lynette would you please read item number five department pcclb matter two two dash one four five no permit code violation two two dash one four seven advertising code violation case number clb-mg26-00201 clb-mg26-00202 citation number clb-ct26-00382 clb-ct26-00383 defendant dennis james patrice jr notice address dennis james patrice jr 410 east windhurst road brandon florida 33511 high plumbing at gmail.com and city of clearwater plaintiff's witness attention cat reese 100 south myrtle street clearwater florida 33756 catherine.reese at myclearwater.com and pcclb investigator c furland plaintiff's witness pinellas county code enforcement 631 chestnut street clearwater florida 33756 c furland at pinellas.gov and kirby creiter esquire assistant county attorney for pcclb ceo natasha creeden lead legal secretary pinellas county attorney's office 315 court street sixth floor clearwater florida 33756 kcreiter at pinellas.gov and a creeden at pinellas.gov violation address 1124 jadewood avenue clearwater florida 33759 and via invoice 9744 dated 5-8-2026 all right who's here for the county morning special magistrate kirby creiter assistant county attorney on behalf of the pinellas county construction licensing board i do have two witnesses for this case and would you identify them for me yes sir investigator furland and then catherine reese with the city of clearwater as well who's appearing on behalf of dennis james patrisi jr yes your honor attorney cj free f r i e g i have mr patrisi and a witness kristen mugg i apologize if you can just repeat that into the microphone and then did you send a letter of representation already yes my law firm did so we have good morning attorney cj free for the record f r i e g i'm with mr patrisi and our witness kristen mudd i say how do you spell the last name okay thank you all right the county may proceed thank you oh i do other than the two attorneys would everybody raise their right hand do you swear to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do county will call katherine reese good morning ma'am can you state your name for the record yes my name is katherine reese i'm an inspector at the city of clearwater and what does that job entail i deal with uh strictly with permits and housing violations and we're here today for uh regarding dennis patrisi does that name sound familiar to you yes and how did you become involved with this matter uh my case with city of clearwater originated as a housing violation that was called in by the tenant at the time upon inspection of the property there were uh wet walls that were showing signs of active leak within the wall seepage through the flooring as well as unpermitted work on a fence and i went ahead and sent notice of violations for that i worked on a reasonable timeline with the property owner who is um property management excuse me for which is tricon property they were they made me aware that a contractor would be needed to get the housing violation into compliance as it was far beyond maintenance i did let them know that the permit would be required they did have a contractor um do the work without without a permit so when they reported to me that the housing violation had come in compliance i advised them that the stop worker would be generated for the plumbing portion that they already had been advised would need a permit um i asked them if they had an invoice of who did the work they did provide the invoice from high low plumbing via email and that is when i gave that information to pcclb thank you um i'm going to have you stay up there with me so i want to touch base on two things that you said the first one was the stop work order do you have any records showing when that stop work order issue was issued yes put on the seal so everybody can see it all right and can you tell us what we're looking at here yeah take my glasses off so the very top line shows it was the stop work order that was generated specifically for the plumbing work that was done without the permit that was um generated on may 18th of 2026 and that's in reference to your involvement that you just described to us that is correct at this point in time i'd ask to move this into evidence as counties one any objection objection at this time exhibit one will be admitted into evidence we also talked about requesting invoice do you have a copy of that invoice that you received i do can you share that to us please pardon me i did put some handwritten notes on there for myself and i am going to ask you about those handwritten notes so just walk us through let's start with the description of the work um is this what you had kind of anticipated would need to be done upon learning about the violations you were working on correct it does match what was described by tricon properties and email okay and let's talk about your handwritten notes can you describe to us what 526 obviously we know what the dates are but what that means to you yes um i just checked with the permitting department prior to this case being heard um so i can just verify if the the exact dates for the permit um 526 of 2026 is when the permit was issued um and it was completed on june 1 of 2026 at this time i'd ask to move this in as counties two into evidence any objection to exhibit two yeah i may take a quicker uh closer i apologize council yeah sure i would object to this as as far as authenticity um they procured this uh it's only showing one page i did bring witness to show to state that this is not an accurate representation of the invoice uh there are actually two pages to this invoice they they requested it from the property management company no communications with my client requesting any sort of invoices or billing and also judge your honor um we don't believe that this uh fits into the statutory protections that are built into their advertising uh as far as uh contracts uh letters of uh advertisement things of that nature this is an internal email that was sent to a client of over eight plus years that was pulled from uh their database it's not an accurate reflection of the actual uh invoice in question judge your honor all right i'm going to admit exhibit two into evidence uh the objections go to the weight as opposed to the admissibility nothing further for this one let's you got to stay up here all right ask you a question yes you have any cross-examination yes i do mr reese uh you're a code inspector for the city of clearwater that is correct and you're not an employee of the of pinellas county no and um your roles related to the city's building code that in the compliance process is that separate from what would be contractor licensing issues correct and you stated that you corresponded with tricon residential beginning of march 2026 correct march 11th a little before that actually march 5th and that initial uh correspondence involved a bathroom leak at 1124 jadewood avenue correct correct and tricon they told you that they actually had an open maintenance work order related to the tub and remediation to the uh wall leak isn't that correct on march 11th they did advise uh that they were waiting on their maintenance team response and on march 23rd 2026 you agreed to extend the compliance deadline to april 30th 2026 isn't that correct that is correct and you granted that extension because tricon requested the repair that the repair work was already underway correct no they were waiting for the uh tenants to vacate the property so that they could properly go in with the contractor and do the work that was needed to be done by a contractor did tricon tell you that they were having uh issues with the current tenants that were in there um as an inspector that is um irrelevant to the city we are our main focus is voluntary compliance to the violations that they were cited for now you stated that there was uh a contractor that had done work at the property do you know how many contractors were at the property i do not i just have the email from tricon do you know if any other llc's or contractors would have been at the property not that i'm aware of so all information that you're going on is based upon assuming that the work that you're looked at or given was done by mr petrizi i'm going off of what the property owner slash property uh maintenance or should i management is giving me because that's who i have to work with to come in compliance not with the contractors okay so did you do any work as far as investigating if there was more than one contractor at the property again i don't have any concern with the contractors it is the violations of the property you said that there was work done on the property that was unpermitted the email is based off of what tricon property is telling me that is who i have to deal with and that is who i who's come who is to come in compliance if i violate without them coming in compliance it is not the contractor who comes to code board it is a property owner per law so that's who i deal with did you do you have any photos of the work uh that would that required permitting no did you do any in on-site inspection to to make that determination as well no they're still not in compliance at this time so i still have an open case for the housing because i do require a re-inspection of the property okay and what what type of inspection are you waiting on well when it comes to um any trade work that is to be done that i have to go off of what the invoice says of that professional i'm not a licensed professional in that so therefore that is why the invoice was asked for to begin with okay so based upon that invoice you use the invoice only from a third party determine if there was a violation that is correct not not to determine the violation to determine that the work was completed by a licensed professional did you did you uh state that the stop work order was issued on may 18th that is correct and are you aware that the printout of a permit pulled by is there by our client was actually on that same date our records are showing that it was it was received on 520. i'm handing you what would be a printout of a construction permit that was completed by my client at that same location according to the permit that where it says permit date received would you agree that that's the same date yes that is that would be the same date and even if that is correct that does not prove compliance that is anybody could go on a cella and apply for a permit and it nothing submitted along with it the issue date is the date of our our concern that is you can a permit cannot be a stop work order cannot be in compliance until a permit has been issued and completed so that way we can inspect the property make sure everything was up to code and according to the plan submitted tell me the date that the work actually started at this property now specifically to come in compliance with my housing the question was there are two separate stop work orders i mean two separate permits we're here for the plumbing issue there's two the stop work order the stop work order was on 518 of 2026. and it was applied for the same day the permit was applied for the same day according to a cell records on 518 permit bcp 2026-050599 specifically for online permit the bathtub install shower valve replacement had been received received on the same day that the stop work order was issued correct correct correct okay and also that that the citation that was regarding that permit do you know have you seen that citation i do not issue citations did you see the citation that was issued in this case in the packet yes i did not review it as it's irrelevant to my title we've established that the stop work order was issued on may 18th and a permit application was submitted that same day that permit application for the record is bcp 2026-050599 and that was issued on may 29th correct give me a moment please the one i had my handwritten notes it was about that day yes oh okay so it that permit was was issued on may 29 2026. may 26th according to my permit department you see what mine says mine actually show actually i'm your honor i'm going to enter this into as defense exhibit one um a standard printout of the uh permit application for the for clearwater and your honor can you state for the record when that says it was issued it shows um may 29 2026. and do you know can you also tell me when it was final on june 1st of 2026 approximately two three days after that is correct so you would agree with me that this issue or quote unquote issue was not only satisfied finaled and closed out on june 1st but my client received the written citation was completed three days after everything was completed again you're aware of that again that is irrelevant to my title i do not issue citations do you do inspect um invoices correct correct correct and under the the citation would this be considered would an invoice be considered a contract a bid or an advertisement objection sustained would you classify this invoice to an a client that has been with my client for over eight years as an advertisement objection i think she can answer that when it comes to invoices it only pertains to come in compliance with a housing violation in which that property had been violated for so i can use the invoice as to proof of compliance for the housing however that doesn't stop a stop work order from being generated for a completely separate violation as my housing notices clearly state that a permit is required for any trade work so is it so the record today is basically the extent of your investigation was to review a third party invoice review no photos don't go to the site did you review any of any other documents or any written notes about this case i do not go back to the site because that would require a building inspector which had happened otherwise this would not have been completed the permit so it i'm going off of the building inspectors inspection that caused the permit to be completed out so it is up to code i go off of that professional there's no effort you don't have any information that would suggest that this work would film and that failed inspection or there's anything wrong with it correct no it it is closed so that means that it has passed inspections no further questions at this time yes if you could rejoin me i just have a few more questions for you sorry we talked about um an opposing counsel asked you about some emails that were sent to tricon i'm going to show them to him first so there's a couple pages to these emails i'm just going to walk by so you sent emails back and forth with tricon you said right that is correct all right and the start of this chain does this look like the emails that you were referencing when employs and counsel was talking to you yes okay and then we're going to move to the next page it says as for advertised by our maintenance people the work related to plumbing might take a while to complete they also need to work on remediation is that yes and then march 11th we see them saying thank you for the clarification i'm still waiting for a response from our maintenance team from what i can see we have work orders for the tub is this also the emails that you receive yes all right and the last page that i want to show you is on march 5th hello inspector we just got this letter in the mail i reached out to our maintenance team it's also also a fair and accurate representation of the emails that you received yes all right at this point in time i'd ask to move this into evidence as county three no objection county three will be admitted into evidence nothing further i'll call investigator furland good morning ma'am can you state your name for the record good morning investigator cheryl furland and how are you employed uh pinellas county uh construction licensing and do you have any training and experience that are specific to the rules that you perform as an investigator for the pinellas county licensing board i do both administrative and field experience are you familiar with the matter that we've been talking about here today mr petrizi yes ma'am all right did you issue citations in this case yes ma'am i'm going to show you two citations go ahead and take that i'm going to show them closing counsel first did you issue two citations in this matter yes ma'am let's start with one the first one is ct 263838 cited under pinellas county code 2214 7 advertising without the required license number on the invoice did you issue that citation yes i did yes it is all right i'm going to move now to the next citation ct 26382 issued under 2214 5 description work without the required permit for plumbing at a residential property within pinellas county florida did you issue that citation yes i did are these citations a fair and accurate representation of the citations that you issued yes at this point in time i'd ask to move these in as composite two or composite exhibit four okay they're they're part of the record because that's why we're here those citations so they will be put in for informational purposes yes sir investigator furland how did you become aware of the situation inspector reese had sent an email um advising of the violation so after you received inspector reese's email what were your next steps um attached to it was the plumbing receipt as well and i had asked her she had the communication with tricon she has she has told me that it the job has been completed via the conversation with tricon so i issued the citation um when i had that conversation okay and did you have a chance to look at where this property was located within the city of clearwater yes yes i'm going to show part of your investigation did you review the pinellas county property appraisers office or website yes i did and is this a fair and accurate representation of what you reviewed yes it is and that's showing us that this is in clearwater florida yes which is part of pinellas county florida correct yes at this point in the time i'd ask to move this in as county four any objection no county four will be admitted into evidence so help me understand investigator furland you and miss reese have different rules is that fair to say yes okay and can you describe how your role is different than hers i look at the contractor part of it um to see if there's permits to see if they're licensed or unlicensed um to see if the the maybe the contractor worked outside the scope of the permit and in this case did you ascertain whether or not mr patrice was licensed i did okay and what was the result of your investigation through uh did a search of um dvpr and he is a licensed contractor with the state of florida my mistake let me just go ahead and show this to opposing counsel real quick recording did you prepare this affidavit miss furland i did and this is a fair and accurate representation of your research it is at this point in time i'd ask to move this in as county five no objection county five will be admitted into evidence license or not license this is a required apartment right yes okay and did you have the opportunity to take or review any photos in this case on the photos that were submitted um by miss reese and did you have a chance to look at this yes and then let me show them to mr ferland as part of your job and your training do you work closely with other city officials or city employees to what would these type of situations i do and is it uncommon or out of place for you to rely on as well as doing your own investigation but rely on the documents materials submitted to you sometimes it is because i don't have access to properties and i'm going to retrieve county's exhibit two opportunity to review this as part of your investigation in this case i did and let's walk through this together all this work that's here installed new bathtub is that something that would require a permit yes installed new shower valve valve with trim kit depends right yeah you typically know because they're taking out what's there and putting in a new one okay but to repiece three inch cast iron stack cut up bad section installed new pvc and also installed new austerns bathroom lavatory and kitchen is this work that requires a permit yes you also one of the citations you issued was for and i shouldn't have put it back already but for the invoice not having a license number on it correct and is that because it meets the definition of that code yes this um is there is no license number on this contract i have nothing further at this time cross-examination yes your honor i heard you classified that as a contract contract invoice it says invoice on it there's a difference between the contract and invoice so wouldn't you agree is that an offer for a job or is that a completed job that they're looking for money well it says installed so that would tell me that it's been completed it doesn't say install it says installed past tense so that would be a contract correct it's a contract and an invoice should it depends in an invoice you've already done the work you're invoicing the client you personally conducted a record search reflected in your affidavit licensure yes that's correct and the affidavit is your sworn statement correct yes and you signed both citations uh ct26-00382 and ct26-00383 on june 4th 2026 correct correct other than those citations themselves uh have you produced any sort of written investigation or any report on this matter other than what i received from the city no so besides those photos that we were just shown today correct and did any of those photos show any sort of funny i didn't do it okay do you have the color copies for me sure the photos that you're previously shown on direct examination do they show any sort of plumbing work done at this property no they don't what do they show they show from well i didn't take the picture so i can only go with what was told when i'm looking at the picture which miss reese can better address so the the evidence that you're relying upon to issue the citation is are these photos that don't show any plumbing work correct the evidence that i based the citations off of with the conversation that miss reese had with tricon as well as his contract but you would agree with me the evidence that's been presented in this investigation show no evidence of plumbing work correct not via those pictures and i'd like to move into the uh school defense composite exhibit two for evidence defense uh exhibit two will be admitted into evidence thank you your honor your affidavit reflected that you searched the board's records for mr patrice's license back to was it january 2011 january 31st of 2012 is when he was licensed with the board did your search turn up any prior violations citations of discipline against mr patrice no it did not as far as your investigation showed mr patrice never has been cited before or has it has never been before the board correct correct you'd agree that both of these citations would be considered mr patrice's first offenses yes citation 26-00383 that citation is based on a single document correct correct correct it does not say page one of two does not say page one does not say page one of ten that was a that invoice was addressed to tricon residential correct bill to tricon residential yes sir and you understand tricon residential to be a property management company not a member of the general public correct correct and before that citation was issued no notice of non-compliance was sent to mr uh patrice regarding this invoice correct that is correct we don't have notice of violation that's a state statute not a county so was there any opportunity to cure or was there any communication to mr patrice before the citation was issued no sir are you aware of uh florida statute 48.119 i believe that's what i just referenced and that requires the board to issue a notice of non-compliance for a first offense before a final citation was issued correct that is the state statute that is correct i did not state i did not cite a state statute i stated stated the county statute since there's no investigative report there's nothing in writing that showed that you received any invoice from mr patrice directly correct i did not no i usually don't did you request any additional invoices or billing record from mr patrice before issuing the issuing the citation i would have no reason to new director attention to citation 26-00382 that can that is related to the work that was performed correct correct and the permit uh 2026 050599 was issued for that work on may 29 2026 correct uh according to what y'all looked at this morning that is correct and you're aware that the permit was inspected and finalized on june 1st 2026 correct yes sir that is actually three days before you signed the citation on june 4th 2026 correct correct so at the time you signed the citation the work had already been finalized closed out permit and everything was finished correct it appears that way there's nothing in the in the file that would explain why a citation would be issued after the permit had already been closed out right my citations are issued when i have time to get back to the case if i'm awaiting further information it could have been three weeks after it could have been the same day my caseload depends on i'm not always able to get to write a citation on the exact same day that it's called in did you do any investigative work that day that we did write the citation again i didn't have access to the property i had to rely on miss reese's uh documentation did her conversations show that the permit was closed out and finalized before you actually wrote the citation out for no permit i had not talked to her about it after that i had talked to her on the 18th are you aware that this was not actually an after the fact permit i'm not no further questions can you redirect yes thank you mr furland um you just had a conversation about when the citation was issued and that it was actually physically written on june 4th correct is the day that you physically write the citation indicative of when the offense occurred has nothing to do with it the date of the offense is the daily offense i could write the citation three years later and in your training and experience this invoice showing installed in the past sense and these people expecting money is a pretty good indicator that this work was done right correct nothing further anything else from the county no you are all right you may present your case counsel yes your honor i'd like to call my client state your full name is where you last name for the record please dennis james patrisi mr patrisi what's your occupation i'm the owner and the license holder and are you a certified plumbing contractor licensed in the state of florida yes sir and what is your license number cfc and i might not know uh do you need to refresh your memory on what the license number is yeah because i keep track of a lot of numbers and okay let me find it for you let me get the uh cfc 1428372 and how long have you held that license