Posted on 08/04/2008 11:28:56 AM PDT by XR7
Peter Tubic ignored a $50 parking fine in 2004, and on Monday, it cost him his $245,000 house.
In what city officials believe is the first case of its kind, the city foreclosed on Tubic's house on W. Verona Court after repeated attempts to collect the fine - which over the years had escalated to $2,600 - had failed.
"Our goal isn't to acquire parcels," said Jim Klajbor, special deputy city treasurer. "Our goal is to just collect taxes. . . . It is only as a last resort that we would pursue . . . foreclosure."
Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Richard Sankovitz technically stayed the judgment to give Tubic one last chance to explain why he hasn't paid or even responded, but Sankovitz ruled in favor of the city's foreclosure.
"The city was entitled to a judgment," Sankovitz told Public Investigator on Thursday. "There hadn't been an answer to the complaint."
Tubic takes the blame for disregarding the 15 or more notices he received seeking payment and warning of the pending foreclosure on the house, which was fully paid off, but says he had good reason.
He was physically and psychologically unable to handle the situation, he says.
According to the Social Security Administration, Tubic, 62, has been disabled since 2001. He has been diagnosed with psychological disorders that limit his "ability to understand, remember and carry out detailed instructions," according to documents from the administration.
In addition he suffers from chronic pain caused by degenerative diseases of the knees and spine, as well as chronic respiratory disease, diabetes and obesity, among other ailments.
In several lengthy conversations with the P.I. Team spanning two weeks, Tubic frequently grunted in pain and broke down in tears.
"They're trying to take my house away for a parking violation," Tubic said. "I know it was my own fault for letting it drag on, I've been under mental duress. I haven't been able to handle this."
Janine Geske, a former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice and law professor at Marquette University, called the case a human tragedy and an example of how people can fall through the cracks in the system.
"It seems like a drastic remedy," Geske said of the city's foreclosure. "But on the other hand the city has to enforce its zoning laws. I don't fault the city for that.
"It's a shame someone didn't intervene to help him. . . . It would be nice if someone who worked for government would take the time and say 'let's look at this and see if we're doing the right thing.' . . . It would be nice if they would remember the human factor here."
Tubic first got the fine for parking his Ford E150 with no license plates in the driveway of the home, which belonged to his parents at the time . The radiator had broken and Tubic couldn't get his plates renewed unless the van passed an emissions test. He didn't have the money to make the repair and had more pressing worries, he said.
His father was suffering from dementia. His mother was battling cancer, and he was their live-in caretaker. He needed to shop, cook, clean, maintain the house and tend to his parents' needs.
The van repair could wait, he thought.
Then a man from the city showed up and told him otherwise. It was February 2004. Tubic would have to move the van or get license plates for it within 30 days, per city zoning codes, the man said. Somebody had complained.
Several days later Tubic's dad died. Tubic was overwhelmed, he said.
"It was a combination of things financial and emotional, my caregiving role, all heaped themselves on me at the wrong time," he said. "I still don't function well."
Month after month the city Department of Neighborhood Services sent an inspector to the house to see if the van had moved or had license plates. Each time a new fee was assessed. And a letter was sent to Tubic's home.
At no time did Tubic call or write to object or explain his circumstances, city officials said. So the bureaucratic cog kept turning.
Tubic's $50 fine escalated to $1,475, and after it was clear he wasn't going to respond, the city filed a tax lien. While Tubic paid the property taxes, he never paid the $1,475 for the zoning violation. With interest and penalties, he owed $2,645 before the city foreclosed on Monday.
Ronald Roberts, a code enforcement manager with the Department of Neighborhood Services, said the zoning code that prohibits people from parking unlicensed vehicles in their driveways is aimed at keeping residential properties from looking like junkyards.
The city issues about 1,500 fines for such "nuisance" violations - which also include illegally placed trash - every year. Many are for repeat inspections.
"Put yourself in the position of the neighbors," Roberts said.
Turns out in this case the neighbors weren't the ones to complain. Tubic had not been getting along with his brother, and his brother made the call. His brother, Jovon Tubic, said he called at the request of their mother, according to a letter from Jovon to Peter Tubic...
