Posted on 07/10/2019 8:02:06 AM PDT by Kaslin
The city of Dunedin, Florida, wants Jim Ficken's home.
Ficken's mom died, so he went to South Carolina to take care of her estate. He asked a friend to look after his house.
But then the friend died, and no one cut Ficken's grass. When it grew to 10 inches, Dunedin officials started fining him $500 a day.
The fine is now about $30,000.
"I was shocked," Ficken says in my latest video. City officials say they will foreclose on his home if he doesn't pay the fine, and Ficken doesn't have that much money.
"Do you have $30,000 lying around?!" he asked me.
"The city has gone nuclear!" complains his lawyer, Ari Bargil. "$500 per day for the violation of having tall grass. ... They could have done what their own ordinances permit them to do: hire a lawn service to come out and mow the grass. Then send Jim a bill for 150 bucks. But they didn't do that."
Why not? Bargil and Ficken say it's because Dunedin's officials just want money.
Dunedin's politicians wouldn't talk to us. Instead, they spent $25,000 on a public relations firm that told reporters, "Dunedin has no desire to impose large fines... (only to) ensure that Dunedin is a high-quality community."
The cost of "high quality" keeps going up.
Eleven years ago, Dunedin fined people $34,000. Today, they want about that much from Ficken alone. Last year Dunedin collected $1.3 million in fines from residents.
"It's pretty apparent that code enforcement is a major cash cow for the city," says Bargil.
"I got violated for a lawnmower in my yard!" says one resident who has been fined $32,000. "They violated me for a hole the size of a quarter in my stucco ... They find people they can pick on ... and they keep picking on them."
She started crying as she recounted: "I can't tell you how many sleepless nights I've had because of the city of Dunedin. Just try to think of what to say to them, just to have them leave me alone."
"The city is just a bunch of bullies, and they expect people not to stand up to 'em because to stand up to 'em requires expensive legal help," says Ficken.
Ficken managed to get expensive legal help for free from the Institute for Justice, a law firm that defends individuals abused by governments.
All across the country, "private citizens are being essentially extorted by their governments and fined incredible amounts of money for really, really small violations," says Bargil.
You can be fined for not trimming plants, the way Ficken was, but you can also be fined for trimming too much. A city in North Carolina fined a local church $100 per branch ($4,000) for excessive tree-pruning.
And in places such as Dunedin, if you can't pay a fine, they'll take your home.
"The city attorney of Dunedin last year sought permission to foreclose on 18 properties," says Bargil.
That violates the Eighth Amendment, says the Institute for Justice. The Amendment not only protects us from "cruel and unusual punishment" but also from "excessive fines."
The Founding Fathers, says Bargil, "recognized that the ability to fine is the ability to cripple. It's one of the ways, other than incarceration, that government can really oppress."
If governments can oppress, they usually will.
We should be grateful for the Eighth Amendment's protection against excessive fines.
And what's more excessive than politicians taking your home because you didn't cut your grass?
Oh, like an HOA on steroids. Cancelling an HOA is about as hard as getting rid of a timeshare. Better chance of building a rocket to the moon in the garage. LOL!
If possible, never live in a municipality or incorporated area. Fed, state, and county are bad enough to deal with.
When I sold my house a long time ago I found out my HOA was the first lean holder!!!! WTH? The dues were $2.00/mo and they held leans on all of the properties. The FIRST LEAN!!!
Never ever move where there is an HOA
NANNY SYATE NONSENSE
Government does not need to have compasssion. Government has the power (but not the right) to do this sort of thing, and you have no recourse.
Never mind the bull$hit about violating any amendment. They don’t care about amendments or the entire Constitution.
Deep down, it’s because statists don’t want you to have private property. So they take a little bit at a time. The big act of theft is the “property tax” whereby they take 3% a year from you. After 33 years they will have confiscated the entire value of the property.
And you thought that it was “yours.”
Yes, I hate government overreach and abuse of power.
One among many reasons I live in an unincorporated township on 100 acres.
Minimal government regulation and attention.
Dunedin should be sued for a few million dollars on constitutional grounds.
Eminent Domain by the back door. There is no such thing as a true “fee simple” title to the holder of the title in the chain of custody of real estate. The local taxing authority, be it municipal, county or state, always has an implied lien for tax purposes, which in this instance, was compounded by fees and fines assessed for failure to comply with local ordinance.
Is it legal? Short answer, yes. Is it justified? Probably, the penalty imposed was MUCH too harsh, and should be adjudicated in some way, but that again involves much legal legwork, and may, in the end, greatly exceed the amount of the fine or even the total value of the property in question.
Ya know - these people have names. And addresses.
The citizens should stop treating them like an entity that can't be dealt with.
If memory serves. His house is older typical Florida beach house just a few blocks from the Gulf. The city no doubt is hoping for a buyer who will knock it down and build a larger in your face dwelling that will generate a higher property tax.
Anyone who thinks they own a home... you don’t. Nice American dream tax scheme though.
Regards,
Go rentta Bulldozer and Knock their own Homes down to rubble
Your comment reminds me of the story from a few years back about the guy that dumped some ridiculously large amount of horse manure (a LOT of horse manure) in front of a local government assh*le’s front door.
Used his front-end loader and just returned some of what they’d been doing to him.
And that’s mild compared to what he could have done...
If the city is doing this to all the residents, why don’t the residents just vote for new leadership, and have them change the laws?
Duh. LOL!
We don’t but still get threatened with fines for bs. In the middle of one such citation right now.
Every day that goes by and we don’t hear of another Carl Drega I’m both surprised and dismayed.
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