Thank you for reporting! Public Works has an illegal dumping team whose sole job is to respond to illegal dumping reports throughout the City. On average this team removes 1,200 pounds of trash from public property every day. We strive to respond to all reports in a timely fashion. If you see someone dumping illegally please report the incident to the Vallejo Police Department.

Reporting to police seems like more in vain than enforcement as I have proof who did with pictures when I reported illegal dumping with no response from police. They even removed it from click fix and the problem is still there. The system is amazingly dysfunctional

Code Enforcement Division assigned this issue to Fire Prevention

Watching Out, you have pictures and license plate numbers?
And neither the police nor Code Enforcement was interested in following up?
Please elaborate.

I know a number of people have reported this mess, but they might have given different addresses. That big empty lot is, I think, 3-4 properties. Some have an Ohio Street address and some have a Trinity Street address.

Trash breeds more trash. As the tenant on 16 Kentucky sets the new standard of terrible stewardship the area continues to decline. Property values will be falling right along with it. Flies are gathering.

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Right on, Theo. I knew they'd push you to writing something censor-able eventually. It's a badge of honor in today's Vallejo.

Has anything happened on this front? Some (or some more) trash is still there.

Apparently (see postings above) this matter was reported to Code Enforcement, and Fire Prevention (see assignments above) and to the Police Department. Since then (September 4th, 2017) we have had four months of continuous dumping at the western ends of Kentucky, Ohio, Louisiana Streets, Mare Island Way, and the connecting section of Trinity Street. There is trash, toxic waste, and abandoned vehicles there today.

None of the assigned agencies have reported back here, and there has been no visible sign of increased patrols, nor remote surveillance equipment (a capability discussed by Code Enforcement personnel more than a year ago). May we ask these agencies to report here (or to provide links to where they have reported) what new efforts they have made in the past four months, and what results have been achieved?

Keeping this issue open so long - because the dumping has been endless. Who is responsible for this lot? Looks like some sort of easement with the City Landscaping, and the unsightly K-Rails that just attract graffiti. Time to get this fenced off, it will save the grounds crew time and money, probably enough to offset the cost of securing this parcel.

Yeah, let's replace the ugly K-Rail (that, incidentally, was already covered in graffiti when it arrived!) with ugly chain link fencing. Surely, the adjacent homeowners won't mind their visitors (or potential buyers) thinking they live in a refugee camp!

As a reminder, the City is not allowed to put fencing around the private property. The renter/owner of the property is again the same guy that owns/ rents 16 Kentucky. You can see how well he takes care of that property as well.

Let's make this clear: on September 4th, 2017, this block in a proud National Register of Historic Places neighborhood was full of dumped trash. Today, February 20th, 2018, this block is full of dumped trash. Some of that trash has been there the entire time. Other trash gets added, and some gets removed every week. Beyond Ohio Street, the waterfront ends of Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Harbor, Alabama, Tennessee, Farragut, and Hitchborn Streets are continual victims of neighborhood and drive-by dumping. Identifications, descriptions, and photographs of dumpers have been submitted. No one has been charged, or fined. Over several years, closed-circuit video monitoring has gone from being a definite ("funding is on the way") Code Enforcement promise, to a failed Participatory Budgeting effort, to nothing at all. Please tell us what did we do to offend our near neighbors at City Hall? What can we do to get just a little of their attention?

I for one am getting sick and tired of being told that: "the City is not allowed", "we will investigate this complaint"', "a case file has been opened", "your concern has been noted", and all of the other bureaucratic doublespeak that boils down to nothing. If you are old enough, you'll remember that Vallejo used to have district Council Members. If you had a neighborhood problem that wasn't getting fixed, then you went downtown and spoke to your neighborhood council member.

Then some genius in city staff proposed that an open place council would be more democratic. A democratic measure was proposed and, with massive support from public employee unions, it passed. Now every Council Member represents everyone in the city, or in other words - nobody, or in yet more words - they represent the biggest campaign contributors: public employee unions, realtors, and car dealers.

Now decisions are made by un-elected, job-secure city staff, and implemented by best-paid, best-enefit'ed unionized public employees. Our City Council is pure rubber: they are a rubber stamp for staff decisions, and a rubber bumper protecting staff from public scrutiny, and from the need to explain or take responsibility for their actions.

Ironically any city employee with a halfway decent idea about how to run a city for the benefit of it's citizens has quit Vallejo, and gone to a better governed city long ago.

