At Thursday's County Council meeting, Volusia County Property Appraiser Larry Bartlett announced that he wants to start adding code enforcement liens to property tax bills.
DAYTONA BEACH — Governments across Volusia County have swallowed many, many millions of dollars in unpaid code violation payments over the years. Daytona Beach alone has been stiffed to the tune of nearly $4.5 million over the past 20 year by hundreds of property owners who ran up code fines and ignored them, and ignored the repairs that prompted them.
Property Appraiser Larry Bartlett, who sees the Daytona beachside as a prime example of the collateral damage of code violations never being remedied, has an idea to stop the financial bleeding and clean up neighborhoods.
At Thursday's County Council meeting, Bartlett announced that he wants to start adding code enforcement liens to property tax bills. A system for doing that could be in place within weeks. The change could kick in with the next round of property tax bills that will be paid in 2019. Even homesteaded property owners will face the threat of losing their land and homes if they disregard code fines.
Until now, property owners could ignore code liens until they sold their property. Under Bartlett's plan, property owners who pay only their property taxes and refuse to pay the code lien added to their bill will be treated like anyone who doesn't pay their full property tax bill. The end result could be a rapid loss of home or business property ownership through a tax certificate sale.
"I think what this will do is provide some teeth in code enforcement," Bartlett told Council members.
Daytona Beach Mayor Derrick Henry, who has lived in the city for close to 50 years and seen his hometown struggle with rundown properties, is thrilled with the idea.
"It's a major deal," Henry said. "It's about as big a thing as we could imagine for Daytona Beach. I'm beyond elated. The No. 1 issue for residents on the beachside is code enforcement, but we have no teeth in our system."
Henry said he "got goosebumps" when Bartlett shared his idea with him.
"It's the tool we've waited for," the mayor said.
Henry said he realizes his city's code enforcement officers have been given an extremely tough job trying to keep up with a never-ending stream of code violations and make a dent in dilapidation that's built up over several decades. The city has mainly only reacted to code complaints over the years, but has become more proactive over the past year to get tougher on code violations. But even those stepped-up efforts haven't put a significant dent in the problem, Henry said.
The mayor said the new ability to go after code violators with unprecedented force will be "about as important a change as anything that's happened over the last five years, including all the big development."
"We'll force these neighborhood property owners to bring their properties up to speed," Henry said. "Now we have a tool that will enable us to enforce the law."
Other Florida counties, including Flagler County, already tack code liens onto property tax bills. State law allows Bartlett to unilaterally decide to make the change in Volusia County, but the county government and each of the 16 municipalities can opt out if they don't want to be a part of the new system.
Bartlett hopes to develop a uniform procedure all Volusia governments will use, and he's going to invite city leaders countywide to meet and come up with a plan together. Part of that system will include a minimum threshold fine amount that will trigger the addition of a code lien to a property tax bill. Bartlett is still thinking about what that amount should be, but he's mulling something between $1,500 and $2,500.
Bartlett noted that he's only interested in going after unpaid liens, not daily fines imposed by code boards and special magistrates trying to get a property owner to fix a problem. Recovering the unpaid code fines will reimburse governments for the costs they incur chasing violators, he said.
Bartlett said code liens weren't added to property tax bills in the past because of a concern that local governments could be overly aggressive and "throw little old ladies out of their homes." He said he has no intention of going after the elderly, financially strapped residents and those "who do their best to be good citizens."
"The target will be absentee landlords and slumlords," Bartlett said.
He said he's going after "absentee landlords and uncaring property owners who have been thumbing their noses at our cities' attempts to cure the blight they cause."
Bartlett said he'll listen to what the county and cities say about a property before he decides whether to attach a lien to a tax bill.
"It might come down to a question of intent," he said.
"Most residents want to comply," Henry agreed. "The real culprits are not residents, but business owners."
Bartlett said he's already talked to leaders in all of the county's cities about his idea, and he hopes to have the new system in place by March 1 to get the charges on this year's property tax bills that will be sent out in November.
County Council members praised the idea Thursday.
"I want to thank you for looking outside the box," said Councilwoman Billie Wheeler. "I think you provided a really good opportunity to start pecking away at (code enforcement problems). Good job."
Councilwoman Heather Post also thanked Bartlett, and County Manager Jim Dinneen said, "I think it's a wonderful idea."
Some consider Daytona Beach's beachside the poster child for the damage lax code enforcement can create. Last year, The News-Journal ran a five-part series, "Tarnished Jewel, about the struggling Daytona beachside. Bartlett said that was his inspiration for getting tougher on code violators, and his impetus to look at ways to more effectively deal with homestead fraud.
"I'm here to thank this Council for its efforts in trying to remedy a problem that affects the whole county, but is especially prominent around Main Street in Daytona Beach," Bartlett said. "My hope is this will help get our beachside to become the glittering jewel it deserves to be."
The News-Journal series also prompted the County Council to create the Beachside Redevelopment Committee that's been meeting for eight months and is getting close to making recommendations to improve the beachside from Ormond Beach down to Daytona Beach Shores.
"I believe Larry Bartlett has provided extraordinary leadership as property appraiser," said Beachside Redevelopment Committee Chairman Tony Grippa. "After sitting through a couple of beachside redevelopment committee meetings, he and Mayor Henry are advocating an idea that will allow the city of Daytona and all cities in Volusia County to protect neighborhoods from absentee landlords who could care less about our community. This is a great example of cooperation between our county and city governments."