#atxcouncil: Following ban on Short-Term Rentals (and #TXLEGE preemption failures), black market predictably develops....

"I will cut off sorceries from your hand,
And you shall have no soothsayers."
Micah 5:12

In the least surprising news story ever:

In the City of Austin, more than 10,000 Austin properties advertise themselves as short-term rentals, a new city memo notes. But only 2,500 of those are licensed and paying fees to the city. A number of the unlicensed rentals have been the subject of repeated complaints and violations.

In a memo to the City Council, the Austin Code Department director estimated it will take 35,568 staff hours for license administration and enforcement on short-term rentals in the city by the end of the year. About 5% of staff time is spent on enforcement of the properties that are highlighted by the city as repeat offenders when it comes to breaking Austin’s rules for short-term rentals.

“The department projects that an additional 200 properties will be licensed this year, raising the total number of licensed properties to 2,700—a 59% increase in the number properties licensed over the last two fiscal years. If the total number of STR operations across the City is in fact 10,000+, licensed properties by year end will only represent 27%,” the report said.

....

The city memo came after Mayor Pro Tem Kathy Tovo brought a resolution last November asking the Austin Code Department to quantify how much time enforcing short-term rentals is taking and whether the city needs to do more to hold problem property owners accountable.

Who'd'a ever seen this coming?!?

Bottom Line:   When you "ban" something, it doesn't actually stop the activity. It just drives it underground. Shocking, we know....

#atxcouncil: Government Agency (with Well Documented Vindictive Streak) Seeks Vague, Open-Ended, Powers (to enforce arbitrarily)....

"Dishonest scales are an abomination to the Lord,
But a just weight is His delight."
Proverbs 11:1

By now, there's been plenty of ink spilled on the City of Austin's proposed new "window screen" regulations; a representative sample:

The City of Austin’s Code Department is asking for residents opinion on a new regulation to add to its already lengthy list of them.

The regulation would require homeowners to install insect screens to all windows on their homes, at all times of the year.

....

Of course, while mosquitoes and bugs do pose an issue during the summer months and those surrounding them, they are all but a non-factor throughout the rest of the year. Nevertheless, that is when the City of Austin decided they would attempt to regulate Austinites year round. No word yet on how the city would enforce or punish if the regulation was to be put into place.

There's a lot that can be said about this proposal, starting with the fact that this is a textbook example of the type of mandated costs that slowly but surely drives up cost of living.

But it goes deeper.

Anyone who know the Austin Code Department's record knows their long history letting their friends do whatever they want while those they don't like are hounded incessantly.

In just the past few years, the Austin Code Department has:

• Ignored numerous violations by politically subsidized slumlords.

• Conducted illegal SWAT team raids (no joke).

• Who can ever forget the case of Matthew Palmer's fence?!?

• [Note: While the three examples listed above are the most flagrant abuses of which we're aware, this YouTube channel details numerous other acts of petty tyranny by the code department.]

And that's before we get into the unconstitutional enforcement powers the code department has been granted under the Short-Term Rental ordinance.

In other words, as it relates to any potential screen ordinance, 'selective enforcement' will be the order of the day.

Bottom Line: On what planet do we want to give the Austin Code Department, as it currently exists, this sort of power?!?

#TXLEGE: Abbott's #SpecialSession call opens door on Short-Term Rentals and Historical Zoning

"Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good?"
Matthew 20:15

Two of the issues we were working that died in committee during the regular session was reigning in municipal abuses related to historical zoning and short term rentals; in that vein, check out the language Governor Abbott used on the property rights component of the special session call:

Legislation protecting the private property rights of land owners from political subdivision rules, regulations, or ordinances that interfere with, delay, or restrict private property owners’ ability to use or enjoy their property.

Historical zoning and short term rentals are easily within the bounds of that call.

It's not confirmed, but we've heard credible rumors that Kelly Hancock intends to re-file the Short-Term rental bill.

While we're on the subject, pretty much any anti-property rights measure is fair game for the special session; we'd love to address abuses related to the code department.

