I followed the story in the Journal about the property owner on Madison Street and his problem with the City of Cortez over what the city termed as “junk,” in his backyard. This all started last June when the code enforcer, Robert Lindvall, trespassed on James’ property by going into his backyard and taking pictures. He later mailed the pictures to James with a complaint from the city. James was understandably mad about Lindvall trespassing and contacting him by mail rather than just knocking on the door and asking to discuss the matter. Lindvall later told James that he was not trespassing because he worked for the city and could go anyplace that he wanted to. I would have to disagree with that, but it seems that city management has no problem with their employees breaking the law and then lying to make it OK. Actions like this from a city employee just tend to give people a bad view of all city employees. James put up a fence, then took it down and, the matter was reopened by Sam Proffer, who claimed that he took pictures of James’ backyard with a smartphone zoom lens from the street. I doubt that he took pictures from the street but, we already know that it’s acceptable for a city employee to lie or break the law.
I do think that the city has proven that to see what they term as “junk,” that has been in James’ backyard for 32 years, you have to either trespass and sneak around like a Peeping Tom or use enhanced optics to get a look at it. There are lots of places in this town that could use cleaning up and, they are easy to see. Look at the vacant land west of Holgate’s. It’s full of brush, weeds, and trash that has been there for years. What about between Verizon and Walgreen’s? More brush, weeds, trash and old tires. Look at the empty lot next to Safeway. Same thing – weeds, trash and, old tires. This is just to mention a few that the city turns a blind eye to. Look in front of the new high school. It’s nothing but a weed patch, and the old high school looks worse every day. Anyone who drives through town can see these things, and they don not need to trespass or use a zoom lens. That is except for the city code enforcement. This makes it very obvious the city is selective when it comes to issuing citations for code violations and James wouldn’t kiss their butts, like they want people to do so, they had to make a big deal out of it.
With the information available, I would think that the city was dead wrong. City management should have reeled in their employees before it went to court at the expense of the taxpayer. Lindvall should have been charged and fired for trespassing, but instead, our city management chose to ignore it just like they do with all of the real problems in the city of Cortez.
Teresa Campbell
Cortez