Welcome to Pinellas County Code Enforcement Special Magistrate Hearings. The 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 violation or violations. All witnesses offering testimony and 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 violation and 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 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. Such record is not provided by Pinellas County. Please call the first case.
Item number two, Department PCCLB, Matter 2214, Adversizing Code Violation. Case number CLB-MG26-00228, Investigator M. Nichols, citation number CLBCT26-00420, Defendant Dennis Anderson, Notice Address, Dennis Anderson, 12854, Forest Drive, Seminole, Florida, 33776, and Kirby Kreider, Esquire, Assistant County Attorney for PCCLB, Care of Natasha Creeden, Legal Secretary, Secretary, Pinellas County Attorney's Office, 315 Court Street, 6th Floor, Clearwater, Florida, 33756, Kay Kreider at Pinellas.gov, N.A. Creeden at Pinellas.gov, Violation Address, 8901, Park Boulevard, Seminole, Florida, 33777.
Mr. Ederson? Yes. Please. Counsel, if you could identify yourself with the record.
Yes, good morning, Kirby Kreider, Assistant County Attorney on behalf of the Pinellas County Construction Licensing Board. I have with me, Investigator Nichols.
Investigator Nichols, okay. And your name, sir?
Dennis Anderson.
On the property, it is 8901 Park Boulevard?
No, sir.
Let's see if I have this right. You don't own the property? No, that's right. I was driving, yeah. Okay. Mr. Anderson and Nichols, if you could both raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm that any testimony we give today be the truth and nothing but the truth? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Okay. Mr. Anderson, I'm going to put on a case, okay? You can stand there or you could sit down. They're going to put documents in most likely. Okay. Okay. And I'll give you an opportunity to object to those and I'll give you a right to cross-examine those and when they're done, I'll have you put on your case. Okay. Thank you.
Good morning, sir. Can you state your name for the record, please?
Yes. Good morning. Investigator Nichols for the Pinellas County Construction Licensing Board.
Investigator Nichols, did you receive any type of specialized training in regards to your duties?
Yes, administrative and field training.
And you wrote a citation in this matter, I'm going to put it on the screen for us, citing under 2214-6, a licensed contractor, Dennis Anderson, advertising drywall and general contracting services. Is this a very accurate copy of the citation that you wrote?
It is.
Can you tell me how your investigation in this matter started?
Yes, I was in the city of Seminole, Incorporated and Unincorporated, and while driving to a site where I was conducting an investigation, I noticed Mr. Anderson's vehicle pass me on 80th Street, and the first thing I saw in big letters was drywall. On what street? On 80th. Okay. And that would be where? Seminole. Thank you. Seminole, Florida, in Pinellas County. Pinellas County. Yes. At that time, I turned around and I basically got behind the vehicle and basically at the stoplight, I was basically reading his sign, which stated painting, pressure washing, flooring, drywall. I continued and to, once I got off 80th Street in Seminole, I was on Park Boulevard in Seminole. That's where I started to photograph the vehicle and the thing he was pulling behind him, and obviously it was saying drywall. I did pull up next to him and Mr. Anderson asked what I was doing, and I introduced myself as an investigator, and I noticed he was advertising drywall, and he did state that, yes, he's advertising drywall, but only for patching. I informed him at the time that regardless of what he is telling me now, drywall services requires a contractor's licensing or having a county license to do the specific scope of work for drywall. At that time, he took off. I told him that he'll be getting a citation. He contacted me by phone. We did have a communication. He did understand where I was coming from, but he continued to elaborate that the drywall he was advertising was mostly for patching.
Thank you, Ambassador. I'm going to show you a photograph. Is this a fair and accurate representation of the advertisement as you saw it?
That is correct.
At this point in time, I'd ask to move this in as counties won.
Any objection, Mr. Anderson? Accepting Exhibit 1.
Investigator, did you do any research as far as who owned the business? I did. And how did you accomplish that?
So once I photographed the vehicle, took pictures of the signage that was on his vehicle, when I got back to the office, the first thing I did was I checked our division of corporation, which we know as SunBiz, and it did list his business as Denny's Do-It-All Services LLC. It listed his information. I was able to use that information to continue further my investigation.
To show you some documents that were provided, is this the fair and accurate representation of what you reviewed off the SunBiz?
That is correct.
Just three pages. Go one by one. We see here at Denny's Do-It-All Services, and that's what the name of the company that was on the sign, right? That is correct. At this point in time, I'd ask to move the Sunnis Counties 2.
Mr. Anderson, any objection? You've seen these documents. I have. Two is accepted into that.