since 2011 i believe any of you held it without an interruption yes no interruptions and was it with high low plumbing services llc yes and what's your role with with that company i'm the owner and i work on the field in the time that you've held your license before the two citations issued today have you ever received a complaint a citation or notice of a violation of any kind none no sir i want to direct your attention to 1124 jadewood avenue in clearwater are you familiar with that property yes sir and how'd you become uh familiar with that property we was given this job when the when it was tenant occupied through tricon and we went down there to snake out a tub and the tub was leaking and so we had told them that we would need to further look at it so they then realized that the house only has one bathroom so they wanted to relocate the tenant so i think there was a between tenant and tricon um situation going on so as soon as they were able to find the tenant a new location they contacted me and said to go down there and look at the leak so i sent one of my plumbers down there and he called me and told me that boss we need to do continuous more work here so we completed the repair of the leak under the tub and then we removed the tub did the leak under the tub did that require any sort of permits no there was just a broken p-trap that doesn't require a permit um we knew that we were going to replace the bathtub so what we did is we went and got the tub put the tub there we did not complete the job that day we did not complete everything that day we started our permit process did were there any uh code enforcement officers anyone from the county or the city that were out at the property during this time no it was it was just me well not me but my plumbing company my my plumber and there was a another uh contractor out there that was removing all the drywall from the whole house when we went there that whole house was stripped down of drywall like there was other contractors they're doing work we weren't the only ones but we stopped because we were going to pull up tub so we want to get the permit so we had to stop then put the tub in place but not hooked up nothing was completed and then we left and then once the permit got generated then i sent my plumbers back to finish and then we installed it and then we and then we finished the job and then we called it in and then it got inspected and then it's passed and then we left the property management company that this house has completed plumbing wise it's been permitted past inspections and the proceed forward then i got a fine how did you end up um actually tricon residential are they uh a regular client of yours yes i've been doing work for them for seven years and um about almost about eight years um this this right here is a correspondence through us and what they do sir is they ask us to piggyback our work orders so like when you see it saying installed we went there originally prior for a leak valuation and then what they try to do is so they don't have to recreate more work orders they'll tell you piggyback on that date so if it's looking like we did that then it's not because we're just piggybacking on it so that the dispatch doesn't have to recreate and make a new work order so they kind of do that and i could show you many where they do that and so in this instance when it came to when it came to your realization that the work actually did need a permit did you stop all work at that yes we did we stopped and then we wait till the permits in process and the permits done and then once we got it done we were in and out 90 miles an hour and and according to the citation that you were issued it was issued three days after the permit was closed and finalized yeah that's why i was stunned i didn't understand why i was being cited in in this situation this wasn't an after the fact permit no this is not a that's not an atf permit this is a permit we applied for they gave it to us no problem and we called it right in immediately and got an inspected if if we was given a stop work order and caught doing illegal plumbing then from what i understand everything would be an atf the permit would be labeled atf meaning after the fact we got caught so no so in this instance nobody quote unquote caught you doing anything wrong we weren't doing nothing wrong we were doing a job making paychecks and how did you build uh tricon residential your long-term client on this we build them through emails through through quickbooks and sometimes uh your invoices uh are they sometimes go past one page yes they all go past one page because it has a lot of legal you know like the just information in it it's never just one like that so if i were to show you the county as the invoice that they're relying upon to establish not only the work that was done the work that was done without a permit is it your testimony that that's on a fair and accurate representation of your uh an invoice from your company yes i i know it is because in all our emails there's photos attached and there's none here attached saying it's been complete tricon only pays you when the tub is completed and you show a picture of it installed fully we didn't have the pictures this is a piggybacked email meaning we're telling them ahead of time this is what you need done so when the time comes this is what will be done but there's no photos here and they won't pay you unless they see tricon one of their rules is they require uh minimum five pictures you have to show before and after there's no before and after photos here and does this uh invoice show your uh license number no not this one here does not but that's not a complete invoice there's another page to it so that so the invoice that you actually sent out according to your company policies are different than the one that was presented today we don't really invoice through email our invoices are carbon copies are totally different this is just correspondence trying to get their coordinators to get the job in like going this is this is not this because there's no photos here they all invoices have to have photos to be completed this is just corresponding so once they approve that sir then they send us a po and then we move forward there's no po on this no further questions at this time cross-examination counsel thank you sir do you have a copy of the invoice with the photos uh no i do not okay and what would those photos show us uh if it was the job was completed you would see before and after it's one picture of the front of the house one picture of the job before it was started and one picture of the job when it's completed okay and you completed the job in this case the job has been completed in this case okay so those photos would show us that you installed the new bathtub yes now it would okay and let's talk a little bit about piggybacking how do you make sure you get paid if you're just going back to whatever date they tell you to go to i'm not understanding that process that seems like difficult accounting i don't understand what do you mean by that yeah well so you send the invoice right because you do hard work and then you want to get paid for it which is fair but you're just putting whatever date tricon tells you to put on there i don't understand like my secretary hands all that piggybacking means ma'am if they send us out there to do a snake job and we snake it and then while we're snaking it we recommend that the sewer line needs to be replaced they'll tell us to give us a price on a replacement so we can just piggyback on that same invoice number meaning like we're going to pay you the 240 dollars for going out there but we need to get this amount approved so go ahead and send us the total amount and you are right because i get on to them about the piggybacking because if they don't approve this price then sometimes we have to chase down well what about the 240 you owed us so you are absolutely right we do have to chase down money that's that that's the second part of being a business owner okay chasing down all right so do they direct you when how to write the description of what you do no they do not that's my secretary doing all that so when you're saying installed that's intentional to indicate that that has been actually installed not going to install not purchasing it not looking for it installed that's how she puts it the secretary and you control what your secretary does right no not all the time ma'am i can't do that okay um you stopped all work at the point you realized that you needed a permit yes ma'am the job was not complete when when um my plumber made his first attempt their trip there okay but you were doing the work before the you had the permit right there was no work that was being done that needed to be permitted at that moment well then why did you stop working because the work that we needed to do further needed to be permitted so we stopped okay and what what had you done up to that point we went there and we uh lifted the bathtub up made the repair of the broken pipe under it so we wanted to replace the tub and then while my plumber was there he noticed the cast iron stack needed to be replaced so we were just making some more money while we were there while the walls were all demoed we didn't know the walls were demoed until we got there then when the walls were all demoed there was other contractors there demolitioning the whole house so my plumber seen cast iron pipes so it's just uh something we like to do while the walls are open create more work we could fix more repairs and tricon only pays you when you complete the project right yes ma'am okay and you said that and i might have misunderstood you so i apologize if i did i thought i heard you say at first you bill through emails and quickbooks yeah we use quickbooks okay and do you send that via electronic correspondence or you said carbon copy too we have both our invoices that we present to people for advertising and using has everything listed it's a carbon copy invoice with um with our license number and everything our p.o box our address everything that's the one we use and the invoice that you don't have that has the photos on it does that have your license number on it ma'am um this here is a is an email correspondence when we email tricon it's not it it's not like a uh a carbon copy invoice it's just an email saying the job's been completed okay so yes or no is your license about it yes it should i don't know if it does or doesn't but i'm sure it does okay and you don't have a copy of that today yeah we do we have a copy of it can i see it do we have that copy the invoice that he says this this one here the one that you're saying it's a fair and accurate representation when that one's not oh it goes into appian it's in the software okay yes ma'am nothing further okay thank you any redirect no no your honor anything further counsel um give me one just one second please nothing further all right anything further from the county yeah i would like to make a closing statement if that is okay yes i will all right we will proceed to closing statements county may make a closing statement this case is straightforward i understand that a permit was acquired the fact of the matter is the work was being done without the permit the only invoice the only evidence before this board right now is the invoice i mean whatever was actually sent we don't know we have no way of getting that but relying on what they have sent out to a third party the work was done he admitted the work was done unfortunately this citation is not concerned with prior record it's did it happen or not it's not you get a break because this is your first offense and for those reasons that we feel the county feels as though it's met the elements of this case all right thank you counsel yes your honor thank you for your time this morning um and so just a brief overview um our client has held his certified plumbing license uh since january of 2012. he's no prior violations zero complaints zero discipline of any kind uh on record with either the dbpr or the pcclb um a license search uh was run on august 7th just days before the hearing his license is active through august 20 28 and uh the complaint history table showed zero entries both citations issued in this case arose out of a single small residential plumbing job for a long-standing institutional client tricon residential and both should be dismissed citation 26 dash 00382 worked without a permit there's been no evidence established on the record of any sort of work that would have required a permit all evidence uh showed uh it was an invoice and uh there's discrepancies as far as what work would have been performed at what time my client did agree that they did perform work ahead of time and that work was not required to have a permit once they did expand this the the scope of work they noticed that uh they did need a permit applied for it the same day a stop work order was issued once it was issued it was closed out completed and finaled three days before the citation even hit their desk so the fact that they're going through prior uh non-permitting situations not doing the research to figure out actually this was not an after the fact permit this is a a first time permit pull it was done correctly and also uh requesting an invoice from a third party uh we've established that that isn't the complete and accurate representation of the invoice that was sent um there's been no other evidence presented um by the county uh to to i guess move forward with a just result that wouldn't be a dismissal on both of these citations your honor thank you right as to citations clb ct26-00382 the only actual testimony i have is um by mr patrese who has testified that the work that required the permit wasn't started before the permit and there were no inspections or otherwise that would disprove that so i'm going to dismiss that citation as far as citation clb ct26-00383 we're here under a special act not the state statute so i am going to find that there is a violation of code section 22-14 subsection 7 and issue a fine in the amount of 500 you go on or you need a break and that would you please read item number six department pcclb matter 22-141 unlicensed contracting code violation 22-145 no permit code violation case number clb dash mg26-00205 clb-mg26-00206 citation number clb-ct26-00355 clb-ct26-00356 defendant georgina de coco notice address georgina de coco 6801 56th street north pinellas park florida 33781 and ryan schmidt esquire defendant's attorney coates schmidt pa 4055 central avenue st petersburg florida 33713 ryan at coates-schmidt.com and katrina dexter plaintiff's witness 6695 69th avenue north pinellas park florida 33781 trina 623 at yahoo.com and city of pinellas park attention john raposo building official 5141 78th avenue north pinellas park florida 33781 and pcclb investigator jay paget plaintiff's witness pinellas county code enforcement 631 chestnut street clearwater florida 33756 jpaget at pinellas.gov and kirby creider esquire assistant county attorney for pcclb ceo natasha creeden legal secretary pinellas county attorney's office 315 court street 6th floor clearwater florida 33756 k creider at pinellas.gov na creeden at pinellas.gov violation address 6695 north 69th avenue pinellas park florida 33781 who's appearing for the county yes sir kirby creider assistant county attorney on behalf of the pinellas county construction licensing board i have as witnesses with me investigator jamie paget miss katrina dexter and then mr raposa who's appearing for uh the defendant good morning special registry ryan schmidt attorney on behalf of defendant georgina dococo uh georgina dococo is an expected witness timothy dexter is also a potential witness uh they are the two witnesses for the defendant all right other than the two attorneys would the rest of you all raise your right hand do you swear to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do do all right the county may proceed i will county will call miss dexter miss dexter can you state your name for the record katrina dexter and where do you live currently um at 1077 306 avenue north and at any point in time did you live at 660156 street north 6695 69th avenue north and you heard um miss lunette talk about the matter we're here for just can you give us an idea of how you got involved in all of this i'm the one who made the complaint in regards to the um work being done in the home were you living in i was currently a resident of the property and when you say you made the complaint about work being done at the home let's break that down a little bit what type of work was being done everything the house was gutted um so it went from flooring to walls to electrical to plumbing um everything in the home it's like substantially yes okay and you said you made a complaint who did you make that complaint to um i was through the website with pinellas county i believe initially okay is that property where the work was being done is that located in pinellas work it is okay um what happened next did you receive any calls back or i was contacted back um and then the inspector had agreed upon date met me uh to come out so i can show them the property in regards to what was being done and what was done perfect and when you say the inspector um you saw the witnesses you were sworn in with them yes inspector riposo yes okay and that's the person that came out to the property and you met with i met with him yes okay do you have any further involvement in this case did you do anything after making the complaint are you just trying to live your life i just try to live my life at this point if i could ask you a question what motivated you to complain about the work being done when i was currently living there i was um pregnant with twins i was high risk and then as the work was being done um some of the things weren't being completed there was exposed wires there was um like just utilities stuff open and kind of dust all kinds of stuff that was there was no kitchen there was no hot water in the kitchen initially there was no kitchen sink um there was a bunch of stuff that was just being done to the house while i was pregnant and then after i gave birth i went and stayed with my mother for recovery i had a c-section um with my twins and then after the fact prior to going back to the home i wanted the home to be in compliance for me and my children so we're not talking like you don't like this pink color we're saying there's no running water i couldn't live here i can't raise my family here and that's why you made the complaint correct there was no hot water there it was a mess nothing further out of the side you can see if you really could ask any cross examination oh just was work being done before you moved into the premises i've been in the properties since day one's of purchase the part property was purchased in june 2023 i lived there paid the mortgage payment towards that the first mortgage payment was july so i was there from the day one um and just to be clear obviously it's disagreements happened and you ended up being evicted from the premises lawfully evicted is that correct i was evicted after the fact of making the complaint with the um prop with the pinellas county uh she went through the eviction process with that okay i have no further questions all right next witness telly calls inspector resposa sorry riposa good morning sir i swear i'll get it right eventually but can you say your name for the record john riposo and how are you employed sir i am the building official for the city of pinellas park and you've heard a little bit about what we've been talking about are you familiar with miss dexter and where she was living i um i've never met her i've been shown the case i've seen the pictures of the work that was done i have not visited the site personally but i could see the what was submitted all the work that was done um we did have a i believe our code compliance has been visited the city i mean the uh the property uh and there is a case opened in our city with our code compliance also and when you say your city pinellas park pinellas park yeah and um and your review of the photos and we'll get through to them soon but just give us your overall impression before we start looking at specific photos so um it's quite extensive the work uh plumbing electrical structural changes all required permits there was a modified i saw in the picture a modified fireplace uh there was wood framing adapted around the fireplace which i do not believe is compliant with code and it's probably a fire hazard that's opposing counsel before we introduce them to evidence there is actually let's do this i am going to have you all right let's start here so there's demolition being done that's a required permit okay before you keep talking about i apologize i'm getting myself sure let me show this to council real quick so i stopped you i interrupted you sure sure but yeah so demolition uh absolutely requires a permit uh before any work is done uh looks like there were studs removed we've got exposed piping uh wall board is leaning up but you can see the debris on the floor on the ground it's quite extensive the uh the amount of damage there the amount of demolition uh so that definitely needs a permit you asked me answer my next question so everything that you're showing seeing in this photo definitely requires a permit absolutely and there was no permit in this case correct no okay at this point in time i'd move this in as county one any objection uh just if i may ask a couple quick questions sure did you personally take that photo no sir if you can come up and ask in the microphone thank you did you personally take that photo no those permits were those pictures were sent okay do you know when that photo was taken i do not know i i would object your honor just as to uh timing he did not personally take the photo we don't know when the photo's from it doesn't really add anything about knowing when it was from the the legal standard for issue entering photos is somebody's got to testify that it accurately depicts what it reports to show yes sir and i could recall with the magistrate willing miss dexter who was the one that submitted the photos i was just trying to streamline the presentation yeah please do that so i'm not going to admit them right now yes sir if we if everyone's okay with it if i could call miss dexter up and just introduce all that sure for the witnesses and just talk about that oh we'll go ahead and weigh the objection we can okay if i could have a second maybe i can just show opposing counsel the photos and we can agree so we don't have to go through this all day every time but that's okay okay yeah i'm going for the packet okay there's a lot we won't attempt all right photographs will be admitted into evidence thank you so we're looking at this photo um i'm going to show you i'll put this up here because it's my intention to introduce this photo it has it looks like it has some metadata on it telling when it was set it looks like august 11th of 2024 it was taken correct okay that's the same photo and you didn't do anything to alter the metadata no i don't know and as part of you were reviewed were there a substantial number of photos that you were reviewed yes yeah that's quite a few of them is this one yeah that was one of them what does this show you so this here can tell what is actually here explode exposed block wall looks like some some framing in the back i'm not really sure what that that is some of them don't really depict much sure i just want to make sure we're giving that a whole picture of the amount of work that was going on do you recognize this is the photo that you reviewed yes so this is the finished product of a fireplace so on the right yeah on the right side there some stripped floors flooring's not an important thing but this is this was looks to me as if this was the original fireplace and this is the new fireplace and if some of these don't really show anything of notes so to speak as far as like what goes to what you're looking for as an inspector feel free to tell me but i don't have your training expertise so i just want to make sure i'm not missing anything there's really nothing here to see this one here is appears to be mostly just um flooring okay so but this is again a photo that you reviewed like although maybe it doesn't require a permit i mean this is a lot going on in the home yeah this there's some work being done this one here again nothing really relevant there okay so i've been through the package a lot of the photos are don't have any weight so just so the records clear you're looking through the photos i have next to me go ahead and keep flipping through them i'm going to assume that they're all photos that you've seen and reviewed yeah and go ahead and these are all the same ones you get to somewhere that you're like oh yeah i need to see more about it so this one here we've got exposed walls let's put it on the seal so the rest we can see it looks like some some of the plates have been removed you can't really tell if anything's changed in them but they the walls are exposed so they'd have to be recovered again pinellas county i mean pinellas park requires permits for drywall more than one sheet so there's more than one wall covering here so when you're saying that pinellas park would require a permit for more than one sheet yeah this area is something that would require more than one sheet of drywall absolutely this room here you can see has already been taped off um it appears that this is new drywall that would have been after been permitted same same stripped down wall don't know if there was any work you can't tell if there's any work done electrically or beside that and again this texture is here and perhaps i should have asked her to walk through the photos first with us but if this was not it's not already there this drywall that we're showing would have been been permanent right yeah that would have been in the permit more of the drywall this is the same just another portion of the home same drywall concerns yeah no permits no permits for them there's again more work done there same concern with these drywall areas here yeah that's pretty much the same room just a different angle nothing yeah more of the same drywall and although it maybe not requires a permit but it looks like the floor is being replaced like substantial work going on in the home yeah uh floors like i said floors however don't don't require anything right so this feature here is the um appears to be the existing fireplace and then the next one you'll see wood framing being brought around okay the fireplace um my concerns on this and of course this had to would have had to been permitted would have had to been drawn up by an architect stamped um we'd have to evaluate it for fire to see if you could use