Letters to the Editor

+ Code Enforcement Board is not being used to its full potential
Dear Editor:
At the Longboat Key Town Commission’s special Colony Beach & Tennis Resort workshop in April, Town Manager Dave Bullock noted to commissioners the quickest way to get the Colony to respond to town code violations was to involve the Town Commission and schedule a meeting. In the same way, had the town’s Code Enforcement Board been involved, compliance may have been obtained sooner, and commissioners might have been spared the time dealing with such violations.

There is more “sugar than vinegar” on the code board, and its history will confirm that. There have been difficult cases requiring the code board to wield its authority with the threat of fines (the vinegar), as incentive to come into compliance quickly. The goal of the code board, however, has always been to achieve compliance in a reasonable time period without resorting to fines (the sugar).

There is no question that the code-enforcement officer has resolved code violations. The question is how many of those cases could have been resolved sooner had code board meetings been held. If so, might the code-enforcement officer have helped to achieve complicity with the extensive violations at the Colony? Although there have been innumerable violations, the code board was not convened to deal with the issues for which they have been selected.
Beverly Shapiro
Longboat Key resident and a Code Enforcement Board member