Avon Park Hires New Code Enforcement Judge

AVON PARK - The Avon Park City Council hired an attorney that will begin acting as the city's code enforcement magistrate by March.

Avon Park Fire Department Chief Terry Feickert said that the code enforcement office already has 10 cases lined up for C. Parke Sutherland, a Bartow-based attorney who became the special magistrate.

The new magistrate could dole out daily fines to people with dilapidated homes and other major offenders, an action the city previously couldn't do by taking offending property owners to court.

"It just gives us a little more teeth," Feickert said.

Interim City Manager Sarah Adelt said the new magistrate, who will charge the city $125 an hour to rule on the city's ugliest cases, would be used "as needed" to handle the city's backlog of code enforcement cases. Some have been reported months ago.

As of Tuesday, the city had 11 active "severe cases" involving repeat offenders. According to an official with the code enforcement department, five of those 11 cases were already sent to City Attorney Gerald Buhr.

The magistrate's hiring was the latest of a string of changes the city made since last year to tighten its code enforcement.

Earlier this month, Capt. Donald Simmons, Avon Park's head code enforcement officer, said the city began requiring rental permits for landlords. Last January, it also hired two new officers to work under Simmons, who previously ran a one-man department. Simmons was out of his office Tuesday and could not be reached for comment.

The city put aside an attempt to revive its code enforcement board to employ the magistrate. Feickert said he thought a single person acting as the magistrate would be more efficient than a board that would need to meet a quorum in order to act.

Sebring uses a code enforcement board instead of a magistrate to handle cases when violations are not corrected after warnings and fines. Sebring Police Department Cmdr. Steve Carr said it handled 14 old cases and 22 new ones at its December meeting. Like Avon Park's magistrate, Sebring's board can give out daily "recurring" fines.