We submitted a letter to members of City Council. I just read in the paper that the letter was given to City Attorney Fischer to review. We had already given this information to him, we didn't hear anything from him and he obviously didn't tell The Council he already had the information. And I don't think you have to be a lawyer to figure out that the proper steps were not followed.
The reason we gave copies of the law and ordinance was so the Council members could read for themselves that the officials they are responsible for are not following proper procedures. That not everything they are told is true and correct. That they have officials that answer to them that are performing acts under the color of law that are in violation of the law.
First of all the court order states that they could submit an affidavit of costs. They didn't follow the court order. The charges were not submitted.
The ordinance, ch 55, even if it was relevant, was not followed. We did not receive a statement addressed to us stating amount due the City by certified mail and we were not offered the ability to make annual payments. We were not even told that there was a lien on our property until we went in front of The Council to question the denial of our building permit.
There are public officials that do whatever they want and ultimately have been successful so far in not facing consequences for their actions.
We were given notice that our property would go up for tax sale if the charges from the abatement go unpaid.
We are only asking that they follow the law. That they not pick and choose what parts of the law or ordinance that suits them. We want them to correct this, and if they don't, to explain to us what we have misunderstood in reading the laws.
Respectfully,Tim & Jane Osborn
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Letter submitted to the Council
We would like the Council to look at the documents we have provided and to keep an open mind while reading them.
We contacted Bob Fischer and provided him with this information and we received no response.
There is a blurring of the lines between two different processes, Iowa Law and Vinton's Ordinance. We feel it is important to get this sorted out, it goes to fairness and equal treatment of all and is a violation of our Right to Due Process. Neither Iowa law nor Vinton's ordinance were followed correctly.
The first pages marked 1 and 2 are from the abatement in 2017, the final order. If you read all the way to the end of the order, The City was to submit an affidavit of costs of the abatement to the court. This was NOT done.
Page 3 is Iowa Code §364.22 POWERS AND DUTIES OF CITIES - Municipal Infractions. This is Iowa law stating the steps to be taken when a citation is issued.
We are referencing subsection 5b, the citation was NOT filed in the office of the county treasurer when filed with the Clerk or Court or at any time. The county Treasurer doesn't have a record of any municipal infractions filed against us.
Page 4 is Chapter 55 of Vinton Ordinance that was in effect at the time of this abatement. This covers the steps taken if a Municipal Citation is not issued and the City issues a notice to abate and does not engage the Court for assistance. Even this was not followed before the charges were submitted to the Treasurer for attachment to our taxes. We did NOT receive a statement of the total expenses incurred by certified mail. We were not given the opportunity to question any of the charges. And we do have questions about some of the charges.
We are only asking that the proper procedures are followed. That the charges given to the County Treasurer be removed from our taxes and the Court Order dated July 29, 2017 be followed.
If you have any questions for us, or if you believe the information we have given you is incorrect and proper procedure was followed please show us where we are
mistaken. Please let us know by certified mail. There have been issues with emails being timely and phone calls and personal notice being reliable.
Thank you for your time.
Tim & Jane Osborn
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