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Residents question high cost of weed cutting by private contractor
By Grey Feathers
June 24, 2014 El Cajon – The City Council of El Cajon considered issues from a retired police dog to hookah lounges as Mayor Bill Wells gaveled in Tuesday’s meeting.
Councilmember Star Bales displayed items purchased at the El Cajon ‘America on Main Street’ event that she will proudly wear at the Fourth of July celebration at Kennedy Park (photo, left). The Council then voted to retire and release ownership of El Cajon Police dog “Turbo” to Officer Thompson, Turbo’s experienced and sole handler. Happy retirement Turbo!
The longest discussion of the meeting concerned filing liens on properties of owners who owe money to the City for weed abatement, mandatory trash service and sidewalk repair. The staff recommendation was to authorize the City Clerk to record the amount owed as a lien on the property and forward the list to the County Tax Assessor for billing on the owner’s next property tax bill.
Out of the approximately 14,000 mandatory trash service accounts, there were 570 delinquent accounts totaling $117,574.98 in fees, of which $17,360.25 is the City's portion of uncollected fees. The assistant City Manager argued that placing a lien on properties and forwarding the bill to the County Tax Assessor was a common practice and appropriate for El Cajon. No one came forward to object to their trash bill.
However, Kerry Matern objected to the charges for weed abatement by the City, citing that he had paid two workers $150.00 each to clear his lot and a neighbor used his truck to haul off trash left by others. Kerry said he tried to talk to weed-abatement but repeatedly got no answer, only voice mail. He claimed the City’s work was unnecessary and that if the City had communicated with him, he would have done the work himself.
Geary Miller, who recently had a stroke and limped visibly to the speaker’s stand, explained that he has maintained his vacant property for 30 years and has never before received a bill for weed abatement. He said that he has received requests from the City in the past but always met their requirements. Miller complained that $1,400 for two hours work was excessive on his 14,543 foot square lot (on West Renette Street and Hale Court). He sought relief or the opportunity to pay over time. It was denied, and he paid the bill the next day, the city later informed ECM.
A representative of Fire Prevention Service Inc (FPSI), a private company acting as subcontractor on the abatement work, said the charges included administrative, assessment and legal fees but were not punitive.
Councilmember Bob McClellan said there needs to be a cell phone number that residents can call and speak to a real person because FPSI should be more responsive to property owners to perhaps avoid obnoxious charges after a string of unfruitful communications. Star Bales sought relief for Miller because he has, for 30 years, maintained the property himself without City services and obviously needs and deserves consideration at this time, she indicated.
There were 77 sidewalk repairs sites and 69 payments received. The delinquent eight sites totaled $7,2400. The largest delinquent account was for sidewalk repair in front of Alvin Lucenback’s home. Lucenback spoke affectionately, saying the “offender is a beautiful liquid elm tree “ that was planted many years ago by his wife. He added, “Perhaps planted a bit too close to the sidewalk.” Removing the cracked sidewalk revealed that roots from the elm tree indeed had lifted the sidewalk. Lucenback said he had fallen on difficult times financially, lost his job but wants to keep the tree.
Mayor Pro Tem Gary Kendrick expressed sympathy for his circumstances, and later told ECM that he and Councilman McClellan have asked for a council discussion at a future meeting on the company doing the weeding work. Despite concerns raised over costs, Council declined to grant any extension of payment deadlines or other help for homeowners facing the hefty bills, contending that all were notified and had the option to hire someone else to do the work.
While relief for homeowners facing tax liens were denied, Tipton Honda was granted a sales tax revenue sharing agreement, amidst much backslapping and self-congratulation by council members.
Councilman Gary Kendrick told ECM the deal was made to help the car dealer afford to expand, which over the long term should increase the city’s sales tax revenue base. “It sweetens the pot and brings good-paying jobs and more hard tax revenue,” he said, adding that the city would benefit because the building gets reassessed when it is expanded.” Similar incentives have been provided to other car dealers to bring more business to El Cajon, he added.
The moratorium on hookah lounges and ‘vape shops’ was extended. Mayor Pro Tem Gary Kendrick spoke against smoking as a health hazard, saying “It is the responsibility of the City Council to guard the public health” and that it is therefore within the rights of the City to discourage these kinds of shops.
The Council voted unanimously to put up $10,000 for a San Diego County Neighborhood Re-investment Grant to plant more grass for recreation leagues at Anza Elementary School.
Finally, the Council voted to write a letter of support for State Senator Joel Anderson’s SB 1152, providing property tax exemptions to veterans’ organizations.
The next El Cajon City Council meeting will be Tuesday July 8th, 2014. See you there.
Correction: An earlier version of this story indicated that Fire Protection Services did both inspections and abatement in El Cajon. Monica Zech, public information officer for El Cajon, later clarified that "FPS does not inspect and select which properties must have weed abatement done." She added that prior to any abatement work, the Fire Department ensures that a property does need weed abatement to be safe...thus the Fire Department is the one that selects which properties need weed abatement, not FPS."
While this is apparently the case in El Cajon, FPS has drawn controversy in other places. The Chaparral Institute, on its website, states:
"Some fire protection districts (like San Miguel Fire and Deer Springs Fire in San Diego County), in an attempt to save money, have contracted out their hazardous vegetation inspections to private contractors. One such contractor, Fire Prevention Services, Inc. (FPS), has been accused of roaming neighborhoods like a tow truck operator searching for vulnerable properties. In a clear conflict of interest, and with the approval of the contracting fire district, FPS identifies "violations," issues the abatement notice (to clear the vegetation), then does the abatement if the homeowner does not deal with the notice quickly. We have dozens of cases in our files of homeowners who have been charged exorbitant fees for forced abatement actions. In one case described below, Fire Prevention Services, Inc. charged more than $27,000 to clear less than a half acre. They did so while the homeowner was away on vacation." The Deerhorn Valley Fire Service recently terminated its contract with FPS, Rick Halsey with the Chapparal Institute informed East County Magazine.
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