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tv   [untitled]    January 22, 2012 11:48am-12:18pm PST

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>> i do not think it is fair to give me three minutes in light of the issues tendered here. this is an abatement committee. and a bateman is not an order for me to allow an inspection. only a court can allow me -- order me to allow an inspection. with all due respect, you have no power, as the director did not, to order me to allow an inspection. that is not within your jurisdiction. there is no law that says i have to allow an inspection. how the inspection is procured is different. the fact of the matter is, they do not have an order to cite. it is a misrepresentation that they cannot see the work was not done. they cannot verify that it was not done. i have stated under oath under these occasions that the work is done. there is no evidence to the contrary.
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i did the work well within the time set forth by the original notice of violation. i submitted evidence that the directors hearing that the work had been done. there is no evidence whatsoever that the alleged violation has not been repaired. it has been repaired. if you want to see the painting receipts, i have them here. the work is done. no one can testify to the contrary. also, contrary to what was stated, they can see what was done from the street. when you are on 17th street looking over the fence, you can see work was done in the various areas depicted. if they are snow -- so sneaky to go into the neighbor's yard to gain access to my yard, then they will do it again. i do not like it when people are sneaking in to my neighbor's yard to look in m»>p i hope you find that offensive as well. this is a free country.
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we do not have people writing you out by sneaking into your neighbor's yard. that is not the way we operate in this country. it is in violation of well- established law. if the representative does not know that, then she is woefully ignorant of the applicable law. i am astounded that she is standing up here and arguing with a straight face that i had an obligation to allow an inspection. the u.s. supreme court has declared to the contrary. if they do not know it, they should know it. commissioner murphy: can i ask you one question? why don't you let the inspectors in? >> because i believe in freedom. i have rights, just like i have a right to free speech. i do not have to explain to anyone why. it says in the fourth amendment i have these rights. it says i have a right to privacy in the california constitution, a right to dignity. i do not need to be exposed to
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unsolicited accusations. if they have a problem, they have no remedies. i am insisting on my rights. i think we would be a better country, quite frankly, if more people did that. commissioner walker: i am ready to talk about it. >> thank you for your time. the point is, there is nothing to abate, so the order is polonius. >> is the public comment on this item? commissioner walker: i appreciate the passion by which you deliver your position. however, in the city, thankfully, we have some losawsn making surew÷nnpr that apartmed spaces we rent to tenants, as a landlord, are inspected.
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that is called a routine inspection. when you rent to people, you agree to do that. a lot of landlords in the city do it. fortunately, we have hundreds of thousands of rental units in the city. it is our job to make sure they are safe, and no one here has been able to go in and inspect common areas of the building, nor the walls that are not accessible, because the property owner has not÷3[ let anyone ino inspect, so our property inspectors are not able to do their job. i actually think we should double this action from the department, and hopefully, the property owner will comply. i would vote to uphold a
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recommendation to staff. commissioner lee: before that, i would like to ask, has this situation ever occurred in the past? what have you done in the past two ask the property owner to give you access for a routine inspection? >> we try to work with a property owner. that is the first thing. if we cannot gain access that way, especially when we have seen there are violations, the next course is to consult with the city attorney's office and perhaps get an inspection warrants. we have had more than five years since this particular building has gone a routine inspection. this is a pre-79 building. you want to make sure there are no other lead paint issues on the exterior. we do not think this inspection would take that long, but we also have a garage area.
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we have to make sure it is properly sprinklered. if there is a garbage chute or anything like that -- is all the types of things that are on the list given to the property owner as part of a routine inspection program, to tie -- try to minimize those problems happening in the city. this program has existed for the past 25 years. we will continue to work with a property owner, but if he is of a different philosophy, we will consult with the city attorney to gain access. commissioner murphy: the picture that was taken of the pipe, where was that taken from? >> when we had the routine inspection, he did not show up, the next day, we were at the adjacent property. commissioner murphy: is that the policy of the department? >> if we can see it in plain view, which the inspector was,
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in the adjacent property, that is ripe for writing a notice of violation. especially because of the particular history. commissioner murphy: isn't that trespassing if we go into somebody else's property? >> we were lawfully on the adjacent property. we were doing an inspection here. the inspector was here. he saw it the peeling paint on the adjacent property. commissionerit is part of the pn the corner. he was let into this property to do this inspection. what he was doing was what he did with this property, walking around the outer edge for a scheduled inspection. as he got to hear, he could see the peeling paint. >> ok, i understand. it is not our policy to go on property without permission of the owner.
