Citations

[ratushebarl.livejournal.com]

I just went down to City Hall to try and get a cert of good standing for a contractor, and discovered $1050 in trash citations -- issued June 16, 18, 21, 23, 25, this is the first I've heard of any of them -- plus a $25 ticket for "overgrowth".

I gather the thing is to appeal trash cites in person? I'd pay one or two out of general civicness, but this seems extreme. I'm unhappy with this much escalation with no notification and no chance to remediate. Plus I think the whole thing is bogus -- I've been tagged before and we're careful about the trash.

On the plus side, the City Clerk employee was very helpful and saw to it that I got my certificate stamped anyway.

In other news, what's the deal with overgrowth? I don't have plants overhanging the sidewalk, or as far as I can tell doing anything else obnoxious. My tiny lawn is weedy, but is this a crime?

Comments

[intuition-ist.livejournal.com]

I'd like to see someone ask this of the city officials directly... why is this considered okay?

[noire.livejournal.com]

I got THREE citations last summer for "overgrown" yard. Admittedly it was overgrown the first time, but I cut it back severely. The other two were just obnoxious.

But this worries me, that they could issue citations for trash or whatever and NOT TELL a person! That becomes--frightening and draconian in implication.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

Is there a way to use the city's website to look up citations for my property?

I don't know if citations are considered public information. If not, then you'd need a mechanism for making sure the report doesn't go to someone else. But if it's not confidential information, I'd love to see this as part of the "My Somerville" address-based lookup.

[tom-champion.livejournal.com]

Inspectors usually keep a photographic log, especially when they issue multiple citations. Before you appeal, ask ISD if they have pictures.

Also, these kinds of tickets often get written because someone in the neighborhood complained. Do you have a cranky neighbor with an axe to grind?

[ratushebarl.livejournal.com]

They do have pictures; they said they would email them.

I haven't had any interaction with the neighbors, and my habits are quiet...I suspect the problem may be that I live half a block from City Hall. The trash tickets are all about the same time of day and I wonder if someone takes a daily revenue-raising walk around the block as their break from work.

[somervilleguy.livejournal.com]

As a resident of an area that’s almost exclusively college students and absentee landlords I appreciate the cities use of these types of citations but I would think a more appropriate amount of time should go by before another citation is issued. Unless it’s a serious health code or safety violation, (an overgrown yard should not qualify) then giving the owner 5 business days to correct a violation seems more appropriate.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

how about actually NOTIFYING the owner? it sounds like that failed in this case.

[ratatosk.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I would really like to know why these piled up without any notifications being given.

[eeyorecol.livejournal.com]

I know that when we have gotten a trash citation (thanks to our upstairs neighbors' habit of only taking out their trash once a month), the ticket was mailed directly to my landlord. I'm surprised they don't seem to mail them to everyone...

[jenej.livejournal.com]

I agree with this on all accounts.

And I would hope that if it was a safety or sanitation issue the City would do something more proactive than just continuing to issue a new ticket every other day.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

I think Tom's onto something with regard to vindictive or just nosy neighbors. This year my little front yard looks like the weed-strangled courtyard of an abandoned psych hospital, thoroughly deserving a citation, but we haven't gotten one. So whatever the criteria for citation, it's not being applied consistantly.

I've appealed the trash fine, but you've got to act fast

[willfro1.livejournal.com]

You've got thirty days from the date of issue to send a written note requesting a hearing, which you've got to fax to someone (I forget who).

Because there are so many rental properties in Somerville, I suspect that because fines often fall onto absentee landlords or careless college kids, they're pretty cavalier about the tickets.

In my case, they also put out a series of consecutive tickets totaling something like $700. I went with my landlord to the hearing and ended up paying about half-- one of the tickets fell outside the 30-day appeal window.

[vonelftinhaus.livejournal.com]

Please make all these points (valid ones) to city officials and don't let any of this slide. I know it is extra work but the illogical nature of all those tickets beyond the first one on the 16th is absolutely mid-blowing::eek::!! I did myself years ago fight a "trash" ticket and was excused- a tenant moving out had put a basic rolled up rug out a day and a half early. I actually saw it and thought nothing of it-of course till i got the ticket in the mail. Good Luck

[ratushebarl.livejournal.com]

Now that I have the pictures, it turns out all the trash citations are for non-trash stored in my back yard in (you guessed it) trash bags. Well, I guess I was asking for that.

