David Martel wrote:
As I recall you were to receive the name of the complainant at least by
the hearing. Have you spoken with the complainant yet and come to an
understanding? Based on your pictures it does look as if many would find
your "landscaping" to be a collection of weeds and your philosophy to be a
rationalization. The sidewalk is a public area which you must maintain, yet
it is also overgrown.

This is the same implication that I expected
the inspector might make at the hearing, so
I was prepared with a clarifying photo:
http://cpacker.org/a4.jpg

In any case, government never returned my phone
call to find out who the complainant was, if any.
And because they didn't appear at the hearing,
I'm confident there was no complainant. Whatever
else I may think of the Dept. of Consumer and
Regulatory Affairs -- the D.C. govt. authority in
question, I believe they wouldn't abandon a
real complaint by a real citizen.

In fact, just this morning I think I figured
out the true circumstances of the citation.
Although the mystery has been intriguing to
me, it may be boring for some readers -- they
may move on to the next thread...

As I said, my neighbor was cited at the same
time. But she got a different form of ticket,
even though it was for the same code violation,
section 800.10, basically for excessive vegetation
over 10 inches tall. The one she got -- let's
call it form A -- gives seven days to correct
the condition or the city will do it itself
and send a bill. There's no option to ask for
a hearing, but there's an obscure paragraph on
the back that says the citizen may appeal the
citation in writing within the seven-day time
limit. Brutal, eh?

The other form of citation -- let's call it B --
is the one I got. It is simply a $100 fine, but
there is a clearly-stated option to request a
hearing.

We both were cited in the same week. On the preceding
Saturday I had noticed a crew mowing the
dense growth from a small triangular park nearby.
This was in May, after a wet spring. So it
would seem that the city came out for seasonal
cleanup and wrote citations on nearby
property owners who appeared to need one themselves.
In fact I remember trimming my sidewalk strip on
the same weekend I saw the crew out there. Since
I like to wait until the dandelions have gone to
seed (they're wildflowers, you know) before my
first mowing of the season, it's possible that
the grass really was much taller than you see
in the photo.

But why did my neighbor and I get different forms?
And why was mine signed not only by a different
person, but one who was not an inspector, actually,
but the chief of inspectors?

As it happens, last year I got a citation for the
same code violation, but on the form A. The
circumstances of that citation are an even longer
story that -- trust me -- has no bearing on this
one -- except that I spoke to the chief then and
made clear that if the city was going to cite me
I expected to have the opportunity to get a hearing.

So now I think what happened this year is that
the crew wrote form A citations on my neighbor
and me. Then the chief intervened, writing a
new citation for me himself on form B, attempting
to do me a favor -- maybe even dating it
incorrectly to make it fatally flawed. And if he
wasn't on site, this would have come out at
the hearing also.

In the end, this episode seems to be more about
politics than law. Far from being in legal limbo,
I'm confident that the city won't bother me again
for a long time.

--
(Charles Packer)
ungoogled: mailboxATSIGNcpacker.org
http://cpacker.org/whatnews