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Dearth Of Cases Frustrates Abatement Board

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By CHRISTIAN M. WADE

cwade@tampatrib.com

Published: December 6, 2008

TAMPA - The city's Public Nuisance Abatement Board re-emerged from oblivion earlier this year, vowing to crack down on the owners of blighted, crime-ridden properties.

City council members and law enforcement officials heralded the return as a way to do away with neighborhood eyesores where drugs and prostitution are rampant.

Since then, however, the quasijudicial board has done little besides get together to talk.

"We did absolutely nothing," said former board member Susan Long, who resigned, in part, because of the lack of action by the body. "It was a complete waste of my time."

Jerry Green, who joined the seven-member board this year, has similar frustrations.

"We're still waiting for our first case," he said. "We go to these monthly meetings and the city attorney comes and says there's no cases, so we talk for a while, then go home."

Both said they volunteered because they wanted to make a difference.

"I wanted to do something productive for the community," Long said. "But after a while, I started to realize how ineffective it was. It's just another toothless government body."

Laura McElroy, a spokeswoman for the city's police department, disagrees.

She said despite the lack of activity by the board, its existence has helped fight crime.

"We've had several cases where threatening to take the property owners before the board has forced them to shut down," McElroy said. "It's been an effective tool."

Board members are appointed by the council to serve two-year terms. The seven-member board was created in 1990 and was active for about a decade, but disbanded a few years ago.

The council revived the board at the beginning of the year and selected new members.

One of the group's main functions is to hear cases about properties where there has been a pattern of drug sales, gangs, prostitution or dealing in stolen property.

Typically, a case against a property owner is initiated by the city's police department, which sends it to the city attorney for review. If it meets the criteria, it goes before the board.

The board can impose fines and, in limited cases, close a business. They can also require a business to hire security officers or install security cameras on the premises.

Over the years, there have been a few successes.

In 1996, the board closed a motel for a year because of complaints about drug dealing and prostitution. Two years later, board members closed down the Honky Tonk Bar for about a year after complaints about rampant drug sales on the property.

And in 2004, the board forced a lingerie modeling shop to install video cameras and remove doors from modeling rooms after three prostitution arrests occurred there.

Lately, however, there haven't been any success stories.

Pete Johnson, a community activist, has been trying to get the city to refer several properties on 26th Avenue he says are drug-infested to the board for consideration as public nuisances.

"The board is useless because the city doesn't use it," he said. "There are hundreds of properties across the city that would qualify, but Tampa PD is dragging their heels."

McElroy said there are several cases working their way through the system, but admitted the process doesn't move as quickly as some members of the community would like.

"Yes, it's a very cumbersome and laborious process," McElroy said, "but it works."

Part of problem, observers said, appears to be with the way the law is written.

For example, a business or abandoned home could be a known source of drug dealing, prostitution, or selling stolen property for several years but unless someone is arrested for those offences twice in six months, by law, it can't be declared a public nuisance.

Another roadblock is the threat of litigation over property rights issues.

A 2001 state Supreme Court ruling limited when nuisance abatement boards could close businesses to instances where the illegal action is intertwined with the business itself.

That means the boards can't close down a hotel where drug dealing is going on unless it can prove that the criminal activity has become an inseparable part of the business.

The ruling was based on lawsuits filed by business owners in Miami and St. Petersburg whose properties were seized by a nuisance board over drug activities and prostitution.

Long said she thinks that's one reason the city has been reluctant to use the board.

"Tampa will do anything it can to avoid getting sued," she said. "But I think that every now and then the community needs to go to court in order to fight for what's right."

Chairman Walter Crumbley said the board depends upon cases being sent to them.

"We really can't do anything unless someone complains," he said. "That's the law."

McElroy said despite those concerns, the department supports the work of the board.

"We don't want to waste their time," she said. "But we also don't want them to go away."

Reporter Christian M. Wade can be reached at (813) 259-7679.

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