this if it's not an operating fireplace and just for show it's fine but it still would have had to have been permitted to know exactly what was the use going to be okay not to feed a dead horse so to speak but no permit no permit here's another one of getting completed and we can do it side by side like clearly work was done right yeah before or after right and we'll yeah we've already seen this one yeah some of these are repetitive more flooring let's talk about this one um i know this was foreign so not necessarily requiring a permit but it's showing this new fireplace and again just the the amount of work that was happening and no okay there was one another one of the fireplace yep okay so that's wrapped with the if this was um on the drawings we'd have to inspect what was put on how it was attached okay make us go through all of these another one this drywall is being put in it looks like mm-hmm and that would have required a permit yes this would have been a bathroom remodel it looks like on the side there um shower valve there if that was replaced that would have been a permitted item if there's a new can't tell if there was a new shower or tub put in but that would have meant it needed to been okay so the demolition and if and we'll get there but if there was a new shower put in that would need to be permitted and like what is the purpose of having to get a permit is it just for the city of pinals park or the county to get money or is it ensuring safe and healthy safety is number one priority of pulling a permit got it we wanted to so the permit is permission to build okay and it gives us the option the ability to inspect to make sure it meets the minimum requirements of the florida building code so this is not targeted this is not based on i mean the building code is the building code yeah um we're looking for fire safety we're looking for sanitary you know in a bathroom if it's not plumbed right you can have gases escape from the sewer lines you want you know things to that you don't want mold to build up behind showers you want it to drain properly and then you don't want things falling off the walls drywall uh has been exempt from some cities but we still look at it because it is possible to not do it correctly i have a few more i want to show you let's just join into anything now we just talked about um but some more just evidence of the work that was redone um here's a photo of some exposed wiring kind of all the stuff that like that's why we want to see permits maybe we don't know we don't know where it's from where it's going to um if there was a new i saw a picture of a panel i don't know if that's a new electrical panel um this would have had to been inspected what about this that it gives the appearance of a brand new bathroom okay so we've missed the if this was a brand new bathroom uh we would have missed the underground plumbing the p-trap pre-slope the pen inspection the wall covering would have to been um cementitious board so it doesn't accumulate mold behind the tile there's several codes that have to be inspected just in a bathroom shower and that didn't happen at this point in time i'd ask to move these photos in as composite one those photos will be admitted as counties exhibit composite one so after you receive or you review these photos what was your next step in the investigation uh we we do have um as i said uh our code compliance has issued them a order to apply for permits and they have uh we currently have an issued permit for them uh in our system we do have a hold on it because it does not affect the description is missing some of the scope we just want that updated to make sure all the scope is included but other than that they have started the process with uh with our with the city of pinellas all right so after the back permitting i think it's always sometimes yes okay did you have any further involvement in this case did you reach out to boris county at all no no i in fact uh this was uh sent to me and um i was not involved directly with this case this case is being handled by code they got them to comply for us we've processed the permit and then our next step is to figure out how to do the inspection so really we haven't gone deep into the investigation but your investigation has gotten you far enough that you're familiar with the project you've reviewed the photos you understand what kind of the work that's been done correct nothing further house examination counsel sure uh just briefly when when did your involvement in this start when the case was sent to me so would that be in may 2026 i'm not sure but no it might have been uh just recently okay so even more recently than may 2026 okay and you had not have you seen personally seen the line yet i've not participated in this investigation you're going on the photos that's provided photos and and my people in the field so what happens when a case like this is is presented to code they issue the order to comply the owners have applied for permits uh the case was sent to me to review the photos um so i'm here now to just explain what we require as a city um to get them into complete very good and i think you testified they've applied for an after-effect permit it's in process they're right since the violation has been issued they've been working on it that's correct no further questions county calls investigator paget good morning sir can you state your name for the records uh investigator jamie paget very employed sir with the pinellas county construction licensing board for the testimony here today are you familiar with uh the defendant we've been talking about the property we've been talking about i am did you assume citations related to this property i did these are already part of the packet that is why we're here today but so we're all on the same page citation clb cp 26356 written under pinellas county code 2214 subject from five working without a permit doing residential remodels to include electrical plumbing in fact causing the drywall work at property in pinellas county florida is this a fair and accurate representation of the citation that you wrote in this matter it is okay and the next citation is clb cp 26355 written under pinellas county code 2214 subsection one engaging in a residential remodel uh is this also a fair and accurate copy of the citation that you wrote in this matter it is okay did you as part of your investigation did you ever visit the proper pinellas county property appraisers website i did okay so yeah this is three pages i'll let you tell us but these all come from the property appraisers website correct and this address is six six nine five 69th avenue north pinellas park florida three three seven eight one is that in pinellas county florida it is at this point in time i'd move this in as county two any objection the two will be admitted into evidence investigator paget let's back up a little bit tell me how you got involved in this case how it came to your attention walk me through it so uh originally this complaint came through our code enforcement division then was referred to us due to unlicensed contracting and unpermitted construction that was on may 7th of 2026. um i conducted a site visit on uh on the 7th made contact with the tenant i scheduled a time to visit the property on may 11th of 2026. did you visit the property i did on may 11th what did you observe when you visited the property observed a remodel in an unfinished state uh there was exposed electrical wirings a plumbing stack coming out of the ground that was unfinished and um extensive remodel work done within the property you say extensive remodel work and based on your observations are these certain items that would have needed a permit based on my experience yes and were there certain items that would work that would have been needed to have done by a contractor yes so once the uh complainant told me that she was a tenant that she was paying rent at the property um that told me that it was investment property it was not homesteaded and um then we start looking for a licensed contractor who's over the job because that's the uh the requirement did you and what did your search for that contractor reveal in this case uh i reached out to the homeowner multiple times i even spoke with uh her boyfriend and i was told that there was no licensed contractor over the job so your understanding as we stand here today is there wasn't a licensed contractor overseeing the work that's my understanding yes and and your training and experience was it a substantial remodel yeah you know all trades um plumbing electrical uh hvac work uh structural changes uh to the home uh drywall carpentry um which would uh you know that that would indicate a big remodel project yes and obviously we want people to get their permits even if they haven't but that doesn't change the fact that there was unlicensed contracting right correct okay and just one moment please last question you said there and you verified that the homeowner was not a contractor going to hold a license it's not like she could have overseen it correct and she didn't do any like owner permitting or anything that would allow her to lawfully remodel this way yep and that's the first thing we check you know we look for you know to see if there's a permit so i checked with the city of pinellas port i didn't see any active remodel permits for the location and i didn't uh find any contractor no contractor reached out to me i didn't speak with any licensed contractor who was over the job i just want to show you something that you just mentioned um your research but i'm just allowing this one is three pages again let's just start with the first what is this because tyler's is how you're doing the purchase yes so that's the um database through the city of pinellas park that we go on to check for permits through their database violation yep so they they also have their code uh cases on there as well so we look at that um to see if there's any code investigations for the property as well it's the last page it has some handwritten notes but this is the one that showed you there's no permits there's no remodel right correct yeah so i did that search on may 7th of 2026. um i saw that there was a window permit window and door permit that has expired um that was issued may 23rd of 2024 and two hvac permits one is was in a void status and the other one was finaled uh and that was issued in 2024. now there was two ac units on the property uh this was for one and then another a second was added um that had a manufacturing date of 2025 so it would indicate that was recent work and this is i'm sorry and no remodel permit uh on that search so it didn't reveal anything that you were looking for that would have made it lawful to how it was happening yep so remodel permit um you know they would have to list their subcontractors on there as well so there would be a licensed electrician added on there licensed hvac contractor licensed plumber and um that was not in this in the database for the city thank you at this point i'd ask to move this in as county three any objection exhibit three will be admitted into evidence yes thank you sir i have a few more photos to show you not as many as i put before you through but can you tell do you recognize these photos i do and did you take these photos i did and are they fair and accurate representation of the photos that you took they are and can you tell us what we're looking at uh so during my site visit um on may 11th um uh miss dexter allowed me access to the property uh to gain some photos um i saw some exposed electrical wiring within the home um and this is a manufacturing date um on that wiring of august 15th of 2025 um that shows us that that was a recent recent electrical work that was installed on the property so you're looking for this date as far as an indicator of is it recent or has this been here forever right yeah if it was said you know 2004 then we know that it would have been there for quite some time this photo looks like maybe it's just another angle of the same yes okay do you recognize this yeah so the uh the above photo that was a plumbing stack that was come up um i believe they were adding a bathroom to this part of the property so you have pvc lines coming up there were some materials nearby um some pvc that also had a manufacturing date on it and that manufacturing date was november 4th of 2025 on that material same question so like not only are you taking what ms dexter said as the complainant into account but these dates on the tape and then on this pvc back of her story that all this work is happening yes right yeah supports the complaint recognize these for us yes so um the above caption is um uh one of the rooms of the the back of the property um part of that area this was a back door um this was used to be a double door that was um reduced so you see uh some framing work that was done stucco work to reduce the size of that doorway this structural type of work is that something that requires permiss licenses in my experience yes definitely a license nothing further oh actually um i had asked you to send evidence as county four composite county for these photos any objection to exhibit four i'm sorry they were in the packet that was totally unintentional i thought i showed you already yeah no no okay exhibit four will be admitted into evidence you know nothing further for this witness all right any cross-examination counsel uh just again your involvement in this began in may when the complaint was filed that's correct sir okay and otherwise you're everything you're just buying on is based on the prior photos that were provided to you uh yes your own photos in my own photos and i requested um evidence from miss dexter she said she had photos of the work in progress and i requested those photos which um were submitted here today thank you yep all right anything further from the county the county would ask to recall very briefly miss dexter all right miss dexter were you living at the property during these renovations i was and and it was probably a long time given the scope of the project that you were living when caused the construction is that fair to say yes can you give us an estimate of when the work started property was purchased in june 2023 um i believe it was not too long shortly after they started doing something after they did the tenting for uh like termites uh then there was the reconstruction start right after that so within that year at any point in time did you ever meet with a contractor or understand there was licensed tradesmen working on your property or it's just somebody was doing this work um it was never like that she would have like her workers be on the property demolishing taking stuff out of the kitchen uh the walls um stuff like that but it wasn't like that i knew of a contractor no it's like she would have her workers who's the shooter you're referring to georgina dococo and is that the homeowner that is the homeowner yes that's your landlord correct any cross okay anything else from the county all right council you may present your case go ahead and identify yourself for the georgina dococo and what is your involvement with the property i am the homeowner uh katrina dexter was a tenant i did hire a licensed contractor we'll we'll get there so miss dexter's complainant what was what's your relationship with miss dexter my husband's daughter my boyfriend's daughter okay and so how did the just as background as to how we got here how did the tenancy form we purchased the home as a family home to share and we've had katrina dexter and her daughter lived there so that they would always have a place to stay she was aware that we purchased the home as a fixer-upper from day one when we bought it okay so from the time she lived in she was aware of this work going on yes and she participated okay and so what really happened with the tenancy she failed to pay her rent on time for since day one okay she never paid on time i could never get her to pay on time and the relationship fell apart when i asked her to pay her money a lawful eviction filed and yes possession was granted to you very good so into the work did you at any time do cosmetic work we did we started out with cosmetic work okay and at what point did you ever then contact the contractor the work that we did and believe needed a permit what type of work are you talking the flooring we put uh framing over the rock walls the rock rock walls on the fireplace the walls the floors um we painted paneling i painted uh one bedroom primary painting and floor work just cosmetic the house had termites so we had it tented and we couldn't do anything until after the tending was done after that point we took the cabinets out because we that's where the termites started we didn't want to leave those in the house the wiring that you saw that was sticking out of the walls that's all been corrected since at the time who handled the electoral work at the time i had a licensed electrician do you recall who that was cns electric okay and it appears it wasn't a permit i didn't know we needed one okay but you relied on your contractor as far as that goes during this work leading up to and we'll get to september 2025 soon uh did you at any time ever you didn't believe a permit was necessary did you ever apply for a permit no did you hire people to do work that should be permitted at the home before that time i had the windows done but we saw that okay and i i believe miss dexter i don't want to misphrase but i believe she said you had people doing work for you is that correct they just took stuff out of the home they didn't do any building they didn't do any alterations they took the cabinets out which i don't believe you need a permit for that okay we also saw a photo from 2024 and maybe i can get it but do you recall that photo from 2024 showing some damage no there's a lot of them thank you i think it was the very first one we were looking at yeah that was from the hurricane damage so yeah there was a i'm sorry it was this photo that had the state on it looks like just a different angle yeah the testimony was from august the picture was taken in august 2024 so i believe you just said that was from a hurricane it just had been wet okay so that wasn't work you did you weren't abolishing that was hurricane damage that was just debris that was in there we didn't take anything out okay did you ever hold yourself out at any time as being a contractor never did you ever advertise yourself as being a contractor were you ever paid to be a contractor so it's your assertion you are not a contractor i am not a contractor you never performed on licensed contract no okay so now in september 2025 did you retain a contractor at that time yes and what had changed that prompted you to seek out a contractor at that time the extent of the work okay so just to summarize what you're saying before that in your view was all cosmetic work but more substantial work was going to be necessary before it was all cosmetic work when we got into the hvac the plumbing and electrical i did hire a licensed contractor so i guess as to the contractor i'm going to show you some here are you able to look at these and identify these that is what the contractor that i hired required to start the work okay so if we start looking i guess in the subject area we've got from who's that from that is from the contractor that i hired and what's his name louis uzo okay and is that when you started talking to him or had you been no before that okay and your understanding is he's a licensed contractor yes again that's dated september 2025 and i think in the subject or in the body of the email there's discussion of pricing is that correct yes and uh what happened so this there's discussing pricing so what happened after this we agreed on the design what he was going to do and he said he needed fifteen thousand dollar deposit which i paid in cash to start okay but so to be clear you don't have a receipt proven payment here today no i paid him in cash but you paid him cash and as part of that agreement was there an estimate or an actual contract between the two of you there was an estimate but as we went through the project it ended up costing more than what you see there okay it was a pay as you go we could move to admit this as defense exhibit one then it's exhibit one will be admitted into evidence thank you i'll show you another exhibit do you know what this is that's the contractor that i hired with his information okay and at the top it's identified as dvpr is that correct yes right underneath that floor department of business professional regulation so this is the contractor you hired right licensed with the state and this is showing his license with the state correct very good this time that one of the sentence defense exhibit two defense exhibit two will be admitted into evidence so now we're are you able to identify this document this is the floor plan provided by the contractor okay and where do we see that the contractor is identified on there no it's too small i can't see that all right i'm not are we able to zoom in on this bottom at all won't see it oh here we go are you able to see right here you and who is building diversified services that's lewis lujo okay so that's the contractor he testified you hired yes and so what is the drawing this is the renovation area this is existing this is the renovation and so that's what proceeded at what time what is the general time frame okay starting in september 2025 construction we talked before that okay but it appears you hired him around september 28th 2025 would it be your understanding that permits would be required for this work yes and would it be your understanding if you're retaining a contractor paying a contractor absent agreement otherwise would you believe that the contractor should be obtaining all necessary permits yes and it appears he did not it did not it sounded like medicine to defense exhibit three defense exhibit three will be admitted into evidence so your testimony is that the substantive work began in september 2025 correct or thereabout yes you did all of that and you testified there wasn't any unpermitted demolishment electoral work plumbing anything prior to that time no it was cosmetic work just cosmetic okay now in may we had a couple things going on on the one hand there was the eviction that began in may is that correct yes and there was also a complaint was made which is why we're here correct yes how did you hear about the complaints the code the violations we're here for today how did that come about i got a violation by mail from the pcclb for unlicensed contracting um the police were called on me so i had a phone call from the park police department i had phone calls from um i think officer pageant which i did not reply to his message and the rest of it i got by mail and then i hired ryan were there periods of time you weren't able to access the house correct and why was that we were denied access by the tenant so if you were trying to resolve some of these issues for quite some time you couldn't is that correct it was not allowed in the house or on the property okay but then thereafter you received the complaint what did you do after receiving it when you said you hired me then what did you start doing about the violations we contacted um the contractor who applied for the after the fact permits we tried to take care of the code violations that we could but again i was not allowed on the property so i couldn't get to the pool um i couldn't couldn't go on the property to fix anything until after she was legally evicted and removed from the property by the sheriff okay at that time i could go to the property and do you recall we've got exhibits do you recall was the eviction completed around may 29th uh you had the paperwork i believe okay right there counsel did you take a look at this i'm sorry i'm sorry i didn't want to interrupt you no i'm sorry okay so we have a composite exhibit here we've talked about the eviction uh but just to have documents and evidence on the record here are you able to identify this document there's your final judgment for eviction for katrina may dexter okay we haven't talked about shequez hughes do you have to invite who that is that's her boyfriend okay not necessarily relevant to today but this was the final judgment of eviction do you see the date at the bottom 5 29 26. okay and here we've got another legal court document are you able to identify this document that is the writ of possession for 6-8-26 okay are you able to read the date on this 3-26 okay and that's the legal document allowing a plaintiff to retake possession of the property and this are you able to identify this document the final notices of eviction for 6-9-26 okay is that the day you regained possession were we able to re-enter the property i believe so june 9-26 and this time we'd like to introduce this into evidence as defendants exhibit four exhibit four will be admitted into evidence so you regain possession on on about june 9th so we'll move on are you able to identify this document that is the permit application after that permit for the work that was done okay and if we look at this who this was applied for by lewis lucio okay and if we look at is there a date on the first page so this is june 2nd this is actually before you even regain access to the property is that correct because of the code violations okay but you once you got the code violations you want to start acting as quickly right i was not allowed on the property but her father was allowed on the property so he could go in he could go over there but i could not okay and if we look at page two i think on the building application uh can you identify who's identified as the contractor and company name that is you and that's contractor that's the contractor with a state license number on the building diversified services so you hired him in september you thought he was supposed to be getting permits you would have expected him to get any permits come may we get the violations he pro you asked him like how did that go how did you get him to go get the permits i called him and told him we have to get permits for the work that was done okay and i don't know i'm as a witness today but he didn't up here today is that we did request his presidency did not show up like the mutual mythicist defense exhibit five exhibit five will be admitted into evidence you're able to identify this document that's done as a commencement for the property okay and you understand the legal effect of this document yes yes it states that there's improvements being done over the value of 2500 okay and if we look at paragraph three it identifies you and the like it's starting in paragraph one it identifies the subject property is that correct yes okay in paragraph three it identifies you paragraph four identifies the contractor