short statement to read first still welcome to the october 2025 meeting of the alachua county code enforcement special magistrate hearing the purpose of this hearing is to hear alleged code violations filed by the 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 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 basic procedure today will be the secretary gina will call the case county staff will present its case 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 by mail 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 if you have a cell phone please silence it or turn it off so it doesn't interrupt the proceedings and gina if you will swear in anybody who spent expecting to testify today please stand raise your right hand uh 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 thank you you can be seated all right if we need a reschedule in the agenda if you want to call number six i believe it's going to go first case number 25 dash zero zero seven four five one alachua county versus the county received a complaint on zero seven seventeen twenty five uh subsequently uh uh andrew caniglio um went out and uh took a look at the property and and determined that the that there was a violation um there was a uh a tree that was either dead and or dying but he did determine that the tree uh should be removed from the property and um so subsequently uh property 7521 uh 90 northwest excuse me 7521 northwest 41st avenue um parcel number zero six zero four zero uh zero zero one dash zero one three uh property owner yeeden and yeeden uh code code administration uh did initiate uh an enforcement proceeding and found there to be a violation of the following sections of alachua county code of ordinances 74-29 prohibited the respondent uh was provided a reasonable time to correct the violations a notice of violation was sent to the respondent that included corrective actions um my last inspection was uh of the property was conducted on 9 30 25 which the property was um remained in violation um i have good service of the notices and statements of violation to the respondent sent by certified mail um with a receipt um and and or posting copy copies have been provided to the magistrate and i request that they be entered into evidence um i have had no contact with the respondent regarding the violation um the photographs uh presented were taken by myself and accurately reflect the violations and i ask that they be admitted into evidence um the county is recommending uh 15 days in order to comply um or a fine of um 50 dollars per day be imposed thereafter uh the county has incurred 210 in cost in bringing uh this action to hearing okay and again no no contact with the owner um i have not received uh any contact have you had any contact with the owner again is someone here representing yeeden and yeeden i'm on here representing yeeden also um magistrate i did check uh u.s postal uh this morning uh with regard to the certified mail and they did in fact sign for the certified mail all right that's good to know thank you all right so they did sign for certain yes sir okay all right let's move on to the next case case number 25-008034 alachua county versus mcmahon joel trustee someone here representing mcmahon joel trustee somebody here representing mcmahon joel trustee no please proceed code enforcement case two five zero zero eight zero three four county received a complaint on august 1st regarding junk and debris property is located at 5439 north county road 225 gainesville in alachua county identified by parcel number zero seven eight seven two zero one four zero zero four owner of the property is mcneen joel trustee code administration initiated enforcement proceedings and found there to be a violation of the following sections of alachua county code seven four point two zero accumulation junk 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 date have determined the respondent remains in violation of the said alachua county code section my last inspection on the property was october 2nd this morning 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 i request they 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 ask they be admitted evidence county recommendations they respond to be found in violation of the said section of the code order the respondent coming to compliance within 30 days by complying with the corrective actions listed in those violation if not in compliance and pay a fine amount of 75 for each day the violation continues past the date set for compliance county has incurred 420 dollars in cost and bringing the action to the action hearing again no contact with the owner no your honor okay thank you again somebody representing the respondent here okay closes that case let's move on i believe now to the penalty cases case number two four dash zero zero nine seven five four alachua county versus hickson karen d someone here representing karen hickson someone representing karen hickson county please proceed case two four zero zero zero nine seven five four karen hickson uh guilty but in compliance prosecution cost is 560 and so that's all they owe is the prosecution cost 560. okay the county is requesting a lien for that amount okay again somebody here representing karen hickson seeing none okay move on to the next case case case case case case case number two four dash zero zero zero zero five five eight alachua county versus durant sophie airs someone here representing sophie durant or the heirs of sophie durant okay county please proceed case two four zero zero zero five five eight durant sophie airs guilty but in compliance prosecution cost of 700 so that's all they owe is the prosecution cost and we request a lien okay again someone here representing the respondent seeing none okay let's move on to number three i believe this is a zoom case if i remember correctly do we have the respondent on zoom go ahead and call the case case number two five dash zero zero one three two zero alachua county versus west shore legacy llc difficulties i think i think so nothing on here you'll have no you'll have to call back well we have a reduction request but i don't see anybody here so for that so we're at the end of gina the reduction knew that okay so he gets two shots at it this is his first one oh he is okay i didn't see him okay i didn't uh yeah let's let him get established so why don't we do the reduction let me i'll have to read something for the reduction hearing if you want to come up over there to the podium so we're going to move temporarily over to reduction the special magistrate will now hear requests for reduction fines and rescission of liens the decision to grant or deny your request is solely within my discretion according to the statute and ordinances in making my decision i may consider recommendations from the alachua county code administration please state precisely what you are requesting 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 or a rescission of the lien this is not an opportunity to discuss the original findings of guilt for the violations please refrain from commenting on the original proceeding since i have no authority to revisit that the policy is to hear reduction requests maximum two times and since you're here i don't think we need to go on with this so if you could please state your name for the record yes my name is clinton mitchell my father's name is jeremiah mitchell okay and were you here for the swearing in when everybody stood okay so if you want your gene to go ahead and swear him if you would do you swear or affirm that the testimony you are about to give in these in this case today will will be the truth and the whole truth yes ma'am okay thank you so this is a little different uh than the other cases you heard uh it's your opportunity to tell me why we can't i should reduce the lien amount uh and so if you can give us an explanation of why you would are seeking a reduction all right like i said my name is clinton mitchell