By D. L. Norris
In no uncertain terms, on the front page of the Okaloosa County Code Enforcement website, is a declaration that Okaloosa County enforces all code. The kicker is, it doesn’t state how well the county goes about doing that. There can be a fine line between utter incompetence and willful neglect. So which of these postulates holds true?
In a previous post on this blog, Okaloosa County Plays a Real-life Game of Chicken, was it utter incompetence or willful neglect that resulted in a clear-cut code violation ending up in 1st Circuit Court for resolution of code enforcement? Without an internal investigation, the answer will never be known.
Was it utter incompetence or willful neglect that resulted in Okaloosa County foreclosing on property in 2012 without knowing a homeless man was living in a refurbished schools bus on the property with no water or sewer connection? Was it utter incompetence or willful neglect, that, after Okaloosa County took ownership of the property in 2012, they failed to clean up piles of debris that were the result of multiple code violations from 2008 totaling up to $1.2 million in fines? Why did neighbors of the property have to file multiple complaints with no responsive action taken until January 2019 to get the county to finally act on the decade long violations? Why didn’t a single county commissioner request an investigation into the enforcement fiasco when presented to them at their January 15, 2019 meeting?
Recently, District 4 Commissioner, Trey Goodwin III, asked county staff if they could take action to fill vacant code enforcement board seats. The board had not been able to get a quorum and that left enforcement actions tabled. Why did the Growth Management Director let the code enforcement board situation languish to the point a commissioner had to request advertising to fill the board seats?
Having a fully functioning code enforcement board is only part of the problem. Before the enforcement board gets called into action, a citation has to be issued from a code enforcement officer. This is obviously still not happening based on the November 12, 2019 beach vending workshop where everyone in attendance concurred the county had not been enforcing the ordinance (code) as it was written.
There is indeed a fine line between utter incompetence and willful neglect, but either way, someone should be fired, or voted out of office, or both. If the BOCC is going to enact a code, they must demand enforcement. If they do not intend to enforce the code, then they need to repeal it. If the BOCC were truly conservative, they would enforce the rule of law.
You can contact the author at dlnorris@theparadisepatriot.com