Last Updated: July 1, 6 p.m.
Starting Thursday, residents in Palm Coast, as anywhere in Florida, may no longer lodge anonymous code enforcement complaints. They must identify themselves by name and address, though the requirement is lax enough to lend itself to deception: in Palm Coast there is no verification system in place and no intention to pursue individuals who lodge complaints under bogus names.
The change is the result of controversial law that made its way through the Legislature last spring and got the governor’s signature. Senate Bill 60 passed the Senate by a party-line 27-11 vote and the House by 81-35, with Republicans in support and Democrats opposed. Flagler County’s Sen. Travis Hutson and Rep. Paul Renner voted for it.
All such documents are public records, so the new law enables anyone facing a code enforcement violation to find out who lodged the complaint–assuming the complainant did so honestly.
“There really is not a concrete way to verify that people are giving their true identity, so I’m sure that we’ll get a lot of John Smiths or whatever name they come up with,” Brittany Kershaw, Palm Coast’s chief spokesperson, said today. “Unfortunately at this time there’s no way to verify that name.” Verification would take time and resources, and it wouldn’t be as simple as calling a number to verify. “The requirement as we read it in the law is that the name and address will be the identifying information, so they don’t have to provide a phone number.”
The new law itself does not address enforcement of the identification provision, it does not set out any requirements for verification, it does not signal any penalties for people who invent names, and it imposes no requirements either on local governments in general or on code enforcement officers to do more than note whether a complainant has been identified or not. In effect, the law resembles those mask mandates Flagler’s cities passed last year: without enforcement, the mandate adds up to a recommendation. In this case, it’s more comparable to an unenforceable unmasking mandate.
Currently complaints may be lodged online or by phone. Online complaint forms include a field for a complainant to self-identify. That field had been voluntary. It will now be required, or the complaint will not be filed.
The city averages 1,350 complaints a month, with top complaints based on time of year: overgrown yards lead the way during the summer, hazardous trees prompt complaints during hurricane season, and so on. On average the city receives about 140 complaints per month on commercial vehicles, and 350-400 signage complaints (any type of sign, political/garage sale/etc) per month, a city spokesperson said. All alleged violations are investigated.
On paper, the new law “prohibits county and municipal code inspectors from initiating an investigation into violations of city or county codes or ordinances based upon an anonymous complaint. It also requires that an individual making a complaint of a potential violation provide his or her name and address to the local government body before an investigation may occur,” as a legislative analysis describes it.
Residents typically lodge complaints about neighbors, citing such things as unkempt yards, unseemly garbage, commercial vehicles parked in driveways, noise, and so on. Even “missing building components, such as windows, walks, siding, or roofing materials, must be replaced, as well as broken fencing, screening or decorative elements” must be replaced, according to city regulations, though unless a neighbor complains–or a code enforcement officer patrolling the neighborhood sees it–the violation could be left dormant.
Most local governments had allowed anonymous complaints. Some, like Collier County, had stopped doing so before the new law.
There is one exception: the prohibition on anonymous complaints does not apply if a code enforcement officer judges the code enforcement violation to be an imminent threat to public health or safety, or if it alerts to imminent danger of destruction pf habitat or sensitive resources. Whether code enforcement officers may interpret “health” or “safety” to apply to that of complainants worried about their own safety may be a matter of debate.
While the law requires disclosure of complainants’ names and addresses, one of the exemptions to the state’s public record law includes code enforcement officers’ own home addresses, phone numbers and photographs. In other words, while complainants’ names must be revealed, and are preserved as public records, some of code enforcement officers’ similar personal information is protected.
Palm Coast, which has an active code enforcement department, has been the focus of two recent controversies centered on its Code Enforcement Department. The first involved City Council member Victor Barbosa, who after his election in November turned to code enforcement vigilantism, driving around town and shaming specific properties by posting images of videos of the properties he judged to be in violation of the code. (He also cleaned up a property with a few volunteers.) Along the way, Barbosa would send specific addresses to the city manager to forward to code enforcement for investigations. Matt Morton, the manager at the time, had Barbosa’s complaints “tagged” as Barbosa’s, so as to keep up with them so he could inform the council member of outcomes.
Even though Barbosa was making no secret of his vigilantism on his Facebook page, he took the city manager’s tagging as a violation of Barbosa’s privacy, and called for the manager’s firing on that account (the council did not go along). By the evening he did so, several legislative committees had approved the new law, which was a few weeks away from garnering both legislative chambers’ votes. Once it got the signature of Gov. Ron DeSantis (who Barbosa admires), Barbosa’s charge against the manager (who has since resigned) was entirely moot, though it had been largely mooted by Barbosa’s own scant documentation of his accusations.