I apologize. Mr. Anderson, I should show you before I just throw them up there. Mr. Gitter-Nichols, you testified that advertising drywall is something that would require some type of license, right?
That is correct.
Did you perform any type of investigation into whether or not Mr. Anderson held that type of license?
I did.
And what did your investigation reveal?
Again, part of my job is when I found out that he has a business on SunBiz, our job is to check our database, which is, we call it a seller, to see if he held any type of licenses. I wanted to see if he held a county license issued by the PCCLB. I did not find one. I also checked DBPR, which is a state, basically, contractor's board, where it shows if a contractor is licensed. DBPR did not show that Mr. Anderson held any type of licensing. And I also just Googled his name to see if any form of licensing came up on the intranet and nothing came back as far as Mr. Dennis holding any type of licensing in the scope of work he alleged that he is doing on his advertising.
Did you perform an affidavit to the effect? I did. And is this a fair and accurate copy of that affidavit? It is. And it states that there was no evidence that he had a license and you just searched from January 1st, 2025 to July 21st, 2026. That is correct. At this point in time, I'd ask to move this in as counties three.
Mr. Anderson, do you have any objection? Counties three is accepted into evidence.
You already testified to this, but I just wanted to highlight something that you said. The issue here is that it doesn't matter what he was actually doing, advertising drywall, that act in itself is the problem.
That is correct.
Nothing further.
Mr. Anderson, please. This is your opportunity, Mr. Anderson, to ask the investigating officer any questions regarding his testimony.
Mr. Nichols, it is okay for me to do drywall repair. When I talked to you, I had asked you if it was just drywall repair, not patching, but that's regardless. But it is okay for me to do drywall repair in the county.
When we spoke about that, I informed you when you mentioned that any type of work requires a license over 100 square feet of drywall would require you to have a license.
Correct. Yes, that is correct. So, I run a handyman service in Seminole.
I'm not looking for argument yet. I'm going to give you a lot of time to explain your case. This is your opportunity to ask him a question.
Oh, okay.
No, that's all you're on, right? I mean, I'm not trying to rush you or anything. I just want to keep the record clean. Okay, sorry. Okay.
Anything else, Counselor? County rest.
Okay.
The citations, the record is part of the record already. Yes, sir. Go ahead. Tell me your story. Wait, I won't interrupt you.
So, not that it, I'm not sure if it matters or anything, but five years ago, I had decided to become sober. And I started a handyman service in Seminole, Florida. And the services that I do require, I am aware that I'm only able to do up to 100 square feet of drywall. Well, what I wasn't aware of is that I couldn't, being that I do drywall repair, that was why that was on my sign. I wasn't aware of that. Now, since then, since I did talk to Mr. Nichols, he did tell me that there was a special license that I would be able to receive for being a handyman, which I'm going to look into today, which I'm going to look into today, but since that has happened, I don't want to be in violation of anything. You know, I run a handyman service. I don't perform drywall. I don't pretend that I know how to hang drywall, but, you know, do whole walls. But I do do, I can do drywall repair. So, what I have done in the meantime, since I talked to Mr. Nichols, is I have spent another $1,200 on new signs. And I'd like to, if I could put these in, instead of drywall on there, I have changed it to handyman. I do have four new pictures.
Ian, Edwin.
I'll grab them to stand for a little out of the way.
It's cool, those are one.
Okay, yes, sir. I'll mark it. For the record, composite, our composite one?
Yeah, let's call it our composite R1 for the full photograph. Mr. Anderson, you'll just place those on that thing so I can see them when you talk about it. Say that again?
Put it right on the seal so you can see what you're showing him on the screen. Okay.
Just put the first one up and then turn it so I can. Perfect. Thank you, sir. Go ahead.
Number two.
No, give me a second here. I'm sorry. So, it said, so you're changing this to Denny's Do-It-All Service, Inc., right?
Everything is the same except where it said drywall, I put handyman. Got it. Go ahead. Yeah, show me them all. This is the side of the truck. I've got signs around the truck and on my trailer. Okay. And then this is the trailer. This is the back of the trailer.
Okay. Go ahead. All right. Well, I'm going to accept all of them at that, but it's a- Should I bring it up there? Yes.
I'll just put it right there.
This woman in pink here. Yeah, there you go. Perfect.
