I. The Dirt:
It is not illegal to have a garden in your yard; vegetable, fruit, flower, exotic plant, bird, or butterfly. You do not need a permit to have a garden in your yard. Plants you purchase from a nursery or transplant from someone else's yard are not "noxious weeds".
But the city employees send a letter saying that the citizen must mow the entire yard or that a city employee will trespass and destroy the garden and send them the bill. That their garden is "noxious weeds" and in violation of the ordinance for height allowances of a lawn. They also use the "vision triangle" excuse for destroying the corner fencing and landscaping on a citizen's property.
They actually do this. Without writing a citation, without a court order, without legal authority to do so, without informing the citizen of their appeal process, without permission from the citizen to come onto their property, and without the citizen being present - the city employees trespass and do property damage with city-owned equipment and then send a bill to the property owner.
This happened to me. When I got the letter, I called immediately. I explained the difference between the lawn, which surrounded the garden and was mowed up to the garden, verses the garden of natural plants for butterflies and birds. He assured me that my call took care of the situation and that they would cancel the work order.
The "work order"? Yes. They already had a work order to hack down my seven-year garden if in ten days I had not already done so.
And that is exactly what they did to me. They had "forgotten to pull the work order". They used a sickle. It looked terrible. I was heart broken. Then they sent me the bill anyway, and threatened to put it on my property taxes if I did not pay it!
I told them that I would make a police report for trespassing and property damage and that I would pay one-hundred dollars to open a file at the court house and sue the city. They retracted the bill. But they did not pay for the damage they had done or pay restitution for the incident.
At the time I gave the city employees the benefit of the doubt. That this had been a mistake. But now I know that this is their procedure. That to treat people this way is their policy. That they reek havoc on countless citizens every year.
This city procedure to skip the citation against the citizen, and go directly to trespass and property damage is in violation of constitutional and private property rights. This city acts like a Hitler police state with Gestapo code inspectors, per the direction of the city manager.
II. Call to Action:
Every contact from a city employee needs to include a pamphlet with the appeal process of the Citizen Board of Appeals. The Citizen Board of Appeals is currently mislabeled "Zoning Variance Appeals Board", and their name needs to be corrected. The pamphlet needs to tell the citizen to come directly to the next meeting with their concern, so the citizen can avoid the city employee aggressive attempts to derail them from an appeal. Meetings are the fourth Tuesday at 4:30 in the city hall on the fourth floor meeting hall, open to the public. The appeal fee needs to be $20 dollars, not the current $200 dollars
.
Tell your story at the next city council meeting and at the next Citizen Board of Appeals meeting. Write a letter to the editor and bring copies to the city council members and Citizen Board of Appeals members. Make a police report. Inform the city employee that you are willing to physically defend your property if necessary from unlawful trespass and threat of property damage. WI Statute 939.49 allows you to do this. (This works. They run scared and complain that their job is "dangerous".) Call the C.A.R.D. organization to find out how to open a file for a lawsuit against the city for one hundred dollars to be able to tell a judge your story for restitution of damages done. If the city threatens to take you to court, welcome it; our constitution and your property are worth protecting. Post your property with "no trespassing" signs. Get the city manager fired.
III. Quote of the Day:
"Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does." William James
City council meetings are every second and fourth Monday evenings at 7:00 p.m., on the fourth floor of City Hall (currently called the "Municipal Building"), at 18 N. Jackson Street, Janesville, Wisconsin.
