Selective Ordinance Enforcement Part Four

The City Ordinance 93.o3 (Streets and Sidewalks) regarding Mail Boxes is quite clear. They are to be in clusters of four to six. Why would Centerville allow single and/or double mailboxes to remain (excluding those in existence prior to amending) when there have been multiple complaints?



Hanzal Resigns From Planning Commission
The Citizen 10/18/2006
Hanzal's one sentence resignation letter, addressed to the "City of Centerville" and forwarded to the City Council for its October 11 meeting, reads as follows:
"It is with deepest regrets that I must resign from the Planning and Zoning Commission effective immediately following the October 3 meeting due to family obligations.
Link Story Here


Hanzal Subdivision Approved
The Citizen, 3/21/2007
At its March 14 meeting, the Centerville City Council unanimously passed four motions that will allow the Hanzal Subdivision development to go forward. The motions were based on recent recommendations made by the Planning and Zoning Commission after several lengthy and heated public hearings.
The first and second motions respectively amended the city's comprehensive plan and changed the zoning of the entire 6.36 acre Hanzal Subdivision-located at 7381 Old Mill Road-to Single Family Residential (R-2) Portions of the property were zoned Public/Semi-Private (P-1) and Single Family Residential-Estate (R-5)
The third motion approved the preliminary plat for the development.
The fourth motion approved a variance to permit a 25-foot front yard setback on one parcel of the property, 10 feet less than the normal 35 feet required in this zoning district.
A handful of residents were present at the meeting, some wishing to present additional testimony. However, since public hearings on the issue have already bee closed, City Administrator Dallas Larson told the public that "legal counsel has advised the city not to accept any additional comments this evening."
Link Story Here


When the City chooses to selectively enforce ordinances and approve variance changes without allowing public testimony (under advice of legal counsel, which the public pays for) it breeds mistrust and anger. Does this situation looks suspicious?

Selective Ordinance Enforcement Part Two

Complaint based ordinance enforcement seems to be A-OK with the Mayor and current council. When all citizens are not treated equally, the door for retaliation and corruption is left wide open.

From: "Dan & Mary Capra" netfalcon@comcast.net
To: XXXX
Cc: dlarson@centervillemn.com; tbender@centervillemn.com
Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2008 12:16 PM
Subject: Response to concerns

With regard to the retaliating against a citizen, the issue of the right-of-way concerns had been raised by our public works department five years ago. Last fall one citizen made a right-of-way ordinance violation complaint against their neighbor, which in turn spurred that neighbor to create a list of 80+ right-of-way violation complaints. The city enforces ordinances upon complaint and therefore had to review all 80+ complaints for merit. The council delegated that responsibility to the public works director and city attorney who reviewed the list and what was considered a hazard, thus the six addresses, of which the XXXX address was one. Below is a list of the addresses that did receive letters from the City regarding the right-of-way, at this point the City is not considering sending out any additional letters. The council was not involved in the process and was only informed six letters had been sent out.
XXXX Dupre Road
XXXX Peltier Lake Drive
XXXX Mill Road
XXXX Beaver Pond Way
XXXX Hunters Trail
XXXX Progress Road

Respectfully,
Mary Capra

Sent by one of our brilliant citizens:
Historically, selective enforcement is recognized as a sign of tyranny, and an abuse of power, because it violates Rule of Law, allowing men to apply justice only when they choose. Aside from this being inherently unjust, it almost inevitably must lead to favoritism and extortion, with those empowered to choose being able to help their friends, take bribes, and threaten those from whom they desire favors.
*Wikipedia