Henderson had all the evidence on its side during Thursday’s appeal hearing on the civil penalty levied against the abandoned property at 1002 Standish St. The other side didn’t show up.
It was the first test of the appeals process for the civil-penalties ordinance the City Council passed a year ago. After the ordinance went into effect late last summer and after city staff worked through some confusion over the penalty process, Code Compliance Director Corey Williams issued his first civil penalties last month.
On April 11, a civil penalty went into effect against K&R Associates for the house on Standish Street, which the city began taking action against in late 2003. The city repeatedly delayed tearing down the vacant, dilapidated structure to give the owners a chance to make promised renovations, but that work has not been completed.
The Standish Street house is bad enough that when an aide to Sen. Richard Burr visited Henderson this spring and took the cleanup tour, Mayor Clem Seifert joked that the man probably hadn’t seen the worst of the city because he was sure the tour hadn’t included that house. In fact, it had.
Under the civil-penalties ordinance, in addition to moving ahead with demolishing the structure and slapping a tax lien on the property, the city can apply a $500 penalty that grows by $10 a day, up to $4,500, until the building is torn down.
K&R Associates, a limited-liability corporation that manages property for Charlie Keeter and Al Rivers, responded to the civil penalty with a notice of appeal April 20. That notice stopped the clock on the daily increase in the penalty; it did not alter the order to demolish the building.
On April 28, City Manager Eric Williams notified Keeter, the manager of K&R Associates, that he would hear the appeal Thursday at 11 a.m.
At 11:05, with only the city manager, the code compliance director, Assistant City Manager Mark Warren, zoning administrator Brownell Wright and a reporter present, the hearing began. Up to that point, city officials had received no word from Keeter or Rivers about missing or delaying the hearing.
With only one side at the hearing, it lasted less than 10 minutes. Corey Williams introduced the documents, Exhibits A through L, to back up the civil penalty. Eric Williams accepted them. And it was over.
Williams said he will make a prompt decision, perhaps today but no later than early next week. If he upholds the penalty, K&R’s only appeal option would be civil court.
Rivers was not available for comment Thursday afternoon. In a phone interview, Keeter said it was premature to discuss the next step before Williams makes his decision.
Keeter said he, not Rivers, was supposed to attend the hearing of the appeal, but he was caught in a meeting that ran long.
It’s not clear whether Williams could hold another hearing on the appeal even if he wanted to. He’s being careful with the precedent-setting nature of this first civil-penalty appeal.
Keeter said he talked to the code compliance director after the hearing and left a message with the city manager about “what process we need to take.”