I created this montage of signs (all captured in Whitehall) as a response to code enforcment. I call it ‘The People’s Flag of Whitehall’.

Spring, 2013 I observe code enforcement officers Walt Sural and Ray Hamby on property across the street from my house. There are two separate parcels of property there, both owned at the time by a private individual. One of the parcel’s grass was cut that day but not the other. (Why a grass cutting had to be observed by both code officers was a mystery to me) There is a chain link fence dividing the property from the street and nearly the entire lot is visible from the right-of-way on Doney Street. At some point, the code officers decided they needed to inspect this clearly visible from the right-of-way, simple-grass-cutting operation up close, so they stepped onto the property, that which, knowing the code departments past actions, (which included my own property in 2008) there had probably been no permission granted either by the owner or by a judge with a warrant (The procedure of which only seems to be a nuisance for them). I am, having been a friend of the property owners family for 48 years, been intimately familiar with the exact boundaries of the various parcels. The code officers didn’t seem to be as aware of this as they stepped from one parcel to the next (from the one being cut to the one not being cut). They both moved towards the creek on the other parcel looking down at the grass, up at the trees (I don’t remember the landscaper being up there), with one of them (uniform on and gun on hip) moving northerly onto the parcel and while there, looking up into the backyard of yet another unrelated parcel, all under color of law.  I ask, if you were a homeowner and looked out into your backyard and saw a uniformed officer with a gun on his hip, how would you feel? Violated? Trespassed? Alarmed that your government is watching and keeping tabs on you…with guns?!

Their casual attitude as they strolled around the properties, looking up into people’s backyards was arrogant in my view, particularly so given my issues with code enforcement’s actions and behaviors in the past, that which I’d been very vocal about. (see next photo)

A photo taken down into Dave Deluca’s backyard by code officers from the neighbors roof.

So, here they were, acutely aware of whose property they were across from, with me standing in full view of them. I was incensed and so, called the police. The police said they’d come and then called back and asked if I was the property owner. When they found out I wasn’t and that it was code officers (who aren’t a part of the Safety Department) they declined to send a cruiser, before they found out what the facts were. They never inquired whether they had the right to be on the property (via permission or a warrant), the same question they would’ve asked a non-governmental person if found on another’s property.

May 21st, I ask City Council, based on my concerns with this activity (one of several through the years) that they consider a moratorium on code enforcement until the Mayor and her code enforcement division can act within the law and rein in what I feel are tactics abusive of the citizen’s rights.

May 28^th, Council President Jim Graham touches on the matter in a Council committee meeting for three and a half minutes but nothing is accomplished. None of the citizens’ voices on council speak.

June 10^th, I send Chief Zitzke a letter detailing my concerns about the police department’s lack of response to government agents stepping onto private property. I quoted him the Ohio Revised Code that states;

2911.21 Criminal trespass.

(A)  No person, without privilege (note this word) to do so, shall do any of the following:

(1)  Knowingly enter or remain on the land or premises of another;

(3)  Recklessly enter or remain on the land or premises of another, as to which notice against unauthorized access or presence is given by actual communication to the offender, or in a manner prescribed by law, or by posting in a manner reasonably calculated to come to the attention of potential intruders, or by fencing or other enclosure manifestly designed to restrict access;

(1) Whoever violates this section is guilty of criminal trespass, a misdemeanor of the fourth degree.

I argued to the chief that since they were on private property, without permission or a warrant, inside a fence with a ‘No Trespassing’ sign, that, according to the Ohio Revised Code, their actions were a criminal offense, thus requiring action from a police officer. Chief Zitzke wrote back giving me legalese about privilege (there’s that word again. Notice it doesn’t say ‘right’.) and property owners and that they’d stepped onto property owned by a bank (Untrue. At least one of the parcels they wandered onto was owned privately but, the notices they sent to the property on Robinwood were both addressed to the same private individual, not a bank). I sent the Chief two follow up letters over the next month, neither of which I received a response.

I then asked for a meeting with Mayor Kim Maggard. She and I sat down in her office and I questioned her on this incident. Her response was that she had a right to “maintain property values”. I reminded her that her obligation and duty, as per her sworn oath, was to first support and protect the Constitution. (Private property’s value is the sole responsibility of the property owners themselves, NOT the city’s) She suggested that if I didn’t like it I could hire a lawyer.

June 11^th, At a council committee meeting, at my behest, Councilperson Leslie LaCorte brings up and presses the issue. Between the Mayor and Councilpersons Bailey and Kantor and the Service Director, Ray Ogden, Ms. LaCorte’s attempts to get answers and seek resolution are unprofessionally interrupted and obfuscated to drive the topic away from the core issue. After several attempts to stay on track, Ms. LaCorte feels defeated by so much opposition and so the matter is dropped. It is the only meeting I was so angry with that I left.

As well in this meeting Mayor Maggard stated that she’d talked with the city attorney about this issue and quote, “we are doing the right thing per our city attorney” (She only expressed the city attorney’s ‘feelings’ on the matter, not a legal opinion). The next day I sent her a letter asking her for a copy of the legal opinion Mr. Shannon shared with her so I could cite with specificity the law which enabled the code officers to step onto the parcels lawfully. She sent a letter back saying that since Mr. Shannon’s opinion was “verbal” she couldn’t provide me with a copy of it.

June 14^th, I contacted the Service Director and asked to see copies of the permission or warrant to step onto the said properties. It took me two more requests before he finally responded two and a half weeks later, supplying me with copies of notices mailed to the property on Robinwood (where the owner didn’t even live) but, no copies or proof of permission or a warrant granted by a judge for code officers to step onto either parcel.

