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Chuck Epes, Mauri Shaw, Diana Presson, Sandi Kreiser, and John Butcher attended the meeting of City Council's Public Safety Committee at Pine Camp on Jan. 12, 1999. WE all were impressed by Mr. Conrad's committee, and by the new City Manager, Calvin Jamison. The letter here followed:
1508 Avondale Avenue
Richmond, Virginia 23227
January 12, 1999BY FACSIMILE: 780-7987
Dr. Calvin Jamison
City Manager
Room 201
900 East Broad Street
Richmond, Virginia 23219RE: 1603 Claremont Avenue
Dear Dr. Jamison:
On behalf of the Safety Committee of the Bellevue Civic Association, I congratulate you on your survival and appointment. Bellevue is an active part of Richmond and we applaud City Council for selecting you.
Thank you for attending the Public Safety Committee meeting at Pine Camp tonight. President Chuck Epes and I will carry back the good news that you are looking for ways the citizens and City can work together to achieve our shared goals.
With respect to Council’s new priority for dealing with blight, I write to point out a matter where we need to nurture our partnership.
The house at 1603 Claremont Avenue is an outpost of Appalachia in my peaceful neighborhood. The house has more bare wood than paint; the roof is rotting; the gutters are in disrepair. It has been this way for years. Last fall there were three abandoned cars in the driveway, and weeds growing into the alley.
I called the Community Development office in August to complain about the place. When I called the next month to follow up, Mr. Farrell of the Code Enforcement staff refused to discuss the matter, and told me to file a Freedom of Information Act Request.
The product of that request was shocking. The Environmental people (also part of the Community Development department under Building Commissioner Claude Cooper) cited the property for weeds, trash, or abandoned cars on 7/9/90, 7/11/90, 6/9/92, and 3/29/94. Despite this surfeit of first-hand information about the property, the Code Enforcement staff did not respond to the peeling paint or the roof and gutter defects until my neighbor complained in June, 1996.
Code Enforcement then cited the structure on 6/21/96; they obtained a show cause order on 8/24/96 and an order for the City to paint (date not clear). Then they did nothing further until I complained in August, 1998. The Code Enforcement people then marked the "action file" on the structure as "complied." They compounded this falsehood by opening a new "action file" and calling their new inspection an "initial visit." They posted a new violation notice on 9/29/98.
The file does not explain why they abandoned the court order, opened the new file, and restarted their sterile process.
In a letter to me, Building Commissioner Cooper says that the property maintenance code violations at this address are misdemeanors and that an out of state owner (as we appear to have here) cannot be extradited for a misdemeanor. Cooper then suggests that I and my neighbors take the matter to Operation Squalor. Cooper omits to say that the public nuisance prosecuted under Operation Squalor is a misdemeanor, for which an out of state owner cannot be extradited.
More to the point, here we have a high City official, saying that citizens should go elsewhere to obtain the results we are paying him to obtain.
Mr. Cooper stood me up on November 11 when I had an appointment with him to discuss this property, and he has not replied to my further request for a meeting. I ask that you direct him to meet with me immediately and work with the Bellevue neighborhood to resolve this problem.
Please call me at 786-4073 (work) or 264-5942 (home) if I can answer any question about this matter.
With best wishes I am
Sincerely,
/s/
John R. Butchercc: Bill Johnson (780-7736)
Winnie Cobb
Chuck Epes (by email)
Holly Anna Jones (by email)
Claude Cooper (780-6948)On January 29, Mr. Jamison replied.
Last updated 02/24/02
Please send questions or comments to John Butcher