Apparently a lot my friends and neighbors here in Ypsilanti awoke this Saturday to find something special in their mailboxes – hefty bills from the City for snow removal. The following note was left on the site by Oliva this morning, in an open thread:
Did anyone else receive a bill from the Ypsi Building Department declaring that someone had applied de-icer to their sidewalks and are now being charged? We and our neighbor did, and I can testify that not only was there no de-icer ever applied here or next-door, but we are faithful sidewalk clearers and always do it within 24 hours (though we think the requirement is within 48 hrs.). Neither of us ever received a notice saying our sidewalks needed to be cleared, and they didn’t need it because, as I said, we’re faithful and timely shovelers. It was a steep charge too, $83. We’re planning to protest the charge–absolutely unjust and not right–but we’re curious to hear if anybody else got a similar invoice. The frustrating thing is that we and our neighbor would happily pitch in to help Ypsi, but it’s so unfair to be charged for something that wasn’t done and didn’t need to be done. Argh!
After posting this note, her husband and a neighbor went to City Hall to complain. The following update was left by her this afternoon.
So, others may know that city council (everyone but the illustrious and wise Lois Richardson) voted for a new system in which the city relies on a private contractor to see about snowy sidewalks, clear them, and then have the home owners billed. But there are real problems because the law now is that home owners get 48 hours to clear their sidewalks (we thought it was 24 hours and always clear the sidewalks within 24 hours) and are supposed to be warned. We weren’t notified, for one thing, and there’s absolutely no evidence that anyone cleared our walk except for us. Plus, there was never a need for someone else to clear our sidewalks.
My husband and neighbor went to City Hall first thing this morning, and they reported that the phones were ringing off the hook there, so presumably a lot of others also received an invoice and are mad.
There is so much to be mad about. For one thing, as if we don’t know to steer clear of private contractors for so many things–after the Bush years, after the Comcast scams in which private contractors do unnecessary work just to get paid, leaving customers to clean up the mess.
For upset Ypsi residents who received the bogus invoices, the boss at the Building Department said we need to write a letter to contest the invoice. So not only do we get some extra stress and frustration on a much-needed weekend, but it’s up to each of us to prove that the charge is incorrect. Talk about a lousy system.
Pardon my infuriation! But this is the update as of now. (As if it isn’t pain enough to have all this snow in the first place–now we have to deal with fake charges about it. Maddening!)
Oh, it’s hard not to wonder whose brother or uncle the private contractor is. But maybe that cynicism is unwarranted. But this move was obviously a really bad idea and unhelpful in fostering trust and mutual respect between residents and city government. (Thankfully, we know some of the people who work for the city are absolutely valuable and good.)
In the spirit of full disclosure, I should mention that I too received a bill for $83 dollars ($35 for clean up, and $48 for administrative fees). And, like Oliva and her husband, I was also not notified in advance that my sidewalk was not sufficiently cleared. I’m told that photos were likely taken of our properties both before and after cleanup, and I look forward to seeing the ones taken outside of my home, as I’m quite certain that no one improved on the admittedly half-ass job that I’d done with my broken back… At least I can’t recall returning home from work on the 5th of February and saying, “I wonder which of my terrific neighbors came along and widened the path that I’d cut in the snow.” And, even if there are photos that show some marginal improvement over the shoveling job that I’d done (which wasn’t really all that half-assed), how can they prove that we were issued warnings in advance? Is there a photo somewhere of a man leaving a notice on my door? Or are we just supposed to believe a company that has a monetary incentive not to warn us?
And Oliva wasn’t the only reader to take the matter to City Hall. The following comes from someone calling him or herself Howdryiam:
I went to the building department this morning to contest an unjust ‘failure to clear the sidewalk of snow violation.’ I diligently clean my sidewalk, and was shocked to see this invoice in the mail this past Saturday. While I was standing there for five minutes, there were several phone calls into the office with people complaining about similar unjust invoices. It seems that if you’d like to appeal a bogus fine, you have to write a letter to the attention of Mr. Frank Daniels of the building department. This is what I’m in the process of doing, and I urge anyone else who got tapped with these charges to do the same.
The ordinance is contradictory in language to what appears on the city’s website. The ordinance itself states that snow and ice must be cleared within 48 hours from first accumulation. This is also what was published in the Ann Arbor News. However the city’s website states that sidewalks much be cleared “within 24 hours of a snowfall”. The ambiguity and confusion certainly doesn’t help matter. And what constitutes “cleared” exactly?
Additionally, the city ordinance states that a notice, (either by telephone, mail, in person, or written notice left on the property) will be issued. The ordinance also stipulates that at least 18 hours will be given before any action is taken once the notice is issued. I never received a notice of any manner. So if I’m reading this ordinance correctly, and I’d like to believe I am (but I’m just a ordinary citizen unfamiliar with the byzantine operations of city government) I should have had 66 hours to clear the snow from my sidewalk before I could justly be fined.
Further, it’s maddening how the city government capriciously enforces ordinances on the books. Either enforce them, or don’t. I know that there are many, many dedicated individuals trying to do the right thing in city government, but no matter how ‘business/people friendly’ city hall tries to claim they are, they then go and shoot themselves in the foot with stupid stuff like this. Perception is reality, and the perception is that the city government doesn’t know (or care) what citizens want or need. It’s this disconnect that will keep Ypsilanti from being the diverse, vibrant, cool, and hip city that it could be… Sad, really.
According to Councilman Brian Robb, who also left a comment in the open thread, the group that supposedly did the snow removal is A&M Services. My guess is that we subcontracted to them in the wake of a recent round of cost-cutting, when we let go the people in Public Works who used to do such things. So now we in Ypsilanti are seeing the efficiency of privatization first-hand, and, let me tell you, it’s just as grand as Bush and Cheney told us it would be. The free market has given us an elegant solution to our problems. No more accountable city employees mucking up the process. Now we have our own local version of Haliburton coming in making everything right. No more waste. No more bureaucracy. We just get the bills, take them at their word, and write checks…. And $83 for clearing 25 feet of sidewalk sounds fair, doesn’t it?
Oh, and lest you think everyone believes this new system is bullshit, one comment was left by a defender of the new order. The following comes from a fellow calling himself Citizen Blogger.
As somebody who spends a lot of time walking around town (and who has made a lot of complaints to the city about unshoveled sidewalks!) I for one am glad to see more robust snow enforcement. There were properties around town that had their sidewalks completely unshoveled for a month – just like every other winter, except this time the city got a policy in place to deal with it. (Really important, since this has been officially one of the coldest and snowiest winters ever!)
I’m not going to say that the city implemented it perfectly, and it sounds like there are some kinks to work out. But I am glad to see that something is being done – that the city is taking into account my needs, as a pedestrian, to travel around town safely.