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>> no. that is why we send that whole package to the property owner, requesting the inspection, why the inspection, the code section, and a whole list of things that i am going to look at. so that the property owner knows. sometimes they may have minor items that they can fix before we get there and it is a reference for them. >> we just need to be careful with trespassing issues. >> absolutely. we were not. but it was in plain view. >> got it. thank you. >> was the one that took the picture the same inspector that had cited the violation? >>njvncy i have him here. >> rosemary, back to my original question. is this the first time that something like this happened? >> this happens on occasion. how did the other ones -- >> how
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did the other ones get resolved? >> we keep trying to get in. when we have a property owner getting up, it tells us that we have to do something else. in a situation like that, where it has happened before in the code says we have to do the inspection, we get an inspection order. they generally do not come up because property owners usually cooperate when we and -- when they understand what we are trying to achieve. i readily acknowledge the work that we did from the street. but we are saying is that we did see some things that have to be corrected. we needed to be able to get in to verify on site but was happening into the routine inspection. >> you would go to the city attorney's office to get an order form?
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>> in this particular instance, if you vote to uphold the order, be will try to work with the property owner for a little bit. if he is adamant about not doing a routine inspection, not letting us in, we will consult the city attorney. all we have done is gotten inspection warrants in the past, when we were not able to get in. >> were you not able to get an inspection warrant before it reached us? >> because that is not a process in the city and county. the code says that these buildings are subject to inspection. most property owners cooperate and let us in. the other thing that will happen is, if we have to get a warrant, the property owner bill be billed. most property owners do not want to do that. there is case law that says the property owner is obligated to let us in without a warrant, but
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if he refuses, that is the warrant that week -- that is the course that we take. >> anything to add to that? is that correct? >> the only thing that i wanted to make clear was the order of abatement that was near something that needed to be visible. the fact that they did not allow the routine inspection, i do not know that that is within your jurisdiction. blacks there is a reference to them. >> the inspection of the work that you reserved to have done. >> so, the abatement order is for the paint? >> and the step. the ability for the the city to make the inspection -- the inability for the city to make the inspection to confirm that the work has been done. >> if you visibly solve these items without the property owner
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present, could you not go back and confirm that they were done without the property owner consent? >> now we do get back to routine inspection honor -- issues. because you failed to show up the day before, when we were at the adjacent property and saw the condition, and we were there for a scheduled inspection with that particular property owner. we're not going to call him to the inconvenience him because would not let us in. that is not policy. >> i have something for clarification. abatements. obviously, the front steps, you could see them from the streets, but you could not fully inspect the paint issue from the street. >> correct. >> that would still be outstanding. >> correct. >> as far as we're concerned, no
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matter what was done unless we inspect it and see that it was done, it is not done. >> thank you. >> ok. commissioners? >> i have a motion to except the abatement order. >> i feel that there is too much time being spent on this already. i do not know how it is in valley forge, california, but we are in an economic downturn here. we are running inspectors back and forth. i want to second the commissioner workers motion. >> the motion is to uphold the order of abatement and the assessment of costs. >> and commissioner murphy seconded it. >> there will be a roll-call
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vote on the motion to uphold the order of abatement and except the assessment of cost. >> president lee? >> yes. >> vice president walter? >> yes. >> commissioner when? >> -- [roll call] carries, unanimously. item f, the general public comment. items not on the agenda. is there any public comment? seeing no one, item g, adjourned -- adjournment. the abatement appeals board is now adjourned. >> we will take 15 minutes?
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>> it will take approximately 15 minutes to set up for the building inspection commission. >> january 20, 2012, friday 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. here at city hall. welcome and would you please -- mabel, would you please do the roll call? >> we don't have captioning yet? >> control room, do we have captioning?
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control room? ok, we have a policy of not going forward without the captioning. so we will wait until that comes on. oh, here, it's just not showing on one of the screens. so we can proceed. it means that the public is able to see it. please proceed. please proceed. since mabel is on the line with
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