After amnesty, paraplegic man still owes Palm Bay a hefty fine

BY KIMBERLY C. MOORE 

FLORIDA TODAY

August 6, 2009

PALM BAY -- Harold Westlake will pay $60 a month for the next year to clear a lien on his house, the required amount through a short-term program that forgives 90 percent of what's owed to the city

Westlake had questioned whether he was properly notified of the code-enforcement fines, which had grown since 2005. But the Palm Bay officials didn't make any concession.

"I'm going over my budget this month," Westlake said. "If I can afford it, I will."

Westlake, 46, has been a paraplegic for more than a decade because of a diving accident. He draws $850 a month in Social Security and pays $200 in child support for three of his four children.

FLORIDA TODAY told his story after the Richardson Street resident got a letter from Palm Bay's code compliance department in May, saying he owed almost $7,200 for a citation he received -- and said he fixed -- in 2005.

Under the amnesty program in effect until Sept. 30, he would pay 10 percent, or $722.

Westlake also found out he was ineligible to hook up to city water unless the lien was paid. He had hoped to qualify for a Florida program that would have paid hookup costs.

With the lien payments set, he can get his water, but there's no more money in the state's program this year for help.

"I believe he is financing the water hookup under our existing program for a 20-year period," City Manager Lee Feldman said. "Making monthly payments (it) came out to about $30 a month."

That will make his monthly payment to the city $90.

Westlake received a certified letter in May 2005 alerting him to code violations: one for parking a junked vehicle in his side yard and the other for driving in a shallow swale so he could access his van with his wheelchair on the driveway. It did not detail penalties.

Code enforcement records say two other letters were sent, but not certified. One told him of a code enforcement hearing, which he didn't attend.

A fourth "finding of fact" letter was sent -- and recorded as a lien on the property in October 2005 with the Brevard County Clerk of the Court office. A copy states that "a fine of $25 be imposed for each and every day the violation continues or is repeated."

But Westlake said he never heard from the city after the first letter in 2005. And he stopped driving through the swale -- the only problem he remembers from that letter.

"From my perspective, the matter is closed," Feldman said.

But Westlake said he would like to meet with the city manager as a private citizen and not as a part of the group Faceoff, which is fighting code enforcement fines.

"I just want to get my little situation cleared up."

 
Harold Westlake discusses the fines accrued with code enforcement at his Palm Bay home in June. In 2005, Westlake received a warning about parking his van in the grass beside his driveway to allow his handicapped ramp to extend onto the driveway. He stopped parking that way, but fines still accrued to more than $7,000. (Christina Stuart, FLORIDA TODAY)