Posted on 10/05/2006 10:17:28 AM PDT by radar101
A home under construction overlooks a mobile dwelling in Harbison Canyon. County officials say three years is long enough to rebuild or at least get started, but those with eviction notices are angry.
After issuing multiple extensions, San Diego County officials recently told people they had 30 days to move out of the trailers they've lived in since losing their homes to the Cedar and Paradise fires three years ago. The final notice left residents like David Baker without a home, again.
A general contractor from Ramona who lost his house in the October 2003 wildfires, Baker said he hadn't saved enough money to rebuild. He was living in a trailer on his property, but he moved in with family last month.
“I don't know what I'm going to do,” said Baker, 51, who lived alone. “I'm back to the night of the Cedar fire, when I was thinking, 'What the hell am I going to do?' ”
County officials say they realize this doesn't make them look like saints, but they feel three years is enough time to rebuild, or at least get started. They are drawing distinctions, they say, between residents who are rebuilding or trying to, and those who haven't done anything.
Final notices were sent to 120 people in August and September. They were told they have to move their trailers and mobile homes because using them as permanent residences violates county building codes.
The notices went to taxpayers living in eastern and northern portions of the county, in rural communities like Alpine, Ramona, Julian, Lakeside and Valley Center.
“We're trying to work with people on this, because we're going to have some people out there who have nowhere to go,” said Pam Elias, division chief of code enforcement for the county's Department of Planning and Land Use.
The notices say the violations can lead to a misdemeanor offense, but Elias said the county doesn't plan to pursue criminal charges. Instead, she said, residents would be fined $100, and then $200, and then $500, and then $1,000, for every day the trailer remains on their property. No citations have been issued.
“We're tentatively planning to start sending out citations next week,” Elias said. “These dwellings were never intended to be permanent, because they don't meet seismic and fire structural standards that are required by the county building code.”
Following the wildfires, which destroyed about 2,500 residences in the county, about 500 Emergency Occupancy Trailer Permits were issued to residents who lost their homes.
The permits were good for a year, but the county granted two extensions. The extensions were outlined in two letters mailed in September 2004 and October 2005. A third letter, dated Aug. 14, 2006, told residents they were out of time.
The final notices, sent out Aug. 29 and Sept. 6, gave people 30 days to move or be fined.
About 20 people contacted the county and presented documents showing they were either close to applying for a building permit or still wrestling with their insurance carrier over a settlement. Elias said most of these people would be given more time.
Squeggie Stevens of Alpine is among those who could receive another extension. Stevens, who received an insurance settlement for the 3,600-square-foot home she lost, is living in a new wood-sided mobile home on her property. The 67-year-old retired entertainer said she's waiting for the county to approve her rebuilding plans.
“I won't move,” Stevens said. “I'm doing it right. I spent over $100,000 for this temporary home. Some of these people have septic tanks in the middle of the road.”
After receiving the final notice, David Baker sent an e-mail to his county supervisor, Dianne Jacob.
“I got a form letter back,” Baker said. “It just angers the hell out of me. The county – they're supposed to be guardians. I'm not a criminal. I'm just trying to recuperate.”
Jacob said some of her constituents think it's time for the trailers to go.
“There comes a point in time that some degree of personal responsibility must be assumed by these individuals,” Jacob said. “There's some folks out there abusing the kindnesses they have been offered, and there's a backlash in the communities now. They want the trailers out of there.”
Teresa Manley, who directed the Julian/Cuyamaca resource center and community recovery team following the fires, was taken aback by the county's latest position.
“Wow. I can't believe that,” she said, suggesting the real culprits in this mess are the insurance companies. “Most of the people I know who are in the trailers are still duking it out with their insurance carrier.”
Baker, who also wrote to The San Diego Union-Tribune, said he had minimal insurance coverage. He has saved about $20,000 since the fires and said he planned to rebuild in increments. He's received offers for his vacant property, but nothing he considers fair.
“My 10 acres is in the sticks, at the end of a dirt road!” he wrote. “I can't even store the fifth-wheel (trailer) on this property unless there is a house on the property.
