceed case two four zero zero four zero eight one eugenie lewis guilty not in compliance prosecution class is 350 dollars daily fine a hundred dollars total fine is five thousand five hundred dollars the county requests to have a lien placed and i have some pictures for the file your honor and last

inspection was just yesterday your honor yes please identify yourself and what your relationship is to the

the property eugenie lewis the owner okay and what can you tell me i'm in confusion with all of this because kelly said we're allowed to have um stuff on our property we have done a lot of cleaning clean up on it but and we were told the last time we had a meeting here there was two ladies that met us out the door that said if we did like a home-based business then it would go away well they have done it a home-based business so now i'm still confused about everything going on i mean what i'm allowed

to have on the property what i'm not allowed please identify yourself for the record my name is jared lewis i'm her son okay i live there if you get closer to the microphone because we want to make sure there's a record my name is jared lewis i'm her son uh i live there on the property with with her and as last time we were here i thought that um as as long as we registered the home-based business to uh the state of florida all we still were in a violation for was the uh camper that was still on our address there and um there was some someone was living in it so that's we've taken care of that no one lives in it and we just have to get it we just have to move it and that that's going to happen today we have someone coming to move it and that's i thought that was all that we were in violation for

so kelly what's the current violation current violation is they have um a recreational vehicle which is the camper correct so they're allowed to have the main house in one recreational vehicle so there's two so they need to get rid of one okay and we that came up the last time correct and she said she was going to get rid of that one or use one for storage as well they have junk and debris old tires air conditioning units um there's on service of vehicles i do not um recall speaking to anyone or anyone speaking to her about a home-based business what i did suggest was working with the state agricultural consumer department fdax for department right and you can actually get a certification to repair vehicles i know that they don't want to have a repair vehicle business but that would be helpful as far as the unservice of vehicles for them to actually do that servicing agricultural related vehicles and stuff like that so miss lewis did send me an email about the home-based business but i did not know how it pertained so i sent an email back asking her for explanation but i did not receive it so i didn't know i don't i don't understand what the home-based business uh clarification comes into

play um it's tree brothers tree services llc um it's uh insured and uh registered with the state of florida sunbiz um i'm owner operator um the heavy equipment and the big trucks that are out there um there's not no sir unserviceable vehicle out there there are vehicles that are in the point of being serviced um i mean like you're finding we live a half mile from the quarter mile drag strip and y'all are telling me that i have to have my race car uh tagged and insured now i don't see any race cars going down the track that have in tagged and insured that's just new to me okay um there are other vehicles out there that are in the process of in maintenance i'm not exactly sure why this is going on because all of these other issues with these other people start out with there was a complaint filed we received a complaint fair enough you come out for the complaint of someone living in a shed that's what the complaint was somebody got mad at my brother and made a false accusation y'all come out upon that we open the door we show you everything we let you see everything there's nobody living in a shed there was never nobody so at this point all this other everything else i'm here has come without a complaint so now yeah can we get the zoom shut off thank you sorry the host keeps muting me sorry them are we good we good okay okay so everything else where we are at here today has come from without a complaint there there's no there's we're i mean i don't i don't get it the camper situation i understand we'll nullify that if it'll take care of this yes yeah and we're doing we're definitely

removing that the rv and it'll be off of our property and and in storage and um but the rest the rest of the uh you know just coming out and taking pictures of our stuff we live we literally live on 60 acres and it's all our family around us no one's complaining about this the the the large trucks and tractors and farm equipment and there's no garbage no trash on our property it's and the tires i

mean we got multiple dump trailers that the tire blood all the time we have a tire machine we change our own

tires i mean that's just it's no one's it's crazy no one's complaining about it and now we have fifty five hundred dollars of fines that for a false accusation and no no one's our our property is not bothering anyone yeah it's actually land almost landlocked between it we know everybody all the way

around us it's okay so so just for a background if there's a complaint file they come in and invest the complaint yes if they see other violations they can't ignore them that comes when when somebody

comes on to look at okay so we'll move the camper i understand you're doing that so that's that's one

of the reasons the fines have accumulated because that camper has been sitting there for this period of time since that last and that's what has accumulated uh fines by itself um so as soon as you get that camper off you need to let kelly know because then she can say you're in compliance with that but until she knows that she has no way of verifying that right okay the only reason it's not moved

right now is it takes a fifth wheel attachment to hook up to it understood and we don't have one

of those but we got one coming okay so as soon as that happens then that comes into compliance

