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Candidate and city often at odds
By CHRISTINA HEADRICK © St. Petersburg Times, published February 4, 2001
Young men go in and out of one of the apartments. A few of the buildings' windows are cracked. Beer bottles litter the ground. A city report called one of the structures a "crack house." Code enforcement officers are investigating what they say are multiple violations of housing standards there. The owner of the properties on the 1100 block of Tangerine Street is Jeralne Burt. Her properties have been the target of more than 50 code violation cases, containing dozens of individual violations, in the past decade. She owes Pinellas County about $8,000 in back taxes, has four arrests on her record and once filed for bankruptcy, she says, to avoid paying more than $70,000 in city fines on her properties. And she's running for City Commission. Burt is not about to apologize. "They've been trying to shut me down for 21 years, but I've still got it," Burt said of her properties. "They're not going to close it down until I want to close it down. I take in people up there that no one else takes in, and I feel good about it." Burt, 56, said she decided to run for a commission seat because there haven't been any African-American candidates for the commission since 1993. She said she wants to be her community's representative. How can someone with such a cantankerous relationship with the city be an effective leader? Burt said she has had no more problems than anyone else who owns a lot of rental property in North Greenwood. She expressed pride in her life experiences, declaring she is not a "polished black." "I'm not squeaky-clean," she said. "I have no master's degree. I've been to jail. "I'm an average citizen of North Greenwood." Now Burt drives around town in her pickup truck with her poster on the side and a "Make Your Mark" button on her chest. When police showed up at Burt's home to remove a stack of junk one afternoon in 1987, Burt reacted with outrage. The city had declared the debris in her yard was a nuisance. When the city's crew showed up, Burt wouldn't answer her door. Then she came outside and ordered city workers off her property, a police report states. When they remained, she parked her car across her driveway, blocking in a city bulldozer. "I ain't moving this car for nobody," Burt said, the report states. Only when the city called a tow truck did Burt move and allow the cleanup at 816 N Betty Lane. During the past 20 years, the city has sent Burt notices of a wide range of code violations at her home and her 15 other properties: faulty electric wiring, broken light fixtures, holes in walls, plumbing leaks. But the majority are for allowing weeds to grow and debris to pile up in yards. The junk has included sofas, shopping carts and old cars. In recent years, records show, Burt has complied with most city requests to clean up yards. But Burt said she takes her time whenever the city asks her to do anything she feels is unnecessary. She also thinks that her properties are inspected more closely than other lots. Sometimes, she said, "The city is full of s---." Burt, either individually or with a member of her family, owns Tangerine's south side from 1109 to 1117. The lots are the epicenter of city concerns. Police reported at least 71 responses to reports of drug activity there since January 1999. Sometimes Burt helps police investigate her tenants, said Sgt. Ben McBride, who oversees neighborhood patrols there. But when police are after someone she favors, Burt is not helpful, he said. He added that it would be wrong to assume every Tangerine Street tenant uses drugs. Then there are the repeated code violations. In 1995, for instance, the city reported that the electrical system at 1113 Tangerine "appears to be a danger to residents." In 1996, the same violation was cited. City inspectors noted in a recent memo that past electrical repairs never passed a final inspection. During a December review of 1109 Tangerine, city inspectors noted violations of basic housing standards including poor bathroom plumbing and inadequate heating. The city sent Burt a Dec. 26 letter demanding she fix the problems or face penalties. Jeff Kronschnabl, who oversees city code enforcement, said Burt has been cooperative so far. Some tenants of Burt's properties have only compliments for their landlady. "I've got no problems here at all," said Theodore Littlejohn, 50. "I'm happy." Dee Williams, who was visiting friends on Tangerine on Friday, used to live in one of Burt's rentals. "She'll help any person who needs it," Williams said. "She has a heart of gold." Fredd Hinson, who coordinates Clearwater's neighborhoods program, recalls that neighbors complained about Burt when he was an inspector several years ago. He said Burt knew the codes quite well, but she did only the minimum to address violations. "She's a bright woman," Hinson said, someone who has a 1960s streak of idealism. But she rented to some people who abused the properties. "They beat up on the units," Hinson said. "We go out and do an inspection. She would comply minimally. And then it could be the same way again on Monday of the next week." Burt said she isn't too selective with tenants. She said she sometimes does rent to drug users and alcoholics because they