Politics & Government

City Manager Responds to Code Violation Nightmare

City Manager Don Johnson responds to Patch post: Restoring a Royal Oak Bungalow - a Criminal Offense

The following is from an email forwarded to Royal Oak Patch from Royal Oak City Manager Don Johnson in response to a Restoring a Royal Oak Bungalow - a Criminal Offense, which was posted on Patch by Emily Felix on Oct. 30.

Johnson described the posting as "highly inaccurate."

"This is really about someone who has already taken three years to paint a house and it still isn't done," Johnson wrote.  "Since it's almost November, it probably can't be completed until summer of 2014, which will be four construction seasons. I think Code Enforcement was extremely lenient with this property."

Johnson provided the following timeline:

Feb. 3, 2011: The initial code violation letter (this was just a letter, not a citation) was sent. The owners were initially given until July 1, 2011 to comply. 

Aug. 4, 2011: The owner, Eric Cichy, talked to a Code Enforcement Officer and said the work would be completed by October 1.  It wasn't.

Nov. 5, 2012: Almost two years after the initial violation letter, after seven visits to the property, a Code Enforcement Officer finally wrote the first citation.   This was contested in court and the magistrate granted an extension to July 13, 2013 to complete the work and dismissed the first ticket.  The homeowners did not comply with the magistrate's deadline. 

Aug. 1, 2013 and Aug. 29, 2013: Inspections found the work had not been completed but no tickets were issued. 

Sept. 26, 2013: Almost three years after the initial letter, two years after the date Cichy promised it would be completed and three months after the deadline established by the magistrate, Code Enforcement wrote a new citation.  

Sept. 26, 2013:  The property was re-inspected, the work was still not completed, so another citation was issued.

Oct. 15, 2013: The magistrate held the property owner responsible for the second (Aug. 29,2013) citation. 

Oct. 31, 2013: (Johnson) drove by the property  and the work has still not been done. 

Nov. 5, 2013: The third violation is before the magistrate.


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