On March 25, 2026, at 10:30 AM, Special Magistrate Ryan Fong presided over a Code Enforcement hearing at Ocala City Hall. The hearing addressed 18 new business cases and 15 old business (Massey) non-compliance hearings. Key themes included dangerous structures, junk accumulation, abandoned vehicles, burn piles, and repeat violators. The Magistrate ruled on each case, adopting staff recommendations with adjustments for extensions and fines.
Case CE25-1101 – City vs. Priest Family Trust / Wayne’s World of Paintball
Case CE26-0157 – City vs. Michael J. Voss Estate
Case CE25-0582 – City vs. Weatherly Wigelsworth
Case ENV26-0072 – City vs. College Park Plaza LLC (Repeat Violator)
Case CE25-0492 – City vs. Carlton McDonald (Old Business – Massey Hearing)
Case 2024_10804 – City vs. Annie L. Snow Estate (Massey Hearing)
Other New Business Cases (No appearance, ruled by default)
Old Business – Consent Agenda (Massey Non-Compliance Hearings)
I don't want people to stop being here. Busy morning out there. Yeah. So I got a we're good when you're ready. As soon as you start, they'll quiet down and start piling in, I'm sure. Okay, good morning, everyone. Um I'm gonna call today's hearings to order uh at 1030 March 25th uh 2026. Okay, good morning. My name is Ryan Fong. I'm a Florida Bar licensed attorney, and I've been appointed by the City of Ocala as magistrate for today's code enforcement hearings. While the formal rules of evidence do not apply, due process will be observed. Only those that have a case on today's docket will have a chance to speak, or if you are a witness called to testify about that case. The city will present its uh evidence first and you will then have an opportunity to respond. I will then consider the evidence and testimony presented and render my ruling, and a copy of my ruling will be mailed to you. Okay, so proof of publication number 032 520-261030 published uh March 13th, 2026 for today's hearings. I've reviewed the minutes from last month's hearings, um, February 25th, and I will approve those minutes as presented. Um right now we'll go ahead and swear in the officers and those testifying on behalf of the city, please. Do you swear our current testimony and that's okay? The city can proceed with its first case. Thank you. Good morning, Your Honor. My name is Dale Hollingsworth. I'm the duly appointed chief code official and the manager of our division. We'll leave the presentation of our cases this morning. We'll start uh with KCE 25-1101, CE25-1101. It's the City of O'Cala versus the Priest Family Trust, Henry Camp Priest Trust, and Wayne's World of Paintball. The violations include 54-5 burial or burning of municipal solid waste or recovered materials. 3412 abandoned or derelict vehicles, 3495, weeds, accumulations of trash, or other unsightly or unsanitary matter. 82-182 dangerous buildings declared nuisance, abatement required with time limits. And 12251, a building permit required. The location of Wayne's World of Paintball is 4841 South Pine Avenue. At the conclusion of this, we'll request a prosecution cost in the amount of 356 and 91 cents. During which we observed uh multiple violations uh falling within the violations listed. Um, and I'll give a brief description of each of those to try to exp um get through this as quick as possible, but without eliminating any details. The first is 3495 weeds accumulations of trash or other unsightly unsanitary matter. They were given notice uh of these violations and were ordered uh with all obvious junk trash and unsightly material be removed from the property, such as old unusable materials. There's an abundance of that. Uh tires not actively being used as props and paintball courses, those were initially just thrown or stored haphazardly throughout the woods, wooded areas of the paintball course, but again, not active props for the paintball course. This is unique in several of these. I'll quickly divert in this conversation to say that a lot of this uh in and of itself may be a violation, but we will try to be reasonable with our request to comply, such as when I get down to the dairy lake vehicle section. Some of this are old, old, old uh items and have been there for quite some time, many years, and many of it is used within the paintball courses. So we try to be understanding of that and ask for the abatement of some of these things within reason. So that was an example of one is just the old tires. Um there's some old unused camping tents currently in one of the staging areas, just indicates some of the uh accumulation of stuff over the years that needed to be removed from the property. Next one's 34122 abandoned or derelict vehicles. Many vehicles throughout the site are in derelict abandoned condition. Any vehicles actively placed as props for the active paintball course we advise could remain so long as those are cleared of any accumulated junk and debris and any perceived safety hazards. So to that point, a lot of the vehicles were piled twice as high as the vehicle with old tires again, just junk, uh such as in the bed of old derelict vehicles. We did indicate those vehicles could remain as active paintball props, but they need to be removed of the accumulated junk stored within the vehicles, almost like the vehicle is a dumpster. Also, any safety hazards just to ensure the safety of the the uh participants within the uh the paintball.