Interesting. I just wrote a post criticizing the undemocratic nature of Vallejo city government. No bad language, no names mentioned, only a comment about why things don't get fixed around -- AND IT WAS CENSORED. I guess now I know who runs the censor's office around here.

I guess I'll just have resubmit to the Ministry of Truth office, top floor of City Hall

And so it goes

Interesting! I wrote one post complaining about city government and got "Content blocked by rejections". I wrote another explaining the first and got "Content blocked by rejections". Then I wrote a third with a reference to 1984, and not only did it get through, but the first two got unblocked. So, exactly what is in Room 101 at City Hall?

Room 101
The worst thing in the world!

And we know for a fact that this Brian Sizemore is the owner of the property, along with 16 Kentucky St.?

Brian Sizemore is the renter as hearsay would have it. Some rumors have him as the owner but according to Tina at Code Enforcement he showed paperwork saying he had a lease on the property there AND at 37 Ohio as well (hence why that nasty container got dropped there as well). Hope that helps

Dear neighbors,

When the City says it is not allowed to remove trash dumped on private property, it means that it cannot do so under California law. To do so would require criminal trespass. See California Penal Code 602(m), which is unequivocal in this regard. The City is telling the truth. If this is unsatisfactory, the only one who can help is your state legislator.

The only person who can legally remove trash from private property is the property owner. The owner of record is publicly available on the City's eTRAKiT system. See the attached screenshot. You can write directly to the owner at the address listed.

The question is whether a See-Click-Fix can cause the City to contact the owner. Code violation or something. If the owner is responsible, the City should tell them that they are in violation

You are correct. The Code Enforcement Division has sent the owner two notices of violation. See the attached screenshot from the eTRAKiT system, which shows the open

You are correct. The Code Enforcement Division has sent the owner two notices of violation. See the attached screenshot from the eTRAKiT system, which shows the case. This case was opened in response to a phone call I made to the Division in late January. The first letter was sent Jan 22nd. Another was apparently sent today.

To answer the question specifically, about whether a report of trash on private property that is posted here on SeeClickFix will prompt the City to contact the property owner, YES it will. If we report it properly, as "Code Enforcement, Exterior Private Property Maintenance", it will go to the Code Enforcement Division and they will open a case just like they did in response to my phone call. An officer will come inspect the site, and then having confirmed the report will issue a warning letter to the owner. We will be able to track the case on eTRAKiT.

Thank you Jennifer K.
I'm wondering if you know what power the city has if the property owner doesn't respond or continues to drag their heels? What are the possible steps the city can take? I imagine there are fines, but are these fines accumulating with each letter from Code Enforcement so that it becomes something more than a slap on the wrist? Can the city designate it a blighted property or something and sue to levy a bigger fine? I worry that we could be complaining and reporting forever with ultimately little the city can (or has the energy and resources) to do.

Jennifer, thanks for the explanation. In the past I've had trouble finding things in eTRAKit. How long a time lapse should one expect? Glen, Artsem, Theo, BetterVallejo: Keep up the good work and energy!

Remember we first reported this in July of 2016! Then we waited for Code Enforcement to do something. Then in January, we wrote letters to ALL of the City council. I have spoken on City Council meetings asking when something could be done. Robert McConnell gave this task to the Temp City Manager. I was contacted after my presentation by the assistant city attorney saying that it was all going to be taken care of (This was all in January of 2018). Here it is almost March...no changes and I mean NONE!

To LH: Recollecting another vacant lot further up Ohio Street, yes the penalties went up and up on each of the notice stapled to the gate of the property. Eventually the property owner, with the assistance of friends at City Hall, claimed hardship and a record of good works, and so had the lot cleaned up for free, and the fines cancelled. That vacant lot is now, once again, overgrown and beginning to attract trash.
To Jennifer K.: Thanks for the fascinating review of the steps that must be followed in order to achieve the current lack of result. Unfortunately, you miss the point. People don't write to SeeClickFix asking for an explanation of the procedures that currently are not working. They write to describe what is going wrong and, hopefully, to initiate the steps necessary to fix it. If City of Vallejo management or City Council do not have the power to solve this problem by cleaning up toxic waste on property adjacent to, and uphill from a river flowing directly into San Francisco Bay, then it is up to them to either vote themselves that power, or request the necessary authority from the County, State, and/or Federal governments.

Dear neighbors,

It's great to see constructive dialog about this problem.