kelly where does it need to go how about that we got to put it in storage you can put it in storage as

long as it's you know that you know it goes into it can either go into a garage or go into storage um or in a facility that's allowed to take it um kelly in terms if they're not changing their own tires and stuff as part of their business but those top they're all good tires too the ones that are

there paid to haul off the the old scrap ones are gone we have sets of time and it's it's covered i mean

the tires are stacked up around the tire changer and it's covered and no one's complaining about it and it's like almost direct in the middle of the property i mean i don't know what else

so what i'm going to suggest kelly um for you to have a chance to go out there with them and look at the property and determine especially once you get the camper gone okay invite kelly to come back out and have her work walk with you and if the tires are part of your business and they're good tires then they're obviously not junk they're not right junk but you need to show her that okay some of them

are full sets full complete sets i understand if you've got big trailers and stuff like that i

understand i just want to state a couple things for the record your honor the case was opened back in 2024 so i've been to the location multiple times with miss lewis and also one of the sons now if this machine for the tires was present at the time i was not aware and i was not given that information so if they're using the tires and you know however they service the um unused tires then i can make

a reference to that okay well that's what i like you have to go out and have them actually show you

since they've raised it now i mean i'm not sure what the machine looks like but just show it to me and i can reference that in my case as far as um you know you having uh gotten rid of a lot of items you have and we appreciate that county appreciates what you have already done i just need to go back out to verify what's left and how much more time we can give you for that um if um i could ask the magistrate to explain to the folks as far as um you know after they come into compliance they can come

back before you so they understand me talk about there's a process we have rescission in fact there's a case coming up after this that we do where somebody comes back in and once you're in compliance and the fines will stop um then you can come back in and explain what's happening and stuff and and i can i'm authorized to give you a reduction and sometimes it goes almost to zero uh depending on the circumstances uh for that so you know uh so the biggest thing is the county wants you to be in compliance and once you've done that and that's going to take you and kelly cooperating to do that

okay okay so just schedule with me and i'll go out and you can be in compliance and then we can work

through the reduction okay okay thank you ma'am okay thank you i thank you appreciate you being

here as you saw some folks don't bother to come okay um all right let's move back in to we have everybody on zoom for case number seven that's vargas and vargas gina go ahead and recall case seven

okay okay so case number two five dash zero zero three four eight zero alachua county versus vargas

and vargas okay we have everybody on zoom now david cunningham's present

cunningham present and how about your mother i'm here

person has a phone on next to them you have the phone on and getting reverb on your microphone so somebody needs to okay hello that's better that's better hello all right all right so i'm going to let

the county proceed with this case and then i'll let you all speak so county please proceed in code

enforcement case two five zero zero three four eight zero the county received a complaint on april 4th 2025 regarding the property located at address one five four two three southeast 58 terrace mcanopy in alachua county florida and identified by parcel number one eight three one three zero zero three zero zero zero zero the owners of the property is david vargas and veronica vargas code administration initiated an enforcement proceeding and found there to be a violation of the following sections of alachua county code of ordinances 74.20a accumulation of junk 404.62 standards for home-based business 404.22.5 recreational vehicles tiny house on wheels and property maintenance code 505.1 general water system the respondent was provided with a reasonable time to correct the violations a notice of violation was sent to respondent that included corrective actions ongoing inspections conducted to date have determined that respondent remains in violation of the said alachua county code of ordinances my last inspection was today i have good services of notices and statements of violations to respondent sent by certified mail receipt or posting copies have been provided to the magistrate and i request they be entered into evidence i have been in contact with the respondents regarding the violations the photographs being presented were taken by myself and accurately reflect the violations and ask they be admitted into evidence the county's recommendation is that respondent be found in violations of the said sections of the code order respondents to come into compliance within 30 days by complying with the corrective actions listed in the notice of violation and if not comply then pay a fine in amount of 100 for each day the violations continue past the date set for compliance the county has incurred 350 dollars cost and bringing this action to hearing okay anything else from the county at this time no sir thank you

all right uh what do you want to tell me the vargas and vargas family so i can begin um like to know what um

