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If the City is going to be $2 million short next year....

If the City is going to be $2 million short next year....

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by: ChefKevin Active Indicator LED Icon 17 OP 
~ 4 years ago   Jul 19, '19 11:57am  
If the City is going to be $2 million short next year....
....maybe they should do this:
Doraville, Georgia, fined one homeowner $1,000 for stacking firewood in his backyard, according to a lawsuit that accuses the city of aggressive ticketing practices. A government newsletter said in 2015 that Doraville's court system, which collects the fines, brings in "over $3 million annually" and "contributes heavily to the city's bottom line." The population of Doraville is 9,000.
So if Doraville can generate 3 million dollars a year from fines, Peoria should be able to. So, hire $500,000 worth of inspectors and pocket the other $2.5 Million. Problem solved.
This information comes from an article where a woman was fined over $100,000 for dead trees in "her" front yard and a mosquito infested pool in "her" backyard. "Her" is in quotes because a bank foreclosed on her house, she moved, but apparently the foreclosure wasn't finalized and the house was still in her name. The city kept sending letters to that address with fines which were returned by the post office. finance.yahoo.com/ne ws/florida-woman-fin ed-100-000-101646606 .html
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joepyeweed Active Indicator LED Icon 15
~ 4 years ago   Jul 19, '19 12:04pm  
Aggressive Fines just creates more resentment between the government and the governed, the fines are often levied disproportionately on the working poor too.
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kraziebill Active Indicator LED Icon 13
~ 4 years ago   Jul 19, '19 12:13pm  
The city can't collect a minor $10 parking ticket, what makes you think they'll get a $1000 fine paid?
 
Remember Peoria's boot program? They would put a boot on your car if you had unpaid parking tickets.... It worked for a few, usually overturned because it wasn't the owner that parked the car there. And now the program doesn't exist because of staffing cuts.
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billybob Active Indicator LED Icon 12
~ 4 years ago   Jul 19, '19 12:31pm  
The city can't collect a minor $10 parking ticket, what makes you think they'll get a $1000 fine paid? Remember Peoria's boot program? They would put a boot on your car if you had unpaid parking tickets.... It worked for a few, usually overturned because it wasn't the owner that parked the car there. And now the program doesn't exist because of staffing cuts.
 
@kraziebill :
 
Don't know about Peoria. but read an article recently about putting boots on cars. In some places a number of stolen cars were found that way. The cities could not collect the fines but sure had employees driving around booting cars.
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ChefKevin Active Indicator LED Icon 17 OP 
~ 4 years ago   Jul 19, '19 1:13pm  
Even if the fines weren't excessive and just enforced it would be a decent revenue stream. Don't pay it, it ends up on your property tax. Isn't your property, maybe it will force landlords to get involved. But it is a Catch 22 situation. City doesn't have the money to hire more inspectors, fines don't get levied, no money to hire inspectors.
As a Peoria citizen, I'm worried that right now a city employee's job is to scan the internet to find out what other cities taxes are and if we aren't doing it, writes it down and it becomes an idea list. If we're 2+million dollars short for next year, you know they are looking for ways.
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starbound64 Active Indicator LED Icon 5
~ 4 years ago   Jul 19, '19 1:14pm  
Ever heard of Ferguson,Missouri?
 
You see what the DOJ did to them. Although, it didn't take a lawsuit to get it changed, just a lawful shooting of a robbery suspect, who when confronted attacked the officer resulting in a fatal outcome for the offender. And Obama and Eric Holder siding with the offender.
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conrad Active Indicator LED Icon 4
~ 4 years ago   Jul 19, '19 1:52pm  
Stop giving handouts to developers.
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mypeez Active Indicator LED Icon 14
~ 4 years ago   Jul 20, '19 2:50am  
@ChefKevin :
… This information comes from an article where a woman was fined over $100,000 for dead trees in "her" front yard and a mosquito infested pool in "her" backyard. "Her" is in quotes because a bank foreclosed on her house, she moved, but apparently the foreclosure wasn't finalized and the house was still in her name. The city kept sending letters to that address with fines which were returned by the post office. finance.yahoo.com/ne ws/florida-woman-fin ed-100-000-101646606 .html
 
Just read the whole article. "For much of the time the fines were accumulating in 2015 and 2016, Allen no longer owned the house." So for part of the time of the fines it was in her hands.
 
Playing along with this further, she is still listed as the property owner at the court house 3 years after she moves out & leaves the property in foreclosure. The city fines her because of lack of upkeep since she is listed as the property owner. Doesn't it sound funny that the county hasn't sold the house at a tax foreclosure sale? Someone walks away from a property but is still paying the taxes on it?
 
Assuming the bank was paying the property taxes on it, she couldn't provide the city proof that it is in the bank's hands? Well, I guess by the earlier statement she couldn't for some of the fine period. I get it, this is a bad situation but just walking away from the house doesn't help the rest of neighborhood.
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QuispnQuake Active Indicator LED Icon 8
~ 4 years ago   Jul 20, '19 9:14am  
Look, these people knew they were violating code. They would have already been warned.
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