In response to the most recent comments -

LH, the only information I have about penalties levied against property owners in violation of City code is what's on the Code Enforcement Division's website. It's here: http://www.ci.vallejo.ca.us/cms/One.aspx?portalId=13506&pageId=27446#6. I think you might be right - the City may have little power in these matters beyond levying fines. I am pretty sure that the Code Enforcement Division is overtaxed, with a small staff handling a huge caseload.

Susan, in my experience cases seem to show up in the eTRAKiT system a couple of days after they are opened.

BetterVallejo, thank you so very much for your efforts with the City Council and the city administration! That is above and beyond. Being contacted by the Assistant City Administrator with a commitment to work on the problem seems like progress to me. I'm as disappointed as you to see no change after a couple of months. Is there any chance you could follow up?

It seems to me that the fundamental problem is a recalcitrant owner. Has anybody considered suing him or her in small claims court? If someone were motivated and had the time, a letter could be sent to them requesting that they remove the junk and cargo container and specifying that if they don't a small claims suit will follow. I wonder whether the prospect of dealing with that would motivate them to comply. Does anyone have experience with small claims court and thoughts about whether this would be sensible?

Hey, now there's another great idea that might work if it weren't for our city government. Back when we were young and positive minded, Vallejo had a program called Safe Streets, in which neighborhood groups, with volunteer counselor help, could be created and organized to witness, and log infractions, and then file Small Claims Court actions (one for every man, woman, and child in the affected group - it added up!) against the landlords of nuisance properties. Code Enforcement, who were at that time a completely independent agency, did a great job processing the paperwork, and acting as paralegal in these actions. It worked really well until we changed police chiefs, and the new chief refused all cooperation with Safe Streets. He promised to replace it with new program called Beat Health, imported from Oakland. Both Safe Streets, and Beat Health are now long gone, but I'm sure that our Mayor, who worked in both programs, could resurrect either if he thought we needed it.

Sorry, seems our Mayor has more important stuff on his mind than getting and keeping our streets clean. From the City of Vallejo, today:

"Vallejo is one of 35 Champion Cities selected today as finalists in the 2018 U.S. Mayors Challenge, a
nationwide competition that encourages city leaders to uncover bold, inventive ideas that confront the toughest problems cities face... Vallejo, now advancing in this six month phase of the competition , will pursue a system that maps subsurface pipes to both improve the City’s ability to address infrastructure needs as well as assist with development..."

So he may not have time to help us stop toxic waste dumping, but he'll have real good picture of which route it's taking down to the bay.

Agreed, tired of seeing new websites promoting moving to Vallejo, articles touting the new high-speed Internet pipe line, The beautiful quality of life and bustling downtown. Makes me want to do my own promotion of Vallejo - with the beautiful sites of illegal dumping and homeless encampment infesting the city. Besides the fact that everything that we’ve talked about here is all correctable through city code/law, which just does not seem to be enforced. When I first moved here five years ago I couldn’t understand with the animosity was towards the city powers. Optimistically I thought having emerged from the bankruptcy things could only be improving. Now, after dealing with several departments in this town, I am starting to feel let down, and that it is a futile conversation. I know that’s the wrong attitude and should just persevere, but some days the b•stards just wear you down.

I’ve lived in Vallejo for over 20 years and I’ve been at times frustrated, angry, and just so incredibly disappointed with things that go on in this city and my neighborhood. BUT every now and then I have to remind myself that SOME of these problems aren’t unique to Vallejo, illegal dumping and homelessness being two examples. Oakland, with all its amazing revitalization, still struggles with illegal dumping, graffiti, their homeless population. The last time I went to San Francisco and walked to the very hip Tartine Manufacturing, I passed many well-established homeless encampments on the sidewalks. I’m angry too, don’t get me wrong. I’m just saying…

You're just saying... what? That we have live with trash in our streets, code violations being ignored, entire neighborhoods being abandoned by policing and services? I've been living and paying taxes here for close on 30 years, and no thank you, I won't - just - live with that.

Nice conversation going on here, but has everyone forgotten that, at the top of this page, it says:"Illegal Dumping: 37 Ohio Street" an "09/04/2017". Today is 02/24/2018, and there is still trash dumped at the western end of Ohio Street, and all of the adjacent waterfront streets and alleys.

Nope, not saying we should live with it. Just saying that when I've felt beaten down by the city, and more specifically my neighborhood, like it seems Artsem is feeling, it helps me to remember that in comparable neighborhoods in more desirable bay area cities, they struggle with many of the same problems. Not saying they shouldn’t be fixed. Not trying to imply that neighbors shouldn't be angry or able to express their anger either--including myself. Just saying that it’s often not just happening in Vallejo, so I try to get out of that mindset. It helps me.