Moving beyond Austin, we just learned that Arlington is going to consider an ordinance to require permits for garage sales.

Bottom Line: They're both within the bounds of the call, we just need bill authors to step up and file them.

Unpacking the "War on Cities" Talking Point

"Do not rob the poor because he is poor,
Nor oppress the afflicted at the gate;"
Proverbs 22:22

Since Governor Abbott called the special session, we've noticed a recurring talking point.

From Mayor Adler:

“I admit to being a little dumbfounded when I heard what sounded to me like a call for a war against cities; a fight against individual liberties exposed at the ballot box,” Adler said. “Instead of looking at a future … the governor’s special call looks to the past.”

From Greg Casar:

"So many of the things listed here are attacks on Austin, not just in the traditional Austin-bashing sense, but on cities generally because we pose a threat in the long term,"

From the Texas Municipal League:

“The list of proposed topics for a special session represents an all-out assault on the ability of Texas voters to decide what’s best for their communities and their neighborhoods.

We've also heard similar rhetoric from local officials in (at least) Houston and Dallas.

This is worth considering in full, because the argument contains a kernel of truth wrapped in hysterical misdirection.  The short version is that these politicians (and their taxpayer funded lobbyists) have everything backwards.  While nobody denies the potential long term political implications of the special session agenda, that's a secondary concern compared to the fact that municpal governments across this state have been abusing their citizens can the Texas legislature has jurisdiction to reign them in.

Consider the following:

• Texas has the fourth highest property taxes in the country and the highest property taxes of any state that doesn't have an income tax.

• Texas has the second highest local government debt in the country.

These two are worth considering on their own, because they're obvious macroeconomic storms gathering on the medium term horizon.  Left unchecked, local government debt and the property tax system will strangle the state's economy.  Does anyone (Note: Who isn't paid to say otherwise) seriously think reigning in these practices is a bad thing?!?

The abuses continue:

• The evils of non-consensual annexation, especially in Bexar and Harris counties, speak for themselves.

• In Austin, the permitting process for residential construction is so complicated and convoluted that council created a pay to play fast lane for the big developers...which they subsequently loaded up with a new round of complicated conditions.

• Houston's and Dallas' astonishingly high pension liabilities.

• Even in allegedly conservative cities like Frisco and Plano, property tax collections have been growing faster than the ability of homeowners to pay them.

• Also in Austin, while issues like the tree ordinance and short term rentals (note: that's going to be a germane amendment on some bill during the special) get the most attention, the anti-property rights orientation of the municipal government has become so pervasive that the code department is performing SWAT-team raids.

Again...does anyone seriously think reigning in these practices is a bad thing?!?

But you want to talk politics?!?  Fine, let's talk politics.  We've been saying since 2013 that, while punks like Battleground Texas would never turn Texas blue, the unchecked growth of government at the local level is the one thing that could swing the state over the long run.

While a certain amount of boutique progressivism has crept in over the past decade, historically the backbone of the left-wing coalition has been people who collect checks from the government (ie. bureaucrats, lobbyists, and welfare recipients).  Naturally, it follows that if there are fewer people collecting checks from the government, there will be fewer constituencies for left wing policies.  There's a reason why we compared Governor Abbott's special session agenda to Scott Walker's in Wisconsin.

Put differently: This website is primarily interested in lowering our personal cost of living, but if we can simultaneously make it easier to win elections 10 years down the line, that's certainly a bonus we'll take.

Bottom Line: It's time to reign in abusive municipal governments for the sake of reigning in abusive municipal governments; if doing so also makes it easier to win elections in a decade, so much the better.

#TXLEGE: Short Term Rental bills move forward in both chambers

"A ruler who lacks understanding is a great oppressor,
But he who hates covetousness will prolong his days."
Proverbs 28:16

[Note: The House hearing can be viewed here; the STR bill begins about 3ish hours into the broadcast and our testimony is two hours after the bill discussion began.]

Big news out of the legislature on short term rentals; first up, the Senate voted their bill out of the full chamber today:

A Senate bill that would limit local government control of short-term home rentals in Texas passed out of the upper chamber Tuesday in a 21-9 vote.