yes and you've signed it at the bottom yes appears to be notarized and it looks like it was recorded are you able to see the date is recorded it's 8 26. okay and again this is before the writ of possession was even executed on june 9th is that correct yes this time we demand this is defense exhibit six exhibit six will be admitted into evidence are you able to identify this document that is the building permit okay and so this is when the permit was actually issued on 619. okay and you see that in the upper right corner from the city of pinellas park yes as this property and uh i believe in the context that identifies the contractor that you hired yeah okay this time i can move this in as defense exhibit seven exhibit seven will be admitted into evidence so when we look at everything overall um you purchase the property you you admit to doing cosmetic work for a while uh i believe some of which uh witnesses testified permits would not be required flooring things like that painting right uh but when it became more substantive you reached out to a contractor yes hired him paid him and there on they did contractor did all the substantive work from that point on yes and again you never held yourself out to be a contractor no you never accepted payment as a contractor never all i did was paint uh no further questions all right any cross-examination council yes sir afternoon ma'am when did you purchase this property june of 23 and when did you start making the cosmetic improvements after the termite testing and what year was that it was in 23 i don't remember what month okay and between 23 to when you hired the contractor what work was being done on the home just flooring um we put the drywall up over the rock walls took the rock walls out painted the bedrooms took out the kitchen that's all the cosmetic work i did okay and so you took out the kitchen did you replace anything in the kitchen no so there's no functioning kitchen in the home there is a stove refrigerator there is a sink hooked up to water it had warning water it would have had hot water katrina said she didn't want that hooked up she had a bathroom a full bathroom she had a microwave she had a pantry uh wooden pantry she had a functional kitchen she didn't have craft made cabinets or a granite countertopic she had a functioning kitchen and remind me your relationship to miss dexter my boyfriend's daughter and it's fair to say that the relationship has soured between you and miss dexter yes and you're saying that you hired the contractor years later and you hired that contractor after you became aware that the work had been done and there was no permit pool right the work that was done before that contractor came in was just cosmetic she knows we hired a licensed contractor she spoke to him several times i wonder why is he getting after the fact permits because we did work after the fact but she knows i hired a licensed contractor if we did not pull the permits okay so the permits weren't pulled the permits weren't pulled but we had a licensed contractor lewis lugio okay nothing further can you redirect again just to i think we've already spoken about this uh eviction not directly relevant there was a lawful eviction done a judge granted it under the law is that correct yes and as the permit and then you testified as to retaining the contractor in about september it was your understanding that the contractor would be pulling all permits the contractor would you never had a discussion that you as an owner would pull permits while he did the work no i'm not a i'm not homesteading so in september 2025 you hired him assuming he'd get the permits you get a complaint and then violations in may and you immediately had a conversation with mr lugio to get the permits and we've seen he did so okay nothing further anything further council nothing further from the defendant anything further from the county all right we'll proceed to closing statements a minute when i said brief um the fact of the matter is the one thing that we do agree on here everybody in this room agrees that there was work done without a permit and that's what the violation is so whatever story you want to believe it's very clear to me that this is a family issue somehow the relationship showered his side her side the truth probably somewhere in the middle but everybody is saying that this work occurred without a permit and i think that's the end of the inquiry and that's all i had for my closing i said brief awesome i apologize mine won't be less brief uh so we're here on two violations under the citations uh under county statute ordinance sections 2214 act prohibited subsection one and subsection five subsection one of that ordinance is engaged in the business of contracting and construction trades regulated pursuant to florida statutes chapter 489 parts one and two and it goes on but that's the important part is that this is controlled by florida statutes section chapter 489 as to the first count for unlicensed contracting the second count is the favor to obtain permits that's under subsection five of 22-14 so to the initial question unlicensed contracting uh the florida statutes chapter 49 is very clear about what a contractor is a florida contractor under every definition 489 point here i apologize under 489.105 definitions the contractor a person who's qualified is responsible for the project contracted for and means except as exempt for this part the person who for compensation undertakes to submit a bid to does himself or others by contract repair and all the subcategories require compensation for a contractor and why is that important we have a homeowner uh who's testified uh without contravention that she's not a contractor she never held herself out to be a contractor and it's uncontroverted that she never accepted compensation for it uh so at that point we look at the case law uh interpreting chapter 489 and the case law is unambiguous and it states quite plainly a claim a homeowner is generally not guilty of failure to obtain a construction permit uh well jumping ahead to a different argument i apologize uh but the case law quite plainly says uh under florida law a person cannot be a contractor and therefore cannot be an unlicensed contractor under florida statutes 49 if they do not perform work for compensation uh there's a plethora of case law on this i have one if the magistrate would be so inclined uh but it's one of many and they cite the definition of contractor uh and in there they say thus three requirements must be satisfied in order for a person to be a contractor second the individual must engage in such conduct for compensation quite plainly case law is unambiguous you cannot be held out as an unlicensed contractor if you don't receive compensation and that's not what happened here she never obtained compensation for any work uh even if you were to believe uh all sorts of unpermitted work was done before september 2025 that's irrelevant uh because there's no compensation so then the second part is the contractor and where the contractor comes in uh i don't think it's controverted that in september 2025 the homeowner hired a contractor uh and separately under uh section 489 chapter 49 of statutes uh there's an implication where a homeowner hires a contractor to perform work at the home there's a presumption that the contractor is the person who's supposed to get the permits if there's a failure to obtain permits that's where liability falls it's not on the homeowner and again that's what we have here it's not controverted that she hired a contractor in september 2025 there's no clear testimony whatsoever that prior to 2025 any work was done at this home uh that required a permit uh that wasn't either uh hurricane damage as we've established uh or otherwise it was all cosmetic work prior to that time so taken together separately or together the defendant can't be found guilty of unlicensed contracting so the one violation must be dismissed so the unlicensed permitting we've already covered that as well again where the general rule where you hire a contractor there's no agreement otherwise the rule is that the contractor is responsible for getting those permits in this case that didn't happen once the homeowner became aware of it the homeowner immediately upon the citation reached out to the contractor before she even had possession of the property and did everything she could to ensure the permits got issued after the fact and that's what happened the homeowner has done everything she can do here she hired the contractor when discovering this problem she tried to resolve it uh there's been no testimony that there was unpermitted work done before that contract was hired uh so it'd be our position that both counts both citations should be dismissed uh and we all move on and they'd be allowed to to finish this with their issue permits now thank you could i see the defense exhibits bring them over i was looking i'm unsure where the stamp was so i still have to stamp them if i may approach or you can you can stamp them and then just hand them to me and if it's like one little if it's a packet that you could just stamp one page and then yeah take it off there you go those were your exhibits okay as to citations clb-ct26-00355 i don't find that the evidence supports a violation for 22.14 sub one or the state statute 480 chapter 49 as to citations clb-ct26-00356 i'm going to find that the evidence does not support there was a violation section 22-14 sub 5 and we'll dismiss that citation as well we're going to break before the afternoon docket begins okay um can we be back at 1 30 you think okay we should be back at 1 30 yeah all right we'll be in adjournment till 1 30 and then we'll finish the 9 o'clock docket and proceed with the 1 30 docket communications please stop recording good afternoon my name is jeff fuller i'm the special magistrate assigned to the pinellas county code enforcement special magistrate agenda for today august 10th 2026 welcome to pinellas county code enforcement special magistrate hearings special magistrate is charged with conducting hearings to determine whether an alleged violation of the county code has occurred in order to meet that obligation all parties or their representatives will be allowed an opportunity to be heard on matters relevant to the alleged violations all witnesses offering testimony or presenting evidence will be required to swear or affirm that the testimony they provide is the truth the order of presentation will begin with the county presenting their evidence of the alleged violations and then the respondent shall present his or her case both parties shall have an opportunity to cross-examine all witnesses the special magistrate may question any witness the clerk will announce the names of the cases from the agenda we do not always follow the numerical order that's on the agenda we also had a nine o'clock docket this morning uh which has not finished yet so there's going to be uh some cases before we get to the 1 30 dock docking dock it when you hear your case called please respond by coming to the podium with your representative and or any witnesses to be sworn in when addressing the special magistrate please speak clearly into the microphone any person who decides to appeal the decision of the code enforcement special magistrate with respect to any matter considered at this hearing will need a record of the proceedings and for such purposes may need to ensure that a verbatim record of the proceedings is made which record includes the testimony and evidence upon which the appeal is based record is not provided by pinales county lynette would you call item number two department pcclb matter 22-145 no permit code violation 22-14-1 unlicensed contracting code violation 489.127 1i cease and desist code violation case number clb-mg26-00161 clb-mg26-00162 clb-mg26-00163 citation numbers clb-mg26-00308 clb-mg26-00309 clb-mg26-00310 defendant kevin krasuski notice address kevin krasuski 10408 66th street north pinellas park florida 33782 k.krasuski at yahoo.com and city of clearwater plaintiff's witness attention katherine reese 100 south myrtle street clearwater florida 33756 katherine.reese at myclearwater.com and pcclb investigator n nichols plaintiff's witness pinellas county code enforcement 631 chestnut street clearwater florida 33756 n nichols at pinellas.gov and kirby kriter esquire assistant county attorney for pcclb ceo natasha creeden legal secretary pinellas county attorney's office 315 court street 6th floor clearwater florida 33756 k kriter at pinellas.gov na creeden at pinellas.gov violation address 1417 franklin street clearwater florida 33756 who is here for that case who's appearing for the county good afternoon sir kirby kriter assistant county attorney on behalf of the pinellas county construction licensing board i have his witnesses investigator nichols and then investigator katherine reese and please state your name kevin krzyzewski and your name rosella bartondo would the four of you all accept the attorney please raise your right hand do you swear to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth all right you all may have a seat uh at that front table right there and the county may proceed yes county calls cat reese good afternoon ma'am can you say your name for the record yes inspector katherine reese um also because the defendants know me as cat reese just to make that clear i am that same person and you reference the defendant mr krzyzewski can you tell me about your investigation into this property um yes my this is my area that i deal with permits on april 9th my co-worker took my place to um gather evidence of work that was being done on the property where that i believe inspector nichols will be able to speak more on i had revisited the property may 4th where uh work continued to occur um even after the initial inspection i have since been working with the owners to come in compliance with that stop work order and they have submitted a permit as of friday 8 7 26 it is only in received status at this time and what work did you after you review those photos and review the complaint what work did you notice was being done uh there's masonry to the structure uh doors and a door was installed a complete interior um demo and remodel and drywall a lot of structural work so it was made clear to the owners that they had to get a signed and sealed engineer plans they have done so and submitted that at this time and you said you visited the property on may 4th yes ma'am okay i'm gonna show this i'm gonna show you these photos um this first photo do you recognize it yes and were you seeing here this is where the door was replaced right that is correct okay and that's a fair and accurate representation of what the property looked like when you visited on may 4th yes another angle of that same door correct and then also the um this here has been covered so that is considered considered structural and this yellow placard do you know what this is i believe that is pcclb's stop work order and mine is the one below okay so yours is that is for the city yes and that was did you put that up to that day on may 4th so the yellow placard was already there we both responded back to the property and um posted that day i understand and this is the same property yes and you took this photo to show you know there's trailer here and in your training and experience and your role does that usually indicate that work's being done that does yes this point in time county would ask to move this in as county one composite county one any objection to exhibit one no one will be admitted into evidence thank you already told me this but just so i'm making myself clear um you said you've had conversations what the homework yes they have come into the city of clearwater to come in compliance um it was made clear the full scope of work that would need to be included um again they only submitted that on friday i have not had a chance to review it hasn't even gone through our plan planning department at this time but this is a step in the right direction and then you said that you reviewed some photos from april night yes who are those taken by uh inspector reed ito he is my um he deals with the south end of clearwater we it's split up in two so he provided those to me via email okay upon my return i took over the case all right so you were just out of the office and then okay and um you reviewed these the photos that inspector reto took yes any objection to exhibit two exhibit two will be admitted into evidence thank you and just to illustrate the point we see here pre-dating those may 4 photos there's no floor that is correct did you ever have any conversations with anyone in the pinealas county licensing board about this case or are you aware of how investigator nichols became aware of this um i have conversated in investigator nichols in reference to the case as well as a detective from clearwater has reached out um i have yet to have a conversation with that detective and what that was about that was also just on friday so it is more to it's with the contractor i believe nothing further you got to say all right do you have any questions or cross-examination no all right we do want to talk oh yeah you'll have an opportunity to talk yes now you are okay county calls investigator nichols can you state your name for the record oh yes good afternoon investigator nichols with the pinealas county construction licensing board and as part of that role have you received any um specialized training yes administrative and field training are you've heard a little bit of the testimony today are you familiar with the property we've been discussing i am how did you become aware of this i came aware of this uh from an uh an investigator it'll read he sent a text to my phone notifying me that there is active construction taking place at 1417 franklin street i replied to him that i will go out there first thing in the morning at the time he sent it was late in the afternoon do you recognize this i do and can you describe it for us uh it's basically mr reed informing me of the address and the location showing the vehicle belonging to the owner that there is active construction taking place and i responded to him and this is a fair and accurate copy of the text message that you received from the investigator reed that is correct at this point in time i'd ask to move the sentence county three any objection to exhibit three you said the vehicle was the owner correct i was told by mr reed um okay i will admit the photograph and then you can explain it when you offer your testimony message what was your next steps my next step is um i researched the property appraiser to see who the parcel or the home belonged to and obviously it was um registered under um mr kevin krasowski and that's when i decided to go to the actual property to site to start my investigation i paused you right there where you talked about your research but you went to the property appraisers website i did and is this site address and the relevant documentation what you saw upon your review when you were investigating this case that is correct and this address one four one seven franklin street clearwater florida three three seven five six that's in penhouse county correct it is at this point in time i'd ask to move this in as county fourth any objection to exhibit four exhibit four will be admitted into evidence can you previously testified that your next step was going out to the property yes i did okay and what did you observe once you were out on the property once i uh came upon the property uh first thing i noticed there was several vehicles a truck a dumpster and there were several people working on the site um i made contact i introduced myself showed my badge and informed them why it was here uh there was a specific gentleman that was actually working the property um i basically informed him why i was here and he did not want to identify himself or he did not want to basically give me his information what he did tell me was that he is working for his dad at the property and i asked him do you have the number that's when he basically gave me mr krasowski's phone number i asked him for permission he did give me permission to go inside to see what was being done i photographed the work that was being done inside and came across there were two other uh workers basically working under drywall at that time i informed the gentleman which come to find out now his name is christopher saranovic i informed him that because the work being done requires a permit and must be licensed that all work must ceased and i will be put on a stop work order he basically wanted to know why and i explained to him why because he is not the owner of the house and that he is working but he continued to tell me that he's not working that kevin is working and that he should be back shortly i chose to wait at least up to 30 minutes to see if mr kevin krasowski would come back to the property at that time i was photographing the inside of the house where i saw electrical drywall and other things that was going on 30 minutes past there was no mr krasowski i basically gave mr saranovic at the time did not want to identify my card and and told him to have him touch base with me once i did that i put up a stop work order and asked them that they have to leave the property until there is an actual permit that is in place for them to continue to work okay did you issue citations in this matter so with this i did issue three citations uh one i dismissed uh because i reviewed it with counsel and my um supervisor the the fact that he added a door did violate the stop work order however it was brought to my attention that it could possibly he put the door in to secure his property so with that i dismissed one citation the other citation is working without a permit because when i went there i checked clearwater's inside the city of clearwater i checked their database and no permit was issued at the time i did in fact caught them in the act of working without a permit so a perm a no permit was issued to mr krasowski for not having a permit for working on the property the other citation that was issued was unlicensed contracting due to the fact that the mr christopher saranovic implied that kevin krasowski krasowski and my apologies is the one that's working he's doing all the work inside which i did identify there was work actually going on and he did not want to take credit for the work even though he was in there working so the citation was issued to the homeowner because he is responsible for the inside and the outside of the property it's his property so because of that he was issued two citations which citation has been dismissed yes sir it's ending in zero zero three one zero okay so remaining we have zero zero three zero nine 20 under 22 14 one unlicensed contracting engaging in carpentry framing drywall installation at a property in pinellas county and the photos show and then your testimony you described to us that you physically observed yes i physically and i also have different photos if county or council doesn't have it actually showing them working on the inside of the property and then in zero i mean three zero eight cited or 22 14 five unlicensed contract working without a permit by engaging in a residential renovation at a property in pinellas county um and you observed that as well correct and like you said the door was put in after the stop work order was issued but because of securing the property the decision was made to dismiss that case correct what was your next step so you checked city of clearwater you saw there was no permits what did you do next so i attempted to contact mr kevin krasowski on several accounts um haven't heard back from him so i attempted a second contact have not heard back from him a week later i contacted him a third time mr krasowski did pick up think he was out of town at the time i informed him that a stop work order was issued to the house i asked him several questions about what work was going on he did tell me that they were remodeling um to my knowledge i believe i asked him who was the gentleman inside working because he was identifying himself as his son even though he didn't give me his information i cannot speak to what he told me today um i don't know if he said that it was his son or someone but he did not identify that person as mr saranovic he said he once he get back into town that the first thing he was going to do is apply for a permit and that he was going to hire a licensed contractor to basically remodel the house during that period of time i continued to drive by the property to make sure that the stop work order was in place no one was working and i continued to check clearwater's database to see if a permit was issued the only permit i saw was maybe a month later they did an electric permit for to do electrician work but nothing was done at the house at the time as part of your investigation once you identified the homeowner as mr krasinski did you ever look on the division of corporations on this website i did um i was curious because i looked originally when i saw the property appraiser i saw when the house was purchased was a few years ago and i was like he's now starting to work so my job as an investigator was to check to see not that property but to run his name to see how many properties he had during that time it turned up several properties that mr kevin krasinski owns but right now the only one that is being remodeled is the 1417 franklin street house in clearwater i'll show you this document is this a fair and accurate representation of the research that you did from sunbiz yes it is at this point in time i asked to move this in as county five any objection to exhibit five exhibit five will be admitted into evidence investigator nichols um did you ever inquire into the status of whether or not mr krasinski had a license i did a lot of times some homeowners may indeed have a license so what i did was i checked our database not just our database i checked the state the county and a google search uh during that search i did not find that mr krasowski my apologies if i messed your name up krasowski he did not hold any license through dbr the state or through the county uh so with that i know that mr krasowski was an unlicensed contractor so i did check the databases is there an affidavit regarding this i did is this a fair and accurate representation of the affidavit you prepared it is and it shows that there was no license um and you did a license search from april 1st 2025 to may 19th 2026 correct at this point in time i'd move asked to move this into evidences county six any objection to exhibit six no no the six will be admitted into evidence investigator nichols tell me how you came to learn uh the person that was doing the works true identity so i was notified by one