ROOIO HEB Cincinnati City Council clo Councilwoman Leslie Ghiz 801 Plum St. Rin 354 Cincinnati, OH 45202 November 13, 2007 Ms. Ghis first want to thank you for responding to my phone call and e-mail. It really means a lot that you would take time out of your busy schedule, especially during election week, to hear my story. ‘The issue that I've been trying to get in front of the elected officials of Cincinnati is this: the city’s Building and Inspections Department has made my effort to refirbish a historical home a complete nightmare, From verbal threats from 3 Buildings and Inspections Department employee, to the mass miscommunication between departments, T feel like I have been given the “run around!" during this entire house renovation project. From the start of this project to the present, here is my story. [purchased the propert; 2! i Widhin tne next three weeks, I started removing junk from the house, including 14 sets of washer and dryers in the basement, old tools, dite air handlers, an old showes, old wood, metal pipes, among other junk. Ihave witnesses that can testify that this debris was in the house prior to myself purchasing it this includes the Executor of the Estate, Cal Kowal. This ‘was only in the basement; the rest of the house had junk in it as well. Over those weeks, I moved almost all the junk to the backyaud. I started talking with a friend of mine (an architect stadent) at UC: he offeresi to help me with the renovation drawings for my house. I went down to the Building and Inspections Department and talked with one of the Plan Examiners about what Inceded to do to get my permits. This was the first step [ knew I needed to take in the renovation process. A few days later, Inspector Terry James (of the Building and Inspections Department) stopped by the property anid questioned me about what I was doing. I truthfully answered - [told him I was cleaning out the basement: I also told him that T was working on drawings to apply for my permits. A couple of weeks later, my drawings were completed and I took them fo the Building and Inspections Department. This time T talked with Seth, a Plan Examiner, he looked over my plans and told me that I should make a few changes before I turn then in, I took the plans back to my architect, and had him make them. In the meantime, Inspector Terry James placed a cease and desist stop work order on my house (he said that I was trying to flip the house without getting permits - he based this on the fact that the aforementioned debris was in a dumpster in my backyard - the only proper way to dispose of it). ‘Acouple of weeks later (week of 8/6/07), L applied form my permits and had to pay an exira $168.40 because of the investigative fee Inspector James had placed on the property. At this time, I talked with Terry's boss and was told beesuse ¥ had applied forthe permits, I was allowed to start tearing out the mortar and slats from the house. Terry came back to the house and gave me a $500.00 fine for doing what his boss had told me I could do. He walked up to me, loudly yelling - and never stopped until he left. I have three individuals witness to this. I called and talked to his boss again, but no resolution came of our conversation. The Plan Examiner kicked back my plans, stating that they needed more detail. I drew a new set of plans myself, adding the detail the Plan Examiner asked for. I took them in, paid a revision fee of $50.00, only to have him say they still lacked the detail. Every time to I went down to the Building and Inspections Department, they told me things to fix, I would make those changes, only for them to find new ones the next time. Finally, [ talked with the third Plan Examiner and he told me that they would not pass my plans with out an architect stamp. T talked with architect John Brashear, and he told me that there was nothing wrong with my plans and that he wouldn't be able to help me. He sent me to see Robin Hahn, a structural engineer. Robin told me that the Building Department does that from time to time make people get their plans stamped so that they (the Building and Inspections Department) aren’t liable. Robin wrote down a few notes and stamped them - he didn’t change anything, just added a page of notes. I then resubmitted them, and was told that they should be ready in 4 to 5 days. I called back on the 4th day to see how they were coming, and was told it was going to be 11 more days, but I could have them tomorrow if I paid a $250.00 fee. At this time, I called the Building Department and talked with Amit Ghosh, he said they would be ready the next day. The reason I believed these plans got pushed through is that my girlfriend, Rebecca Russ, contacted Councilwoman Laketa Cole and asked for assistance in this matter, Terry James Stopped by with another inspector on 10/07/07 late in the day wanting to do a walk through, and I told him that we were getting ready to stop working for the day and that he could come back on the 8" at any time he would like. They returned on the 10/08/07 and walked though the whole building, never saying anything about any structural members that needed to be replaced (that he has continued to say] had removed). Inspector James only had me do two things: 1) add a brick that wasn’t there to start with and 2) add a post where I sintered a board under the kitchen floor. He wrote this, and the other things (IBI rough in, pluming rough in, an engineering change, and have all my fire blocking in place), down for me to work on - I can provide this documentation if necessary. Inspector James also told me that I could remove 14in. of paper off of the insulation. He then told me to call him back after all of those tasks have been completed for a final rough in Inspection. In the meantime, I received a letter in the mail saying that the fine of $500.00 had been doubled. I called the number on the letter, the receptionist told me to write a letter to the Administrative Department and the fine would drop back down to $500.00. I did so and they scheduled an Administrative hearing. 1 went to this hearing, and soon found out that the Hearing Examiner mediator, John Banner, and Inspector Terry James are friendly acquaintances. The Hearing Examiner said Terry’s word was good enough. No evidence was presented to support Inspector James’ accusations (he said he had photos to prove his case but conveniently forgot to bring them). Lreceived a letter from the Hearing Examiner saying that he found on the side ofTerry James, In response, I wrote a letter to the City Manager to further defend the accusations against me. A few days later, (presumably the day the letter was received by the Building and Inspections Department) I had a very unpleasunt visit from Inspector James. Once again, he approached me, yelling, and told me that 1 wasn’t allowed to work ‘on the house and can’t be there on the property. T have witnesses to this. The next ‘morning, I went down to the Building and Inspections Department again and talked with Ed Cumningham, Supervisor of Inspections. We talked and wrote down everything that needs to be done to get the permits completed. This was the same stuff that Taspector James and T had talked about, and that he wrote dovm, only two weeks before. (On the checklist of what Inspector James had lefi me, I had turned the engineering change over to Robin Hahn, done all of his building fixes, had my IBI rough in done, and was ‘working on the plumbing), Daring this meeting with Ed Cunningham, {had also asked that Inspector James be removed from my property as the Inspector, Mr. Cunningham said that he was reluctant to do so, but not to worry - there would he no more harassment. He also had a copy of the photos, which Terry Hud taken and had mentioned in the previous Administrative hearing. These photos are completely inconclusive and do not support his accusations - they show nothing but trim work, slates, and « small wood box frame that was holding up an old utility sink from the basement. No structural members, the basis of his accusations, were pictured. Around two hours after J had left the Building and Inspections Department and was pulling up to the property, Inspector James was driving by the house, slowing down and looking around. He saw me and drove off; | called Mr. Cunningham and left him a voive message - he never called back. In my opinion, this is yet another clear sign of harassment and intimidation, something Inspector James has repeatedly been guilty of these last 10 months. With ail of the troubles I've been having, it's easy for me to see why so many people are leaving the city. By restoring the houss, I thought I'd be, in a small way, restoring the Integrity of the neighborhood and the city — it’s a shame that people are creating such roadblocks for me to help “better” the area. Lunderstand that you, personally, are not responsible for the actions of the Building and Inspections Department — I want to let my troubles be known, so that it might prevent this from happening to people in the future, Feel free to contact me at the phone number below, look forward (o hearing from you. Thank you, House address: CC oct!