and my father's name is jeremiah mitchell and i have the written document that you submitted to the county here as well okay okay but um i my father purchased two pieces of property um they're right beside each other and um i retired and i got my money to get a little money together and i was trying to purchase a place so i could replace my dad's trailer that he had out there i came i went about asking how to proceed on this matter and i they told me to go to the courthouse to see was there any liens on the property anything so i checked that out and i went to the courthouse right across from here um and they said no so i proceeded to go to planning which is over by the new courthouse and um they told me what i had to do and i followed those rules and um i've been studying moving the right way i went to the health department to get uh something that they needed to do for the the poor i could start doing anything after i got all that information and everything straight they gave me permission to do demolition and tear down my father's old trailer and i had it moved i put a um brand new well down and um i thought everything was i i didn't know there was a violation the violations came came up when i went to have a separate tank put down which is like a week and a half ago and i found out about these violations um my dad is 90 years old dementia set in um he's still living but he's not in his right mind and i don't even know where you know how much he comprehends right um i understand that there there's a lot of um money involved here i like i said i i paid for the i paid to have this the well put down i paid to have the property clean off and i also i thought everything was okay i went to 13th street mobile home and put down eight seventy thousand dollars on a mobile home and i they closed the deal i got the paperwork here everything set up and now here i am i don't know where it would what to just to ask for help that's why i'm here okay so you have outstanding liens i believe it's uh twenty two thousand twenty this is results i think from your dad's actions right yes sir and how how far back is this violation 2007 um so it's quite a while ago but he was so that would have been 18 years ago basically so yeah um and it's now in compliance is that correct yes sir okay i have to add to my sister my younger sister we was here maybe a couple of weeks ago and i'm also in the process of cleaning off her poor it was two two pieces of property i'm helping her get that cleaned off her back she's able to move around a little bit and she is driving so that she can i can load the stuff we can get that part of the property cleaned off as well um okay well you're in compliance right now in terms of the properties that we're dealing with here today okay yes um so what do you what would you want me to reduce the fine to because it now let me ask you one question do you own the property now or is your dad still on it it's in my name now so it's been transferred to you and under the state statute in um county ordinances the seller of the property supposed to notify you if there are existing liens of course your dad's not in the right of mind for what you said and ability to do that um and the clerk you should have checked with is actually down here not across there that would have told you about the liens so apparently so does the county have a position on this well i just want to state a couple things for you your honor the um case where mr mitchell um opened back in 2024 so the notice of violation was just for junk and debris but he took it upon himself to demo the mobile home right and he took out a demo permit did all that he did a really good job um cleaning up the property and then now he's working with his sister that he mentioned and doing everything by himself with a little help so he has um continually worked with the um county and getting all these uh violations corrected and we appreciate that so any kind of um reduction that you can grant we would uh is comfortable with what traditionally has been done in these cases typically it's either 10 if there was some ability to really pay or one percent if not that's historically what the county has done so your county comfortable yes your honor all right mr williams um because you you've done such a good job i'll tell you what i'm going to reduce it to one percent okay i think that's 200 and when does that work out that 220 dollars and 20 cents so so if and if and what i'll do is give you a period of time to pay that and if you pay that then the county will remove the lien and do it uh um can like i say i already closed on a manufactured home and everything and um uh the guy just called me jeff from 13th street mobile homes and he wanted to know what was going on and i told him i was headed here and i would let him know something i'm prepared to pay the 220 dollars and and you you can you can do that as soon as you do and so what also the the mobile home company can call the county and confirm that you know once you've paid that that you've paid and that the the lien will be removed so they can know that okay so we i can they can proceed with putting the well down in in my home yeah so what i'm understanding is you were probably denied the ability to put the well and stuff because you had outstanding liens against the property once those liens are gone those the well can go forward and the mobile home can be placed on the property okay and so what i want to do is make sure you stay in touch with gina and scott here okay because they can make sure that it happens on a timely basis scott go ahead uh if you'd uh would you be okay with us processing the payment before you even sign the order yes i have no problem with that because that way we could get it i don't want to have him he's clearly now we're trying to help him out he's working with him yeah exactly so i have no problem with that and we we can get him to lean um okay thank you and even if we have to do it electronically you know i can you can send me an order i can sign it and send it back to you electronically so you have it um that's not a problem because he obviously have been so so yeah so your your fine is going to be 220.20 and i'm just to make these i'm gonna make us 220 okay okay and then um to just bring it back down bring the money back downstairs to the office yes yes bring it down to the office would i be able to call the people and tell them that they can proceed yes absolutely if you want to call them from there do that yeah thank you your honor thank you we we're in contact with the building department they're ready to release the permit all i need to do is send them an email so okay if he can come down and pay and they hear tomorrow i'll send him an email send an email that'll be done and they can call and confirm they'll release the permits thank you okay thank you for being so working so hard i'm not i'm sorry for having your dad that way my dad had dementia in his 90s i understand it's it's hard sometimes thank you very much you're welcome very much all right do we have our zoom person online recall that case if we could well let's get it wait but gina have a second yeah that's a problem because if we're going to need him to be sworn in and so i mean we can how's the county field do we want to so it's no fault of the person seeking it i mean yeah we can continue it we'll continue it okay all right we so you're comfortable yeah okay because it's not his fault no no we'll we'll we'll reschedule okay so this case he's indicated he's going to try to pay this before okay so hopefully it can get resolved before that okay yeah so if so then yeah so let's we'll continue it until the next board meeting yeah okay so we're going to continue the case until the next uh hearing of on november and hopefully it'll get resolved before then if not we'll we'll hopefully have zoom up and working at that point all right anything else to come before okay close this hearing at i think the record 23.