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City appeals court ruling on administrative fees

New Port Richey's code enforcement board was adding $150 to fines, but the ruling says it doesn't have the authority.

By JODIE TILLMAN
Published August 17, 2006

NEW PORT RICHEY - The city is appealing a recent circuit court decision that found the code enforcement board lacks authority to charge administrative fees in the hundreds of cases it hears each year.

The New Port Richey board has been charging code violators up to $150 in administrative fees to help cover the staff time associated with preparing the cases. Those fees are on top of the fines the board levies to compel people to make repairs and clean up their properties.

The implications of the circuit court decision are unclear. City Attorney Tom Morrison said the board would simply stop charging the fees in future cases. He said the decision could not be applied to earlier cases for which appeal periods have expired.

But New Port Richey lawyer Thomas Altman, who challenged the board on behalf of a couple with a Monroe Street duplex, said he thinks that past code violators could argue in court that appeal periods should not matter because the city lacked the authority to charge the fees in the first place.

Last December, Hudson couple Philip and Karen Mancuso, who own a Monroe Street duplex they rent out, appealed a February 2005 board decision fining them $6,750 for code violations, plus a $150 administrative fee.

Code enforcement officers had sent them two notices requiring they clean the trash and debris, including an old refrigerator, from the property. At a code enforcement board hearing, an officer said the Mancusos were repeat violators because they had also been warned to clean up their property the year before.

The board charged the couple $6,750, a figure that represented an accumulation of $250 daily fines between the day they got their first notice and the date of the hearing. In December, the Mancusos appealed.

A three-judge panel sided with the couple in June, saying the city had not presented sufficient evidence to have called the Mancusos "repeat violators," a label the board used to levy heftier fines against the couple than if they had been first-time violators.

But how the court came down on the levying of administrative fees was more significant to future cases, said Morrison, the city attorney.

He said the city has been charging the administrative fees based on the concept of "home rule," the power of a municipality to adopt its own regulations unless specifically prohibited by state statute.

"It's not a big, law-shattering case," he said. But "it's something we need to get guidance on."

In 2005, the city took in $58,187 in code enforcement fines, said city finance director Richard Snyder. As of Tuesday, the city had nearly $35,000 in 2006 revenue from code enforcement.

Jodie Tillman can be reached at 727 869-6247 or jtillman@sptimes.com.

[Last modified August 16, 2006, 23:11:02]