need a place to stay. "I'm always big-hearted," she said. But tenants' abuses left Burt with hefty fines. They added up to just more than $70,000 in 1988, records show, and were growing daily. Because of the fines, Burt said, she declared bankruptcy. Burt said she defaulted on loans, which led lenders to foreclose on her properties. About two dozen foreclosure lawsuits are listed in county records. Burt said she kept collecting rents in cash during that time. In 1989, Burt declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Her debts, including the fines, were forgiven, she said. Afterwards, Burt said, she went back to her lenders, used some of the rent money she had collected, and began buying back her properties. But her money troubles aren't over. Burt owes about $8,000 in delinquent county property taxes from 1999 and before. And she hasn't yet paid a separate $6,750 tax bill received last November, county records state. "I'll pay them when I get ready. Don't think I don't got the money," Burt said. "I'm not going to go broke and pay my taxes, if I've got my money that I've got to spend somewhere else." Burt has complaints about city police, too. In 1996, Burt raised a storm of criticism against the police department after police stopped her 17-year-old son for not heeding a stop sign. He was sprayed with pepper spray, Burt's car was impounded and the incident led to a confrontation between North Greenwood residents and police. Mrs. Burt filed a complaint. An internal investigation found two officers were untruthful about the incident, although they were absolved of using excessive force. One officer, nicknamed the "Terminator" on the street, quit rather than face a suspension. "I think a lot of people thought of me as a hero for that," Burt said. "I think (the force) has changed. They don't manhandle people quite as bad." Burt has had her own police confrontations. In 1978, she was arrested and charged with felony aggravated assault, resisting an officer and criminal mischief after a minor car accident. Burt picked up a wrench and hit the other driver's car window. She later pleaded no contest to the charges, a formal finding of guilt was withheld and she served a year's probation, records state. In 1989, she was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. Burt wanted to toss out a tenant at 1113 Tangerine. Police tried to tell her she needed to legally evict him first, according to records. Burt grabbed the tenant anyway and began to drag him out, she says. Police arrested her. She pleaded no contest to the misdemeanors, a formal finding of guilt was withheld and she was fined $100. "I'm proud of it all in a way, because it's part of my life and part of living in North Greenwood," Burt said. In 1996, Burt again butted heads with the police after she opened a youth club on North Greenwood Avenue. Burt was denied a city license to open the club after failing to list past arrests on a form. But she opened it anyway. Police shut the club down and charged Burt with operating it without a license. She was found not guilty and the teen club reopened. Burt says she thought it was something positive for her community. But a few months later, she decided to close it. Burt says she would put aside any bad feelings about the city if elected March 13. "I'd have to let some of my own feelings subside, because I'd be representing a lot of people," Burt said. She said she would work for job-training programs, affordable housing, a city drug-treatment center and other projects in North Greenwood. Members of the city's African-American community expressed differing reactions to her candidacy. "It takes courage to consider public service because you open up yourself to criticism that you may be unprepared for," said Isay Gulley, a community activist who runs Clearwater Neighborhood Housing Services. "I admire the braveness of any citizen that wants to give back to their city." Mayme Hodges, the last African-American to serve on the commission, said she is supporting another candidate in Burt's race and doesn't know Burt well enough to comment. Alma Bridges, a vice president of the Clearwater/Upper Pinellas branch of the NAACP, said she thinks Burt could do a terrific job of representing her community, despite some of her past conflicts. Owning a lot of rental property, she said, Burt "comes across a lot of things. You have to be there to know what the issues are." Muhammad Abdur-Rahim, president of the North Greenwood Association, said Burt's "past is at least out openly. I haven't heard her where she has denied any of that. "Though with her past, and all her records and that, she might not be the best candidate," said Abdur-Rahim said, noting that he was not speaking on behalf of the association. "At least she'll present an opportunity for African-Americans to have a voice. I would say she is the kind of candidate who could get hard questions asked." Burt wants a shot to do that, regardless of how people react to her record. "I would do it all again, if I had to -- well, maybe a few things I would have thought out first -- but I would do most of it," she said. Recent coverageEx-mayor eager to get back a life before DUI (February 3, 2001) Nine people qualify to run for three commission seats (January 27, 2001)
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