I'm still confused about overgrowth. Knee-high grass that's on my property, not infringing on the sidewalk in any way, is illegal?

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

Anything that makes the neighborhood look bad can be considered a blight on the neighborhood as a whole. If you were trying to sell your house you certainly wouldn't want your neighbors homes looking unkept.

I mean, overgrown grass seems like it would merit a warning citation first, but I guess you have to draw a line somewhere.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

Forcing people to cut their grass short and remove "weeds" is terrible for the environment. A mown lawn takes a huge amount of water and chemicals. Letting brush grow, even on a small urban property lets nature take its course, and provides habitat for birds and other wildlife. See http://www.for-wild.org/download/growit.html .

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

sort of a reach. there are many environmentally sound options between an "american dream" lawn and just letting it grow out to hell. I'm totally pro- natural landscaping, but I am 99% sure what we're talking about here is run-of-the-mill turf that's overgrown.

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

there are many environmentally sound options between an "american dream" lawn and just letting it grow out to hell. I'm totally pro- natural landscaping (and anti-lawn), but I am 99% sure what we're talking about here is run-of-the-mill turf that's overgrown.

[ron_newman]

I hope you can appeal this on the basis of the stuff not actually being trash, then.

[ratushebarl.livejournal.com]

Beats me. I shall mention it. Along with the multiplicity of tickets in a short interval, the slowness of notification, and that these bags - 3 in number - were stored behind a house at a setback of over 60' from the sidewalk. I think if I wanted to blight the neighborhood, I could do better.

It's not the blight, it's the rats

[avjudge]

The trash-must-be-in-a-can ordinance is not about blight; it was passed after an increase in complaints about rats, which obviously can easily rip open plastic bags. (Of course, they can also easily chew through plastic garbage bins, but they don't seem to quite so readily.)

[davelew.livejournal.com]

Overgrowth is a new one for me, but it appears to be city ordinance 9-56:

http://library.municode.com/HTML/11580/level3/PII_C9_AIV.html#PII_C9_AIV_s9-56

"No person in control of any property abutting on a sidewalk shall allow to remain uncut any overgrowth of grass planted therein by the city nor suffer to remain any overgrowth of grass and weed growing in or around any such sidewalk.

Whoever violates any of the provisions of this section shall be fined in accordance with section 1-11."

Section 1-11 just sets all sorts of fines, including $25 for letting grass or weeds grow over the sidewalk.

[turil.livejournal.com]

Technically grass grows to the exact right height that it should be. It's not possible for it to overgrow. :-)

Also, it's time this unenvironmental law be removed. Plants make oxygen and clean the air of pollution, the more it grows, the more it can do that. Tall grass is good for everyone.

And, even better: a wild space with wild edibles...

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

Well, if the grass could vote, then I guess we'd be all set, wouldn't we - they'd lobby their alder-person, and get the laws changed.

[mud-puppy.livejournal.com]

We got a fine last week for one of our trash cans. They were at least kind enough to send us the citation in the mail along with a photo of the offending trash can with a date & time stamp. It was taken at 1AM!

I gotta wonder if paying a city employee to drive around at all hours taking pictures of peoples hedges and trash cans is really a good use of our resources. *shrug*

As for the overgrowth, well, we have a neighbor with a hedge that hasn't been trimmed back in well, forever. It makes the sidewalk unusable. So, I get why it exists, but I do wonder how it's enforced. Anyways, here's hoping our neighbor will trim the Hedge of Doom!

[somervilleguy.livejournal.com]

Thats also how it happend to us . Photo plus ticket and it was a matter of days between the ticket and its arrival in the mail.

I would bet that the city inpsectors that do this pay for their own salary and a bit more, just like T&P.

[davelew.livejournal.com]

Technically, the overgrowth ordinance only applies to grass and weeds, not to hedges.

[dahdahdahdancer.livejournal.com]

question about original post - what is a certificate of good standing and why would a contractor want/need it?