Under Senate Bill 451 by state Sen. Kelly Hancock, R-North Richland Hills, Texas cities would be prevented from banning short-term rentals and their ability to write ordinances restricting the practice would be narrowed. Austin, San Antonio and Fort Worth are among the cities that have enacted such restrictions.

....

Among local policies that would be limited in scope by Hancock's bill: a Fort Worth regulation that requires property owners to obtain a bed-and-breakfast permit only available to homes built before 1993 and an ordinance in Austin that has capped the number of short-term rentals with no live-in owners.

Meanwhile, the House just wrapped up hearing their companion bill; to be honest, the House hearing was more of what anyone who's been following this debate has come to expect.

Supporters of the bill shared stories of small scale entrepreneurship and the benefits to their families and communities that resulted.  The attacks on their property rights threatened those accomplishments.  After being attacked by cities like Austin and Ft. Worth, they're coming to the legislature for help.

Mayor Adler waiting to testify

Mayor Adler testified against the bill and attempted to obfuscate the difference between owner occupied and owner offsite short term rentals.  While only the latter are fully banned, Austin's ordinance imposes many of the same requirements on owner occupied units.  For example, the limitations over how many people can be present on the property applies regardless.  Of course, Adler knows this and he was attempting misdirection with the community.  In addition to his suggestion to the Mayor that Austin eliminate zoning entirely, we enjoyed watching Representative Gary Elkins school the Mayor on property rights.

Mayor Adler was joined in opposition by hotel industry trade associations, taxpayer funded lobbyists, and 'urban planning' professionals.  There were also a couple of local Austin homeowners who shared horror stories about being next to bad STR properties.  While we understand the awfulness of the situation they faced, that doesn't change the fact that the issues with which they dealt could have been addressed by enforcing the noise/nuisance ordinances the city already had on the books.

We testified about the frightening enforcement powers the City of Austin claimed for itself out of thin air.  The Austin STR ordinance empowers the city code department to perform warantless searches on any property they suspect of being a type-2 STR at any time with no warning.  Note that we didn't say the police department has this authority (which we also wouldn't support, but for which we could see a justification)...we said the code department.  It doesn't take a genius to see how this this type of authority could grow into something really dangerous.  Likewise, in a committee with a Democrat chair (Carol Alvarado), it seemed prudent to mention that in the wrong hands this type of authority could be used in a racially discriminatory way.

Bottom Line: We'll have to see what happens, but these bills are far enough in the process that there's still time.

-----

Is there anything Austin's NIMBY's (and Code department) won't ruin?!?

"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven."
Matthew 5:16

Sigh; OF COURSE they did:

The secret theater in East Austin was just what the doctor had ordered.

Beau Reichert, who has Asperger’s syndrome and was struggling to make friends, moved to Austin nine years ago to build an art studio so he could meet people in a comfortable setting. His doctor thought it would help with the isolation Reichert experienced as a result of his developmental disorder that is characterized by difficulties in social interactions.

The studio never got built. But Reichert, a 39-year-old artist, did plenty of work on the dilapidated condition of the vast 2-acre lot he had bought.

He started using the main building as his home and, as a form of stress relief, began tinkering with an outdoor movie screen in his backyard. When neighbors stopped by to compliment the work he’d done on the home, Reichert would show them his outdoor movie theater. Soon, they were coming to the theater every Saturday night.

As word got out about the theater, Reichert became well-known in the Austin arts scene and eventually played host to an unofficial South By Southwest neighborhood party, charity events for nonprofit art groups, weddings and even a few memorial viewings. For a few years, Reichert said, he was having the time of his life.

But the future of the secret theater is now up in the air.

This year, Reichert began hearing complaints from neighbors in a subdivision adjacent to his backyard. Since March, Austin police have received 10 calls for noise complaints at his home. But Reichert says he has never been issued a citation and that these are “fictitious complaints” called in anonymously by neighbors who moved in recently and are unaccustomed to living in a neighborhood full of artists and creative types.

