2008-02-01 TPDBOA - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

been cited has the right to appeal this violation to a group called the Board of Appeals. It’s something like the Planning Commission. It’s a group that’s appointed by the Mayor and really serves as a check or a control on the Planning Director running amok and violating the rights of the public. So the Board of Appeals can overturn the violation notice. They have a standard of review where if the Planning Director is clearly erroneous or the Planning Director has acted in violation of the law or acted arbitrarily and capriciously, the Board of Appeals can overturn that violation notice. Now when the violation notice goes out, it typically will say you have, and let’s take the example of a person running a business out of a residential area that they’re not supposed to run. It will say you will have “x”, you know, you must stop running your business. If you keep violating it from this date forward you will have a fine of $100 a day. That’s a typical violation notice. The law says that, currently the Zoning Code says that if you appeal that violation notice, the enforcement and the penalties are stayed until the appeal is finished. And so what happens is that if a person then makes an appeal they can continue running the business without accruing these fines until the appeal process has been finished at the Board of Appeals. This sometimes takes several months. So no matter how poor their case is they have an incentive to file the appeal. So we have noticed, and people start to understand this, that we get lots of appeals in this situation. So our proposal is that it changes so that the fines, if they continue to operate the fines will continue to run. Now if they win at the Board of Appeals, naturally they were right, we were wrong, there’s no fine. But they have to take that risk if they choose to operate. So it doesn’t mean, now they, and we don’t ever -. You noticed my inspectors did not have guns strapped to their sides. We never actually go out with a gun and say you have to stop doing what you’re doing. We give them a piece of paper that says you have to stop doing what you’re doing. If it’s an urgent matter, we can go to court, and go to court and get an injunction. So the person, you know, they have a choice. If they really feel that they are correct and they want to take that chance, then they can continue operating. Then they will accrue these fines if this passes the way it is. But it will take away this incentive of people to appeal just to buy time. WATANABE: Thank you. ALAMEDA: Question. WATANABE: Mr. Alameda. ALAMEDA: Sure, thanks. Thanks, Mr. Director. I like your way of explaining it, which allowed me some questions. So how much does it cost to appeal? YUEN: It’s $250. ALAMEDA: Okay. Now if they end up correct and the Department is wrong, do they get all their money back from the fines? Because they’ve got to pay up to the appeal, right, their proposal? YUEN: We will never have actually the collected the fines pending the appeal. I mean, well, the fines will accrue. ALAMEDA: Right. But they’re not paying it since the fines -. EXHIBIT D 2