I've been in business now for almost three years, and, you know, I saw a couple of reviews. Now, there are customers that review my company on Nextdoor, you know, on Facebook, on Seminole Happenings. I've always had, I've never had one bad review. You know, I take my work seriously. I want to make sure that I do a good job for the customers, and I also know my limitations. Now, I do run across from time to time people that do need services that I'm not licensed for. When that does happen, I do have a couple of general contractors that I work with that do do the work, and so I make sure that I, you know, I follow all of the, you know, the laws that are here in the county. I'm not looking to, you know, do anything wrong. I want to do everything that I can right. And, again, I do, you know, I do perform drive-wall repair, and that's all I can say why that was, you know, on my truck. So, other than that, I am going to go look into getting a handyman license today, but that's all I really have.
Council, any cross-examination? Any summation, Council? Anyone? Yeah, go ahead.
The county is appreciative that he's taken steps to correct the issue, but this is a citation. There's not an opportunity to cure.
It's a $500 citation.
It's a $500 citation, and the county feels it's proven that.
Any comments about him, his comments regarding the fact that he may be soliciting work for general contractors as he knocks on doors?
I have concerns about that.
Okay. Yeah. Okay. You've answered my question. I think, thank you. Go ahead. Any summation?
What I would say on that is I don't advertise to do general contracting. I mean, I am a handyman service. You know, their painting is part of that. But I know that you don't need a license to perform painting or floor care or pressure washing, drywall repair. That's why I had that on there. But I'm not doing any general contracting. I mean, I'm not a general contractor. I don't have a license for that. I don't perform that type of work. I don't do any remodeling. It's just a handyman service. That's all that I'm doing. Thank you.
I'm going to consider the public portion of the hearing closed. I'm going to find there is a violation of Section 22-14-6 of the Pinellas Code and enter a fine of $500 and award the county costs. Are you going to do that order?
Yes. If you'd like, Mr. Anderson, you can stay for the order. Give us about five, ten minutes. However, if not, we're going to mail it to you anyway. So it's up to you. You can pay it. I'll give you, you can pay it online, or you can go across 440 to make a payment. Give the instructions on how to make a payment, and then there's your art code there. No, you just don't bring it. You just go ahead and pay it, and then you're 440 Court Street. It should be right here. So that's actually when you come out of the elevators, you make a left, and then it's going to be the building right on your right. Okay? You're welcome.
Do that later then, right? Just give me a second here to put this back. Okay.
I need to read. I'm sorry.
I just want to go ahead and read the other thing.
Oh, yes, please. I'm good. I'm good.
Item 4, Department PCCLB, Matter 2214-6, Advertising Code Violation. Case Number CLB-MG25-00241, Investigator J. Padgett, Citation Number CLB-CT26-00438, Defendant James F. Croson, Notice Address James F. Croson 2351, Irish Lane, Apartment 51, Clearwater, Florida, 33763. Violation address is craigslist.org.
James Croson?
Yes, sir.
Thank you. And, counsel, just for the right of each time.
Yes, sir. Kirby Kreider, Assistant County Attorney on behalf of the Pinellas County Construction Licensing Board. I have with me Investigator Padgett.
Jake, Officer, and Mr. Croson, can you both raise your right hand, please? Do you swear or affirm that any testimony you give today be the truth, nothing but the truth?
I do.
Yeah, I think you might have seen the previous case. Oh, yes. You could sit down or stand there as they put on the record.
I really don't have too much to say. I was getting wrong information by City Hall.
Well, I got to let them put the case on.
Oh, sorry.
You could just stand. You could stand there.
I got it. That's quite a right.
Good morning, sir. Could you say your name for the record, please?
Investigator Jamie Padgett.
How are you employed?
I am an investigator with the Pinellas County Construction Licensing Board.
Do you receive any specialized training regarding your job duties?
Yes. Field and administrative training.
Did you get a citation of a matter that you just heard called?
I did.
Following through this together, cited under 2214.6, a licensed contractor advertising plumbing services via Craigslist in Pinellas County, Florida. Is that a fair and accurate copy of the citation that you wrote in this matter?
It is.
Investigator Padgett, how did you become involved in this investigation?
So our office received a complaint through our system from a homeowner who claimed to have gotten a quote from Mr. Crossan for replacement of a water line. In that complaint, they attached captions of his advertising on Craigslist. I attempted to make contact with the homeowner. I tried via telephone and went to the address listed in the complaint. I could not make contact with the homeowner. They never responded to me. So Mr. Crossan was cited only for the advertising on Craigslist.
Yes.
Here it says, Plummer, Hanging, Clearwater. Is Clearwater in Pinellas County, Florida?
It is.
And is this a fair and accurate depiction of your investigation or bill his advertisement to be?
Yes. So this was actually the caption that was submitted with the complaint on our form site database. So that came in attached to the complaint. And then I subsequently went on to Craigslist and got captions of my own of Mr. Crossan's advertising on the website.