when you come on site how are you inspecting the property you know that we're in uh uh accordance with the code and also um we've tried to communicate with you on numerous occasions my wife would be best to describe how that went um as far as the first notices that you received uh sent to us um that's very vague um that didn't explain anything that we were supposed to do um you're five weeks late on your deadline your own deadline um you know you added on there that we don't have electricity when it's clear that we have electricity there's a power pole we already sent you the power bill um we have water on site which i don't know how you're saying that we water you haven't asked us anything about that you haven't told us anytime that you're coming out i would have been happy to show you any of these things we have removed um a vehicle off site and cleaned up um what we consider to figure that was the junk that being spoken about the pictures some of the pictures that you have taken that i see online do show that the home-based business standard procedures i've asked you numerous times what that is that as far as far as what in that large chapter we're violating you insisted that we had to have a sign and uh when i was explaining to you i don't see where it says that we have to have a sign uh that's when the you hung up on the phone on me uh a while back so unless we're supposed to have a sign this would be the greatest place to determine that but that's just kind of a brief rundown we are trying to become in code um we want to cooperate in full um so by any means anything else that needs to be done we would love to be able to do that but we don't get any clear information from elante she stopped communicating with us in person uh after that phone call she said i was being aggressive so uh she's come out numerous times according to what we can see online but i don't see how she could inspect anything or figure that based on her complaints that they're in compliant or not in compliant by taking a picture

from the driveway so elante um what based on your inspections of 12-4 what were the items that were

still in not in compliance they're not in compliance with um anything from my knowledge so i will speak on the phone call that mr vargas is talking about but i will reflect that i did meet mr vargas on site twice when i asked him to sorry that's david cunningham you did not meet mr vargas on site i'm sorry mr david cunningham excuse me the name was wrong mr david cunningham the guy that's on zoom right now i did meet with him twice on the property when i asked could i walk around the property and see the property and hoe he denied which i did respect the reason why communication stopped because after numerous emails and phone calls of instructing him how to come into compliance mr david cunningham did become extremely aggressive on the phone so i decided to tell him like as for now i think it's best that we no longer be in contact because he was very you know hostile and aggressive and i became uncomfortable um i don't understand why the nature of our conversation turned um because i did send numerous um notices through the mail and email excuse me um i have not spoken to anyone but him on site but i did speak to mr david vargas on the phone i was very uh compassionate with mr vargas because as he stated that was his first time being aware of the violations and that's why i gave them yet more time to come into compliance so they um david cunningham and now veronica cunningham has been well informed of the violations in person by phone and by email um i don't know how else to explain to them how to come into compliance no better than i already have i can advise them to reach out to holly banner the zone administration which i did give them her information mr david cunningham did express to me by phone that he had been in communication with miss um banner so i'm not really clear on what else i can advise them on but i'm welcome to help them as long as the conversation

remains cordial and respectful may i speak yes go ahead uh about the conversation on the phone i conducted that conversation in a professional matter i'm a business owner for 16 years in the community um i you know you don't you don't get anywhere by being rude or nasty to anybody i had multiple employees in my vehicle with it on speaker phone during this conversation and the conversation turned when i got aggravated to the degree where what i did was is i said at this point miss webb i believe you're harassing me and i believe you're targeting us at that point when i said that just in that tone she goes well at this point mr cunningham you're being very aggressive and went off so what it is is is from day one she's been insistent that we have a sign and i thought that was a little odd i mean most neighborhoods don't want to have a business there period so they're not going to want to sign so as she came out that was the first time she came out and we had a nice conversation it's all on videotape by the way i videotaped my entire property and i pointed that out to her at that time that she is under video surveillance and so it was the whole property so any of my actions on property are videotaped and so she goes well we need to have a sign and i said okay i guess i'll be looking at getting that done and she told me to get in contact with mrs holly burton which i did and she was unaware of anything of this i had to fill her in she was a little aggravated and so i brought up a sign to her i said miss webb says that we need to have a sign and and uh i figured you'd be the person to ask about this she goes well unless unless there's some new rule or new code i i'm not aware of it but i will look into it and if ms webb said there you need to do that i would assume so but i'll look into that and let you know well she never let me know and then miss webb came out again the second call in person she insisted this sign again and this is as far as we know the only thing she's referring to as for the home-based business section of the codes and so i left it at that and we had a nice conversation and she was there for quite a while and so we're waiting on information from her she's not giving us we have emails and phone calls that we could supply that we had further questions and i wanted to update her on mrs holly's and i's conversation so i called her up and went over a few things and she was very talkative over talkative she kept repeating things verbatim she wouldn't listen to anything i said i said i'm trying to be in code but i'm trying to explain what happened with our phone call with ms burton and and and so i guess ms holly hadn't gotten back with her either so she goes well the home-based business it says you have to have a sign and i said well if you notice there it says for example if you make noise it's only before this hour or after this hour it doesn't say you have to make noise or you must make noise and i said so when you read the section about the sign it doesn't state anywhere in there that you have to make a sign and i was just trying to make sure because i wanted to be compliant she kept talking and says no you wanted a sign you are the one who wanted to sign and at this point you're being aggressive and i'm going to end this phone call and i've done everything i can for you and she just kind of robotically went on and then hung up the phone so that's how the phone call conversation transpired and i have witnesses to the effect human witnesses that overheard the whole conversation more than likely my truck camera probably caught it in bits and pieces as well so i you know i just want to be honest here with this whole thing and do we need a sign or not this would be a good time to ask for sure because i can't read anywhere in the code that we do so i want to address the issue of the sign