Thanks for pointing out the obvious Capt. Observer.

🌈

Neighbors, I found it a big help in solving problems if we can have the face to face discussion and brain storming and divide up the task and work as a team.

There is a St. Vincent's Hill Neighborhood meeting scheduled this coming Wednesday (Feb. 28) 6:30 pm at HUB on 350 Georgia street.

The meeting is already scheduled and set up so just go so we can figure out what to follow. This item may not be on the agenda but I see no problem of requesting it to be included.

Thanks, unfortunately I’m not able to attend. Where might I find more info on future meetings? Searched St. Vincent Hill Neighborhood Watch and only saw Facebook posts from last year, (I’m not on Facebook anyway), Nextdoor.com perhaps? Is someone in particular heading this watch group?

St. Vincent's Hill neighborhood meeting is usually at 4th Wednesday of the month at 6:30 pm. Check Nexdoor for more details.

Bet your meeting attendance would improve if you started inviting SVHNA members. Or is this another case of : "If you won't join our social media chat group, then we don't care to talk to you."

Whew! Scrolling down to the bottom of all these comments is wearing my thumb out.

Some (or some more) trash is still there

Dear neighbors,
It's great to see constructive dialog about this problem.

Yes, so much more fun than actually fixing it!

Dear City officials:
Could you re-configure your SeeClickFix application so that incidents are reported from initial complain to resolution; just like other users of the application do? (example below)

https://seeclickfix.com/topeka

Hey, look, look! One of the piles of trash just expanded enough to cross over the dividing line from private to public land. Maybe the rain floated it downhill, but for whatever reason, there is now a whole foot of it sticking out on the sidewalk. Go get 'em, fearless garbage gatherers.

What if a bollard fell on Ohio, and nobody filled out the proper report form, would it make a sound?

Could you report on the status of this issue?

The original garbage and box springs were apparently removed after MONTHS of reporting. That was followed by more dumping and more dumping in the same area. Why are there signs up that tell people they will be fined, whatever....
$1000. for dumping?

Isn't this how we started - with bed in the street? Well, here we go again.

Impressive. City officer in charge; could you fix this problem?

So, how do you define insanity? Keep doing the same thing and expecting a different result?

.. could you fix... probably
... will you fix... unlikely
... do you care... absolutely not

Thank you for reporting! Senior Code Enforcement Officer Yoo has an active case on the property, case reference #CE18-0159. You may visit our online tracking system, eTRAKiT, to view updates on current cases at http://web.ci.vallejo.ca.us/eTRAKiT3/ (please allow several business days for information to upload). SeeClickFix is one of the many tools available to the citizens of Vallejo to report non-emergency issues. We “close” an issue in SeeClickFix once we've acknowledged the complaint; however, this issue is not "Closed" per se; it will remain an "Open" case with us until it is corrected. If there is anything else we can assist you with, please let us know. Thank you for using SeeClickFix!

Terrific! We're all impressed, but who's moving the bed in the middle of the street?

Thank you for reporting! The mattress has been referred to the Public Works Department to address. Public Works has an illegal dumping team whose sole job is to respond to illegal dumping reports throughout the City. On average this team removes 1,200 pounds of trash from public property every day. We strive to respond to all reports in a timely fashion. If you see someone dumping illegally please report the incident to the Vallejo Police Department.

City Official in charge of coordinating resolution of issues reported here.

When issues get resolved could you post the results here? or provide links to where they have reported?

Please include what efforts have been made , and what results have been achieved. I agree that here has been no visible sign of increased patrols, nor remote surveillance equipment (a capability discussed by Code Enforcement personnel more than a year ago).

Now the guy at 16 Kentucky has a generator running till all hours of the night. Last night we called the police (did no good) at 11:08 pm and the thing finally ran out of gas sometime later. This issue continues to be an issue with no resolve. But alas we are done, we have decided to sell our home and move on to another city. Really sad about the entire thing but have to sleep at night and feel safe about having some sort of police dept. As a side note, in our new home (Hillsboro, Or) we had an incident where a man was crawling in the street and so we called 911 and there were there in 4 minutes. With each one of these incidents in reinforces that we made the right decision for our family and it's safety.

Thanks for reporting! Grounds Maintenance staff have resolved this issue. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this issue, please call the Maintenance Divsion at 707-648-5235. Thanks again for using SeeClickFix!