City resident Tom Andolora speaks to Jamestown City Council (August 26, 2024)
A City of Jamestown resident is accusing the City for targeting him after his property received multiple housing code violations.
Eighth Street resident Tom Andolora, speaking at City Council Monday, claimed Mayor Kim Ecklund and Director of Development Crystal Surdyk are targeting people who are speaking out against the City, “I know because I feel they are targeting my home. My family has owned it, and taken good care of it and paid taxes on it every year since 1955. Two weeks ago I received a letter in the mail with a pile of violations on my property. In 75 years, we never received a single violation. Now, because I’ve spoken out against the Mayor and the DOD, I have a list of violations that I have 10 days to resolve.”
Surdyk said in an interview with WRFA that the Department of Development does not target citizens, “We never really want to cite anybody, right? It’s not a fun part of our job. But, if we receive a complaint we have an obligation, we have a requirement to follow-up on that complaint. It doesn’t matter who it comes from, who it is, who owns the property. We don’t get to pick and choose who we respond to and whose property we inspect.”
Surdyk added that after a complaint is received, it gets logged, and a Housing Code Enforcement Officer is assigned to inspect the property. She said the officer can only inspect and issue a report on the property involved in the complaint and no other adjacent or unrelated properties.
Surdyk said there are currently three Code Enforcement Officers, each carrying a load of over 300 cases each. She there is a fourth CEO position that the Department of Development is in the process of hiring.
How can someone put a complaint on someone’s roof, they can’t know if that roof is bad or leaking by looking at it? I find this whole thing very troubling.
I do believe the Housing Authority is better than it use to be. But landlords get away with murder! I have been evicted 2 times because I went to the Housing Authority, this is illegal, but they keep getting away with it!