yes so when i first got on the property i was just giving him basic knowledge of what the ordinance of the home-based business states saying that you can have signage about the noise ordinance and what it refers to i never said that he it was mandatory for him to have a sign i said if you want a sign you're more than welcome to put it up it's not mandatory that's the only part that mr david cunningham is talking about but as in a whole there are multiple violations on this property i have gotten multiple complaints about his property from his neighbors so i'm trying to work with everyone the best way i can to alleviate the nuisance of the neighbors and also assist him but if he's not willing to do his part to get the property in compliance then it's going to be 30 days for him to come into compliance and then there will be daily you know daily fines which i have been trying to avoid based on a conversation that i had with mr david vargas who is based out of what i'm being told new mexico because of his health issues and everything that's going on that he expressed on the phone so i have been really open to it to the extensions to all the communications and at this point is where i'm okay with the 30 days and i'm okay with it moving forward because it doesn't seem that mr david cunningham is willing to further communicate effectively with me in order to alleviate everyone's issues i'm really trying to be neutral in this in this situation because not only do i care about the neighborhood i also care about the owner and i'm trying to bridge the gap because i'm consistently getting emails from that community saying that he is firing up his machines at 6 a.m he's working on his machines at 10 a.m he's he's doing things at midnight and i'm not there to witness that right so when i talk to him i say hey if you go by the standard home business rules and regulations all what the neighbors are saying or alleging will go away and the only part that he's honing in on his assignment so i just want to make it clear he is not mandated to have a sign but he is mandated to go about that whole ordinance as a whole collectively okay um so what's the nature what's the nature of the business on the property uh that's a question for mr david cunningham to explain i'm asking

mr cunningham what's the nature of this business business and as of the entire year i have two employees that show up and hook to one trailer and leave and they don't get there until about 7 30 or 8 o'clock in the morning i'm not even up at six o'clock in the morning i would like to know where the proof is for any of this and i'm gonna be let me be clear i do want to be compliant i'm only harping on the sign thing at the moment because it was the most bizarre thing that came out of her i am happy i'm happy to comply we've already done numerous things not like what she said we have done a lot of things already we have already removed junk there there's no operation going on at 6 a.m to start an engine up period i have time sheets that i can show of my employees official time records that show nobody gets there before 7 30. i have 365 days of live audio and video recordings of the entire operation that i can present i'm not here to argue or lie about anything i just need to know what needs to be done else to to comply and these neighbors by the way have a chicken coop right on my property line they have a junk car in their property she spent three hours over there with them which is on video and didn't write them up for anything so she doesn't really care about the community my neighbor across the street has a connex box a storage container on my property line multiple buildings without permits multiple animals multiple offenses and she said she was going to take care of all that she has not done so she is targeting us and when we try to comply she lies and runs this game i have video i have proof i have documentation you can you show what do we need to do now to continue to be compliant further is what we need to do but i you know she needs to

be under review too so can i can i say something go ahead who is this okay this is sarah vargas veronica's mother okay uh i heard that um the lady said that she would give us another 30 days i know this is asking too much but being that i'm here in new mexico i am trying to make a trip over there and try to you know help them do whatever needs to be done there uh but 30 days is going to be like really because i i do work and i do need to uh save a little bit money for the trip and then also see if i cannot do it go and do it in print and you know in person go there personally and help them but i would need a

little bit more than 30 days miss vargas how many days would you need because of the cold weather

because being in the cold weather over here it's kind of hard to uh we would have to my husband cannot make the trip so i have to be here for him to um you know get the heat going and make sure he's okay and i would like to be able to do it like get there probably next month when it's not that cold okay if i could ask for like maybe 60 days i don't know so miss where are you just saying in the meantime

they can be doing something yes excuse me sorry you asked for you said 60 days yes if it would be