 It gets better:

Recently, anonymous complaints also started coming in to the Austin Code Department that accused Reichert of running an illegal business out of a residential home in violation of the city’s land use rules.

Reichert said the theater is not a business because he doesn’t charge for events. People often make donations because they know how much he spends to host the events, Reichert said, but he doesn’t set a price.

“This is not a business model; this is a community,” he said.

You know where this is going:

But after another complaint on the Fourth of July, the Code Department executed a search warrant on Reichert’s property and found several violations, including one for a gazebo without a permit in his backyard, another for the “movie theater wall” and one for not keeping the property in sanitary condition, due to overgrown grass from gardens he’s created.

Since July, Reichert said he has desperately tried to appeal and address the violations. A lawyer representing him said he’s spent an estimated $250,000 to comply with the city code.

Reichert estimates that he’d have to pay several hundred thousand dollars more and that it would take years to obtain his permits because he would have to rezone his property. Even then, he thinks those who take issue with his theater wouldn’t let up.

Read the whole thing here.

Dimming the Lights on Property Rights: A Debate on Short Term Rentals

"A ruler who lacks understanding is a great oppressor,
But he who hates covetousness will prolong his days."
Proverbs 28:16

This afternoon, TPPF hosted Dimming the Lights on Property Rights: A Debate on Short Term Rentals in Austin, but the most revealing moment came last week.  That was when representatives from 50 separate "neighborhood" organizations declined to participate following the Austin "Neighborhoods" Council last minute pullout.  That nobody in Austin's NIMBY community came forward to defend this monstrosity really does tell you everything you need to know.

As TPPF explained in today's program:

In the interest of presenting a fair and balanced debate, it should be noted that the Texas Public Policy Foundation extended invitations to each of the following:

Mayor Steve Adler | City Manager Marc Ott | Councilmember Kathie Tovo | Councilmember Ann Kitchen Code | Former Councilmember Laura Morrison | Compliance Director Carl Smart | 28 Austin-area neighborhood associations | 6 Austin-area Activists

As to the substance of today's discussion, it mostly re-hashed things we already knew.  Chance Weldon, TPPF's lawyer against the City of Austin, explained that you don't surrender your constitutional rights based upon how you set up your living arraignments.   A representative from the hotel industry made the same sort of "level playing field" arguments incumbent industries always make, but neglected to suggest de-regulating his own industry until he was asked about it during Q&A.

It's also worth re-stating that the alleged concerns related to 'party houses' that led to this mess could have been solved by enforcing noise ordinances that were already on the books.  Furthermore, short-term rentals have received fewer than 100 noise complaints ever.  When code compliance fails to enforce the current laws giving them a new grant of unconstitutional authority seems, to put it mildly, odd.

But maybe that's why nobody from the "neighborhood community" showed up to defend this abomination.

Carl Smart OUT at #ATXCode!!!

"If you see the oppression of the poor, and the violent perversion of justice and righteousness in a province, do not marvel at the matter; for high official watches over high official, and higher officials are over them."
Ecclesiastes 5:8

This happened several days ago, so it's not a Friday afternoon document dump, but good news nevertheless:



Highlights:

A memo announced Tuesday that Austin Code Director will be retiring next month and taking a new position as assistant county manager in Alachua County, Florida.

....

Smart led the department as the city grappled with rules and investigations of short term rental properties, among other issues. An audit of the Austin Code Department earlier this year found delays in investigating violations may be putting public safety at risk. City Council members expressed serious concerns after learning there were issues in 77 percent of the cases tested.

“There were several things that came as a surprise in this audit. And I think one of the things is that we’re not responding to complaints as quickly as we ought to,” said Carl Smart, in April.

Bottom Line: This is probably one of those times when turnover for the sake of turnover is helpful regardless of the new guy's identity; no matter what, we'll take it.

Austin Chronicle unintentionally raises a FANTASTIC question....

