Civil penalties face first test


Nothing is simple in Henderson’s effort to clear out dilapidated structures and to use civil penalties as a stick to force property owners to act, as a City Council discussion showed Monday night.

City Manager Eric Williams notified the council that K&R Associates — essentially Charlie Keeter and Al Rivers — has appealed the civil penalty levied over the condition of the house at 1002 Standish St. Under the city’s ordinance allowing civil penalties, which the council passed last fall, the city manager hears the appeal. Further appeals would go to the court system.

Rivers received a letter in September 2003 informing him that the Standish Street house was a candidate for condemnation because of its condition.

The City Council passed an ordinance allowing the Standish Street house to be demolished last year, but the council also granted a stay that allowed K&R to rehabilitate the structure as long as the business met a series of deadlines for the work.

The Standish Street house received an initial 60-day extension for repairs after the council approved its demolition. That extension expired Sept. 27, and Rivers acknowledged to the council at that time that K&R did little work during the extension.

But K&R benefited from a new city ordinance in September to establish a fixed time frame for property owners who wanted a chance to repair houses facing demolition. That ordinance sets up a 150-day timeline, with deadlines on specific work every 30 days.

Code Compliance Director Corey Williams said that under that 150-day timeline, K&R met two deadlines, then failed to make progress. So he hit the owners with the civil penalty. The penalty for an abandoned structure starts at $500 and rises daily.

That combination of penalty and demolition order caused confusion Monday night.

Mayor Clem Seifert said he thought the purpose of civil penalties on dilapidated structures was to force the owners to fix them before the city ordered them demolished. So he didn’t understand the reason for a penalty against a house that already was condemned.

City Attorney John Zollicoffer explained that the ordinances force the code compliance director to hit property owners with penalties if demolition orders aren’t immediately carried out.

Seifert and Zollicoffer spent several minutes not quite understanding each other about how civil penalties and demolition orders work together.

Seifert said it seemed that demolition would settle the matter because there would be no more substandard structure to cite.

Corey Williams agreed: “In my opinion, it would be in compliance.”

The heart of the matter is the city’s lack of money to tear down decaying, abandoned structures.

Civil penalties are one way to raise money for the Code Compliance Department to demolish buildings and pay for other contracted services, such as clearing overgrown lots.

If the city had the money, Williams said, he would raze buildings before the penalties kicked in. Because his department is constantly scraping bottom — Williams said $5,250 in voluntary demolition reimbursements already cleaned up two other properties, as the council approved in a budget amendment Monday — the civil penalties pile up and add to the property owners’ debt to the city.

In many cases, those penalties could be as tough to collect as the liens placed on properties after demolition. But K&R could be an exception because the partners have the means to pay.

K&R could stop the assessment of the civil penalty by demolishing 1002 Standish St. The partnership chose to appeal the penalty instead.

Eric Williams must give K&R 10 days’ notice of the appeal hearing, and he said he will try to schedule the hearing before the May 9 council meeting.

Because this is the first appeal of a civil penalty in Henderson, the city must be extra careful in the precedents it sets, Seifert said.

The city manager said he hopes to “expose any glitches in the process.”