possible okay and and may i add as well your honor that the only reason why elante webb was in contact with the other property owner mrs uh sarah vargas's husband my father-in-law is because i explained to her after she came out on the second time that she was not informing all property owners i actually helped her out i said my wife and i live here i have the same first name as the other owner but mr david vargas is the other owner and he lives in new mexico and you should be informing him as well of what's going on as we are so i was helping her in that manner the communications did not start with him which can be verified easily that that did not occur at all until i told her this meaning i'm trying to help out as well we are really trying to help but we do feel very much so targeted and singled out because the whole neighborhood from start to finish is a lkq junkyard all you got to do is drive through and

nobody else nobody else is being so who is actually the owner of the property who actually owns the property

my wife and her father okay may i speak this is veronica cunningham go ahead okay let me get my video going uh yes i am joint owner with my father mr david vargas and yes my husband coincidentally i married a david go figure but um honestly we have really been trying to be in compliance and and work with this but um and we're going to continue to do so but i i must mention that it just seems as if i can't help it but that our neighbors are just impossible to please any little thing will upset them and any little thing turns into a complaint and we try to be as peaceable as as possible but you cannot please everybody all we can do is try to be in compliance with what the what the county is advising us to do and then something else will happen with the neighbors and that's unfortunately that's just that's just a matter of fact of life but we're trying very hard we are complying but there's only so much that we can do with our limited time and resources but we're trying very hard so yes we are complying and i think that honestly i'm sorry that whatever has upset the neighbors but unfortunately there's things that they do that upset us too so we all just need to get along if you ask me and that's all i would i would ask anybody is for patience kindness and just to get along with one each other and that's about all i have to say with that but we are working on cleaning up and coming into compliance okay anything further from the county

no sir okay all right uh we'll make a decision on this and um it'll come out in mail or email to you all however you prefer probably both ways thank you for being present let's please now appreciate your time and consideration okay let's go ahead are we done move to case number eight do we have somebody on zoom for case number eight this is willie cunningham i don't have anything for her so let's call the case

okay so case number two five dash and zero zero eight six nine four alachua county versus cunningham

willie c the third so somebody representing willie c cunningham the third county please proceed in code

enforcement case two five zero zero eight six nine four the county received a complaint from the solid waste department on 8 20 20 25 the property located at address one four two two southeast 43rd place gainesville in alachua county and identified by parcel number one six two five eight two nine zero zero zero the owner of the property is willie c cunningham the third code administration initiated an enforcement case proceeding and found there to be a violation of the following sections seventy five point two zero one a through i places of disposal prohibited acts the respondent was provided with a reasonable time to correct the violations and notes of violation was sent to responded that included corrective actions ongoing inspections conducted today have determined that responded remains in violation of the said alachua county code sections my last inspection of the property was on today i have good service of notices and statement of violations to respondent sent by certified mayor receipt or posting copies have been provided to the magistrate and i request they be entered into evidence i have no i have had no contact with respondent regarding the violations the photographs being presented were taken by myself and accurately reflect the violations and ask they be admitted into evidence the county's recommendation is that respondent be found in violation of the the set sections of the code or to respondent coming to compliance within 30 days by complying with the corrective actions listed in the notice of violation and if not comply then pay a fine of 50 each day the violations continue past the date set for compliance the county has occurred 210 calls and bringing this

action to action to hearing i'm not i haven't seen the 75 series what are the what are the violations

so it's um may i see a photo the whole ordinance is saying that improper disposal of the tires and the miscellaneous things on the roadside uh this case was referred to us by solid waste okay um mr william went out there on august 12th 2025 he sent them a courtesy notice to remove it and it was not removed and then it was forwarded to us for a notice of violation to see if an extension of time will get them to remove the miscellaneous debris and tires but it still remains on the roadside okay

all right that's because i just didn't clarify thank you oh i apologize about that that's all right that's just it they're just general there and i was trying to figure exactly okay again somebody representing willie coming and i'm here seeing none all right i believe we now move on to requests for reductions all right so let me read this statement code enforcement special magistrate will now hear requests for reduction of fines and rescission of liens the decision to grant or deny your request is solely within my discretion according to Florida statute and county ordinance in making my decision i may consider recommendations from the alachua county code administration please state precisely what you are requesting and why you believe that i should grant your request you may present any information that is relevant to your request the only purpose of this hearing is to consider a reduction of fine and rescission of lien this is not an opportunity to discuss the original findings of guilt for the violations please refrain from commenting on the original proceedings since i have no authority to revisit the final action um let's see so they're here so let's go ahead and call the first case