Not much later, code enforcement was again a focus of the council when a “Difficult Citizens List” the city administration had conceived in 2015 and maintained since 2016 came to light. The list, effectively kept secret even from those named in it, absent specific public record requests, named individuals who’d acted boorishly or dangerously toward city employees, many of them code enforcement officers, who interact with the public. The list included descriptions of the sort of abuse officers endured, some of it vile, some of it physically threatening (one resident hurled a spear at a code enforcement officer’s official vehicle). The council demanded that the list no longer be populated, at least not in its present form. The council wants the administration to devise strict and transparent rules, if such a list is to be maintained at all in the future.
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Pogo says
@All in the family
SB 60 was filed by Senator Jennifer Bradley – wife of the preceding incumbent to THEIR floriduh senate seat.
Well, it’s kinda like term limits – right?
In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not.
— Author: Anonymous
TR says
Great, now lets see hoe long it takes for civil law suits to start happening. Just to explain. A neighbor calls CE and complains. The said violator asks who complained and then is given the neighbors name and address. Violating neighbor goes to complaining neighbor and confronts then. Could get really ugly from their. JMO
Anonymous says
That is exactly what I said to CE over the phone!!! I asked her how she would like one of her neighbors violating, and she said she would give her name and address. Of course, she knows that her name and address would never be revealed. Goes to show you, in my opinion, that CE doesn’t truly care about their fellow citizens being confronted (or worse) by their offending neighbor. I foresee terrible, terrible repercussions with the passing of this law (which I surely didn’t get to vote on!)!!! – Anonymous.
Carl Lewis says
Absolutely agree. New homeowners in my neighborhood just chopped down two very large hardwood trees without a permit and no trees have been planted to replace them. I sent an anonymous letter to Code Enforcement but on their website listing complaints at this address, they stated they do not respond to anonymous complaints, so nothing will be done.
Our beautiful city is being destroyed and this law prevents CE from protecting it. Unfortunately, it seems politicians have no interest in protecting or serving the citizenry, as they should!
thomas papasavas says
I had a fence up for thirty years ! I started to look like crap ! It was 3 feet from the side walk for thirty years and nobody complained about it ! I bought a new vinyl fence and I had a contractor build a support wall about 2 feet to level the ground so I can put my boat on the side of the house because I can’t have the boat in front of my house like the code says but I can have it on the side of my house ! I had the guys move the wall 3 feet so it was next to the side walk so it would look nice ! So anyway the guys where almost done with the wall when out of nowhere code enforcement shows up and told them to stop work ! They said I had to get a permit for that ! I went to get a permit and now they say I have to be 9 feet from the side walk ! After thirty years some piece of shit scumbag who had nothing better to do than to complain about that ! Code enforcement never said a thing about my fence for thirty years you figure it out !
Dennis says
People will shy away from reporting snd soon, Palm Coast will be a crap house full of code violations.
Dennis C Rathsam says
Thats what they want! Turn Palm Coast into BUNNELL.
Anonymous says
Same here in Hernando County!!! Our neighborhood, when we moved into, was under a deed restriction set in the 80s, now there isn’t even that!!! The new neighbors that are moving in all around us are violating more and more!!! From their trashy and unkempt home and yard to their RV campers having electrical cords ran to them for their friends, to commercial vehicles weighing over 17,000 pounds parked in their driveway for all the neighbors to see!!! Did they pass this new law for the ILLEGAL ALIENS crossing our southern borders that are moving into our neighborhoods!? Makes you wonder!? I think.
thomas papasavas says
You Know It’s different If to call on scumbag that leaves junk all around his house and makes the neighborhood look like shit ! But to complain about someone who is putting up a new fence where an old wood crap fence was for 30 years and nobody complained about that ! Give me a break ! Some scumbag complainers have nothing else better to do !
Hartman Gabriel says
People who complain, and are shocked when they to have to obey the law are furious. Shocking so yku hqve the right to disregard the laws and zoning changes as you see fit and others do not. 30 year fence was grandfathered, when you tore it out, you lost that. Now you are subjected to the *current* law. Quit your bicken.
Phil Ebosco says
According to the way the law is written, if its a matter of imminent threat to public safety or health way would someone call code enforcement ? I would think if it’s a matter for the Sheriff’s Dept. or the Fire Rescue.
Didn’t anyone take into fact modern technology ? What about “ caller ID” isn’t that considered verification ?
shy guy says
What’s the difference the city doesn’t act on them anyway. The neighborhood is well kept up except for a rental. This is like something from a third world country and after reports to the city NOTHING has been done.
PalmKaren says
Doubt you know what a third world country looks like. Good god dramatic much
Anonymous says
PalmKaren – how would you like to live in a Third World country!? I’m sure that what Shy Guy is saying is that his heart is weeping for this nation! We all know what a Third World country looks like! And, I’m sure you are very aware of the glorious blessings that this nation does have. But, what we conservative Christians, and so many that aren’t, are simply saying is – we don’t want this beautiful nation to become like a Third World nation. But, sadly, what we are witnessing – and what I have personally seen within my five decades of being here – is that it is slowly becoming that way. And, with this new law, it doesn’t make anything better, only worse. – Anonymous.
