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I am trying to get other people I know in Miami-Dade county to supply me with pictures of Team Metro in action. They write citations to raise revenue, plain and simple. I have never seen a government department who falsifies evidence, trespasses and threatens citizens like they do. Any it is no wonder that Miami-Dade county is not a "green" area. That is unless you consider dollars to be green.
If they're only doing it for the money, DON'T just pay the fine.
Go into court and see if they show up. Many times they won't, and you'll win by default. If they do, you plead innocent and demand a jury trial. Eat up as much of their time as possible, and learn about the rules of disclosure. Request everything you can get away with. Ask for copies of their training logs, and rules they have to work by. Ask for detailed lists of all the citations within xxx many blocks going back several years.
In the end they may get a couple hundred dollars for the fine, but it will cost them thousands of dollars to do it. A side benefit is that if you make government employees actually work, and squeal every time they don't follow their own rules, they'll usually avoid you like the plague in the future.
In the end they may get a couple hundred dollars for the fine, but it will cost them thousands of dollars to do it. A side benefit is that if you make government employees actually work, and squeal every time they don't follow their own rules, they'll usually avoid you like the plague in the future.
But it doesn't cost them money, it costs you money. If you waste the city's time, you're wasting your own money.....that's where the money comes from - the taxpayers. The city budget is based on the property taxes the citizens pay....they are a governmental entity, not a private corporation. I want them to be as efficient as possible with my money, it's another form of conservation.
Being the Green Living Forum, I think the bigger question - and probably what Tallrick was looking for - is the question of whether a county government should have the right to interfere in the kinds of green practices Tallrick outlined - specifically his compost and rain barrel.
We're only getting one side of the story here, and it is the side of the aggrieved party trying to convince us (and himself) that he was wronged by the evil guvmint.
They aren't going to cite someone simply for having a rain barrel or for having a compost heap. They might cite them for having a compost heap in a protected area if their property is covered under one of Miami-Dade's housing covenants. They might cite the rain barrels if they are located in the way of utilities easements.
This reminds me of the stories of people being arrested and taken to jail because of a parking ticket, when in actuality the person was taken to jail because they assaulted a police officer and tried to run them over with their car during a traffic stop.
Being the Green Living Forum, I think the bigger question - and probably what Tallrick was looking for - is the question of whether a county government should have the right to interfere in the kinds of green practices Tallrick outlined - specifically his compost and rain barrel.
Is that what is really happening here? Maybe a more accurate question would be whether or not government has a right to limit certain green practices in order to limit environmental impact on protected areas, or whether or not green practices give a home owner free reign to disregard other codes.
But it doesn't cost them money, it costs you money. If you waste the city's time, you're wasting your own money.....that's where the money comes from - the taxpayers. The city budget is based on the property taxes the citizens pay....they are a governmental entity, not a private corporation. I want them to be as efficient as possible with my money, it's another form of conservation.
Being the Green Living Forum, I think the bigger question - and probably what Tallrick was looking for - is the question of whether a county government should have the right to interfere in the kinds of green practices Tallrick outlined - specifically his compost and rain barrel.
Actually the local government there is a corporation (hence the term "incorporated" in reference to many areas in this country) and it owns all the local "property" (private property ownership is a myth in most of this country, the corporations--local, state and federal, own the property). And if they lose more money than they gain, they won't use this as a method of revenue raising, they'll try something else. Either way taxpayers lose, since they're just milking taxpayers for money in their strict enforcement.
Anyways, many people actually love this sort of strict enforcement of seemingly silly rules. Go read the thread on why do people put up with HOA's in the Northern Virginia forum (may be a little ways in if there haven't been recent responses). I think it's ridiculous and foolish, but sometimes people are their own worst enemies without even knowing it.
But it doesn't cost them money, it costs you money. If you waste the city's time, you're wasting your own money.....that's where the money comes from - the taxpayers. The city budget is based on the property taxes the citizens pay....they are a governmental entity, not a private corporation. I want them to be as efficient as possible with my money, it's another form of conservation.
In his example, the money isn't coming from the taxpayers. Its coming from the city using the police department as a revenue center. I'll pay taxes if they let me vote on them, but when the police spend all day ticketing jaywalkers instead of locking up drug dealers, its up to us to correct the matter.
I'm in a different part of Florida from Tallrick, so I don't know all the ins and outs of Team Metro, we don't have one in Jacksonville.
I am familiar with HOAs having lived in one. Sadly, in Florida, HOAs are very common. There are supposed to be some laws to protect green practices from being restricted in neighborhoods.
For example, your HOA can't stop you from putting solar water heating tubes on your roof if you have a pool. Someone told me they can't stop you from line-drying your clothes (yet in my HOA neighborhood, it was a restriction ). Compost barrels would be okay or overlooked as long as they were not visible to the street and not causing any odor. The lawn is obviously going to be a green point of contention with an HOA.
Team Metro sounds pretty extreme with their cameras on poles, hopefully Tallrick can put an end to it soon and both sides can come to some sort of compromise, it sounds like a lot of human energy is being squandered as well as Team Metro money, however it's sourced*.
*I looked at Team Metro site, and they are a Miami-Dade government department, so their operational budget would be sourced to citizen taxes and unless everyone jammed them up (and they won't), they'll be using those taxes to run their department.....if they become more inefficient due to jamming, they'll need a bigger budget and more taxes.
In his example, the money isn't coming from the taxpayers. Its coming from the city using the police department as a revenue center.
....and the police department's money comes from citizen taxes. When you pay your property taxes each year (or your landlord does for you and charges you rent to cover it), the taxes collected become the operational budget for the city - it covers police, fire, schools, and in Tallrick's city, it covers Team Metro as well.
Unless I'm wrong, Tallrick? Does Team Metro raise its' money some other way? Are they selling "Lawns Gone Wild" DVDs?
*My apologies for coming back to this point again, but I'm in a city where our taxes have gone really high really fast, and most of the constituents are screaming for efficiency since we're a city that kept things pretty simple for so long .
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). Compost barrels would be okay or overlooked as long as they were not visible to the street and not causing any odor. The lawn is obviously going to be a green point of contention with an HOA.
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