Good afternoon.

Today is Tuesday, September 15th, 2026, and this is the um hearing for the month for the City of Tempe Hearing Officer.

My name's Vanessa McDonald, and I'm calling the meeting to order.

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

The City of Tempe Hearing Officer is authorized by Arizona revised statutes in 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 of Tempe.

These violations include deterior deteriorated pools, structures, or landscaping, storage of junk or 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.

The hearing officer may issue an order directing the owner, occupant, property manager, or other responsible person to remediate a code violation, or may also authorize the city to abate the property.

The cost of the abatement is the responsibility of the owner of the property where the violation occurs and will be collected as an assessment against the property in violation of the code.

On today's agenda, we have four items.

We have a set of minutes from August 18th, 2026, and three property abatement requests.

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

Abatement appeals are heard by the Board of Adjustment, after which they may also be appealed to Maricopa County Superior Court.

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

Good to see you.

From then on, multiple reinspections were conducted.

I only had one conversation with a tenant via a phone call.

Advised him of all violation and explained the case process.

He stated that he understood and would have the property addressed.

After the initial conversation, no contact was ever received from the tenant or the actual owner of the property.

On June 24th, 2026, I conducted an inspection.

All violations remained, consisting of junk trash and debris, graffiti and deteriorated landscape consisting of dead trees, dead portions of trees, over high grass and weeds, also including in the alley.

Citation was issued and sent to the owner, DAFA 1858 Southern Avenue, LLC in care of Michelle Chang Shen Yi.

By certified mail and copies were also sent by regular mail.

Throughout this case, there has been no communication with the owner, and they have failed to appear in court.

As of this morning, all violations remain.

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

And at this time, I'd like to present the photos.

Thank you.

So, Madam Hearing Officer, at this time.

This was looking at the westbound portion of the property.

There are some dead portions on the tree.

Um this morning episode there were some that were cut down, so it looks like there was some minor uh improvements.

But this is looking westbound on the property.

Here's another tree.

Dead portions also a dead tree standing there.

This is uh interior corridor corridor of the property.

There is some graffiti here.

That's been there for a while.

There was some junk trash and debris there, but it looks like it was cleaned up.

And here's in the alley, Madam Hearing Officer, as you can see, there's some vegetation, uh, some loose debris.

Madam Hearing Officer, here is the portion where the graffiti is present, and again, some trash debris as well as vegetation dried up, dead.

Basically a wider view of the entire alley showing uh that there has been nothing done.

And as stated before, I'm uh seeking a 180-day open abatement for the violations of the Tempe Nuisance Code 21-3B1 for joint trash and debris on the property, uh 21-3B8 for uh uncultivated weeds, and also section 22-105 graffiti on the property at 1858, East Southern Avenue in Tempe.

Thank you.

Yeah, the only thing I can see is it looks like there were four trees in the front, and now there's maybe like three stumps and a tree.

Correct.

Yeah, so they someone tried to take it down.

Can you hear me okay?

Okay.

Someone tried to take down some trees, but didn't bring the property into full compliance.

Um, thank you for the presentation this afternoon.

Mr.

Defara, is there anyone on the line?

Madam here, an officer, no one online.

Thank you.

And I'll make a note there's no one here in the chamber other than City of Tempe staff this afternoon.

So nobody here to speak about this item.

Um, well, this the photographs speak for themselves, and you've had no responsiveness from the property owner since March, since this uh case was initiated.