"If you see the oppression of the poor, and the violent perversion of justice and righteousness in a province, do not marvel at the matter; for high official watches over high official, and higher officials are over them."
Ecclesiastes 5:8

Apparently, there was all sorts of shadiness going down about a week and a half ago in Northeast Austin:

Last Saturday, July 2, the owners of the Cross Creek Apartments retracted more than 30 notices to vacate that had been served on their current tenants. The move comes less than a week after some of the residents – organizing as the Cross Creek Tenant Association – led a march through the Rundberg-area complex to protest the eviction.

The owners recently received $16 million in private activity loans approved by the Austin Housing Finance Corporation to renovate the complex, but the notices to vacate, delivered to more than 30 families living at Cross Creek, violated the AHFC rules and regulations that the owners had agreed to follow. After notices appeared a couple of weeks ago, rumors that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency would be called began to spread among residents. Jorge Manchaca, who has lived at Cross Creek for five years, said he was shocked when he received the notice. "I hadn't broken my lease," he said. "I hadn't done anything wrong."

Manchaca said he suspects that the owners – which include TMG-TX, TMG Man­age­ment, Noelle Affordable Housing Corp., the Mulholland Group, and Royce Mulholland – want to remove current tenants so that the complex can be redeveloped while erasing its troubled history. "[Mulholland doesn't] want witnesses, so he can change whatever he wants and the new residents won't know how bad it's been here," he said. Mulholland did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Amado Ariza, another Cross Creek tenant, said that the owners have let the complex fall into disrepair for a long time. "I've made maintenance requests and no one from the office would respond," he said in Spanish.

In fact, the owners were forced to register with the Code Department's "repeat offender program" at the end of 2014 after numerous complaints were filed by tenants. Last December, the city sued the owners for failing to provide hot water for residents since June 2015, as well as other code violations. State law empowers municipalities to bring civil action against a landowner if it enforces an ordinance related to public safety, although the city has rarely done so. According to the suit, a city inspector had visited the complex 13 times over the course of six months after receiving the initial complaint, and each time the water was still lukewarm.
While it is rare for the city to sue a property owner for these kind of code violations, the sluggishness associated with addressing these violations is all too typical, according to Austin Tenants' Council Executive Director Juliana Gonzales. "It's not uncommon in Austin to see properties with repeated, serious, or longstanding code violations that threaten the health and safety of tenants, and to see those code violations go unresolved for long periods of time because there are not adequate enforcement actions Code can take," she wrote in an email.

....

In 2014, the Austin Housing Finance Cor­poration awarded the owners $2 million in general obligation bonds, and then in April of this year they approved $16 million in financing, provided that no tenant was permanently displaced as a result of redevelopment. While the city has taken action in regards to the hot water issue and code violations, it did not take a position on the notices to vacate. "The question should not be whether or not the buildings are up to code, but whether or not they are up to code for the people living there," Krieger said.

[Author's Note: Emphasis in Original.]

Soo...despite multiple years of credible complaints, the city drags it's feet on doing anything until the time comes around when they just "happen" to be issuing redevelopment subsidies to the property owner.

Keep in mind, this is the same Austin Code Department executed a SWAT team raid over a tool shed that was six inches out of place.

Which begs the real question: How do you explain the disconnect between the Austin code department's treatment of individual homeowners compared to their treatment of subsidized slumlords?!?

#TroxRox ACCOUNTABILITY for #ATXCode Dept....

"Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him."
Luke 17:3

From Ellen Troxclair's latest newsletter:

Code Department Reforms

I co-sponsored a resolution that passed which directs the City Manager to examine whether the city can improve efficiencies and customer service by shifting or consolidating some of the City’s Code Department under Planning and Development Review Services. This resolution comes after a recent audit presented to council by the Office of the City Auditor.

The audit concluded that code violation investigations were inconsistent and that documentation and resolution practices vary across cases due to lack of management oversight.  It also identified an increased risk of inconsistencies in code interpretation and enforcement due to staff management lacking minimum qualifications in the Austin Code Department. Council also heard testimony from several residents vocalizing many cumbersome issues with the Code Department -- claiming the department was wasteful in time and tax dollars and focused on unimportant code violators versus repeat offenders.  

