Thursday, August 23, 2007

Our Tax Dollars At Work....

So I got a letter in the mail yesterday telling me I had an unsightly amount of junk in my yard. Um, no. Anyway, this is the letter I wrote to the moron's bosses, and assorted news folk in town. I can only hope the idiot loses his job, or at least has to do garbage details for forever.




Dear Sirs and Madam,

This afternoon, along with the myriad of junk mail I receive daily, I received a letter from the Building and Zoning Administrator. Said letter was to inform me that I was in non-compliance of the City of Loveland Property Maintenance Code. (Section PM-306.1)

The non compliance issue?

"The yard contains but is not limited to: an old dishwasher, boxes, and other miscellaneous debris."

Oh where to start?

The "old dishwasher, boxes and other miscellaneous debris" were put next to the garbage can. The huge grey Rumpke garbage can that is issued to every single house in Loveland. The boxes would be the box that the new dishwasher came in. Too big to fit in said Rumpke garbage can. The other debris, was I am sure, the Styrofoam, and cardboard supports used to protect the new dishwasher while in transit in said box. That of course would not fit into the garbage can either. The old dishwasher was deposited in the small area designated for garbage cans and recycling bins, and large garbage that will not fit in a can.

On the side of the garage.

Not out front.

But on the side where it is unobtrusive.

Said large items were put out into the trash on Thursday evening, August 16, 2007, in preparation for garbage day which is always Monday, before 8 in the morning (this is important) . The next garbage collection day was Monday, August 20, 2007. So, the garbage, the large garbage was out for all of 4 days.

According to Mr. Stoker, there was "an on-site inspection, performed on August 20, 2007...". However, our trash was picked up before 8a.m., and our trashcan back in its' place before 8:15 that morning, August 20, 2007.

There is no possible way any inspection could have been performed on August 20, 2007, when the dishwasher and related debris were still there. As the stated hours on the recording for Mr. Stoker and his office are 8:30-5:00 Monday through Friday, I find it hard to believe that anyone would in fact be inspecting my property before 8:30 in the morning.

Also as a side note, I was home ill all day, and no one, and I mean no one, came to my house, or was on my property. My Doberman did not alert me to anyone being on my property, and the Doberman is very consistent in her efforts at dissuading strangers from stopping in the yard, or the porch, or the house.

I called Mr. Stoker this afternoon as soon as I received the letter and voiced my displeasure about this. He stated to me that he drove by on Friday, August 17, 2007 and saw the dishwasher and related debris.

Yet the letter I received states the inspection was performed 3 days later. So I have an official City of Loveland complaint letter, with a falsified date on it. I find that wrong.

Mr. Stoker said he did not in fact know when trash pick up was, nor did he care to know. I told him that I thought if he were going to send complaints about this sort of thing, he should know when trash pick up is. Period.

During the course of this conversation, I was cut off repeatedly. And while he apologized that I was offended because of his actions, he did not apologize for making a mistake, or falsifying the date on the complaint. This did not make me happy, as I was polite to Mr. Stoker.

So why am I writing?

I am concerned both by the libelous implication that the homeowners of **** Stockton Dr. are unable or unwilling to take care of their property and the laziness of an official that continuously states his job is to look for aesthetic property violations yet is unfamiliar with the trash pick up days for the neighborhood he polices.

While continuously claiming his job responsibilities involve the search for violators Mr. Stoker is unable to define what constitutes an eye-sore or, more specifically, too much trash waiting to be picked-up on the appointed day. Perhaps Mr. Stoker, like Justice Potter Stewart, is unable to define it, but knows when he sees it.

More likely, given Mr. Stoker's inability to check a trash pick-up date that would seem to be integral to his enforcement, if it were non-capricious and done by a rational person, he is wasting the tax-payers money and goodwill by randomly persecuting citizens in an attempt to justify his salary.

I am concerned that he compared my house to one that was boarded up for three years, and continuously stated that he knew some people who had left the same arrangement of dishwasher and boxes by their house for a year. But mostly I am concerned that he brought my name into public records on a trumped up fabrication that besmirches my and my husband's names because of either laziness, apathy or incompetence.

I trust you will find a way to deal with this situation in a way that is appropriate. Of course I would like to know how this situation has been dealt with.

Sincerely,

1 comment:

mom to four boys said...

You go girl!! I want to know how it turns out.