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Home My WebLink About1179 - MINUTES - City Commission MINUTES OF MEETING DANIA BEACH CITY COMMISSION ABATEMENT HEARING THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2006 - 6:00 P.M. 1. Call to Order Mayor Flury called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. 2. Roll Call Present: Mayor: Patricia Flury Vice-Mayor: Bob Anton Commissioners: John Bertino Anne Castro Paul Fetscher City Manager: Ivan Pato City Attorney: Tom Ansbro City Clerk: Louise Stilson Code Attorney: Tim Ryan 3. Abatement Requests 3.1 Request by Adirondack Associates, Inc., for consideration of abatement for Case #06- 0886, for property located at 922 S. Federal Highway (#1203-00-0650) Attorney Tim Ryan advised this case involved a repeat violation for trash/litter. The fine ran for 130 days for a total of$65,000, and the Special Magistrate issued a Final Order on August 14, 2006. The Special Magistrate heard the Abatement request on November 13, 2006 and recommended an abatement to $30,000, to be paid within 30 days, or any other amount ordered by the City Commission. He noted that staff recommended $32,500. Ernest Kollra, Attorney for Adirondack Mobile Home Park, distributed information to the Commission showing the amount of money spent to correct the Code violations. He acknowledged due to their own administrative lack of communication between their offices in Dania Beach and Michigan, that the paperwork did not reach the proper location. Once the violations were brought to their attention they tried to correct the problem. He indicated they are governed by Florida Statute Chapter 723, and are not allowed to enter onto the personal property of the mobile home owners to correct violations. They tried to work with the owners by supplying the materials and manpower needed to make the necessary repairs. He acknowledged that they could have fixed the problems sooner, but they did not want to evict any tenants. He requested an abatement to what the City actually expended on this case, which he estimated at • $4,000. He noted the purchaser of the property, Lisa Young, was currently in the due diligence process of the purchase and wished to address the Commission. Lisa Young acknowledged that she does have a signed contract on this property. She is currently in the due diligence period which expires November 29, 2006. She would like to see the property developed to improve the community, and would like this to be a community driven project. The closing is scheduled for January 5, 2007. She noted she intends to meet individually with each Commissioner and get their ideas and suggestions for this project. As a community representative, she noted since the violations were corrected the owners have become good neighbors and joined their association. Commissioner Bertino remarked the Mobile Home Park is deplorable, and has never been improved. He thought it was absurd not to pay a $30,000 fine for property valued at over $1 M. His recommendation was to keep the fine at $65,000. Commissioner Castro agreed the Park is deplorable, but encouraged the transaction to change ownership in order to improve the neighborhood. She asked if the abatement could be conditional upon the sale of the property. City Attorney Ansbro responded the Commission had the power to do this. Commissioner Fetscher asked the cost to the City to prosecute this case. He would be willing to • abate to the hard cost to the City. Attorney Ryan responded we estimate the hard cost on commercial property at $2,000, but this is subject to variation based upon activity generated on the case. He estimated the hard cost for this case to be $4,000-$5,000. Nick Lupo, Code Compliance Manager, estimated the cost to be at least 10% of the original cost, which would be $6,500. Vice-Mayor Anton noted he could support staff s recommendation for $32,500. Vice-Mayor Anton motioned to accept Staffs recommendation to abate the fine to S32,500, to be paid within 60 days; seconded by Commissioner Bertino. Mayor Flury asked that the fine revert to the original amount if the sale does not go through. Vice-Mayor Anton amended his motion to include that the fine reverts back to S65,000 if the sale is not finalized in 60 days. The motion carried on the following 4-1 Roll Call vote: Commissioner Bertino Yes Vice-Mayor Anton Yes Commissioner Castro No Mayor Flury Yes Commissioner Fetscher Yes ® Minutes of Abatement Hearing 2 Dania Beach City Commission Thursday,November 16,2006—6:00 p.m. 3.2 Settlement Proposal for Dania Beach v. Nguyen, et al., for Case #CEB 01-0115, for • property located at 800 Phippen Road (#1203-34-03 10) Attorney-Tim Ryan advised the property was in foreclosure and this case was heard by the City Commission on January 19, 2006, and a motion was made to abate the fine to $27,000, with payment to be made within 60 days. The Defendant attempted to obtain a loan from a private lender, but was unable to obtain the loan in a timely fashion due to title defects which the Defendant eventually cleared from the property. The Defendant has agreed to pay $34,000, within 30 days, to release the City lien on the property. Commissioner Castro motioned to accept the Settlement Agreement for $34,000, to be paid within 30 days; seconded by Vice-Mayor Anton. The motion carried on the following 5-0 Roll Call vote: Commissioner Bertino Yes Vice-Mayor Anton Yes Commissioner Castro Yes Mayor Flury Yes Commissioner Fetscher Yes 4. Adjournment Mayor Flury adjourned the meeting at 6:26 p.m. CITY OF DANIA BEACH ATTEST: PATRICIA FLURY ^^ 1 MAYOR—COMMISSIONER LOUISE STILSON, CMC CITY CLERK Approved: November 28, 2006 Minutes of Abatement Hearing 3 Dania Beach City Commission Thursday,November 16,2006—6:00 p.m.