The most concerning issue is that the 2016 audit reported is that these issues and findings were similar to those in the 2010 audit of the code department. 

Another Texas city has already made similar changes to what the resolution proposes and has seen success. San Antonio recently consolidated its code enforcement services and development services departments to streamline their training practices. Now they are able to train staff members from the code enforcement and building inspections teams together. This helps with consistent interpretation of regulations. If the Code Department was consolidated, Austin would benefit by improving responsiveness and quality of code compliance and enforcement.

The City Manager is required to  provide a report to Council no later than August 4th so the information from the report can be part of the fiscal year 2016-2017 budget discussions.

Read the whole thing here.

TPPF helps STR users DEFEND THEMSELVES from City of Austin!!!

"A ruler who lacks understanding is a great oppressor,
But he who hates covetousness will prolong his days."
Proverbs 28:16

Last winter, the Austin City Council banned a popular type of vacation residency ("Type 2" Short Term Rentals or "STR's"; aka. the anti-AirBnb Ordinance) within city limits. In so doing, they violated the Fourth and Fourteenth amendments to the United States Constitution, but they didn't expect anyone to fight back. This morning four STR owners, with assistance from the Texas Public Policy Foundation, fought back.

The lawsuit, Zaatari et. al vs City of Austin et. al, challenges the constitutionality of the city's regulation.  Specifically, by giving the Austin code department (yeah, THAT Austin code department) unlimited jurisdiction to perform warrantless searches on private residences to enforce the ordinance, the city violated the fourth amendment's provision against unreasonable searches.  In addition, by drawing an arbitrary distinction between residential leases under 30 days ("short-term") and leases over 30 days ("long-term"), the city violated the fourteenth amendment's equal protection clause.

The anti-AirBnb ordinance was part of council's bizarre campaign against innovation and the sharing economy.  Not that it's relevant to the underlying privacy and property rights issues, but fewer than 10% of all complaints ever filed against STR's have been related to noise or other 'bad neighbor' issues and there have been literally zero citations against STR's for those issues.  Readers are welcome to speculate about council's underlying motivation, but doing so is beyond the scope of this report.

In addition to a media conference call this morning, TPPF also helped arrange a media availability at an STR property owned by one of the plaintiffs this afternoon.  The property, located in Ann Kitchen's (yeah, we know) district, is owned by Ahmed Zaatari.  Zaatari, who immigrated from Lebanon in the late 1990's, converted the property to an STR about a year ago after he was laid off from an energy industry related job following the downturn in oil prices.  Zaatari typically rents the property in increments of two to four days.  In addition, Zaatari pays both property taxes and the City of Austin's 15% hotel occupancy tax.  To illustrate to absurdity of the ordinance, consider this: at the peak, between three media camera crews, this author, Zaatari, and four TPPF staffers, at one point there were 13 people on-site, which actually violated the ordinance (*).  Look at the picture above: Does it look like the property was overcrowded in any way, shape or form?!?

Most chillingly, Zaatari pointed out how the ordinance is "reminiscent of the system in Lebanon" where economic opportunity is doled out by political connections instead of merit.  In Lebanon, "what matters is who you know" and "you had to put yourself in servitude to some political boss."  Speaking of political bosses, Zaatari described a meeting he had with Ann Kitchen where she promised that council wouldn't attack "the good actors" (ie. the ones who actually follow the law and pay the city's taxes); we can see where that led.

We realized one final absurdity while we were at the property.  The city of Austin has more restrictions on STR properties than it has on frat houses.  Considering that the whole justification for this ordinance was cracking down on "party houses," that seems odd.

The city of Austin does not have authority to restrict private property rights in this manner.  Doing so violates, at least, the fourth and fourteenth amendments.  They weren't expecting anyone to fight back; they were wrong.

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* - It wasn't planned that way, and there were 13 people on-site for less than ten minutes, but the fact that accidentally violated the ordinance during the media availability illustrates the silliness of the whole thing.

Austin Code Compliance's Latest ABOMINATION....

