By Patrick Tepoorten

ìWe got your message.î

ìYou have successfully run us out of North Branch and we do give up.î

These were the words of NB resident John Maldonado at the Aug. 28 city council meeting.

According to City Administrator Joe Lynch, an investigation requested by Maldonado and his wife, Lynn, and granted by the city, is proceeding. Lynch expects to be meeting with attorneys from the law firm of Kelly Fawcett this week to go over the process, scheduling, and the time frame of the investigation.

The Maldonados accused the city of favoritism and discrimination in code enforcement early in August and requested the investigation. When Maldonado addressed the city council again at the Aug. 28 meeting, he alleged that someone had poured oil in his outdoor pool following a contentious planning commission meeting on Aug. 21, and made a public plea for the vandalism to stop.

Previously he noted that he would not be intimidated into moving, in spite of what he called a ìbattle with City Hallî and now most of his neighbors, but that changed last week with the oil in his pool.
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One of the key aspects of the coming investigation will be the conduct of city employees Richard Meyer and Mark Jones, who visited the Maldonado residence on Aug. 11 in response to a code violation complaint.

Unlike a prior complaint, in which the Maldonados were sent a letter detailing the nature and specifics of the complaint, an Aug. 10 letter noted only that the city had ìreceived a complaintî requesting an appointment to inspect the property.

At that appointment the next day Jones and Meyer received permission to inspect the property but refused to tell Maldonado the nature of the complaint. On a tape made of the conversation by Maldonado, Meyer can be heard saying, ìWhen we finish inspecting your property we will let you know.î When pressed for details, Meyer terminated the inspection.

In a Tuesday afternoon interview, Administrator Lynch described standard protocol for investigating code violations. In doing so, he noted that residents are ìabsolutelyî entitled to know the nature of the complaint before their property is inspected.

Furthermore, according to Lynch, if the city does not have a specific complaint against a property owner, it tries to observe the property from a public right of way. If a code violation is not observable, the city goes back to the complainant for a more specific description.

It appears in the case of the Maldonados this was not done. Instead, a vague code violation complaint was followed up on without letting the property owner know the nature of the complaint.

Lynch said that this case, involving the Maldonados and neighbors, was unique in that the situation has been going on for over a year.

Also, because Maldonado was openly taping the conversation between himself, Jones and Meyer, Meyer may have been reluctant to share specifics, assuming that Maldonado might be planning legal action against the city.

Still, Lynch stated, ìthe situation should have been done better,î referring to the attempted inspection of the Maldonado property, but that the city is trying to ìbe carefulî in case the situation ends up in court.

He added that the city does indeed have a detailed list of code violations regarding the Maldonado property which could be provided to the Maldonados at their request.