case case okay case number two five dash zero zero one three two zero alachua county versus west shore

legacy and i believe this is a zoom presentation so is uh someone here representing the west shore legacy he said

he was having an issue with his audio as far as hello yeah is this mr wagner no no oh sorry oh sorry okay wrong case

so go ahead who who is this sorry uh thank you your honor uh my name is john rose i'm the general

counsel for west shore okay so you're attorney for west shore yes okay all right and what can you uh so this is different than the other proceedings have gone on you have to make a presentation to me and give me facts and reasons to reduce the fine so the k the burden is on you yeah no thank you i appreciate it

uh so as you may know um we have had a couple years here of um fines that resulted in default judgments dating back to i believe 2022. um the county uh i was hired in april as general counsel previously there was no uh general counsel and on um part of my sort of job here is to kind of clean up all code violations uh throughout uh the state and other states that we're in uh as well so i was sort of going county by county and came across uh what was going on in alachua county and um cleaned up the code the open violations um and once we got everything closed out i was in uh communication with gina who's been extremely helpful um about kind of what to do next and uh was made aware of the fine reduction process and uh filed the hardship summary which kind of summarize uh everything that i'm just talking about now we've had a lot of turnover at the site i think our communication uh process is a lot better now i think we have more trusted managers um you know at the site where i think previously we just were a little bit unorganized we're not a state uh owner operator and i think we were getting notice and um staff wasn't reporting that back to the corporate office so i think we've addressed all of those outstanding issues and i think that that's evidenced by the fact that we you know haven't had any recent code violations um you know of course things may happen time to time but nothing uh you know out of compliance and i think we've been cooperating with the city and i think i've established uh relationships with the city staff um so i don't foresee this kind of being the case going forward and uh we paid the prosecution costs uh as soon as i found out about this and uh now i understand that there's around twenty nine thousand dollars and fines that looking for a reduction on okay does the county have a

position on their request for a reduction um no we do not um michael williams with uh alachua county code um going forward um just to kind of piggyback off something that um uh the attorney indicated um i noted as of recent probably over the last six months that they had in fact uh gotten some new staffing and it does appear that uh going forward um things will become a lot more solidified and uh cohesive there um we also noted that all of the roofs uh throughout all of the structures had been replaced and i think that's where the dominant um uh concerns came from leaking of all of the roofs there so um that said um we feel optimistic that um things will will be better um in that location okay all right anything further from

west shore no no thank you and i appreciate that michael okay all right i'll take it into consideration and and i'll have a ruling for you next week great thank you very much appreciate it oh yeah go ahead i want to have gina read all the cases she only read the first one just so the record's clear awesome

so that would be case number 23-018042 case number 23-015495 case number 23-017285 case number 23-01620 and case number 23-015438 okay thank appreciate you being here council and glad to see you're aboard

seems things are working much better now with your company thank you very much i appreciate that all

all right so we have another request wagner that would be case number ce2018060010 he's also on zoom

so this is uh someone here representing jeffrey wagner is that the case he's on zoom are you on zoom yes sir okay okay so you hopefully you heard before uh the burden on you is to give me facts and reason to to grant a reduction or rescission of the lien okay um i never received the findings of facts

december of 2018 i remember for you because we've continued this case from last month yes yeah that was returned to you i never got that hearing but besides that it it really didn't matter because in march of 2019 i called mr wayne clark the codes enforcement officer who was the officer of both cases both the accumulation of junk and the other three cases that came along months after so on march 2019 i called mr clark and asked him to go out and inspect my property to see if i'm in compliance i get a letter back say that i'm in compliance with some of the things but the the building i'm not nothing about the accumulation of of junk i don't hear anything about that from him he doesn't confirm or deny that the junk is there i have removed all that junk out if you remember i had squatters living on the property and i had to evict them it took six months to get them off of the property as soon as i got them off of the property and that was including their park trucks recreational vehicles and trailers and unserviceable cars all that was gone the trash the accumulated trash was picked up i called mr clark and he only inspects the one violation he doesn't go and and inspect the other one and again i called after uh i find i was still in violation of the building of the next month i have the building destroyed and cleaned up and that that hearing uh was may 15th correct the action had been taken so these are the only notices i have and uh never once did he say you haven't clicked the accumulation of junk he was out there in may he was out there in march and he was out there in may he had ample opportunities to take pictures and to document but for some reason he only addressed the one case