Any says
So sick of anonymous complainers….Mind your own business
Anonymous says
Well – according to the article, it was the Republicans who wanted this to become law.
Dennis C Rathsam says
You are so right, u can call, email them, but the city does nothing….Enforce the law, not in this city!
Ramone says
In my opinion, Palm Coast’s interpretation is not in harmony with the intent of the new law. The intent is to stop anonymous (oftentimes trivial) code enforcement complaints. Accepting obviously fake names like John Doe on 123 Main St is a violation of the statute. By accepting these bogus names and addresses (anonymous) the City is essentially aiding and abetting the public break the law.
The City has a duty to make sure the public record they will now create, documenting the complaint and the person filing the complaint, is correct and true. Imagine if a citizen wants to stir the pot in their neighborhood and they start filing complaints using their neighbor’s name and address. The City takes the complaint and records the wrong person as the complainer and then the target of the complaint takes retaliatory action against the person they think filed the report (after requesting this public record from the city).
Hopefully the City will take the necessary steps to verify the person is who they say they are. This could be done in a number of ways. The easiest way is to stop taking complaints online or over the phone (if they’re deemed not life safety related). Make the person filing the complaint come in to the office and produce an ID with a name and address. If they don’t want to come in, they could fill out a complaint form that requires their signature be notarized.
There are probably simpler ways to verify. But the City’s stance that they won’t even try, will only encourage more anonymous complaints in direct contravention of the new law.
Anonymous says
Now, if they are violations that are “life safety-related” – keywords LIFE SAFETY – shouldn’t the person be calling 911, instead of CE!? – Anonymous.
Captain obvious says
Is it really that difficult to only take complaints by phone and then to have caller ID? There’s a ton of resources to look up people by phone number that this town should be able to get easily. In reality most people already know who the complainers are in their neighborhood. But on the other side of that, do we really want people to have more ammunition to relatiate? 🤷🏻♀️
Pogo says
@Or could this be
another favor to Airbnb, large scale private equity housing owners, and others of that ilk who have done so mooch – s’cuse me – so much to make floriduh the happiest sideshow in duh world?
Everywhere else, we are someone else, but at home, we remove our masks.
— Matthew Desmond
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Desmond
Pogo says
@Several days ago I posted:
@Or could this be
another favor to Airbnb, large scale private equity housing owners, and others of that ilk who have done so mooch – s’cuse me – so much to make floriduh the happiest sideshow in duh world?
FYI, “… large scale private equity housing owners…” is:
Information from every POV
https://www.google.com/search?q=private+equity+housing+owners
“Remember: It’s not your fault that things are the way they are, but it is your responsibility to do something about them.”
― Elena Aguilar, Coaching for Equity: Conversations That Change Practice
Dennis C Rathsam says
This already happened to me. I called code about a blind dog, runnig free in the street, and yards. When the code people came out to investigate the situation the owner asked who called and complained…The code officer pointed to my house. Soon as they left I had a loud knocking at my door. As I opened it all I could hear this man yelling and screaming at me, waving his hands, I asked him how u could let a blind dog run free,he could have been hit by a car, u know he cant see! Have a little repect for your dog, u fool. Well that rally set him off, it was getting ugly…I told him, he was on private property get out. I closed the door in his face. The knocking continued, I grabed a bat, went out the back door, when he saw me comming after him , he ran like the wind. This is whats gonna happen, when u give out your name and address, thats why I traded my bat, for a 9mm
Carl Lewis says
I am surprised that this new law is not drawing universal outrage! These are the questions raised:
1. What is the reasoning behind this State law? I assume some State officials have been flouting local ordinances and want to continue doing so?
2. What has the State of Florida to do with our local code enforcement officers investigation of reports of code violation? This is local government business and should have nothing to do with the State.
My prediction is that this will lead to many more cases of ordinances being ignored and a degrading of Palm Coast’s beauty, property values and of the environment.
If it wasn’t so tragic, it would be funny that the law allows enforcement officers to remain anonymous, but not the public who have to live right next to the people breaking the city codes. Where is our protection against an attack as Dennis above experienced?
This law is an overreach on the part of the State and has to go!
James B says
Why would America’s Governor sign such a piece of dreck? Caved to organized labor to pacify the overworked code enforcement officers would be my bet.
Joe Florio says
The same thing is happening in Port Saint Lucie. Our neighborhoods are deteriorating due to the lack of enforcement. What the state has done is equal to posting a speed limit on a road, and then posting signs saying no police will ever be patrolling this road. If a law is not enforced, there is no law. That’s basic civics.