Can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

Okay, perfect.

You can start when you're ready.

Okay, thank you so much.

It's 5 03.

Today is Tuesday, February 17th, 2026.

And sorry for the unusual nature of this hearing, uh, but this is the hearing for the City of Tempe Hearing Officer.

Um, and I'm calling the meeting to order.

I'm gonna read through something briefly, and then we'll go ahead and jump into our agenda this afternoon.

The City of Tempe Hearing Officer is authorized by Arizona revised statutes and the city of Tempe zoning and development code.

The hearing officer is granted the authority to conduct public hearings to decide upon the abatement of code violations occurring on properties within the city.

These violations often include deteriorated pools, structures, or landscaping, storage of junk or refuse refuse, and storage of inoperable or unregistered vehicles.

Abatement actions are brought before the hearing officer by the city's code compliance division, typically after numerous attempts at contacting the property owner to obtain voluntary compliance with the code.

On today's agenda, we have three items.

We have a set of minutes from January 20th, 2026, and two property abatements.

Any property owner who is agreed by a decision of the hearing officer may file an appeal 14 calendar days after the hearing officer has rendered a decision.

The deadline for appealing any decision rendered today is 3 p.m.

on March 3rd, 2026.

Appeals are heard by the Board of Adjustment, after which they may also be appealed to Superior Court.

A property owner has 14 days after the hearing officer's decision to either file an appeal or bring their property into code compliance.

If an appeal isn't filed or the property isn't brought into compliance within this required 14-day time frame, the property will be abated by the city.

Joining me this afternoon, I think I can't see everyone, but I believe I have Cassidy McFerrin, Sean Defara, and Drew Yokum from community development.

As I mentioned earlier, we have three items on the agenda.

Represented this afternoon, I believe, by um code inspector Kevin Kowalski.

That's correct.

Good afternoon.

I'm a co-compliance supervisor with the City of Tempe Co-compliance Division.

On July 7th of 2025, a follow-up inspection was conducted with no improvement found.

And a final notice was sent to the same owner.

On August 6th, I made an in-person contact with the owner's mother, Georgina, at that property, who said her son already cut the grass.

But I explained to her that there were still other violations remaining.

She refused to provide any contact information for her son Amos, so I provided her with my business card and asked her to pass that information along.

Approximately a week later, on August 13th, I received an email from Mr.

Cox in which he expressed confusion about the violations.

I responded to him via email on the 18th of August trying to clarify the situation.

And I also obtained a phone number for him where I called and left a message requesting for him to call back to discuss the matter.

On September 3rd, I sent a new and revised final to Mr.

Cox to include an unoperable and unregistered vehicle parked in the driveway.

On the 15th of September, I conducted another reinspection, and that inspection yielded non-compliance.

Photos were taken on that day, and a citation was issued.

On September 30th, the defendant to Mr.

Cox failed to appear in court, and two weeks later, a default judgment was entered.

On October 20th, a code of enforcement received another anonymous complaint regarding some over high grass and weeds in the alley.

On the 27th of October, I sent Mr.

Cox a new revised final to include the alley violation.

Also, in addition to attempting to generate some contact from the homeowner.

On November 10th, the property was still in violation.

A second citation was issued.

Subsequently, Mr.

Cox failed to appear, and another default judgment was entered.

On November, excuse me, December 5th of last year.

I left a message, emailed, and left a notice on Mr.

Cox's door in an attempt to contact him regarding the violations and non-compliance.

Wasn't until the 8th of December when I received an email response from Mr.

Cox who said that my email had slipped under the radar and that the pink notice on the door was found under his planter.

He reported having more pressing quality of life issues to address, but the unregistered inoperable vehicles will be dealt with shortly.

He made no mention of any other violations or remedies at the time.

Responded to him on again on the 12th of December, stating that there were still additional violations left.

Absent any improvement.

I posted a notice of intent to abate to the property, the front door of the residence.

