Posted on 05/05/2010 11:14:35 AM PDT by nickcarraway
A former Marine in San Diego County who refused to pay the bill after authorities had what they called fire-prone weeds cleared could lose his land. He says the plants were fire-resistant native flora.
For three decades, former Marine-turned-Rastafarian Joseph Diliberti has lived on his three acres of paradise deep in rural eastern San Diego County: building clay dwellings, playing his flute, reading Thoreau ("I went into the woods because I wished to live deliberately") and radiating peace and harmony.
But six years ago when the local fire district sent him a bill for $27,552 for cutting down what firefighters characterized as fire-prone weeds on his property, he declined to pay, just as Thoreau refused to pay his delinquent poll taxes.
Diliberti resented that a private company hired by the fire district came onto his property while he was not there. Also, he says that what the fire department calls combustible weeds were actually fire-resistant, native California plants.
With penalties and interest, the bill has grown to more than $62,000. Diliberti, who was injured in Vietnam, lives on a monthly disability check and says he cannot afford to pay the county.
"A Rasta-man doesn't worry about these things," he said.
Maybe not, but the taxman does. The county tax collector is threatening to auction off Dilberti's property sometime after July 1 to pay for back taxes,.
David Nissen, division chief of the San Diego Rural Fire Protection District, wishes it had never come to this. But he said Diliberti did not respond to warning notices and later did not attend a governing board hearing where his bill was discussed. Records show that more than 800 cubic yards of brush were removed.
Diliberti filed a lawsuit but lost. He blames his attorney.
"This whole thing is tragic," said Nissen, who said a
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
I didn't defend it; I merely stated that it was clearly legal. If there are laws on the books we don't like, there is a process for getting them changed. If that distinction is too much for you to manage I suggest you get help.
I'm not going to bother. The reason is simple: there are several different ways under which it is legally justifiable, all of which are arguable. It could be under public safety, environmental protection, forestry management, insurance regulations... That means we could be here for days discussing what did or did not apply. I don't have time for that.
You need more help than I ever will.
Good day.
I found a spent .17 (or more accurately .177, I think) round in my back yard last week. It is hard to think that tiny round would even kill a squirrel, it is so small.
But it is apparent that someone in my neighborhood is trying!
Today, my daughter took a check to the tax collectors office.
My handwriting has become hard to read, and I print. I can't handle small print. I filled in the numbers, easy to read, when I wrote out the sum I ran short of space. I finished the line with numerals. It left no doubt, just unconventional.
The little government dimbletwit gave my daughter 10 minutes of crap, didn't want to accept the check. Mary got pretty puffed up and the dimbletwit backed down. It's a 30 mile round trip to the office.
Some people get their kicks abusing their power and a lot of them end up working for government. I called the bank, they said "no problem"
When you pay online they charge a $35.00 "convenience fee". It would be worth that to avoid having to deal with the bastards, but the website doesn't work!
Anyone wha tries to justify the amount of government, at all levels, we are saddled with is an idiot. Anarchy couldn't be worse!
I don't fit in to the suburbs. I bought 5 acres of land so I could be left to Hell alone. Now they're catching up, but I WAS HERE FIRST!
The only planted grass on this land is on top of the drainfields. The rest of it is 100% Florida.
Methinks he’s suffering from shell-shock.
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