Over the past 20 years, 395 code violation cases with $4.46 million in unpaid fines have piled up at City Hall.
With a single vote Wednesday night, city commissioners could go to the nuclear option: foreclosures.
The first property owners staring down that legal missile are beachside landlord Jack Aberman, the owners of Grandview Live gentlemen's club and duplex owner Xuefeng Zhou.
Together the three property owners owe the city $70,060, enough for city officials to make an example of them as they keep their new promise to get tough on people who break code enforcement rules and then refuse to pay fines.
And there's definitely going to be more. City Attorney Robert Jagger expects to be bringing city commissioners lists of additional delinquent properties that could lose their land now over their refusal to pay.
"We're continuing to search for more properties," Jagger said.
'I want to see more'
Some property owners owe as little as $50, but nearly 300 fine dodgers owe $10,000 or more. One has racked up a $76,400 debt.
Weegie Kuendig, chairperson of the city's Code Enforcement Board, is all for going after code violators.
"I want to see more of this, and see the City Commission keep on this," Kuendig said.
Kuendig, who has been on the code board for six years, would also like the city to try more new tactics. Daytona Beach could start fining property owners for an excessive number of code enforcement cases, and the city could hire a collection agency for people who are delinquent on fine payments and liens, she said.
"We need to enforce the standards we have set," Kuendig said. "Foreclosing is a good first step. People need to know we're serious."
Years of fines
The case against Aberman, who owns dozens of residential rental properties in four beachside cities through his company GEA Seaside Investments, involves a vacant lot on Grandview Avenue between International Speedway Boulevard and Main Street.
The empty lot, which has an assessed value of $17,171, is carrying a $15,000 lien. The 4,500-square-foot property was cited in December 2015 for a retaining wall found to be in disrepair and need of paint, as well as a toppled chain-link fence that was laying in the grass.
Aberman has repeatedly been cited for code violations, and city records showed recently that he had the second-highest debt tally among code fine violators, $66,675.
"We're working on getting in compliance," said Aberman's attorney, Joel Osborne. "Code inspections are going well."
The Grandview Live case centers on the replacement of a sign outside the adult nightclub. After being hit with daily $200 fines in February 2016, Grandview Live built up a $25,000 lien.
The club at 640 N. Grandview Ave., which has an assessed value of $777,097, was first cited in August 2015 for working on an exterior sign without permits.
Kyriakos Drymonis, who along with partners owns the Grandview Live property that's leased out to business operators, tried to get the operators to pay the $25,000 lien. But they're embroiled in a lawsuit over ownership of the business, and Drymonis filed an eviction action to get the partners off his property.
Drymonis is hoping city commissioners will delay any action on the property since he said it's set for a code hearing before the special magistrate Tuesday, when he hopes to get a fine reduction.
"It's really a tenant issue because they were in possession of the property," said Drymonis, who's also a managing partner of the Oyster Pub and Razzles on Seabreeze Boulevard.
Brett Hartley, one of the partners who has run Grandview Live, said he can't comment because of the ongoing litigation.
The third case involves a duplex at 311 San Juan Ave. owned by Zhou. The two-story home located just west of Ridgewood Avenue has an assessed value of $46,172 and is encumbered with $30,000 in code fine liens.
The home just north of Mary McLeod Bethune Boulevard was first cited in November 2012 for missing window screens, and in January 2013 police with a search warrant found the home to have no running water and an extension cord coming through a wall.
The home was cited again in June 2014 on 15 code violations for damaged fences and walls, trash and debris, peeling and fading paint, loose and rotting structures, broken windows, damaged doors and weeds. For safety, the city boarded up the property in July 2014.
Zhou could not be reached for comment.
Taking possession
The city is sifting through the 395 code fine cases to determine which make sense for foreclosure actions, avoiding houses that are homesteaded and buildings that have mortgages that exceed the value, large property tax liens, bankruptcy proceedings and especially expensive repairs.
If the property owners don't pay up, Jagger and his staff will start sending cases to Circuit Court for bench trials decided by judges. Any properties the city successfully forecloses on can be put up for auction. If a property doesn't draw any bids at auction, the city can take possession or sell the property itself.
Any time the city prevails in court in the foreclosure cases it's entitled to recover costs, including attorney's fees.
The code fine crackdown is part of a larger effort the city kicked off this spring to ratchet up the aggressiveness of code enforcement. City code officers are also now systematically going after residential rental property owners who don't have licenses required to lease to tenants. Aberman is among those nabbed in that stepped-up effort, and a few months ago he went before the special magistrate to face charges of failing to secure rental licenses for 29 of his properties. Some of those cases have since been dropped, and Aberman's attorney said the landlord is quickly doing what he needs to in order to come into compliance.
City commissioners also recently adopted new rules to deal with dangerous and dilapidated structures that allow city officials to go after them for condemnation and demolition more swiftly and forcefully. This summer Daytona Beach police also kicked off a new program that goes beyond crime fighting to get to the root of problems with a building or neighborhood.
The city began its full-court press on code enforcement after The News-Journal ran its "Tarnished Jewel" stories in April that took a close look at dilapidation on the beachside and how property tax dollars have been spent there.