and not the accumulation of junk case okay when you say may you are you talking about may 2019

yeah may 15 2019. okay i just want to make sure clear for the record that was the second time he came out right i don't know if he came out on that day but that's the day the affidavit of compliance was

issued okay all right let me see what the county has to say because we asked the county to look at the

records from our last hearing and make sure that we had our facts in order the case was a violation back on december 2018 didn't come into compliance so they went to the non-compliance hearing in april 4th 2019 so i looked at the video back then there was a code board not just a magistrate right there was a code board that's correct yes so the respondent was not present there was no representative for the respondent present but there were neighbors the neighbors got up and spoke there was about four different neighbors they talked about what the violations were at that time the respondent had tenants at the location so when he references squatters squatters didn't come into play until after so back in 2019 they're actually tenants um so back in 2019 um officer clark did reference the junk and debris on the video it states that um the junk and debris was removed from the front of the location and placed in the back he spoke to the respondent who said the property was clear and officer clark said no it needs to be the entire property so officer clark was in communication with the respondent so the code enforcement board granted the lien filed and the fine started on february 4th 2019 50 per day and the prosecution cost was 420 and so the legal secretary at the time sent paperwork to the respondent responded explaining that because he was not present at the hearing and also of course that she explained that um once he paid the prosecution cost he could come in for a reduction but the fines would occur 50 a day he chose not to pay that prosecution cost he waited until 2024 before paying the prosecution cost and then coming before you for a first reduction this is his second time here so at his first reduction he granted that which was um i believe 90 percent so he was granted that reduction after which he did not contact code administration made no efforts to pay for that fine and so it went back to its original amount so in stating all that the county said recommends that no reduction be granted because um he had the first reduction and refused to make any payments on that

amount now what do we know at what time the junk accumulation of junk was actually complied with because what you said is that mr clark found that the trunk had been moved from the front to the back

and then told you that it was not well that was um came into compliance back in 2019 so i believe it was may 2019 so the junk and debris was not present so he was in compliance with that he was just in compliance

with the actual structure of the building okay so the building was one that at that point was not and then he did come into compliance eventually because he tore the building down correct and that

wasn't until 2024 okay so he came into compliance at that date okay so the fines that have accumulated

here are in relationship to the building correct your honor okay your honor that's that's not correct

the fines are all for accumulation of junk that's not what the county is saying because the county is

saying that you were in compliance with the junk yes i was in may and they acknowledged that so that went off the books so the building was this continuing issue no i i have that the building that was falling

down i have an affidavit of compliance right here it was what what year and what day may 15 2019 i'm in compliance for dangerous structure she and it wasn't reduced 90 percent it was reduced to close to fifteen thousand dollars which is about maybe sixty percent your honor that's actually not accurate he

was in compliance for the junk the structure remained on the property until 2024 with our previous officer

officer monroe that's a different structure that's the that's the mobile home and okay that's where

these fines are coming into play that mobile home no no ma'am the the fines come into play for

accumulation of junk if you look and the re-inspection was done in 20 in in 2024 somebody had busted out the windows of the mobile home so that was a whole different issue in 2024 it had nothing to do with the previous issue of accumulation of junk and i called the code enforcement officer and he did come out on the property in march of 2019 and did not give it did not send me any notice that i was still in violation of accumulation of trash and then if you look there there's one other document when they did when they did finally go out and inspect in 2023 um yes here it is april 25th 23 they went out and re-inspected and got me in compliance with um with the accumulation of trash in april 25th 2023 i didn't call and to ask them to go out and inspect then i called and asked them to go

out and inspect back in march of 2019. your honor um in march 2019 officer clark mentioned that on the video video that the um garbage was taken from the front of the house and put in the back of the house so he wasn't in compliance back in april but in may he was but he still needed to clean up the property in the back of the property so he did talk to the respondent and um notify him of that he didn't come into compliance with the entire property for the junk and debris until like he said april 25th 2023 so these fines are continuing since 2018 but he came into compliance 2023 so the fines stopped then that's for the accumulation of junk right and so that's when he paid his prosecution costs and came before you for the reduction and he mentioned that the reduction was about 60 percent and that's actually not accurate the total fines owed was 57 57 000 excuse me and you granted a reduction which came to the amount of 14 000 so that's about quite more than 60 percent your honor but a lot less than