Rest of the story here: http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=779234
The makers of the Constitution conferred the most comprehensive of rights
and the right most valued by all civilized men—the right to be let alone.
-- Justice Louis Brandeis
According to Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence, one of the "repeated injuries and usurpations" committed against the American people by the King of England was the erecting of "a multitude of New Offices, and...swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance."
What was the offense of that poor guy in the article above?
He did not have current license plates on a van parked in his own yard!
On his private property!
And now, swarms of bureaucrats are eating out his substance.
This is a travesty and outright theft of home and property.
Translation
So if it ruins somebody, we don't really care.
Liberals are always soft on crime, unless the punishment benefits the state. In this case, the state benefits greatly. Somewhere in hell, Stalin smiles.
Good to see he admits that fines are just another name for taxes..............
This is the type of malfeasance which is going to spark a revolution or bring back tarring and feathering.
So you think you own that peice of realestate that you worked so hard for and payed so much for. This little story shows who really owns that property. There is no private property.
Yes, but you do not understand.
Our society has replaced the God of the Bible with the new god that can meet our every need: government.
Therefore, this poor man's pressing worries should not have kept him from meeting his more important obligation: giving the government everything it required of him. And, since he did not, he must now pay the price.
This is horsecrap. He parks HIS van on HIS property in front of HIS paid-off house that HE PAID the property tax on...and yet the city of Milwaukee can take it from him?
My God. Riots have been started for less than this. This is total insanity.
}:-)4
Note to self: OH Shi#, better go pay those fees.
And, there should be one.
A BIG one.
Alas, sigh, it won't happen.
Obama will save us.
I lived next to a drug house just a couple blocks from the lake in Milwaukee. For years I complained about disturbances, neglect, all night parties, etc. Most of the time, police dispatchers told me they were very busy and couldn’t commit to a response. Even when asked outright for a ticket to be written.
Then, once I had a license plate registration expire because I forgot to send the check in time. My car was towed, lost and then found impounded by Milwaukee Police just one day later. The city is on top of easy revenue and shakedown extortion - the rest is just very difficult to handle when you’re so “busy.”
Good riddance - one year out of Milwaukee for me now. A 9% and a 16% property tax levy increase and a $20 car “wheel tax” have come through since then, and now up for referendum is a mandatory “sick day” law for all workers regardless of qualifications or amount of time worked. The city is done for in grand socialist utopian manner.
You don’t really own your home. You only pay all the bills, but the any level of government can confiscate it if you don’t cough up every dime they assess you for. It’s like paying protection money to the Mob.
Peter Tubic, who ran unsuccessfully for the 97th District state assembly seat in 1996 and again in 1998
MONDAY, Aug. 4, 2008, 11:57 a.m.
By Raquel Rutledge
Barrett to intervene in foreclosure case
Mayor Tom Barrett said today he will work with the city treasurer’s office to make sure Peter Tubic doesn’t lose his home over a $50 parking violation.
“While it is important to recognize the need to comply with rules and regulations, this is a highly unusual situation and I can’t sit by and watch a man who is clearly suffering from mental debilitation lose his home because of a $50 ticket,” Barrett said in a written statement. “I will work with the City Treasurer to resolve this matter. Foreclosing on a home is always, always a last resort and residents can avoid the downward spiral that comes with avoiding enforcements.”
Public Investigator wrote a story in Sunday’s Journal Sentinel about a disabled Milwaukee man who ignored a parking fine for four years, which led to a foreclosure on his $245,000 house last week.
The P.I. Team will keep you updated on the outcome of this story and it unfolds today.
Mayor Tom Barrett said today he will work with the city treasurer’s office to make sure Peter Tubic doesn’t lose his home over a $50 parking ticket.
What party is it that controls the Milwaukee city ordinances and appoints the heads to all the departments and claims to be looking out for the common man? Oh, wait, it is the DEMOCRAT Party.
I'm appalled that the city would take this guy's house over a parking ticket.
But. . .if this man has the problems as described, why isn't someone taking care of his financial business? Perhaps he does not have any family, but if he does, they should be ashamed of themselves.
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