Mailed it to the property and emailed it to Mr.

Cox on January 14th, 2026.

This time I'd like to present photos taken on the day of the today, taken today of the existing violations at the property.

Thank you.

This is the front uh residence and carport area of uh the property there.

Um 10th Street.

I apologize.

The carport area is a little bit dark, but you'll see it in the next photo.

Uh, there's a makeshift like half moon carport uh in the carport, half moon climbing wall, and then below that there's like a tumbling mat or a mattress.

Um there's some uh crates and some other uh debris and trash as some tarps behind the climbing wall.

Hopefully you can see this a little better.

That's a better view.

Okay.

Again, uh some tubs.

Uh, you'll see from another angle.

There's a car jack over there against some boxes and some containers.

Here's a uh little corner of the uh dilapidated and deteriorated uh climbing or mattress, if you will, um, at the bottom of the floor area.

This is from the other side of the vehicles that are parked in the driveway.

You can have a better idea.

Uh car jack I was referring to, some of the containers, um, some boxes and other debris again, the tarp, and you can see a little bit better uh angle of the makeshift climbing wall that's in the carport area.

This next photo is in the alleyway of the residence or uh behind the residence.

It's in the very southwest corner of the property.

You can see uh quite a bit of junk trash and debris.

There's various pieces of metal, uh, some tarps over here, big metal beams, um, big 50-gallon metal tub, um just random pieces of metal and scrap uh scrap items, some cinder blocks, and uh some other sheet metal kind of down in this area.

Some over high grass and weeds in the backyard.

Uh looks like what might be the mattress and box spring over here on the west side of the property.

It's a photo from the same vantage point, just pointed directly uh to the center of the backyard.

Uh, you can see again here, maybe perhaps the lid of an appliance, I think, some cinder blocks over here, uh some fencing, uh metal fencing area where there's some over high grass and weeds growing in it.

Uh again, some just random pieces of metal that you can see throughout the backyard and across the way, and you'll see a better picture of that here in a moment, ma'am.

But uh some appliances, there's a refrigerator, uh, washer, washer that's not hooked up to anything, again, and some tables.

Uh, this looks like what might be the remnants of mattress or box spring.

Here's the southeast or corner of the property, looking on the east side.

Uh again, better uh angle of the tarped over a mattress, a couple of dollies.

Um appliances that I mentioned earlier, just random pieces of wood, uh chairs, buckets, things like that.

And then this is from that same vantage point I was just at, pointed back towards the west side of the property, give you a better angle.

Uh, looks like a bed and foot uh headboard and footboard to a bed, some containers, um, some random plastic containers, uh, again, the metal structure, if you will, that has the grass and weeds in the middle of it, cinder blocks and everything just from a different uh angle and perspective.

The final photo mana here officer is a picture uh regarding anonymous complaint that we got of the grass and weeds that are directly behind the back wall of the property here.

This is the backyard fencing.

So basically, the property not only has not gotten better, it's probably gotten worse than it was when my packet was assembled and put together in I believe January.

Yeah.

Correct, ma'am.

Yeah, it looks like there's some other items that weren't there initially when the original photos were taken.

That's correct.

Okay.

Well, thank you so much for the presentation.

Um for the thoroughness of the photographs.

Mr.

DeFara, do we have anyone on the line wanting to talk about this item?

Madam Hearing Officer, no one online and no one in attendance from the public.

Okay.

Perfect.

Well, based on your presentation, um, the I saw the condition of the property in my packet, and also what you just showed me today, uh, due to a lack of communication by the property owner and lack of any progress on this property.

Um, I'm gonna go ahead and approve your 180-day open abatement request for the property located at 1107 West 10th Street, contained in KCE 25310.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Madam Harris.

That brings us to agenda item number three, which is a request for approval to abate public nuisance items at the now Ruse Limited Partnership property.

This property is located at 405 West University Drive.