90. that's correct give or take yep all right anything further from either side i i just want to

re-emphasize that i called the codes enforcement officer in march 2019 to come and inspect and he didn't he failed to inspect for the garbage it garbage was never moved to the back of the trailer there was garbage in back of the home but it was all picked up in the front and in the back by by march of 2019 when i asked him to go out and inspect and he failed to inspect and that's what brings us here today okay 20.4 was a whole different uh that was for broken windows in the mobile home the mobile home was never asked no one ever asked me to remove the mobile home and the mobile home was in compliance in 20 uh 2020 2021 2022 2023 it wasn't it it became in non-compliant when the windows were broke out in in 2024 and in that case there was also a problem with the codes enforcement officer they changed at first i was convicted and find more then i brought up the fact that the codes officer never came to inspect she got switched to another position and they did reverse the fine and showed me in compliant on on time on the 2024 event of broken windows in the mobile home and i went way beyond just fixing the windows i removed the mobile home completely so now there are no structures on that property and we're talking a small area here of about two acres which the barn the mobile home and the abandoned vehicles were all on a small area of the 40 acres i owned and they were squatters they did not i did not collect any rent and did not have them on they did not have a lease on property waters on my property both in the rv and a mobile home county have

anything yes i just want to state a couple things for the record your honor back in um 2019 officer clark mentioned once again about the junk and debris had communication with the respondent about that didn't come into compliance until 2023 that's where these uh fines accumulated from as far as um him talking about the structure i was the officer on that case who gave him in compliance for that and it was there was no amount given for the structure but um if he would like to or if you would like to watch that video just so he knows everything is in um on the county's website and that's was april things i

was going to recommend mr wagner yes sir can you can watch the video when officer clark talked about what was on your property you did not have anybody there at the time you didn't attend and so that is

part of the public record for the case so that the reason i didn't intend it i never got notification of that hearing i've attended every hearing since or had somebody attend for me and that was the only one because i never got notice never got notice of the findings well they would have put in the record

that notice was provided because that was the code enforcement board at that time right well if you look

at the records you'll see that it was returned to you undelivered well legally we have to have um

notice so if we did not have notice we would have posted the property in question so you did get notification of the hearing and like um the magistrate told you all these videos can be watched and that was uh april 4th 2019 if you'd like to watch that i would love to watch it it's available yeah you can go

online and look it up and just put that date in and you can watch the video all right i'm going to conclude this at this time on this issue thank you okay do we have any other we do have um a walk-in um

wallace bradley okay i'm going to call the case number for me please telling can you give uh the case

number please certainly uh two five zero zero four four six five you mean bradley wallace twenty five

zero zero four four six five yes your honor okay and how it was for the record let's what what what are the existing fines and outstanding costs on that information in your file um it was i could pull it back up vehicle i just answered what the prosecution costs the fines accumulated what the daily fine was

yeah so it would have been the the prosecution cost was the 280 that was paid and the daily fines were 75 a day and they came into compliance i believe it was just november 20th they had to come into

compliance by august 23 23rd 2025 they came into compliance on november 6th 2025 yes your honor how

much were the accumulated fines it was six thousand four hundred and fifty four hundred and fifty

correct does that include prosecution or not no all right so good morning just want to get that on the record so we knew we were all starting yes so go tell me the reason i'm asking for a reduction is um

i lost my vehicle which is the reason the property was in such a bad shape not to mention my wife became disabled due to said car accident i have recently been diagnosed with cancer my son just had emergency surgery to remove a ruptured cyst out of his neck he's 16 years old i i just spent all of the money that i was saving for a new vehicle to bring the property into compliance and i just i really don't have it to to do uh that's that's where i have a lot of medical issues and a lot of medical bills piling

on me and i just can't understood no those are the kinds of facts and things that i need to i appreciate

you being here does the county have a position on this well we have no position um i realize that um the respondent is going to be selling the property so the new owners um did work on the property as well to make it income come into compliance and we appreciate that okay so we have no recommendation for you

but no significant opposition to some correct a reduction would be fine okay all right i'll get it out i'll grant you a reduction i'll figure out what the number is and we'll get it out to you in email is there a time factor on that you are selling the property oh it was supposed to i think it was

today was the closing day okay it just happened to fall on today um but if i could get the the read what the reduced cost would be um as soon as possible that'd be great okay all right we can get

you that um early i'll get you the formal document um sooner or later but we can give you something i'll get with staff today and we'll get thank you so much i appreciate y'all so much you being here sorry for your troubles okay do we have any further business coming before okay yes sir all right i'll call this hearing closed at 10 52

you you you you you you