"If you see the oppression of the poor, and the violent perversion of justice and righteousness in a province, do not marvel at the matter; for high official watches over high official, and higher officials are over them."
Ecclesiastes 5:8

Your tax dollars at work.  This is like some horrific hybrid of Parks and Recreation and the Trailer Park Boys.  Check out the degree to which they portray the citizens with whom they interact as blithering idiots while the code compliance bureaucrats are benevolently protecting those idiots from themselves:













No comment necessary; these speak for themselves.

Austin Code Compliance FAILS TO COMPLY with it's own standards

"Dishonest scales are an abomination to the Lord,
But a just weight is His delight."
Proverbs 11:1

As if code compliance wasn't bad enough:

The city of Austin has created its own version of a swarm of officers, though unlike King George’s swarm, they apparently don’t require training.

A draft report from the city of Austin titled “Consistency of Austin Code Investigations and Resolutions Audit” finds that “25 out of 70 (or 36 percent) of field and division management staff do not meet the current, more stringent, minimum qualifications now required by the department.” Further, the audit found that of 306 code complaints examined, there were shortcomings found in about 77 percent.

Recall that among the city of Austin’s burgeoning code enforcement officer duties are enforcing rules for short-term rentals, garage conversions, hauler for hire (regulations over taking windstorm debris out of someone’s backyard for pay) as well as more mundane health and safety issues. Thing is, the audit found that the city of Austin was itself a threat to its citizens, as noted on Page 7: “Finding 2: Investigation and resolution practices relating to city-owned properties often differed from established Austin Code policies and procedures, which may allow violations on city-owned property to persist and negatively affect citizen safety.” The audit further found delayed investigations when city property was the focus, along with “less extensive (investigations of city property) than the requirements prescribed in policy.”

Translated from auditese, the city’s official policy could be summed up as, “Do as we say, not as we do.”

The auditors even found a lack of protections against self-dealing among the code corps such that field staff could be called upon to investigate their own property. (Nothing to see here citizen, move along. …)

 

....

This raises questions about Austin, home to some of Texas’ highest taxes. High taxes levied on a healthy tax base allow for a large government footprint. This allows for all kinds of things for government to get involved in, from seemingly endless attempts to build or expand urban rail systems to maintaining a staff of inadequately trained code inspectors empowered to harass the population.

The city of Austin would do well to do less and do it better.

Read the whole thing here.

Austin Code Compliance's illegal 2011 "search warrant."

"And as they bound him with thongs, Paul said to the centurion who stood by, “Is it lawful for you to scourge a man who is a Roman, and uncondemned?”"
Acts 22:25

[Author's Note: The video below is a sped up version of the longform video found here.  Unfortunately, it's been set to the theme from Benny Hill.  That being said, it speaks for itself.]

Doing some follow up research on Don's proposal to make code compliance put skin in the game, we discovered this video from four years ago:



To quote the description in the video:

On April 13th, Austin Code Compliance executed a search warrant at a residential property in East Austin. The warrant was issued based on two suspected violations: that a tool shed was 6 inches too close to the neighbor's fence, and that a detached structure might be too tall. Both violations were in the backyard. Both were in compliance based on communication with city zone reviewers.

Code Compliance was convinced these violations still existed, and to investigate for themselves sent two code compliance investigators wearing bullet proof vests, five police officers and a health inspector. The eight officials entered the house and began to search every inch of the property, including bedrooms, closets, refrigerators, trash cans, cabinets, water heater closet, and the entire backyard.

The warrant turned out to be expired, however police returned several hours after the search to drop off an updated warrant.

Nothing was seized, and the investigators refused to comment on their findings. The original violations were likely cleared by this inspection, however a City Attorney representing Code Compliance indicates that the investigators will be having a meeting with representatives from other administrative departments in an attempt to think up any new violations that could possibly exist on the property.

To review, Austin Code Compliance arrived at a residential property wearing defensive armor, escorted by a police backup, executed an expired warrant that covered areas not under investigation, and is now having brainstorming sessions with other departments in an attempt to invent new violations.

 Umm...they can do that?!?