And when you went on to Craigslist, it was what was attached to the complaint?
That's correct. It was the same advertising.
At this point in time, I'd ask to move this in as county's one.
Any objection, Mr. Crossan? No, sir. Okay, I'm going to accept the Craigslist document as, well, let's see. We have that as one?
Yes.
We have the patient in part of the file.
Does part of your job duties include investigating whether or not a person has a license? Yes. And did you do that in this case? I did. And do you prepare any documents that were revealed for the result of your investigation?
Yes. I searched the state database, DBPR, and our database, Acela, and found that Mr. Crossan did not hold a plumber's license with the state or with the county.
And did you prepare an affidavit? I did. Yes. And you did your search on the affidavit July 23rd, 2025, through July 23rd, 2026? That's correct. Is this a fair and accurate copy of the affidavit you prepared? It is. At this point in time, I'd ask to move this in as Counties 2.
Any objection, Mr. Crossan?
No, sir.
Counties 2 is accepted as evidence.
And Administrator Padgett, how did you know that it was this Jay Crossan?
We have a database, an investigative database called CLEAR. I did a CLEAR search on Mr. Crossan and tied the phone number to him, and I found that he had a plumbing background from the state of Massachusetts.
Nothing further.
Did you put that document in there already, the affidavit?
Oh, I put it up. Okay.
Any objection to the affidavit? No, sir. I apologize. That's quite all right. I was reading it. I guess that'd be C3 is accepted. C2. C2. Okay.
Nothing further.
Crossan, do you have any questions of the officer here, Officer Padgett?
Oh, God, no. You did a great job. Thank you.
Okay.
I was told Florida is a right to work. I'm from Boston. Okay. I was told Florida is a right to work state. I wasn't trying to fool nobody. I put down, I was not licensed here. I'm not insured. I didn't know it was worth a fine. I'm one bill away from the poor house. I cannot afford this fine. I'm not lying here. I mean, this is killing me.
I appreciate your candor. Yeah. There's probably very little I can do about that, but I appreciate it. So, you know, your defense is I didn't know, pretty much.
Well, yeah, I was told wrong information.
Yeah, I can't give you any legal advice going forward or anything like that. Or, you know, every county is a little different, which is something I could tell you generally. Okay. Anything else?
No, that's it.
Council, do you have any cross?
No.
Any summation?
Briefly, unfortunately, that's not a defense to it. I believe that the county is established.
I have cease and desist. I don't know if you're doing any type of work.
Go ahead, Councilor.
I believe the county has established the elements for...
I got it. Anything else?
I have cease and desist. I'm in Robin Peter to pay Paul.
The, regretfully, okay. I got it, Mr. Corosin. I'm going to consider that. I'm going to consider the public portion of the hearing closed. I'm going to find there has, find for the county there has been a violation of section. I guess that would be 22, hang on, give me a second here. 22-14, subsection 6, the advertising portion of the code and under citation number 26, there's 00438, and oppose a fine of $500 and award the county costs. So, you can get this mailed or you can wait?
Mr. Corosin, yes. You can either wait or get the mailed. I can do, I can do, I can do, I can do, I can do, I can do, I can do 4th Street, so once you come out of the elevators to your left side, it will be out the doors and to your left. You're welcome.
Okay.
That's great to go out and talk to him. You don't give some broader advice. That's good. So, he's leaving, so we can do the next one?
Yep, we can do the next one, which is the last one.
Whenever Robin's ready, I remembered that.
Item 1, rescheduled from August 10, 2026, Department PCCLB, Matter 2214-5, No Permit Code Violation, Case Number CLB-MG25-00229, Investigator C. Furland, Citation CLB-CT26-00410, Defendant Lynette Marie Covalche Hernandez, Notice Address, Lynette Marie Covalche Hernandez, 2440, World Parkway, No. 25, Clearwater, Florida, 33763, Violation Address, 2391, Sumitran, Way Unit 25, Clearwater, Florida, 33763.
Ms. Hernandez? Ms. Hernandez here?
She's not present.
Oh, she's not? No, she's not. Oh, she's not? There's no other, nobody else showed up? Oh.
Ms. Kreider, on behalf of the Pinellas County Construction Licensing Board, I have with the investigator, given that Ms. Hernandez is not here to testify, violation, I also do fine for the county on both case numbers.
I'll let the record reflect that we call for the case, and there's no one else here that responded, no one responded, okay? Yes, I'm going to fine for the county. I reviewed the documents, and I'm going to pose a five of it. I'll fine both. Okay.
And we're closed for the morning docket. Communications, please stop recording.