of my investigators in the office clearwater pd or clearwater investigations uh there was something going on where i was informed that the homeowner mr kevin krasowski have some type of complaint against a contractor and uh this contractor is mr christopher saranovic i spoke to my my my investigator in the office and he brought me up to um up to par with what was going on with this gentleman who is a sub who was a contractor um we kind of did like a background and saw that he basically is an unlicensed contractor who is just basically working in this house um i did not get the chance to talk to mr kevin krasowski about this contractor but again as i stated in my testimony earlier that i did ask who this gentleman was working and i didn't was never given an actual answer of who he is so without an identification without me knowing who it is um mostly the homeowner would be responsible for anything that's taking place on that property i don't have anything for that right you have any questions of investigator nichols yes your honor when you showed up on the property how many people were actually working at the house with christopher including christopher it was three christopher and two other gentlemen did you have pictures of them or they were part of my job as photographing for evidence they were captured inside the photograph so you never actually saw me working whatsoever on the house i did not see you there however i was told that you were here working on the site and that you would be back in 30 minutes and i did take that 30 minutes to wait to see if you would come back according to mr christopher and because you didn't show or whatever information to give i couldn't spend my time just waiting for you so i left i understand i must just missed you he did he ever pick up the phone and call anybody in your presence yes he did he attempted to contact you i believe however i don't believe you answered so at that time i asked him can i have your number so that i called you to get the information i needed well on my phone he did call me okay he must have walked away and he told me not to come here and of course i was 30 minutes away i did come there he must have walked away and called me because i got on my phone documented that he he called me maybe not in your presence um and that's all that that's all i have to say so you didn't see him pick up the phone later and call anybody and you didn't get the ids of the other two people working on the other two i attempted to contact them uh not contact i attempted to communicate with them and both gentlemen did not speak english and at that time i did not bother them however i told mr christopher that the stop work order is in place everybody had to leave and i gave the motion for them that they must leave and i showed up at a perfect time documentation well we'll get to your case in a minute any other questions of investigator nichols um do you have any questions no because no so he would not give his id or his name or nothing that is correct correct but you have thank you very much anything else from the county all right now it's your opportunity to present your your case so oh you're okay well i actually have a notice of commencement i'm sorry is are they calling mr nichols is there a witness no i think you're done yeah you may have a seat subject to be recalled if necessary thank you okay you may proceed thank you um i have a notice of commencement um unfortunately i don't see a date on it but it does have christopher's information on it he he told us he was licensed he wasn't we actually gave him i actually have the invoices ten thousand two hundred and fifty dollars fifteen thousand one hundred and fifty dollars see another one for ten thousand but um i think that's a duplicate i'm not sure eighteen hundred um twenty eight fifty i have a cancelled check thirty five hundred fifty five hundred five thousand eight hundred and seventy nine dollars these are all made out to him to chris fifteen thousand one hundred and fifty oh we do so that's the fifteen thousand the ten thousand these are all cancelled checks that's not including the cash that he took from us and he indicated when we did the initial uh notice of commencement it actually states here he said he was licensed so he showed us a license and it was just electrical it wasn't a contractor's license and kevin isn't too familiar with that and i never saw it so on the noc it actually says the the 200 and a panel outlet switches flooring and windows which he's not licensed to do that and he put it on the noc and i i called the city when he started the work i personally called the city i kept checking online to see if there was a permit because i'm like wait you're you're doing all this work and i know that you need a permit and i kept calling the city saying is there a permit pull they're like no i'm like and when i would question chris he would say they it's in review they don't know what they're talking about i'm like where's a copy of the plans you know because i've been a realtor i'm a realtor so i kind of know a little bit of you know how it goes so no plans after we gave him all this money he wasn't licensed all of this happened and we just spent another ten thousand with the real plans the ones that we should have had from the beginning with a licensed contractor and that's why that's why um cat said that it actually that uh came in it's in for review they finally submitted it to the city yesterday yesterday i think christy did it yesterday yes and glenn so after we paid him all this money he disappeared he's he's gone we actually went to the state attorney's office and we have a case number they did take the case they said he's habitual he's this is what he does um he is under investigation and he's like i said there he's been the city of the police department of the state i guess to see if because he's habitual this is what he does how he makes his living and we were one of his victims cross-examination do you want to cancel taxes as like uh let's let's go ahead and get him in the file yes i have a can i approach i'll grab the stamp okay i have a business card and his driver's license right here that he presented us when he first started they're all lies i was going to ask about that so but i do you want to look at that does your honor want the invoices that's a composite yeah um but we need to talk one at a time right um if i could take these from you yeah i'm going to give you i was looking for the notice of commencement also it's a little like not so okay let's start let's start with the notice of commencement okay where it states that he's and so the social magistrate can see what we have on the seal right here so we're just going to do one document at a time okay um so this is the notice from the thing you were talking about mm-hmm and where he also adds flooring and windows and i can't make that out i think this is drywall oh yeah you're right it does say drywall flooring windows well it turns out that this noc was only supposed to be supposedly electric and then he started ripping the house apart because he said oh no i have my contractor's license too so okay you got your contractor's license but little did we know that he did not and i'm not nitpicking you i'm just i'm just reading it with you is that's fine his name anywhere around here yeah uh no it's just he has um the best power that's what he uses on everything okay and would you like this to be part of the court record sure i think that is asking to move this into evidence it will be received into evidence one yes defendants exhibit one won't that help with the the let's just get the document okay we talked about the payment to him let's look at these checks the first one is check 5075 do you recognize that yeah how do you recognize it it's from our it goes to well it doesn't have chris's name he put it in the company so you wrote this check kevin did kevin did you you recognize the check yes is it a fair and accurate copy of the check that you wrote absolutely all right check 5072 same questions do you recognize this check is that a check you wrote to mr sanovick did you know his identity at this point in time no okay how did you come to meet mr sanovick kevin was friends with his family with chris's family um because we have the car lot they have purchased vehicles from us they were upstanding amazing citizens and i guess chris happens to be the bad apple of the family from what what the dad explained to kevin yeah um about 15 years ago him and three they have three boys they come into the car lot together this one is chris okay they would come in and buy cars off and off for 15 years always perfect paid on time everything is perfect well i had no idea that chris came in mind hey how's it going i haven't been here so long with my dad and blah blah blah build a relationship you know because he's already been there with so i had no idea his dad and the two other brothers never talked to him and then once i told him that his dad right when we're into this mess i said oh your other son came by here he's doing some work the dad and the son both said you're getting screwed okay his own dad don't speak to him i could go on and on about other stories since then but i think our time is that very valuable so so you knew what you knew the family and then that's how i got this little trust yeah all right let's move on to invoice do you recognize this is that a fair and accurate copy of the invoice you received for eighteen hundred dollars oh i'm sorry this is for different property i apologize i apologize all right this one okay this one says address one four one seven correct and that looks like that invoices for ten thousand is that a fair it's actually twenty nine thousand twenty nine thousand is that a fair and accurate copy of the invoice you received yes all right and here's another invoice for address one four one seven do you recognize that yep all right for fifteen thousand and here's another one fourteen one five that's your address you recognize that okay here's check five one zero three see it actually says service location it's like why would we be charging this much money to do you know a little power right yeah here you know his name by now right i don't know why this one was in his name and not under the company i'm not sure see that was well he talked me in to go to the bank and cash a check for him so he could pay his employees on friday oh yeah that's right i remember that all right same questions for check five one zero one yep five one zero zero yep five zero seven eight yes five zero eight two yes i believe that this defendant wants us in evidence as defendant two defendant two will be admitted into evidence when did you go to the state attorney's office uh oh it's a couple weeks two three weeks ago i actually have a case number i believe you we actually went to the police department the police department not the state department okay the police department detective billings is handling it and he ran his record uh said he can't believe with his record he's only just got out of prison two years ago back to the same thing and he's got the packet ready and it says it'll take two to six months and that it really looks good but he has to submit it to the state or some prosecuting attorney or something like that i'm not real but he says it looks really really good he calls once in a while once you realized that he wasn't licensed did you fire him absolutely that the day the day that he called me with mr nichols over there the exact same day um i did more than that but the exact same day um he said on the phone exactly what mr nichols had he said tell him i'm your son if he calls you and i said i will never do that ever you know and from that day on and that's all all the things um on the board and everything it's like wow you know it's like you know i asked him for the architect plans and everything he had me because when he went there he kind of had me in a bad mind because there's no way i could do that kind of work you know because we need a contractor and um kind of he had me so many things that he did like i would show up and there'd be a plumber there and he'd be on the phone well if you don't pay this guy's sixty five hundred dollars right now he's gonna walk away and can't pull the permit you know this is chris okay everything points back to chris that's probably going to be in a lot of trouble down the road through detective billings um let's have one more question did you ever try and get in contact with investigator nichols um after chris told you not to show up i believe i talked to him on the phone when i was going there okay and then that was pretty much about it i just everything was just like done i can't really remember remember one conversation we had when i was going to get back with him and i believe i left a couple messages so mr the investigator nichols ever asked you for the contractor's name you know i don't really recall okay um because um i went to catherine in their office and they were with me and i said what can we do about this and we showed catherine the paperwork and catherine said she won't get involved with the people um that has a license so i guess he had some kind of electrical license she said we only get with them non-licensed people to press charges in in their office okay but anyway so i decided to go to clearwater police and let them handle it i didn't know what else to do i could hire an attorney but i'm i'm hurting right now so there's the clearwater i don't have any further questions i know this was like an unusual presentation so i don't want to get in the middle of there all right anything else from the county all right we'll go to closing arguments county may go first yes your honor there's two citations before you um this case is sympathetic however investigator nichols really did what he was supposed to do miss reese did what she was supposed to do so without knowing who to cite these cite these type of violations are going to run rampant with the information available after due diligence and investigation this work happened there's no testimony that or debate that this work didn't happen and it was by an unlicensed contractor i understand that there's some you know law enforcement concerns but what's before this court today is pinellas county code violation 22 14 5 and pinellas county code violation 22 14 1. all right sir this is your opportunity to make a closing statement thank you your honor when we first started this project back in january we knew that we had to have a general contractor there's no questions about that at the time no way would i ever tackle some the job that we're doing there without a contractor i know better rose out on those better okay so we proceeded to hire one and i think i put proof that we had almost a contractor maybe with the electrical license but he wasn't and he put me under the wool and i know ignorance is not that but comment are really really good and he seems like he's doing it over and over again i'm doing everything i can to probably stop this with the clearwater police um and i know aiders isn't in the law but i just got taken on this and like i said i knew better now we're proceeding with the diff starting all over base one with the architect working with cat which they've been really easy to work with the whole city has been really good with to us uh and the investigator has been good but you know i've been taken and what can i say i i feel i want a little bit of lenience to the courts if possible because i am working with them to get this guy justice that's all okay thank you thank you okay i'm going to find as to citation clb-ct26-00308 that the evidence does not support that there's a violation of code section 22-14 sub 1 and we'll dismiss the citation clb-ct26-00309 i'm going to find that there's insufficient evidence that there was a violation of section 22-14 subsection 1 and we'll dismiss that citation would you please read uh item number three department pcclb matter 22-14-8 subcontracting subcontracting code violation case number clb-mg 26-2026-00182 citation number clb-ct26-00336 defendant pavel rostin notice address pavel rostin 1333 hamlin drive clearwater florida 33764 pmgcholmes at gmail.com and pavel rostin registered agent for pnm general construction inc 1333 hamlin drive clearwater florida 33764 and city of seminole attention todd myers plaintiff's witness 9199 113th street north seminole florida 33772 t myers at myseminole.com and pcclb investigator n nichols plaintiff's witness pinellas county code enforcement 631 chestnut street clearwater florida 33756 n nichols at pinellas.gov and kirby kryder esquire assistant county attorney for pcclb ceo natasha creeden legal secretary pinellas county attorney's office 315 court street sixth floor clearwater florida 33756 k kryder at pinellas.gov n a creeden at pinellas.gov violation address 11528 north 107th seminole florida 33778 all right who's here for the county good afternoon sir kirby kryder on behalf of the pinellas county licensing board my witness is here with me investigator norman nichols your name paul rostin sir igor borado witness mr igor if you can spell your last name please m-u-r-a-r-u would the three of you please raise your right hand do you swear to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth all right you two may have a seat and the county may proceed thank you good afternoon again investigator can you say your name for the record for this case please yes uh good afternoon my name is investigator norman nichols how are you employed i'm employed with the pinellas county construction licensing board and as part of that employment did you receive any specialized training and do you have any relevant experience yes uh administrative and field training and are you familiar with the case that was just announced i am so how did this case come to your attention did you receive a complaint from an outside source yes so i received or pcclb received a complaint from the city of seminal in regards to possible license fraud the way it was sent to us it said that we had a permit application come in from euro choice windows and the contractor listed in that permit application does not appear to be tied with the company so that's when i started my investigation i was referring to out loud but is this email related to that it is that is correct hi jamie that's an investigator pageant you also work with yes at this point i asked me this is county one any objection to uh county's exhibit number one exhibit one will be admitted into evidence all right what did you do next so my next step once i received the uh the initial uh information from the city of seminal what i did was i contacted seminal to get more information because obviously their concern was license fraud so my job as an investigator is to get the information the information i got from the city of seminal were permits once i get the permits i then proceeded to pull a property appraiser address to see who the house it um who is the ownership of the house property appraiser's address website 107th avenue seminal florida and then owner name alexander pentalee pentalee yes is that a fair and accurate representation of what your search found that is correct at this point in time i are in this this address in pinellas county yes it is at this point in time i had asked to move this in as county two any objection to exhibit two no exhibit two will be admitted into evidence what did you do next so once i identified the property owner um the next step i did was once i got a copy of the permits from the city i went to the site the address i knocked at the door a tenant came to the door i introduced myself they were able to tell me that work was done to the window but they're not the owners the owner the tenant was able to provide me the telephone number to the actual owner of the house at that time i photographed the outside of the the outside of the of the building i went back to my office and i called the owner and i spoke to hey allah pentaleef and basically introduced myself and asked her a few questions and tell us more about that conversation you had with the homeowner so at first she wasn't sure why i was calling what this was about um and i first i had to send her an email to confirm my credential to let her know that i am from the pinellas county licensing board investigating a complaint from the city she contacted me and then she basically told me that the business which is euro windows and doors was the contractor who she basically signed a contract with they came out to the house and they changed the windows and i asked her if she had any documents anything that would be helpful to my investigation she later sent me a copy of the invoices they provided to her that right there is when i decided to contact the business itself okay i'm going to pause you there for a minute you said she provided an invoice to you that is correct you recognize this i do is this the invoice that you received from the homeowner it is you see up top euro choice windows and doors that is correct the date on this invoice is january 26 2026 yes okay and balance due on installation 3 184 that is correct i highlight that and i'll get into when you ask is it important here for this case that euro chase installed the doors it is yes can you tell us why so with this i asked the homeowner who actually did the work that was my concern she said that the euro choice windows the owner igor marusco was the one who came to the house to do the installation at that time i contacted the business which is euro choice windows and door because if you go on the website their number is on there so i contacted them call that number and when the person picked up i was actually wasn't speaking to igor i was actually speaking to a pavel rostine he didn't introduce he didn't want to at the time i thought he was the owner of the windows but he basically said that he is the contractor and it was confusing because i was like are you the owner and he said no so i was like okay so i just got some information and hang up my next call was to the contractor when i contacted the contractor it was igor who picked up so he picked up for windows indoors and he picked up for for himself when i asked him what are you what license do you hold he said he is the owner of pgm i'm sorry p&m contractors and i was like okay i'm getting confused here what's really going on because there was something not sitting right with me so naturally once i was finished with him i went back to the city of seminal and i sat with the permit text and we went over the permits there's three sets of permits that allegedly the win uh euro choice windows indoor apply for the first one they apply for they apply for it using their business but mr pan paddles license number it was confusing so they contacted me again that they business tried to attempt to pull another permit same thing euro choice windows and door it's trying to pull a permit using pavel's license number and it's obviously it's in the permit so with that i was able to talk to mr pavel and he was like what is the problem and i was like well the problem is i'm i'm not understanding what's going on here and he basically said that oh no we we we work together and it was getting more confusing i apologize i before i move on i would like to introduce what's on the seal as county three any objection to county three uh county's exhibit three no exhibit three will be admitted into evidence this case is a little bit more factually complicated than some of the ones we see so i just want to make sure that i'm understanding so you're trying to contact euro choice right correct that's when you call them it's not who you were anticipating picking up correct and then when you contact the other business pnm it's the reverse correct it's two different numbers we have euro choice window has their business number when i call that pavel the contractor picked up when i call pavel his phone number he picked up so i knew something was going on there and then i was able to speak to mr pavel and i would ask him what's going on he gave me a an explanation and i said why don't you pull the permit in your name under your business if you're alleging you are doing the work in the end and i told him that you have to pull a permit no if ands or buts so in the end he decided to pull the third permit under his business pnm business contract or something with his license that was pulled on 6-1 2026 when technically the work was done back in january of 2026 so we're looking at a six months gap between the work and pulling the permit so even if there was an innocent reason for the misnumbering of the license on the on the permit applications it's still well after the fact that the person that's saying did the work actually got the permit correct okay let me show you some photos photos from may six correct how did you get these photos so again i visited the site when i talked to the tenant this is just basically the outside window in the cartilage i was able to take pictures of the new windows that was installed and both mr pavel and igor did admit that there are new windows installed more pictures of the windows correct the same house just from a distant view showing that correct that is correct at this point i asked to move this into evidence as composite four any objection to exhibit four no exhibit four will be admitted into evidence okay so eventually you wrote the citation we're here about today yes there's one well there's one citation i wrote for the citation basically is for uh subcontracting to a unlicensed contractor the reason for that citation is because even mr pavel said that he basically hired um the windows company the window choice to do the work the problem was that he decided to pull the permit at the end and the reason for that is because when the windows was installed by the business the unlicensed contractor that unlicensed contractor is requesting the remaining balance of the money because of that miss pantaleva said she wants a copy of the permit and she wants a copy of the inspection and that's where the business decided that they're going to apply for the permit because without that she is not going to pay the remaining balance so she sent a letter again as i i asked her who did the work she said the business who did the work and she sent me a copy of the uh statement where uh she paid the windows and door the money to do the work she basically paid them ask if she know the contractor pavel she said she's never heard of him the only person she's dealt with was igor morowski because that's the person she met with that's the one she signed the contract with that's the one she went into business with and that's the person who did the windows for your investigation did you look up both p m general construction and euro choice on the division of corporations website yes