[ratushebarl.livejournal.com]

It says you've paid your property taxes and other fees. Or, as in this case, decided to appeal them. I'm told it is needed before a building permit can be obtained. I only know what they tell me.

And here's my addition to the trash violation woes

[brewso.livejournal.com]

I just moved out of Davis last Tuesday (sob!), and generated a lot of trash in the packing up of 8 years' worth of accumulated stuff. Knowing Somerville is not a fan of uncovered stored trash, I held onto all of the trash in my apartment's entryway until the morning of trash pickup, and brought it out at 7 a.m. (the workers usually come by 8). I was outside when they picked it up, and it seemed to take the two guys virtually no more time than usual to heave the 6-7 extra bags in addition to the barrels out there. However, this weekend my landlord received a $50 citation (which she's passing along to me) citing "trash not in barrels."

So, what? I was supposed to purchase 6 additional barrels for my one-time move to avoid this fine? That seems a bit ridiculous.

Re: And here's my addition to the trash violation woes

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

I went through a similar sort of thing after the flooding this past spring. I called the trash office to find out how best to handle the excessive amounts of stuff that I needed to throw away due to basement flooding. The best the woman could tell me was that if it was more than I could fit in my trash barrels, I should put it out over a series of weeks rather than all at once. And if I put out "too much" trash in any given week, I might get a ticket; but she couldn't tell me what constitutes "too much."

Oh, and you can't put the trash out before 4pm the day before pickup. I asked her, if I put the stuff on the walkway alongside my house (i.e., on my property) in preparation for trash day, would I get a fine for that? And she couldn't answer that either. In short, she was friendly but almost completely unhelpful. It was seriously frustrating.

Re: And here's my addition to the trash violation woes

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

That's ridiculous. Cambridge allows trash not in barrels, if it's in heavy-duty plastic bags, and not set at the curb until the day of pickup (i.e. after midnight). Y'all should talk to your aldermen and ask if Somerville can adopt a similar law.

Re: And here's my addition to the trash violation woes

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

You'd have a better chance asking the grass to not grow so high.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

I'm a little late on this one but just wanted to chime in and add that I too have gotten what I consider a ridiculously excessive number of trash tickets and "overgrowth" citations. At $50 per ticket it has become a real financial issue; and it particularly irks me that the ticket form doesn't actually have a preprinted space for those citations, so the person writing the ticket scribbles in the offense in the margins and then (apparently) gets to invent an amount out of thin air.

Most of the time, I receive the tickets in the mail a couple of days after their issue dates; at one point I went to City Hall to pay three of them and was told that I actually had five outstanding.

So they really have you over a barrel in that situation, don't they? You have no way of contesting it really, because how can you contest a ticket that you never got; and even if you did get it, how can you prove you didn't have "trash out of barrels" on the day in question, especially if that day was a few days ago? And when I tried to get someone at the city to define for me what "overgrowth" means, they couldn't. They basically said that the inspector comes by and decides whether it's good enough or not. I said, "so the only way I know if I didn't cut it back enough for his taste, is by waiting to receive another ticket?" She basically said yes. Argh!

And yes, as someone else said above, I've gotten tickets that were time-stamped 1am, 2am, etc. which is really difficult to swallow. Are my taxes seriously paying for some guy to wander around at 2am looking for grass that's too tall?

To be fair, there have been instances when vegetation in my front yard grew past the fence and out onto the sidewalk, and I understand that the city has an interest in not allowing that. But it's frustrating when no one can tell you a) how far you must cut it back, b) how much time you have to do this, c) whether you get a "grace period" to deal with the situation or whether they can just keep writing you more tickets every day....

I did eventually conclude that I must have some neighbor who's developed a vendetta against me and calls the city every time my grass gets over two inches. I don't know though. It's definitely frustrating.

Money - that all they want.

[jokabri.livejournal.com]

It's all about the money. Whoever said contact our aldermen/women is 110% correct. I got one of those tickets (tenants had moved out and left a small bookcase out a day early) and I just paid it, but made sure to always be careful and tell the tenants and anyone I know to watch out.

Meters 'til 8...excessive street cleaning fines...trash/lawn fines based on some person's "opinion".... what's next?