“Of course, if there were still a house, I wouldn't need the trailer!”
Tony Manolatos: (619) 542-4559; tony.manolatos@uniontrib.com
Last updated: November 5, 2003 at 6 a.m. - FINAL UPDATE Start Date/Time: October 25, 2003 at 5:37 p.m. D Location: Southern San Diego County
Acres Burned: 280,278
Control: Estimate for control is November 16, 2003 at 6 p.m
Structures Destroyed: 2,232 residences,
22 commercial properties
and 566 outbuildings destroyed.
53 residences and 10 outbuildings damaged.
148 vehicles destroyed.
Evacuations: All evacuations lifted.
Injuries: 13 civilian fatalities, 1 firefighter fatality, 104 firefighter injuries.
Cause: Human (Under Investigation)
Cooperating Agencies: CDF, U.S. Forest Service, Local Government
Total Fire Personnel: 1,478
Costs to date: $ 27 million
Major Incident Command Team: #5
Conditions: One firefighter fatality and three firefighter injuries occurred in the Julian area on 10/29/03. Funds Set Up For Novato Firefighters Community support has been a great moral boost for firefighters!!!
These people didn't have insurance for fire?
Myself: We were lucky. We lost a lot of landscaping --$5,000. Farmers told us that there would not be a rate increase if we submitted a Claim. Six months later, we got a bill. Our homeowners went from $1100 per year to $6500 per year.
Chuck Quackenbush
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Charles "Chuck" Quackenbush (born 1954) is a former Insurance Commissioner of California and California State Assemblyman representing the 22nd District. As a child, he grew up in a military family and after graduating University of Notre Dame, he too joined the army. He was elected as a Republican to the California Assembly in 1986. In 1994 he was elected insurance commissioner, and won re-election 1998. On June 28, 2000, he announced his resignation (to become effection on July 10), rather than face impeachment due to a scandal surrounding insurance settlements after the 1994 Northridge Earthquake. Prior to the scandal, Quackenbush was considered the most promising Republican elected official in the state of California. After the scandal, Quackenbush moved to Hawaii.
The Scandal
Cindy Ossias came forward to reveal California State Department of Insurance (DOI) corruption. According to testimony by DOI employees, including Ossias, and staff attorney Robert Hagedorn, the commissioner and his top aides abused their positions for personal gain and acted against consumers’ interests for many years.
After the 1994 Northridge earthquake, it was alleged that Quackenbush allowed insurance companies to compensate their clients much less than the actual damages.
In exchange, the insurance companies set up special "educational funds". Those funds were used to create television commercials in which Quackenbush appeared as a basketball referee with Shaquille O'Neal in a Los Angeles Lakers uniform. The commercials were disguised as public service announcements, but the suspicions rose that main idea behind the commercials was to increase Quackenbush's name identification, which is critical for electoral success.
In addition to the educational funds, those same insurance companies contributed to his wife's unsuccessful 1998 assembly campaign, as well as his children's football camps.
Initially, Cindy Ossias blew the whistle as an anonymous source. When her identity was revealed, Quackenbush put her on an administrative leave.
In February 2002, an 18-month investigation conducted by federal, state and Sacramento County prosecutors ended with prosecutors declining to press charges against Quackenbush, as they felt the evidence was not strong enough
San Diego is headed for a financial collapse the likes of which will be unprecedented. Only the incredibly rich and the incredibly poor will be able to live there. I'm so glad I got the hell out of there.
It sounds like they do have insurance, but either the insurers or the property owners are being sticklers over what payable. But when should temporary, emergency housing be considered permanent? If at least a building permit has been applied for, the people should be able to stay in their temp units until they can occupy the new house.
You and me both. My sister is still in Ocean Beach and regales with tales of the crap that goes on there -- ballparks w/o parking spaces, pensions underfunded, and the flood of illegals.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
AMEN!!!
Even though I live in a 1 bdrm apt. I am glad to live in San Diego. Many people who burned their bridges, or want to be big cheese in some berg, will talk it down.
I'm not putting you down...it's just very difficult to have a comfortable life. I don't want to live in a one bedroom apt. Sue me.
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