July 5th, I asked City Attorney Mike Shannon to provide the law which overturned or superseded the Supreme Court law, Camara v Municipal Court, which is very specific in what is permissible with code officers. With no response, I sent another letter dated July 16^th asking for the specific law that gave the code officers the right, not the privilege, to step onto private property without aid of permission or a warrant.

July 19^th, City Attorney Shannon finally responded saying, “Please accept this as a formal and final response from my office in regard to your inquiries about code officers stepping on private property”. He then mentions “notices of violations”, inspectors returning to determine compliance and that the contractor had done their work. He also said they had the right to inspect for “rodent harborage” which could only be done by “closely inspecting the property”. (I’ve lived next to Turkey Run since Lyndon Johnson was President and I have never seen a rat). He also said they had to make sure the building on the property was secure and that if anybody is aggrieved, “it is the property owner, not a neighbor”. That was it. Firstly, my concern was that code officers stepped not just onto property that was being maintained, but also stepped onto a completely separate parcel (fenced in, ‘No Trespassing’ signs clearly visible) that was unrelated to the work being done at the time, and, all without aid of permission from the owner or a warrant. This was the crux of my charges and concerns and yet, he didn’t respond to the crux of the topic at hand. In the supreme law of ‘Camara v Municipal Court’, (that which all the other laws must obey) the Supreme Court ruled; “The warrant procedure is designed to guarantee that a decision to search private property is justified by a reasonable government interest…if a valid public interest (like rat feces!) justifies the intrusion contemplated, then there is probable cause to issue a suitably restricted search warrant.” as well, “When the right of privacy (the basic purpose of the 4^th amendment) must reasonably yield to the right of search is, as a rule, to be decided by a judicial officer (a judge!), not by a policeman or government enforcement agent.” So too, “…the possibility of criminal entry under the guise of official sanction is a serious threat to personal and family safety“. Given this response then from the city attorney I sent him a letter in return stating my disappointment over not offering the specific law which overturned or overruled Camara v Municipal Court and as such, I felt the code officials (the city) then had acted outside the law.

Summer, 2013, As a result of all the inaction by the mayor and city council, I decided to take my complaints where someone might actually listen; the streets. I protested in 90-some degree weather at Broad & Yearling, Broad & Hamilton, Main & Hamilton, Main & Big Walnut Creek, Krogers at Maplewood, Walmart, City Hall (where Mayor Maggard, in her vehicle, pointed and mock-laughed at me as she was leaving a council meeting) and at John Bishop Park on July 4th.

Whitehall Family Picnic July 4, 2013

As well, I took my protest down to the Statehouse grounds with a sign that said both, ‘WHITEHALL GOVT. DEGRADES CITIZENS FREEDOM & LIBERTY’ and ‘WHITEHALL MAYOR MAGGARD IS A DANGEROUS FOOL’. Apparently it got the attention of a Dispatch reporter who came out and interviewed me. In the small piece featured in the paper the next day, she’d also asked Mayor Maggard for a comment. The Mayor said that Whitehall residents largely ignore Dixon and that I am “a bit of a performance artist. When he doesn’t get the reaction he thinks he deserves, he steps it up a bit” (Of course I did. Justice was not being served and none of my elected officials (outside of Leslie LaCorte) were doing anything to remedy it. What could I do to get justice but take it to another level? Her calling me a ‘performance artist‘ was much like the mock laughter she exhibited while I was protesting, done so to minimize the seriousness of myself and my claims).

I believe the city simply doesn’t follow the law in code enforcement because, (a) most people wouldn’t give their permission for them to enter their private property, (b) its easier to use the power of ‘law enforcing’, ‘City Hall’ and its obfuscating red tape against powerless citizens ignorant of their rights, to get what it is they want, (c) getting warrants for niggling code infractions would require a great deal more work and time and money spent which would slow down income streams for the city, (d) if they had to seek a warrant from a judge who lacked familial ties with them and who deliberated such matters using only law and justice as his considerations before proceeding, they would never be allowed to get away with using it, in a controlling and authoritarian fashion, as a weapon against the poor, the weak, those hostile to them or those they don’t like or whom don’t fit into their inorganic programs, as they have in the past, and (e) most any reasonable and competent judge would throw them out with their constant irksome demands for warrants, particularly over some of the simple and silly things they issue violations for (like artificial flowers). See following photos…

Artificial flowers as noted as proof to issue violations to senior citizen and Vietnam Veteran Dave Deluca (who sometimes couldn’t afford more than peanut butter and crackers for dinner)

(Camara v Municipal Court says, “Warrantless administrative searches cannot be justified on the grounds that they make minimal demands on occupants; that warrant in such cases are unfeasible; or that area inspections could not function under reasonable search warrant requirements.“)

Notation of ‘cardboard boxes’ (GASP!) on Dave Deluca’s enclosed front porch as shown in his code enforcement file.

As is usually and unfortunately the case, citizens took little interest due to a myriad of reasons. Between them and those at City Hall, it seemed that nobody cared or would do anything to right wrongs. It is a sad shame that people get all up in a froth about wrongdoing on the streets but barely lift an eyebrow when its going on at City Hall, that which has the greater impact on their daily lives than miscreants on the street. So, as the weather got colder and no one did anything, I again backed away to regroup for another day.

In June I had also written a letter to the editor of the Whitehall News detailing my visit with Mayor Maggard. In part I’d said, “Why do we fight tyranny abroad only to allow it to flourish here in America? When we send others off to fight and die for principles we ourselves don’t fight passionately for here at home (and which exist), we then become participants in their lives being sacrificed in vain. That is completely unacceptable to me”. A good question to ask of ourselves.

(More to come…)