Officials wrangle over city ordinance
Officials wrangle over city ordinance
Former city attorney fires back against enforcers with his own complaints
ELECTRIC CITY — Last week former Electric City attorney Wayne Svaren struck back at town officials when he filed a pair of official written complaints alleging the code compliance officer Kenneth Dexter and deputy clerk Jackie Perman violated the town's nuisance ordinance.
Dexter, as the mayor's appointed compliance officer, may now be tasked with investigating a complaint against his own home. Town officials have not decided how to handle the matter.
"We haven't made a decision or talked about that yet," Councilman Jerry Sands said Thursday. "It would be hard for Ken Dexter to investigate himself."
Svaren's complaint against Dexter, according to town documents, listed broken concrete at the home along with litter, an abandoned pickup truck canopy, weeds, box springs, an abandoned and unused Mustang, a Studebaker tailgate, junk pile, discarded fencing, building materials, wheels and other items strewn about his property.
During service as the town's attorney, Svaren received two $500 citations for allegedly violating the same ordinance. He had two vehicles and a "classic" truck's front body clip in front of his Electric City home at 51 Pearl Ave. when an officer handed him the citation Jan. 21, he said.
After being cited, Svaren resigned as the town's attorney. Then he contested the citations and asked for a hearing in municipal court.
Following the citations, Electric City Mayor Raymond Halsey and Dexter notified Svaren an investigation of his commercial lots at 202 and 206 Coulee Blvd. also revealed apparent violations of the nuisance ordinance.
Calls to Halsey's home seeking comment Thursday were not answered.
The Jan. 24 letter notifying Svaren of alleged violations on his property on Coulee Boulevard, the main drag through town, claimed "unused and/or abandoned vehicles and/or major parts thereof" were within public view.
The problem, said Svaren, who remains the town attorney for Coulee City and Grand Coulee, is the vehicles and parts are neither abandoned nor unused. He denies any violation.
He should know. He helped draft Electric City's nuisance ordinance.
Svaren claims the city incorrectly reproduced the text of the relevant section of the ordinance, inserting "unused and/or abandoned" on the citation in place of the actual language, "unused and abandoned."
"It's a lie," Svaren said in his Grand Coulee office Thursday, as he made copies of the ordinance. "I suspect I'm creating an enormous problem for them."
In response to the "notice to correct unsafe and unlawful condition" on the Coulee Boulevard property issued by Halsey and Dexter, Svaren sent a letter of his own denying the alleged violations.
"I respect the undeniable fact that there are those in our community who find my vehicles not to their liking. Perhaps they and their out-of-town friends think those vehicles contribute to their perception of Electric City as 'the ugliest town in the West,'" Svaren wrote in the Feb. 7 letter to Halsey and Dexter. "For my part, I find the road apples deposited on our streets by the equine companions of some citizens not to my liking. That being said, neither the road apples nor my vehicles are unlawful."
So far, town officials have received seven written complaints about Svaren's home. They have received two written complaints about his commercial property on Coulee Boulevard, where two cars, four trucks, a truck frame and a trailer frame sit next to a warehouse filled with 11 other vehicles.
"I'm not running a wrecking yard or running a business selling parts," Svaren said. "I work as a lawyer, this is my hobby."
He said his pastime of rebuilding collector cars is an investment of time and money. The vehicles and parts on his property are increasing in value and have a purpose, he said.
Unfortunately, he said, "In order to satisfy complaining parties, they enforce these things. They don't do anything until they get a complaint," he added. "That means if I have a bone to pick with my neighbor, I can complain about my neighbor's yard. This is nothing but an invitation to abuse."
Councilman Sands, who beat Svaren in last fall's election for a seat on the town council, agreed.
"I said from the beginning this would not work," Sands said. "Neighbors turning neighbors in is not the answer to this nuisance ordinance."
Sands, however, doesn't agree with Svaren's response to the nuisance ordinance citations and complaints.
"To me, he's just lashing out at town officials," he said.
Sands said he campaigned for office intending to clean the town and its image up. That became his first priority when he was elected.
"My main objective on the council is to clean this town up," he said.
He suspects the nuisance ordinance may need to be rewritten, but eyesores like Svaren's property on Coulee Boulevard need be eliminated, he said.
Now, Svaren, the only practicing attorney within the four towns nestled up against Grand Coulee Dam, says the town should start cracking down on their own code compliance officer. "And quickly, to avoid more egg on the town's face," he said.
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