July 7, 1999

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Concerned Citizens "Operation Squalor" Meeting
with David Hicks

July 7, 1999
7:00 PM
Home of Paul Feine, FDA President

Present: Mary Lou Carr WOBCA
Paul Feine FDA
Zoe Anne Green WOBCA
Collin Hite WGSA
Norma Murdoch-Kitt Ginter Park
Frank Norvell FDA
Billy Poarch WOBCA
Turk Sties Near West Team Chair
David Hicks Commonwealth’s Attorney

Absent: John Butcher Bellevue Civic Association  (oops!)
Meg Lawrence Ginter Park

The meeting was upbeat and the context was one of understanding the current situation, seeing where we want to go, and how to get there.

David Hicks shared the following:

    1. Operation Squalor is primarily a law enforcement tool. The issues currently before Squalor are generally law enforcement issues. The program is intended to enforce the laws and should not be viewed as a replacement for other agencies.
    2. With the case loads of murders and other violent crimes (which have a higher priority), Squalor issues are generally are not able to be pursued, with current staffing levels..
    3. The environmental cases are generally civil and would best be tried by the City Attorney’s office
    4. Squalor was initiated to get the city to enforce the code
    5. Due to the volume, many cases cannot be accommodated. Operation Squalor concentrates on public safety cases which have the highest priority.
    6. The current expectations of the citizens are out of sync with the constraints of the CA’s office.
    7. The information flow from the CA’s office to the citizens is inadequate, due to the situations outlined above.
    8. There is a good case for someone in the City Manager’s office to coordinate all the city departments, as the City is responsible for enforcing the laws, and therefore have the city take responsibility for enforcing the laws. (Similar to Camille Sabbakhan, who performs this function for ABC issues currently).
    9. The judges generally do not place a high priority on code enforcement issues, given their dockets of murder and violent crimes.
    10. Having the CA’s office prosecuting quasi-civil proceedings is hard; they are criminal prosecutors up against good civil attorneys.
    11. His dept has hired a full time Squalor person, Whitney Tymas, effective July 1, 1999, to coordinate Operation Squalor
    12. His dept will begin immediately to bring ALL Squalor properties to trial that have gone to the Grand Jury and have had indictments presented
    13. Unfortunately, some of the owners of property that deserve to be targeted spend their money to pay high dollar lawyers to continue cases rather that fixing the property
    14. The city does not appear willing to tangle with the well-heeled, influential slumlords. It is a political risk.

The citizens shared the following:

    1. We are frustrated and feel we have done all that is asked of us, even to the point of preparing the cases.
    2. We are frustrated because the program was and STILL IS marketed heavily as the solution to nuisance properties, regardless of root cause(s).
    3. If the city had enforced the code, most of the properties would never have gone to Squalor.
    4. We are left out of every step of the process, and must literally beg for information.
    5. With the information shared by David Hicks (see above), much understanding was reached. We don’t like the situation, but, at least, we understand where the CA’s department is coming from, and the current environment in which we find ourselves.
    6. We are eager to work with the CA to take all EXISTING cases to court, and will work with the CA and the city to decide the best avenue for future nuisance properties.
    7. We plan to work towards having the proper remedy performed by the proper party in the future.
    8. We are ready and willing to go to the General Assembly to fight for legislative changes to improve the rights of citizens to favorably abate nuisance properties.
    9. Citizens extended invitations to David to attend two civic meetings: July 14 (Near West Team) and July 15 (Northside). David accepted both.

Next step:

We will meet in three weeks. David Hicks will bring the case load and we will go from there. The citizens are encouraged with the decision to immediately pursue the current cases, and we look forward to a more permanent remedy, with clear understandings of which agency will do what, in what timeframe. We will talk with the city manager to see if some roles are better handled under his jurisdiction.

The group will meet next on:

Wednesday, July 28 ,1999, 6:30 PM

3320 W Franklin St

(cross street is Roseneath Rd, near Arthur Ashe monument)

Home of Zoe Anne Green, 358-1340

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Last updated 02/24/02
Please send questions or comments to John Butcher