all right series one at a time first one is pages the first entity we'll talk about is p m general construction do you recognize this document yes i do okay and it's showing us that the registered agent is mr rossian for p m general construction that is correct at this point of time i'd ask to move this in as county five any objection to exhibit five exhibit five will be admitted into evidence investigator nichols did you perform the same type of search regarding your choice and windows i did and this is a fair and accurate representation of what your research revealed yes it is and we see here your choice windows and doors registered agent yeah that is correct this point of time i'd ask to move this in as county exhibit six any objection to exhibit six exhibit six will be admitted into evidence okay so at a certain point the homeowner is saying hey before i give you all this money i need permit i need some proof like what's going on here that is correct did you ever receive proof of that payment from the homeowner so originally i wanted her to come and testify but there was an issue why but she was able to provide me a credit card copy of the receipt where she actually paid the windows company to do the actual work she sent me a copy over showing the amount not all the full amount just half amount that she paid to get the work done and the remaining balance would be transferred to the business once the permit and inspection was done and she sent you this uh via email she did all right i'm going to show you a couple of documents so not a lot in the body of this email but from agent pantalee that's the homeowner correct that is correct all right that shows a little preview of what she sent you yes attached let me see here and is this area says 129 2026 is the date and then we see your choice windows is this the transaction that you're talking about you sent proof of correct and again we see that it was paid a euro choice and not to pnm correct and to put the dates in order the contract invoice originally was for 127 they both signed it on 128 and the money came out on 129th and the second page is just a fuller picture it's a full yes but the relevant transaction is that is correct at this point in time i'd ask to move this in as county composite seven any objection to exhibit seven exhibit seven will be admitted into evidence did you perform a license check for your choice windows indoors i did okay and uh what did that reveal basically check dbpr in our system they see if they have a county license and at no time did it show that um euro choice windows endure um holds any type of licensing for installation or for any type of contracting and i do see that there this is a typo here but just for the record windows correct we're all talking about the same person correct okay and you that search showed that there was no evidence of the license for the dates of april 1st 2025 to june 1st 2026 is that correct that is correct and it's in that time frame when the work was done that is correct at this point in time i'd ask to move this into evidence is county eight any objection to exhibit eight exhibit eight will be admitted into evidence did you search any other licenses or any other companies yes so after euro choice i definitely searched to see if mr pavel rosteen hold a license and putting his his name in into the state database it did come back that he holds a um a sort of certification for being a contractor i did this is a fair and accurate copy of the affidavit you prepared that is correct at this point in time i'd ask to move this into evidence this county exhibit nine any objection to exhibit nine exhibit nine will be admitted into evidence so basically at this point in time you've done your investigation is it fair to say that it was evident to you that your choice was the people that installed the windows that is correct and part of that is based on kind of the red flags about the error or the wrong license number on the permits a multiple of them correct the payment that you the proof of payment you received from the homeowner correct the homeowner telling you she has no idea who this other person is that is correct so at this point in time uh did you that's when you issued the citation yes that is correct yes investigator nichols at any point in time during this investigation did you ask anybody for proof that just show me who's doing the work prove to me who's actually doing the work yes so everything leads to euro choice windows indoor from the invoice the payment the uh communications with the homeowner and the communication with the city everything shows that euro choice and windows did the installation i asked pavel rosteen because he's a legend oh i did the work and it's like is there anything documents receipt anything that you can give me proving that you actually did the work collected money paperwork wise and as of today i have yet to receive anything showing that an invoice anything besides the permit showing he pulled the permit for the business no paperwork no documents no invoice from mr pavel's side showing that he did the work because most of the times the contractor shows that he writes the receipt to the homeowner she would sign it saying the work was done so no evidence from the actual license holder showing he did the work nothing further all right do you have any questions for investigator what about invoice today if you're speaking there no i'm i'm talking to the person who's involved case yeah um i'm sorry my english is not so perfect so uh could you apologize me but um if if you can come up to the mic i'm sorry yeah my question to you if um i'm not in the contract with the owner owner doesn't know me how come i hire eager or his company to do work for me if she signed they signed contract with him and he is a sale representative who did all this sell it's his sale and this price he she paid it's including all windows right windows material cost everything and including installation and she paid him as a company who sells the windows for her and who has agreement with her so how come i was involved in hiring him as subcontractor for me from understanding the way it come in i'm going off the city of seminal windows yours and door was using mr pavel's license number to get the permit because that didn't work we've seen enough of this case where we see a lot of license lending and we notice that the license holder will normally pull the permit for the business so that it looks on record that the license holder is the one who's doing the work but because of this and this is something i've been following for a while touching base with the city of seminal meeting with the homeowner talking to our office and from just experience we see that a lot of unlicensed contractors would use a license contractor just to get the permit pulled so that they can do the work now in mr pavel's case at first i was being deceitful by both companies because at first they didn't want to tell me who was who and in the end he said what's the difference that was basically is what what's the difference does it matter and i said it does because if you are the contractor the contractor must have a contract with the homeowner because in the end if something needs to be repaired if there is an issue where you have to go after there has to be accountability on the person who holds the license with this case because we have no well because we did not have the permit in place at the time miss pantalivo was concerned that she was being tricked or out of money because she paid for something still no inspection has been done she's still waiting for the inspection because when you do windows it's structural her concern is if somebody's living there if we have a strong wind and that window falls out who takes the accountability which should be the licensed contractor who performed the work in this case she assured me that it was euro choice windows who actually did the work on license contractor who did the work now he used his license number to pull the permit through the city of seminal so that if something basically happens or it failed inspection the city is going to go after mr pavel because he's the license holder even though allegedly the euro windows are the ones who did the job do you have any evidence that his employers or he himself did the job except for the that conversation with the owner well with the exception with the homeowner and from the city saying that euro is the one who's trying to pull the permit using your license number i did not we sometimes we don't witness all the time when a complaint comes and we don't witness all the time that you or him that did the work we have documents we have pictures we have enough evidence via paperwork and documents showing that everything leads to euro choice windows that they did the door yeah i explained why it leads to to his company because he's selling windows and he is the main company who did this project but he hired me to install windows and it's small portion for the for the money and on the permit there is my name and my license number and we just put the euro choice name over there just for office assist me with permit purple work and they were listed so their office could communicate regarding the permit and obtain permit documentation and that administrative designation was never intended to identify euro choice as a license contractor and on all applications there is a applicant it's my name paul rosten and whereas the license number it's my license so um i did the work and i never hire your choice to do this job or to use my license uh to to do the they don't have an installer actually they hire me and another contractors to do this so and we applied for permit uh first of all we apply in largo because it was largo address they told us it's not largo so we tried to do it in pinellas county they told us no it's not pinellas county so we tried to do it seminal city seminal county and then they told us no it's not seminal county it's seminal city so it's a lot of misunderstanding where to apply for permit first but we applied for permit and as it was the time they call mr nicholas it was on beginning of may and the issue permit first permit the issue but they call it back because all this started misunderstanding why it's company name is not my company name but his company name but uh we didn't try to hide anything because i put my name uh and my license number so it was not his name can i help him yeah he is he can call you as a witness okay when he when he's done because of some difficulty english so i can yeah make sure that if it's possible just let's finish what we're doing now which is asking questions of the investigator you may be done with that i'm not sure okay so my question is uh except for the uh we didn't contact uh i installed windows for windows for eurochoice windows not for the owner this was the i i don't need to contact owner he contact me and asked me could you could i install install many jobs for him so i don't need to know owner and especially it was a property uh rented out it's not was his uh and we have the uh notice of commitments signed by alexander not his wife which he was talking to and this is listed my name pavel rosten and euro choice windows so uh here where i was the guy who performed the job and also on yeah yeah i just telling that uh uh on notice of commitments i was listed as a guy who is responsible for this job yeah okay you have any more questions to the investigator before you present your case uh probably not okay anything else from the county okay uh mr rushton this is your opportunity to present your case and you can call uh eager your witness yeah so um i did not subcontract your choice to install the window eurochoice actually subcontract me to install the windows because it was his cell he sells those windows and he just hired me to install them and i never allowed eurochoice to use my contractor license my name and my license number clearly was on the application and eurochoice was listed only as an agent company assistant with the permit purple work because he has a secretary who helped me to apply for this permit and there was not attempt to hide anything so we just did whatever need to be done there is no subcontractor allowing the pm hiring eurochoice to perform installation he doesn't have employees um my my employer my um installers uh this my supervision were implying this job we did the installation uh there is no evidence that i have eurochoice permission to replace represent itself as a license contractor under my license i never did it and the permit paperwork itself support my position i have my name and my license on the permit and also we have invoice and it was sent to mr nicholas on january 17th that clearly showed that i built my company built his company for installation and we have proof that money was received so anything further yeah so i just try to ask ah and also uh we got two two citations and i sent that email asking to combine them together so another citation was to for pnm general construction allowing his license to be used by unlicensed contractor to perform window installation in pinellas county so it's for the same matter and they told me it's going to be combined to one case that's not scheduled today is it caroline mr there's another citation but it's not for mr okay it's same matter and i got a mail from county saying that it's going to be combined i got that email from you can i read it give us one second mr russian because oh i'm sorry yeah is what's on the screen the citation you're talking about yes okay got you and i got i can put the answer for email here too should have been with your packet magistrate and i'll print it out and to it's writer and to investigator nichols we sent that email on july 21st also stating that council have you seen this this email i um i missed the email but i am prepared to proceed on the other citation today um i would ask for permission to recall investigator nichols it was my mistake i didn't realize that he was contesting both citations so i apologize for missing the email okay um could i just make sure i'm talking about the same email yeah okay we're talking now about a citation that's not on the agenda it's clc-ct26-00403 and uh as i understand it you didn't request a hearing for that one because some confusion on your part about there being more than one citation and you're requesting me to allow a late request for a hearing correct okay that will be granted and um the county may proceed on that citation thank you county calls investigator nichols investigator nichols the other citation that wasn't on the agenda today is ct-26-00403 written under 2214-1 and it says pnm general construction allowing his license to be used by an unlicensed contractor to perform window installation in panellas county florida so it appears to me that these citations kind of go hand in hand that is correct and would you fairly categorize citation in 00403 as what's known as license lending that is correct so this citation comes into play once i reviewed the three permits the second permit that was attempted to be applied through the city of seminole again stated that it uses euro windows and choice with mr pavel's license number on it okay once i confirmed with the city of seminole and i looked at it again it appears that mr pavel was lending his license to euro choice windows and doors so that they're able to pull a permit to get the inspection done so this citation was written for basically knowledge of mr pavel lending his license to unlicensed contractor so the first citation that we already discussed is saying this was an unlicensed subcontractor that did the work correct subcontracted to a unlicensed contractor to do the work which is separate but related to license lending correct okay and again we talked about a little bit before but you said that the multiple permits all listing euro choice with mr rostine's information is a red flag and in your training and experience is and can be indicative of license lending that is correct and this was obviously with the knowledge of seminal they um found this to be some type of license fraud license lending hence why it was forward to our office for investigation so this wasn't a homeowner saying just you know something doesn't feel right here this was building officials of the city of seminal people that look at this all day long saying red flags and that's how it came to your attention to investigate further correct and are you aware of any evidence showing that euro choice received money from mr rostine that is correct um again the statement the uh testimony from the homeowner paid euro choice windows for the installation to do the work to install the windows so euro choice window received the money and they were the one allegedly that did the work according to the homeowner and how the permit were attempted during the application process and you're not aware or haven't been provided even though you've asked we've heard today like oh no like i hired him to do the work or or whatever that situation is the only payment that we have any evidence of is from the homeowner to euro choice that is correct nothing further okay any further questions mr rostine of the investigator the lady asked you if you have any proof that my company paid his company so earlier in court today during our intermission mr igor provided me with a document that was insufficient evidence for my part to say that that this was payment from um euro windows to mr igor the date on there is kinda it shows a date of transfer money says 7 28 that money was transferred for installation process obviously this is something that does not have her signature on the original document we introduced where when euro windows and choice have the her signature and mr igor signature show in purchase and installation she paid them via credit card and they are asking for the remaining deposit hence where we are today why they applied for the permit six months ago all right anything further well yeah you you can call him as a witness oh no no you can't cross-examine him you can testify yourself okay thank you you may call him uh igor as a witness and continue your testimony if you want let me let me show you some documents this invoice was sent to mr nicholas uh in june by email and clear says my company built his company for installation so the owner didn't sign different contracts for the installation and for the windows they just signed windows purchase and euro choice hire me to install the windows and euro choice the one who paid me not the owner because everything was included in one bill and whatever mr nicholas was talking about the picture of the credit card it was deposit for the windows to be ordered and then the rest of the money should be paid when installation is done and we have proof here and why the difference in the uh dates because usually he paid me whenever it's has inspection passed but in this particular case we have so many different issues with all this uh things so he just paid me recently because the installation was done while ago even we have inspection only tomorrow schedule for tomorrow and it was not three uh three permits application it was only two permit application first of all uh his secretary put my name and my license and his company name and they charge us and it was issued but then it was called back and they told us we need to apply as uh correctly to put my company name so that what we did so we didn't try to hide anything it just was done by by the city they pull back the permit this was done not right with my name and my permit and his company name and then we just put my company name instead that was uh all right anything further and also i would like to show this uh notice of commitment it says my name paul roston two with uh with uh uh evidence numbers the defendant well number 10 i'm sorry oh okay yes we'll admit the notice of commencement in as exhibit one one and we will admit the invoice that he just showed me as exhibit two it's original uh so can we keep it uh yeah but they'll they'll make a copy of it yeah we've got a copier up here and so should we do a copy before yeah yeah just yeah you can do the copy and then do the stamp so invoice it's uh uh exhibit number two payment so should we put another one for payment it's a record record payment record well we're not going to make any records they either exist right now or they don't and also here you can see that on application is paul roston my name his company name and also our phone numbers we'll admit that is exhibit three do you guys need a copy of this as well no this is okay so this is the original and we made a copy of it no we made a copy that's yours yeah thank you anything further can i call the witness yes yeah thank you sir can i get the opportunity to cross on those documents uh yeah okay so not when he was investigating not when he said hey what's going on here you didn't have this invoice then well he asked me to to send it and we send it to him when we communicate well you sent okay that was after he issued you the citations yeah okay i'm going to show you what was introduced as county exhibit one uh and we see again date accepted january 27th yeah so you didn't bill this person for this almost two thousand dollars it took you three months to do this this one was originally signed with the owner and euro choice and it was time for ordering windows and them to be delivered this is why i'm sorry it's not your turn this is why it takes so much time okay so why did it take so much time because it was a original contract from beginning when they just decided to do this job this purchase on january 27th yes okay but i stated this was prepared april 28th your invoice yeah okay for two thousand dollars sir okay i i understand what the uh issue is here okay thank you and i just want to take a look at i'm not going to belabor it because i think you understand what i'm trying to drive at but it's just from an alert notification is that how you normally send money to this person you do business with all the time i didn't send him money he sent mine to me okay same question that's normally how you guys transact all right so it seems like a pretty quick transaction but i'm understanding you said you did it in april i'm going to return these to evidence thank you all right you may call your witness yeah thank you everybody just want to summarize everything we work very hard in our remodeling construction industry yeah in this project only five windows installation replacement size to size nothing structural change yeah because mr nichols say it's a structural not it's a size to size replacement five windows so what happened we uh the address showing on uh title largo we was registered we tried to apply for in larga for permit yeah when we was registered when i start to when we start to make a permit yeah they said it's not largo then they said ask pineellas we call pineella pineella said seminole seminole and my assistant who made all this stuff yeah permit he understand it's a seminole county he googled she she googled and she applied start to register with seminole county then later when it became to apply for permit we understand it's a county it's behind of orlando somewhere north yeah then i call again pineella they said it's city of seminole so all these small departments make our heart in our life hard yeah and you know this law mr desantis our governor make uh uh 750 000 750 uh 750 uh dollars yeah seven seven seven seven seven seven thousand five hundred below require no permit yeah including windows and doors from first july so we didn't hide again so we apply for permit in city of seminole and then the lady from city of seminole as i understand i spoke with my assistant she said you have to apply direct for pavel so the the person who apply for permit didn't know it's kind of some something wrong because we we posted license we posted his name and we posted our company like eurochoice so nothing honey nothing unlicensed activity so in the windows was installed after we apply second time for permit for direct for pavel roshten license never was three permit like mr nickel said he said three permit was only two pyramid in city of seminole one permit was approved we paid 177 dollars then they decline return payment and said you need to apply for for palm pavel roshten company company so too many rules and we are playing contractors confused sometimes yeah so i i don't see any unlicensed activity so far so far we have a permit we installed the light uh we install windows and we have uh inspection tomorrow so everything will be finalized it's not permit after inspection it's just a regular permit so and mr nichols mr nichols know about this project from city of seminole not from body somebody else nobody hiding nobody everything was posted license notice of commencement notice of approval all documents was supplied that's that what i what i have to do say okay thank you thank you thank you all right i'm going to find that as to uh citation clb dash ct26 dash 00336 that there is evidence of a violation of section code section 22-14 subsection 8 you will be receiving your order in the mail that would you read item number four department pcclb matter 22-14-1 unlicensed contracting code violation 22-14-5 no permit code violation case number clb-mg26-00125 clb-clb-mg26-00240 citation number clb-ct 26-00217 clb-ct26-0411 defendant jmar marquise harris notice address jmar marquise harris 8289 abbey brooks circle wesley chapel florida 33545 jharrism gmail.com jharrism6 at gmail.com. And Vijaya Goley, 1801 Union Street, Clearwater, Florida, 33763. Vijaya Goley at gmail.com. And PCCLB Investigator C. Furland, plaintiff's witness, Pinellas County Code Enforcement, 631 Chestnut Street, Clearwater, Florida, 33756. C. Furland at pinellas.gov. And Kirby Kreider, Esquire, Assistant County Attorney for PCCLB, CEO Natasha Creedon, Legal Secretary, Pinellas County Attorney's Office, 315 Court Street, 6th floor, Clearwater, Florida, 33756. C. Kreider at pinellas.gov. N. A. Creedon at pinellas.gov. Violation address, 1801 Union Street, Clearwater, Florida, 33763. Good afternoon. Kirby Kreider on behalf of the Pinellas County Construction Licensing Board with me are my witnesses, Investigator Furland and Ms. Komoroskas. Komoroskas. She just told me and I messed it up again. It's not easy. Is there anyone here for J. Mar Marquise Harris? Have we heard anything as far as a voicemail or an email? No, magistrate. Will the two of you please raise your right hand? Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? County may proceed. Administrator Furland, I'm going to start with you. What's your name for the record please? Investigator Cheryl Furland. And how are you employed? Through Pinellas County Construction Licensing Board. Are you familiar with J. Mar Harris and the case that was just announced? Yes. Did you issue a citation in this matter? Two of them, yes. And what were those citations for? Working without a permit and outside the scope of one CBC license or CRC license. Summarize your investigation for us. So I got a phone call from Ms. Vicki Komorowski advising of the violation and sent over the contract with a report from Nova who went in and did the report. It's a subsidy. They have a grant that they gave these people. She had advised of there was work that was being or had been done without the current permit in place and that the work had also consists of electrical, which is not covered under and there was no electrician on, well there was no permit, so there was no electrician anywhere. And a license would be required to do the work that was being performed? Yes. And when you said they have a grant, is that, were you talking about Mr. Harris was doing work as part of this grant? That's how it was getting. Correct. And when you received the complaint for the homeowner, did you check the address and the property appraiser system? Yes, ma'am. And is this a fair and accurate copy of that? Yes, ma'am. And it says the address is 1801 Union Creek Clearwater, Florida 33763? Yes. Is that in all this county, Florida? Yes, ma'am. I'd ask to move this in as county one. Hearing no objection, it will be admitted as exhibit one. What did you do next as part of your investigation? I reviewed the contract that was submitted by the city, the work contract, as well as the report from NOVA. Can you go ahead and show us the report from NOVA? You reviewed this report. Can you summarize it for us so it looks pretty lengthy? It is. There are several notations in there about work that had been done, and it will specify in there if it was part of the permit or no permit whatsoever, but the work was done. And you also, at this point in time, might ask to move this in as county two. It will be admitted as county's exhibit number two. Did you ever look at Mr. Harris on the Department of Provisional Regulations website? Yes, I did. And is this a fair and accurate copy of what you saw? Yes, it is. It's a certified residential contractor and important for our purposes here, not election before, right? Correct. And part of that search was looking on Sundvist? Yes. And we see the limited liability company and registered agent is Baymar Harris, right? Yes. It has to move this in as county's exhibit three? It will be admitted as exhibit three. Mr. Garrett Perlin, did you perform a license search? Yes, I did. And did you execute an affidavit about what you found? Yes. And it says that your search revealed that there was a license CRC1332344 for your search dates from April 3rd, 2019 to April 3rd, 2006? Correct. And that's the time frame in which this work was performed? Correct. I'd ask you to move this in as county's exhibit four? It will be admitted as county's exhibit four. Mr. Garrett Perlin, how did you determine that it was Mr. Harris that was doing the electrical? It was noted, first it's on his contract, and part of the work contract between the city and the client, it also says Article 7 subcontracts, which is in there. Contractors shall be required to furnish to owner and the City of Clearwater Economic Development Housing Department office a written list of names of subcontractors. There was no permit, no subcontractors, no anything. So my assumption would be that Mr. Harris is, in fact, the one who did the electrical. I'm going to show this to you. You discussed it when we were discussing the NOBA report, and I think it's related. This is the invoice that the president provided you? Yes. And it's a bill to the City of Clearwater Economic Development, which is called for in that contract you were referencing? Correct. Is this a fair and accurate copy of the documentation that was provided to you? Yes. At this point in time, I would ask to move this in as county five. It will be admitted into evidence as county's exhibit number five. Just to be clear, the issue was that he was doing work outside of his license? Correct. And no permit. And there was no permit pulled? Correct. And the work that was done as evidenced in this invoice and reflected in the contract would have required a permit? Yes. Nothing further. All right. The county would call, I'm going to mess it up again, Ms. Komarowskis. Komarowskis. I got closer at this time. Can you say your name for the record? Vicki Komarowskis. And how are you involved in this piece? I work for the housing department at the city of Clearwater, and we gave funds for this work to be done. And can you tell us a little bit more about why, what that program is, why these funds were given? In this case, she is fully handicapped. She's in a chair at all times. And she needed to be more accessible to different things in her home. So we found it a good fit, what we do. And how does that work, like soliciting the bids, or is there a list of contractors? Yeah, we vet them before the homeowners can, we just do a lot of research and find different guys. We've used Jamar on other things, never a remodel. He did driveways and roofs, and we never had a problem with him. But this was our first remodel, and he didn't pull permits. Okay, and that would have been something that was required of him as part of this grant? For just about everything, and it's in the contract as well. And I verbally mentioned it several times when we signed the contracts. And are you aware of anybody else that was doing work? Well, the homeowner told me that he had several people in there doing work. Okay, but you're not aware of anybody having an electrical license? No. And you're not aware of any permits ever being pulled? No, not for the work that's on this. And when you say on this, it's that NOVA report? The NOVA report. And can you just briefly summarize the work that was supposed to be done? I guess I need to clarify, he did pull a permit for the door replacement. And however, he did a side light. He closed in a side light, which should have been on the door permit, and it was not. So he had to amend that permit, which was still sitting there at the city, and he didn't go further with that. And because I was brand new on this job, I helped him get a permit because he did the flooring in the back. So I helped him expedite a permit because they had chosen to step away from each other. He chose to leave the project, and the homeowner chose not to use him, not to have him in a home any longer. So because I was new and I had just come out of the permitting department, I encouraged him to get the permit for the floor at least. Then he could get paid some because nothing else was done. There was electric left hanging out. I could go on and on. So he did get a permit for the floor and for the door. But all of this other stuff, which definitely required a permit, he did not get it, even though I encouraged him several times to do so. And what was his response to him? A couple times he said he didn't need a permit, this doesn't require a permit, and actually that's all I remember. Nothing further. All right. Anything further? County rests. Since we've started this hearing, have we heard anything by email or voicemail? No, magistrate. All right. This was on the 9 o'clock docket? Yes. It's now 345 in the afternoon. All right. I'm going to find, as to citation CLB MG 26000217, a violation of 22-14, subsection 1, an issue of fining the amount of $2,000. I'm going to find that there, as to citation CLB-MG26-00411, I am going to find that there is a violation of code section 22-14, sub, can't read my own writing. Let me find it. Code section 22-14, subsection 5, an issue of fining the amount of $500. We have 10 minutes between the morning and the afternoon? Yes. We will take a 10-minute recess, and then we'll begin the 1-30 docket. Communications, please stop recording. We're still up. We're now on the 1-30 docket. Lynette, would you please read item number 9? Department PCCLB, matter 22-41, unlicensed contracting code violation. Case number CLB-MG26-00175. Citation number CLB-CT26-00218. Defended, Tanisha Lachey-Buthner. Notice address, Tanisha Lachey-Buthner, 12421-U.S. 41, White Springs, Florida, 32096. Tanisha at solarenergyspecialistcorp.com. And Melissa G. Joan H. Brown Garbutt, 3236 San Jose Street, Clearwater, Florida, 33759. P-O-T-A-M-O-U-S at yahoo.com. And PCCLB Investigator C. Furland, plaintiff's witness. Pinellas County Code Enforcement, 631 Chestnut Street, Clearwater, Florida, 33756. C. Furland at pinellas.gov. And Kirby Kreider, Esquire, Assistant County Attorney for PCCLB. C. C. C. O. Natasha Creedon, Legal Secretary. Pinellas County Attorney's Office, 315 Court Street, 6th Floor, Clearwater, Florida, 33756. Kay Kreider at pinellas.gov. N. A. Creedon at pinellas.gov. Violation address via sales contract dated 6-3-2024. Who is here for the county? Good afternoon. Kirby Kreider, Assistant County Attorney, on behalf of the Pinellas County Construction Licensing Board, with me, Investigator Furland. And would you please come up and state your name? Tanisha Boutner. Do you have any witnesses? No. All right. Will the two of you please raise your right hand? You swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Yes, I do. All right. You may have a seat at that front table, and the county may proceed. Investigator Cheryl Furland. Through Pinellas County Contractor Licensing. Investigator with the Licensing Board? Yes. Do you have any training and experience that's specific to your task and responsibilities of your current position? Both field and administrative. And you heard the case that was just announced. Are you familiar with this matter? I am. Did you issue a citation? I did. A citation. Citation ending in 00218, cited under 22-14-1. And the description is advertising via sales contract dated 6-3-24 without required by a member within Pinellas County, Florida? Correct. Is this like a citation you issued? I did. It is. How did you become involved in this investigation? The homeowner had called and filed a complaint against the contractor. More of it was the civil issue, so I just stepped back. The only thing that I could find with the complaint was that there's no license number on the sales contract. And I want to take a step back. I do want to get to the sales contract. But when you were investigating this complaint, did you review the information available on the Pinellas County Property Affairs website? I did. It's in the Clearwater jurisdiction, and that falls in Pinellas County. Is this a fair and accurate representation of the information you reviewed? Yes, it is. At this point in time, I'd ask to move the Sinus County Exhibit 1. Any objection to Exhibit 1? Exhibit 1 will be admitted into evidence. What was your next step in the investigation? To ensure that the permit had been issued during the time that the windows were installed. I did find a permit. It was, at that time, it was not finished. It was abandoned. Then I moved on to the contract, and it's where I found that there's no license number on the contract. What led you to identify Ms. Boutner as the person involved? Through SunBiz. Well, it's on a complaint as well. A complaint from the homeowner? Yes. So, you received a complaint from the homeowner, and then you start looking into it. You said to me that you researched on SunBiz. Let me show you a little copy of your records. Start with this first page, the first couple pages. Tisha's name, details, and so it's from your windows and door. I'm guessing you researched that based on the information on the contract? Correct. Okay. And this is a fair and accurate representation of the information that you reviewed? Yes. And then you also, it looks like, search Patriot Consulting? Yes, because when you research Premier Windows and Doors, the owner information also reflects Patriot Consulting USA. At this point in time, I'd ask if you moved in as County Exhibit 2. Any objection to Exhibit 2? Exhibit 2 will be admitted into evidence. Did you prepare an affidavit in this case? I did. I'm showing you an affidavit that's signed by you. Do you recognize this? I do. All right. And it looks like when you did the licensure search, the licensure says that the dependent had a contractor's license, CGC1535101, registered with the board from June 21st, 2024 to January 24th, 2025. However, the above license registration was pending on January 25th, 2025 and is still expired as of April 3rd. There is no evidence that we have the license for the dates of January 25th to April 3rd, January 26th. Correct. Is this a fair and accurate copy of the affidavit that you've appeared? Yes, it is. At this point in time, I'd ask to move this into evidence as County 3. Any objection to Exhibit 3? Exhibit 3 will be admitted into evidence. All right. You mentioned the sales contract. I want to look at it together. I'm going to go through page by page. But this first page, is this a fair and accurate copy of the sales contract you received from the homeowner? Yes, it is. All right. And we see her customer name. It looks like they were removing windows. Lots of different details, but noticeably on it. Why did you cite in relation to this? So the whole contract is several pages and nowhere on any of the pages did I see the contractor license number. Okay. So no contractor license number on the first page. Let me look at all these pages together. Here's the second page, no contractor license number. Third page, no license number. And with the fourth page, no license number. Fifth page, no license number. And with the sixth page, final page of the contract, there's no license number there either. At this point in time, I'd ask to enter this as County Exhibit 4. Any objection to Exhibit 4? Exhibit 4 will be admitted into evidence. An investigator, Berlin, is that contract an example of something that the code requires there be a license number on? Yes. Can I have a moment? Yes. I know we talked about SunBiz. I want to show you another document after I show this for the time. Do you recognize this document? I do. All right. And so this one's kind of a new one for me. So it says here under status expires, voluntary, null, and void. Mm-hmm. Did you know what that is? Did you do any investigation into what that means? I had not seen that maybe once before. So I did reach out to Dave Houlihan with DVPR via email, and he verified clarification. The voluntary null and void status means the license holder submitted a written request to cancel or relinquish the license so the non-renewal part doesn't apply here. The license was active on 6-3 of 24. Going back to your affidavit and when the contract was dated, the license was not active then? The license was active when the contract was in force. I think I phrased that question backwards. When the contract was in force, it was listed, but when you did your licensure for those dates, this was still a descriptive? Correct. Correct. At this point in time, I'd ask to move this and this County Exhibit 5. Any objection to Exhibit 5? Exhibit 5 will be admitted into evidence. Any questions? Ms. Bautner, do you have any questions of Investigator Furlan or anything else from the county? All right. This is your opportunity to present your case. I was the qualifier for Premier Window and Doors from October 2023 to January 2025. I had no knowledge of this customer or the contract that was signed by the customer until I was notified by the board. I've been licensed with the state since 2013. I'm pretty aware that you must have your license number on all of your information. That's not new to me. I'm not sure where this contract came from. I'm not sure if it was a salesperson. The company is now out of business. I stopped. My last paycheck with them was January 2025. I stayed on with the company until around the end of April 2025 to make sure that all permits were closed and all businesses wrapped up. And I wasn't even receiving any kind of income for that. But I know it was my responsibility to make sure that everything was taken care of. And like I said, I wasn't notified that there was a problem with this contract or that this contract existed until I was contacted by you all and saying I had a fine because the license number wasn't on there. There's nobody for me to reach out to from the business from Premier Window and Doors because they don't exist anymore. They went out of business. I do take my license very seriously, and I would never allow that to happen. I would make sure I could oversee everything, which I did when I was employed there. But then once they closed their doors, they got rid of all the CRM, and I didn't have access to it any longer. So I didn't even know about the customer until I was contacted by you. All right. Thank you. Any questions? All right. I'm going to find that as to citation CLB-CT26-00218, that there is a violation of Code Section 22-14, Subsection 1, and we'll issue a fine in the amount of $500. Would you read item number 10? Department, PCCLB, Matter 22-14-1, Unlicensed Contracting Code Violation 22-14-5, No Permit Code Violation 22-14-6, Advertising Code Violation. Case number CLB-Case number CLB-MG26-00212, CLB-MG26-00213, CLB-MG26-00214, CLB-MG26-00215. Citation number CLB-CT26-00367, CLB-CT26-00368, CLB-CT26-00369, CLB-CT26-00370. Defendant Christian M. Blanken. Notice address Christian M. Blanken, 3350 Olmerton Road, Suite 12, Clearwater, Florida, 33762. Christian at floridapower.com and Craig Bernhardt, Plaintiff's Witness, Pinellas County Building Department, 440 Court Street, Clearwater, Florida, 33756. Cbernhardt at pinellas.com and Weaver Diane T., Plaintiff's Witness, 9748-48th Place North, St. Petersburg, Florida, 33708-3626. And PCCLB Investigator Jay Padgett, Plaintiff's Witness, Pinellas County Code Enforcement, 631 Chestnut Street, Clearwater, Florida, 33756. Jay Padgett at pinellas.gov and Kirby Kreider, Esquire, Assistant County Attorney for PCCLB. CO Natasha Creedon, Legal Secretary, Pinellas County Attorney's Office, 315 Court Street, 6th Floor, Clearwater, Florida, 33756. Kay Kreider at pinellas.gov. N.A. Creedon at pinellas.gov. Violation Address, 9748 North 48th Place, St. Petersburg, Florida, 33708. And floridapower.info. All right. It's my understanding that this hearing was canceled because the citations were paid on July 31st, 2026. Correct. All right. Annette, would you please read item 11 for me? Department PCCLB, Matter 22-14-1, Unlicensed Contracted Code Violation. Case number CLB-MG26-00217. Citation number CLB-CT26-00319. Defendant Marquis Stevenson. Notice address Marquis Stevenson, 1013 Prescott Lane, Holiday, Florida, 34691. LibraAirHC at gmail.com. And PCCLB Investigator C. Furland, Plaintiff's Witness, Pinellas County Code Enforcement, 631 Chestnut Street, Clearwater, Florida, 33756. C. Furland at pinellas.gov. And Kirby Kreider, Esquire, Assistant County Attorney for PCCLB, CO Natasha Creighton, Legal Secretary. Pinellas County Attorney's Office, 315 Court Street, 6th Floor, Clearwater, Florida, 33756. K. Kreider at pinellas.gov. N.A. Kreiden at pinellas.gov. Violation address. Bench located at 1950 South Pinellas Avenue, Tarpon Springs, Florida. All right. Who's here for the county? Good afternoon. Kirby Kreider, Assistant County Attorney on behalf of the Pinellas County Construction Licensing Board. And with me and witness and investigator, Cheryl Furland. And would you please state your name for the record? Marquis Stevenson. Investigator and Mr. Stevenson, would you please raise your right hand? Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? All right. You may have a seat at that front table, and the county may proceed. Can you state your name for the record, please? Investigator Cheryl Furland. And investigator, you're employed by the Pinellas County Construction Licensing Board? Correct. And your role and responsibilities, do you have any specific training and experience? Both field and administrative. You heard the case that was just addressed on Marquis Stevenson. Are you familiar with that matter? I am. Did you issue your citation? I did. Citation ending in 00319. Violation of 2214-1. Subscription license contract or advertising at a park vent. Amitting the required license number with Pinellas County, Florida. Is this the citation that you issued? Yes. How did you become aware of the issue in this case? I was on my way to another investigation, and I was at a red light and happened to look over and saw the bench and realized that there's no license number on said bench. And part of your job responsibilities is while you're out in the field, which you were, because you were going to another investigation, documenting other infractions. Is that correct? Correct. This photo is dated May 6th, two different angles of the park bench, so on the left looks like a little further away, it says Libra, air, heating and cooling, free estimates, no license number. Correct. And then, I want to go to Zoom, and do you recognize these photos? Yes. Are these a fair and accurate representation of what you saw that day? Yes. At this point in time, I'm going to ask to move this in as county one. Any objection to Exhibit 1? Exhibit 1 will be admitted into evidence. Investigator, is the services offered on this park bench something that a license number would be required for? Yes. What was the next step of your investigation? To ensure that they were properly licensed with the state and to find out who the owner of the business was via SunBiz and or DBPR. So, you started on a SunBiz American Rises document? Yes. Is this a fair and accurate copy of the information that you reviewed from SunBiz? Yes. And you said that you searched Libra Air, you need to search Libra Air because that was the name on the bench. Exactly. And then, you came down here to Marquis Stevenson? Yes. I'd ask to admit this is county two. Any objection to Exhibit 2? Exhibit 2 will be admitted into evidence. You said you also researched information available in DBPR? Yes. Is there an accurate representation of the information that you reviewed? Yes. And we see here that there is an air conditioning contractor license? Yes. But the issue in this case is that it wasn't on the advertisement, correct? Correct. I just wanted to ask you to listen to Exhibit 3. Any objection to Exhibit 3? Exhibit 3 will be admitted into evidence. And the park bench that you saw was located in Pinellas County, Florida? Yes. Nothing further. Do you have any questions for the investigator? You'll have an opportunity to present your case even if you don't have questions. All right. Anything else from the county? Nothing further. All right, sir. This is your opportunity to present your case. Yes. There was an issue with the proof, and I had asked the company who I'm renting that park bench from to cancel my subscription with them. And I believe that that was done well before these days, but this is dated May 4th, and they still have yet to remove it, and I have no control over those signs. I believe that I got the citation May 6th, so I tried to cancel this way before I got the citation. All right. Any questions, counsel? No questions. My hands are kind of tied. I'm going to find that there is a violation in citation CLB-CT26-00319. I ask a question? Yeah. Let me finish this first and find a violation of Section 22-14, Subsection 1, and we'll issue a fine in the amount of $500. Can I speak? You may. My citation is dated from May 6th, and I'm showing proof that I canceled this well before May 4th. How would that still be justified? That's a problem you're going to have to take up with, I think I saw this, Creative Outdoor Advertising. It's going to be between you and them. Thank you. Lynette, would you please read item number 11? Department PCCLB, Matter 22-14-1, Unlicensed Contracting Code Violation. Case number CLB-MG26-00218. Citation number CLB-CT26-00402. Defendant, Nestor Finnell. Notice address, Nestor Finnell, 6603, Rye Stone Way, St. Petersburg, Florida, 33545. F-I-N-I-N-T-L dot homebusinessprojects at gmail.com. And Jassy Inoncensio, Plaintiff's Witness, 200 Northeast Lincoln Circle, St. Petersburg, Florida, 33702. Jassy Janitorial at gmail.com. And PCCLB Investigator Jay Padgett, Plaintiff's Witness, Pinellas County Code Enforcement, 631 Chestnut Street, Clearwater, Florida, 33756. Jay Padgett at pinellas.gov. And Kirby Kreider, Esquire, Assistant County Attorney for PCCLB. CEO, Natasha Creedon, Legal Secretary, Pinellas County Attorney's Office, 315 Court Street, 6th floor, Clearwater, Florida, 33756. Kay Kreider at pinellas.gov. N.A. Creedon at pinellas.gov. Violation address, 200 North Lincoln Circle, St. Petersburg, Florida, 33702. Who's appearing for the county? Good afternoon, Kirby Kreider, Assistant County Attorney, on behalf of the Pinellas County Construction Licensing Board. With me is Investigator Padgett and then another witness, Ms. Inoncensio. Inoncensio. Inoncensio. She got it right. I know, I heard it. I was like, I'm going to remember it. And your name, sir? Good afternoon, Your Honor. Néstor Finale is my name. All right, would the three of you raise your right hand? Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? I do. I do. All right, you may have a seat at that front table, and the county may proceed. Your Honor, I will start with Ms. Inoncensio. No? Close. Inoncensio. Inoncensio. I'm really trying. Okay. Can you state your name for the record, ma'am? Jassy Inoncensio. You've been sitting here for a while, so you kind of know how this goes, but I want to talk about, do you know the name of someone, Néstor Finale? Yeah. How do you know that name? I contracted him to put an addition on my home in St. Petersburg. Okay. Did he ever exchange any documents with you via email? I'm sorry? Did you ever have email correspondence with him? Yes, and in person as well. Okay. I'm going to show you an email. A few pages. It's dated September 14, 2024. Subject, your estimate, 2024-12-307 from Finn International LLC. Would you come to understand that this was Mr. Finale's company, Finn International? Finn International, yes. Okay, and this is him sending you the formal proposal. I'd be happy to serve you in this opportunity. What work were you getting estimates for? The estimate was for an addition onto my home in St. Petersburg. So, like, new construction for the addition? Right. Okay. At this point in time, I'd like to move us into evidence as county is one. Any objection to Exhibit 1? Exhibit 1 will be admitted into evidence. Tell me how the project progressed. Was it immediate issues or...? I believe he said he would start in January of 2025. Okay, and what ended up happening? Long story short, it took him over a year, and it still wasn't completed. I ended up firing Mr. Finale and hiring a new company. Did you ever pay any money to Mr. Finale? Yes. How much money did you estimate? $29,000. And had he done any portion of the work? Yes, but he'd done a portion of the work, but grossly wrong. When you say wrong, like poor workmanship, not up to standards. Poor workmanship, and it's over a year, and it still wasn't completed. And you mentioned that you terminated the contract with him. I'm just going to show you his email exchange. And I know it's kind of small, but it looks like, Dean and Esther, I'm writing to formally terminate a contract. That's you, right? Yeah. You repeated delays, poor workmanship, and you know, it's in the property. This letter serves as a digital notice of termination. Yeah. He responds to you acknowledging that he had this contract, that it has been terminated, and then sends you a final contract accounting. Right. And that is where he's acknowledging that, like you said, you did pay his $29,000. Correct. And his contract amount, it's an addition, so it's expensive. It was $47,000. Yeah. Is this a fair and accurate representation of those conversations you had via email? Yeah. At this point in time, I apologize for not showing you that. That's all right. I would move this into, I would ask to move this into evidence. It's counting Exhibit 2. I'd ask to move this into evidence. It's counting Exhibit 2. Any objection to Exhibit 2? I don't know. Exhibit 2 will be admitted into evidence. So you said you hired a different contractor? I hired another contractor, indeed. And at some point in time, did you complain to, or make a complaint with the Pinellas County Licensing Board? Yes. Okay, tell me a little bit about that process. Well, you know, it must have been frustrating that this happened. My, there was something that complicated this, which was the city inspector. From the initial beginning of this project, I wasn't told. Mr. Fennell, I assume, knows that the project plans, which I paid a couple thousand dollars for, for the architecture work, they were drawn up for a frame home, and my home is block, and that's what we discussed, block. So I don't know how the project got to the point it got to, because the city inspector had to pass this building that was architecturally was supposed to be framed, and they built block. I don't know how they passed inspection with the rebarb and all that stuff. There's safety issues and all that, and the plumbing is all done wrong. The new company had to break 10 inches of cement to do the plumbing correct. They didn't insulate it, and they put it too far underneath the 10 inches of cement, when that should have been under the footer, I understand. And, um... But obviously, they didn't do that. It's just gross mistakes. The new company didn't do that out of the kindness of their heart. No, the new company corrected it, and I have to pay additional monies for that. The agreement that you have between yourself and Mr. Fennel, I promise I'm not going to make us read it all together. So this is...we're going to flip through it together, but we're not going to talk about every single page, I promise. But as you can see, this agreement dated 228 between Fenn International and yourself? Yes. And is this a fair and accurate representation of the agreement that you signed with Mr. Fennel? No, we're not going to talk about it again, 47,061, draw a schedule in here. So with your understanding that he was going to do the entire scope of work that you asked for, like he was the person that was going to start to finish due to this? Yes. Okay. And then it's saying in here that he provided an estimate, and that's the email that I started with at 12307. Is that there? Yes. And your initials and his initials down here? Yes. And then more timelines, more standards, and then the standards for the project that were attached to the contract, the initials down here again. Yes. And in your opinion, did he live up to the terms of his contract? Did he live up to his end? If his end is incompetent, I'd say yes. And then we see the full permission. So is there an accurate representation of the contract that was applicable? Yes. Yes. At this point in time, I'd ask him to move this into evidence. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm going to move your pressure up against the wrong. Thank you. No, that's me. I ask to move this into evidence as county exhibit three. Any objection to exhibit three? No, Your Honor. Exhibit three will be admitted into evidence. And the location of your property that you had the addition for, that's located in Pinellas County, Florida? Yes. I don't have any further questions at this time. All right. Do you have any questions for the witness? Yes, Your Honor. Okay. Ms. Innocencio, when did you first contact me about this project? In December of 2024. It was in July 24, 2024, when you contacted me the first time. At that time, did I perform any job, any work in your property? At the time that we met, in 2024? No. Okay. Between July 24 and January 2025, was any construction work performed in your property? I think so. I don't know the exact dates that you started and where you got to. I was trusting you. No demolition, no excavation, no plumbing. Nothing was built during that time. Is that correct? In 2024? Between July 24 and January 2025. You did plumbing, and you did it incorrectly. Between July 24 and January 2025? I don't know what the date is that you did it, but you did the plumbing. That was wrong. When did physical construction actually began in your property? Do you recall? You can tell me the date, and I'll trust your date. Okay. You told Investigator Padgett... Are you denying that you did the plumbing? I'm making questions. You told Investigator Padgett that work started in your home in January 2025. Can you describe what construction work was done at your property in January 2025? The work that you performed? In January 2025. You were building block when the architect design said frame, and you didn't tell me about that until a year passed. And I got impatient with you. I was very patient with you, allowing you full reign to do this project, and you still didn't complete it a year later, and you kept telling me that you were waiting on inspections and permits. And the inspections, you failed lintel 11 times. Okay? You'd got the window frame wrong, the door frame wrong. You breached my attic and let rodents in. Your plumbers penetrated my irrigation system. Okay? You fixed those problems, or your insurance did, I guess, supposedly. Okay? But you did other things wrong. Your builders went five inches beyond the design. Okay. I mean, anything that could have went wrong, you did wrong. Your workers did wrong. And you were nowhere on the premises. And I asked you for the first time, the first time something went wrong, I said, maybe you should be here to supervise. And you never did. Okay. So, the building permit was... Is that true? Is that true? That's true. You remember that? You're not asking questions, ma'am, just to answer his question. The building permit was no issue until September 29, 2025. It is possible the physical construction start before the permit was issued? You started work before the payment? It's very clear. Until September 29, 2025, the permit was issued. So, is possible the physical construction start before the permit was issued? The work started before the permit? That I don't know. I trusted you. I don't know. Ms. Innocencio, did you sign a chain of contractor form for this project? Did I sign what? A chain of contractor form for this project? You sent one eventually. Okay. Did you remember when? No. It was in... I don't trust your judgment. That was in April 7th. Is that correct? Okay. Do you remember that? April 7th of... April 7th, 2026. 26. Okay. You terminated contracts on April 21, 21, 2026. Is that correct? This was your other contractor surrogate? Is that what you're talking about? To release them? I'm making the question. You terminated the contract on April 21, 2026. Is that correct? You already testified. When I fired you? Mm-hmm. Okay. Yeah, I'll take your date. Yeah, but you signed... Okay. You signed the chain of contractor form in April 7th. Of 2026. Of 2026. Yes. That was 14 days after you signed the chain of contractor form. Is that correct? That was 14 days later. If you say so. If you compare April 7th, when you sign it, and you fire me on 21st, that's 14 days. Go ahead and answer your question, ma'am. I'm sorry. What's the question? The question is, that was 14 days after you signed the chain of contractor form? Is that correct? A change of contractor? If that's... If what you're talking about is to release the other company that you... I'm putting my license on it. Right. Okay. Yes. When you terminate the contract, was the project unfinished? Was the project finished? No. Unfinished? No. Unfinished. The... The project was unfinished. Right. Okay. Unfinished. The project was unfinished because you chose to end the relationship with me? Is that correct? That is correct. Okay. After you terminate, did I respond to your email? Yeah. I respond within 11 minutes, and I provide you with a full accounting of the project. Is that correct? You provided me with an email. Yeah. Your Honor, I would respectfully note that this citation charged me with giving an estimate and receiving payment before my licensee was effected. The topic that the witness is describing related to a civil contract dispute, which is not subject in this hearing, and I'm happy to address the charge conduit. All right. Do you have any other questions of her? No. Thank you, Mr. Neosensio. Not for the question, Your Honor. Okay. Anything further from the county before we turn it over to him for his case? Yes, Captain. Okay. Afternoon again, sir. Can you state your name for the record? Investigator Jamie Padgett. And how are you employed? I'm an investigator with the Penelope County Construction Licensing Board. And do you have any particularized training or experience related to your job? Yeah, four years of field and administrative training. How did you become aware of this case? This was an official complaint that came through our office from the homeowner, Ms. Innocentio. Okay. So you received this complaint. What did you do next? So I looked to see if there was a permit for the work that was done. There was a permit issued by the city of St. Pete. And then I looked to see if the contractor she contracted with was licensed. Initially, everything looked normal in this case. There was a licensed contractor. There was a permit that was pulled. And we don't get into the workmanship aspect of things, just the licensing, permitting stuff. And then I saw when Mr. Fennell, when his license was actually issued by the state. I saw that he gave an estimate and received a down payment before his license was issued on January 24th of 2025. His license was issued on January 24th of 2025? That's correct. And how did you discover that? I did a license search on the database through DBPR with the state to check on his license status. Sure. Does this document appear on accurate representation of the research that you did? It is. And we're seeing on here that he does now have certified residential contractor, but license your date 1-24-2025. That's correct. And at this point in time, I had asked to move this into evidence as county 4th. Any objection to Exhibit 4? No, Your Honor. Exhibit 4 will be admitted into evidence. Testimony from the homeowner that she did make some payments. As part of your investigation and submitting the complaint, did she ever provide you proof of payment? She provided me the estimate and the billing from Mr. Fennell. She stated that she paid him in cash around the time of the estimate that she received from him for the down payment of the job. The estimate was received prior to his license being active. Is that correct? Correct. As part of your investigation, did you review the Pennell County Property Appraisers website? I did. Site address, what we've seen here, site address, 200 Northeast Lincoln Circle. Is this, is there an accurate representation of the information that you reviewed? It is. And is this address located in Pennellas County? It is. At this point in time, I'd ask to move this into evidence as county's Exhibit 5. Any objection to Exhibit 5? No, Your Honor. Exhibit 5 will be admitted into evidence. Mr. Peter Padgett, you mentioned that the workmanship isn't necessarily something that, of course, it's important, but it's not something you're citing for. That's outside the scope of what the Construction Licensing Board does. Is that correct? Correct. There's, you know, there's no poor workmanship violation that we cite for. So the lack of that citation is not your tacit, oh, everything's fine. It's just there's no violation for it. Right, typically in those cases, we refer the complainant to Pennellas County Consumer Protection, or with the state to DBPR, if they're a state licensed contractor. And you did end up issuing a citation, obviously, that's why we're here, correct? Correct. So this citation for 22-14-1, a licensed contractor engaging in residential addition by giving estimate and receiving payment from homeowner at a property in Pennellas County, Florida. So that ties back into it being important and why you went on to DPPR to see when his license was active. Is that correct? Correct. Like I said, when I initially viewed the case, it looked like everything was good. There was a licensed contractor. There was a permit. And then I looked at the date of the estimate that he gave to the homeowner, and I realized that was before the issuance of his license. I did find it was a little odd that he didn't pull the permit himself. Another company had pulled the permit for the job. Okay. What was odd about that to you? Well, at the time of my investigation, he was licensed, so I figured, you know, why not pull the permit yourself? That's within the scope of his license. And then when I spoke with Mr. Pennell, he said he had another contractor pull the permit because he didn't have his license at the time. And is that what's known as qualified? Well, if another contractor pulls a permit for an unlicensed person, then we consider that aiding, what they call aiding and abetting, or license lending. So, either way, it doesn't excuse the fact that he gave his estimate before he was active with his license, correct? Correct. Yeah. The only citation that was written, the only violation that I saw from Mr. Pennell, was giving a bid or estimate and accepting payment before he received his license. And you've been present with me all day, but you saw the, and you've reviewed this when you were investigating this case, you saw the estimate, and you saw the contract, and you would agree that all of those documents are what we're calling them, like it truly was an estimate? Yes. The initial estimate, yes. Can I have just one minute, please? Yes. Thank you. I have nothing further for this witness, but I would ask after Mr. Pennell has an opportunity to cross just briefly. I would ask you to briefly recall the homeowner. All right. Thank you. Do you have any questions of investigator? Yes, your honor. Investigator project. The citation charged me with giving an estimate and receiving a payment before I was licensed. Is that correct? Correct. The estimate was dated December 14, 2024. Is that the date in your records? Yes. And the payment was January 15, 2025. Is that correct? I believe so, yes. Okay. My licensee became effective on January 24, 2025, nine days after the payment. Is that consistent with your phone? Yes. Okay. So the period between the payment and my licensee was nine days. Is that correct? Based on that, yes. Okay. In your investigation notes, you record that the complainant told you work start on her home on January 2025. Is that what you said? I believe so. I was totally focused on when the work started. It was just when you gave the estimate and payment was received. Okay. Did you verify the statement with the city of St. Petersburg permits records? No. I did get permitting documents from the city for this project. Okay. But I didn't speak with any building inspectors or the building official. Are you aware that the building permit for this project was no issue until September 29, 2025? I believe that's correct. Are you aware that the city's first inspection of this property was on October 23, 2025? I don't know when their first inspection was. I'd have to reference the permit. Okay. So, if the permit was no issue until September, 2025, and the fair inspection was in October, 2025, would you agree that physical construction could not have legally started in January, 2025? May I answer? I'm not aware of the exact date of when construction occurred at the property. Work could have occurred before the permit was issued. That happens all the time. But I don't know the exact date. Okay. Journal also records that the complainant said the project had failed multiple inspections. Did you verify that claim with the city? I saw it in their inspection report, but that's sort of irrelevant to my case. I don't get into the inspection. I'm not a building inspector. That's with the city of St. Pete, so that's not within the scope of my duties. Okay. The city's official inspection record, which I have assumed as a CBG, which I assumed as my evidence in August 2, shows 11 inspections from October 2025 through February 2026. The project advanced from under slab plumbing through slab, block, lintel, and rebar. Are you aware of that record? I'm not aware of that record, no. I know there was inspections done, but I don't know what inspections failed, what passed. I'm not sure. Okay. Is it possible to advance from under slab plumbing to block if each prior phase has failed? I don't know. I'm not a building inspector, so I can't speak to the inspections. That's under the jurisdiction of the city of St. Pete, so they're the authority that would pass or fail inspections and make sure everything's up to Florida building code. That's not within the scope of my position. But you think it's possible? I'm sorry. Ask that again. Do you think it's possible to advance from under slab plumbing to block if each prior phase has failed? I can't. I'm not a building inspector. I don't have the training in that, so I can't answer that question. Okay. Your notes from June 3, 2026, state that I admit to contract with a homeowner before getting his licensee. Do you recall that entry? I recall the conversation we had over the phone. You did say that you gave a bid and accepted a down payment before your license was issued, and that's reflected in my notes. Okay. During our conversation, did I also tell you that the formal construction agreement was not signed until February 28, 2025, after my licensee was effective? Yes. You did have her sign a contract in February. Did I also tell you that no physical construction occurred until after the city issued the permit in September 2025? I don't recall that. Okay. Did your investigation find any prior citation or violation in my name with the PCCLB? No. No prior violations. Okay. Did you find any prior disciplinary action with the DVPR against my licensee? I don't believe so. Okay. You know also referred online complaints against Gregory Lewis and Gulf Coast construction. Am I Gregory Lewis? No. Do those complaints involve my conduct December 14, 2024, or January 15, 2025? I'm sorry. Can you repeat that? Yes. Do those complaints involve my conduct on December 14, 2024, or January 15, 2025? I'm sorry. I'm having trouble understanding it. I'm sorry. Can you repeat that? It's okay. Do those complaints with Gregory Lewis involve my conduct on December 14, 2024, or January 15, 2025? I did investigate Gregory Lewis and Tatiana Myers. That's a separate case. Okay. Thank you, investigator. Not for the question, Your Honor. Okay. All right. You may. I should have showed this to you the first time you were up here. Do you recognize this? Yes. Is this a copy of the estimate that you received from Mr. Canole? Yes. And agree with me that the date on here is January 15, 2025? Okay. Good. And I'll just flip through it to make sure you recognize all of it, but it's breaking down everything that he's going to do, including the plumbing, itemized by activity, total deposit, and that was received on July 15th, or January 15th, I apologize, or signed. 2025. 2025. At this point in time, I'd ask that this be admitted as County 6, and I have no other questions. No more questions. Any objection to Exhibit 6? No, Your Honor. Exhibit 6 will be admitted into evidence. Do you have any further questions? For the question for the investigator on Ms. Innocencio? No. For Ms. Innocencio? Innocencio. Yes. No, Your Honor. Okay. Good question. So this is your opportunity to present your case. Your Honor, thank you for the opportunity to be here. My name is Nestor Finnell. I'm a certified residential contractor. My license number is CRC-1335115, issued by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation. It is current and active. I'm here today because the situation of, citation CLB, CT26-00402, which charged me with giving an estimate and receiving a payment from homeowner before my licensee become active. I do not deny those two dates. On December 14, 2024, I transmitted a preliminary estimate to the homeowner. On January 15, 2025, the homeowner made a $5,000 payment for permit origination and pre-construction costs. My licensee became effective nine days later on January 24, 2025. What I respectfully ask this court to consider is what did not happen during those nine days and what happened after. Before my licensee became effective, no formal construction contract was signed, no building permit exists, no physical construction or any kind of perform at the property. No demolition, no excavation, no plumbing, no foundation, no block. Nothing was built. After my licensee became effective, I signed a formal construction agreement. I submit a permit application. I wait eight months for the city to issue the permit. Once the city issued the permit in September 2025, I manage every aspect of the project. I coordinate subcontractors across multiple trades. I schedule and attend 11 city inspections over four months. I procure materials. I coordinate engineering revision. I initiate the city form chain of contractors process to bring the permit under my own licensee. The outgoing contractor signed. I signed and the homeowner signed. Fourteen days after the homeowner signed the chain of contractors firm, she terminates the contract. And I acknowledge the termination within 11 minutes and deliver a complete accounting the same day. Due to honor, my writing statement of position, which has been submitted to this court, with 15 exhibits, present every detail of this chronology. I will walk through the key facts in my testimony. But the central point is this. The violation of the accounting half chart, giving an estimate, and receiving a payment, occurred during the nine-day window, before my licensing became effective. No construction was performed during that window. The violation was correct when I became licensing. Seventeen months before this hearing and everything that followed, the contract, the permit, the inspection, the chain of contractors, was done through proper channels under a valid license with a full municipal oversight. I respectfully ask the court to evaluate dissertation based on what actually happened, not on related complaints about workmanship or payment dispute that's a civil matter between private parties. Thank you, Your Honor. Thank you. Counselor, do you have any cross-examination? All right. No, I'm going to make a real one. Investigator Padgett made reference to this, but I want to make reference to it, too. This isn't the form to litigate workmanship and that type of thing. So what I'm going to rule has nothing to do with that. The charge is very specific here. Entering into an estimate and accepting payment when you aren't licensed. And that's the end of inquiry. I don't care if it's nine days later or nine years later. So I'm going to find that there is a violation of citation CLB CT26-00319. There is a violation of 22-14 subsection 1. And enter a fine of $500. When I hear the beginning, my address wasn't correct. Because you say St. Petersburg, I didn't question the chocolate. What's your address then? 6603, Christon Way, at Wesley Chapel, Florida, 33545. Okay. That's probably a scrivener's ear. And your email is finintl.homebusinessprojects at gmail.com? That's correct. Okay. All set. Thank you. You're welcome. Lynette, would you read item number 13, please? Department PCCLB, matter 22-14-5. No permit code violation. Case number CLB-MG25-00229. Citation number CLB-CT26-00410. Defendant, Lynette Marie Calvache Hernandez. Notice address, Lynette Marie Calvache Hernandez. 2440 World Parkway, number 25, Clearwater, Florida, 33763. And Lynette, Marta Corino, a.k.a. Lynette Marie Calvache Hernandez. That is, 2440 World Parkway, number 25, Clearwater, Florida, 33763. LindaLynn1030 at gmail.com. And top of the world, attention. Lona Strachey, plaintiff's witness, 2069 World Parkway, Clearwater, Florida, 33763. And PCCL Investigator C. Furland, plaintiff's witness. Pinellas County Code Enforcement, 631 Chestnut Street, Clearwater, Florida, 33756. C. Furland at pinellas.gov. And Kirby Kreider, Esquire, Assistant County Attorney for PCCLB. C. O. Natasha Creedon, Legal Secretary. Pinellas County Attorney's Office, 315 Court Street, 6th floor, Clearwater, Florida, 33756. Kay Kreider at pinellas.gov. N. A. Creedon at pinellas.gov. Violation address, 2391 Sumatran Way, unit number 25, Clearwater, Florida, 33763. Okay, magistrate, this case, the defendant was here. She needed to leave because she started a new job, and she said she was already on two hours of lunchtime. So the county agreed to a rescheduled date to September 14, 2026 at 9 a.m. County's agreeable to that? Okay, we'll grant the continuous and the reschedule. Is that me or Matthew? I think it's Matthew. Okay. That was the next, because they couldn't do August, because the county's out, conflict. Just tell Matthew that so he doesn't think I dumped it on him. I'm not going to let him know you dumped it. See, he dumped it. We're all set for today. No, we're not. Are we not? You know the drill. Oh, I forgot. That completes the August 10, 2026 agenda. Are there any county attorney matters? All right, the hearing will be adjourned. Communications, please stop recording. Thank you. We'll see you next time. We'll see you next time. We'll see you next time. We'll see you next time. We'll see you next time. We'll see you next time. We'll see you next time. We'll see you next time. We'll see you next time. We'll see you next time. We'll see you next time. We'll see you next time. We'll see you next time. We'll see you next time. We'll see you next time. We'll see you next time. We'll see you next time. We'll see you next time. We'll see you next time. We'll see you next time. We'll see you next time. We'll see you next time. We'll see you next time. We'll see you next time.