The applicant is the city of Tempe.

Uh represented this afternoon, I believe, by Code Inspector Sammy Baptiste.

That is correct, Madam Hearing Officer.

Good evening.

Good evening.

My name is Sammy Baptiste, and I'm a code compliance inspector with the City of Tempe Code Compliance Division.

I'm here this evening to request a 180-day open abatement for the property located at 405 West University Drive, Tempe, Arizona, 85281.

This case was initiated on July 3rd, 2025 via a public complaint for the violation of junk, trash, and debris, graffiti, and deteriorated landscape material.

On this day, an initial inspection was conducted and the violations were confirmed at that time.

In addition to the exterior modification and inoperable lighting violations, our first notice was issued and mailed to the property owner, listed as Nauru's Limited Partnership in care of Maziar Masruar.

On September 9th, 2025, I inspected the property and all violations remained, and the final notice was issued to the property owner.

From September 25, 2025 to January 2026, multiple reinspections were conducted with very small amount of progress made.

However, the violations were never fully corrected.

Up until now, the property remains in violation time after time.

And during these inspections, I continue to observe dead landscape material, graffiti, junk trash, and debris, exterior modification and inoperable lighting on the property.

Throughout this case, there has been some communication with the property owner, which I have made him aware of what needs to be addressed.

The owner had made promises to correct the violations.

However, no consistent communication or corrections had ever been made.

On January 7th, 2026, the citation was issued to the property owner.

The owner has pled responsible and paid the fines to the court.

However, the violations remained.

On February 13th, 2026, a second citation was issued for the inoperable lighting.

As of this morning, all violations remain.

As you will see in the photos, it does not appear that the owner has fully corrected the violations.

And at this time, I'd like to present those photos, Madam Hearing Officer.

Thank you.

As you can see there, there this dead tree, Madam Hearing Officer, had monitored this for some months now.

I had actually had a conversation with their landscaper, and he had said that he was trying to revive the tree.

However, it's been too long, and the tree is just dead, and it just needs to be removed, Madam Hearing Officer.

In this photo, you will just see some deteriorated landscape material just spread throughout.

This here is one of the utility boxes.

Has some graffiti on it, as you can see.

Some more graffiti up on the building, Madam Hearing Officer.

That actually has been there for quite some time.

The owner had said he would remove it, but it had never happened.

And some more graffiti on the property, same same angle, just on the actual door.

However, they failed to uh match the paint color.

So I took that this morning.

This is all as of this morning.

And as stated before, I am seeking a 180-day open abatement for the violations of Tempe Newton's code 21-3B1 for joint tracks and debris of the property.

Uh deteriorated landscape, which is 21-3B8, and section 22-105 for the graffiti located at 405 West University Drive in Tempe, Arizona.

Thank you, Madam Hearing Officer.

Thank you, Mr.

Baptiste.

Excuse me.

Thank you for the thorough presentation.

Mr.

Jafaro, once again, do we have anyone online or in the chamber wanting to speak on this item?

Madam Hearing Officer, no one online and no one in the chambers from the public.

Okay, thank you.

Well, once again, we have a case that was initiated almost eight months ago, and no progress from the property owner and very sporadic or limited um communication from them.

So based on that and on the condition of the property today, I'm gonna go ahead and approve the 180-day open abatement request contained for the property located at 405 West University Drive, contained in KCM251137.

Thank you, Madam Hearing Officer.

Certainly that concludes our agenda for this afternoon.

Do we have any comments?

Madam Hearing Officer announcements.

Yeah, Madam Hearing Officer, one announcement.

Our next scheduled hearing officer is scheduled for Tuesday, March 17th at 5 o'clock here in the council chambers and live on Tempe 11.

Thank you.

Well, we'll have a good St.

Patrick's Day, I guess.

So okay.

Well, thank you.

I'll see you all all then.

And again, thanks again for the accommodation and doing this virtually.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Have a good night.