OpenCDA

August 6, 2011

They’re At It Again

Filed under: Probable Cause — Bill @ 12:15 pm

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“They” are both the Idaho Department of Correction and the City of Coeur d’Alene.  And what they’re “at” again is housing convicts still under state supervision in rental houses in Coeur d’Alene residential communities without informing the neighbors.   See the article headlined New Neighbors Not Welcome in the Saturday Coeur d’Alene Press.

And as “again” suggests, this is not the first time “they” have been “at” this in Coeur d’Alene. 

Several of us who live in Coeur d’Alene Place spoke during the Public Comment agenda item at the May 18, 2004, Coeur d’Alene City Council meeting.  Our concern was the City’s failure to enforce its zoning ordinance, thereby allowing a criminal transitional facility lodging four convicted felons (two on parole, two on probation) to be operated in a residential area zoned for single-family homes. In an April 14, 2004, letter to Councilman Ron Edinger, I pointed out that Idaho Code 20-234 required the state to notify the county sheriff of parolee residences and that the same law required the sheriff to notify the police when a parolee resides in the police department’s jurisdiction. So in response to the public’s comments at Council meeting on May 18, 2004, Councilman Edinger invited Police Chief Carpenter to the podium.  Carpenter’s response to Edinger’s question revealed that the Coeur d’Alene Chief of Police  was totally ignorant of the notification requirement of Idaho Code 20-234.  State law requires the County Sheriff to notify the police department of every parolee who resides inside the police department’s jurisdiction.

Today’s newspaper article identified the 17th Street house’s owner as Robert Obeid.  A review of the Kootenai County Parcel Search online reveals that Robert Obeid, Robert J. Obeid, and Colleen Obeid, own 13 properties in Coeur d’Alene.  The most frequently-occurring address for the Obeids is a post office box in Long Beach, California.  Two addresses show post office boxes in Coeur d’Alene.

The issue with criminal transitional facilities is not that they are occurring but whether they are sited in neighborhoods zoned for them.  Are they merely single-family residences, or are they actually criminal transitional facilities in non-commercial residential zones?  If the latter, the area must be appropriately zoned or the owner/landlord must have a special use permit from the City.  As I observed in my statement to the City Council on May 18, 2004:

But even if you believe the house does not precisely meet the definition  [of a criminal transitional facility], the actual use of the house [on Belleville Drive] most closely portrays the use of a criminal transitional facility.  The city Zoning Ordinance provides at 17.03.020 that “Any activity or facility which is not expressly classified within any activity group shall be included in that group whose description most closely portrays it.”  So where in the Zoning Ordinance, if not in “Criminal Transitional Facility,” would you include a short term transitional living accommodation for convicted felons on state supervised probation or parole?

I encourage Mr.  Womack and his neighbors to diligently pursue an investigation to identify houses throughout our community that are being used illegally as criminal transitional facilities.  They will be told by the City that there is no problem with these homes, but if there is, the State and City will act swiftly to correct them.  That’s what we were told in 2004.  Instead of swift corrective action, we got stonewalling by the City and State.  It was not until we, and not the Coeur d’Alene Police Department, obtained and presented strong documentary evidence of illegal conduct that the City, the State Department of Correction, and the Governor were forced  to shut down several of the houses we identified in 2004.

I hope Mr. Womack and his neighbors will encourage others similarly victimized to join them at City Hall to address the mayor and city council in an open public council meeting.  The Coeur d’Alene City government counts on the timidity of honest citizens to allow the City administration to ignore significant problems.  If enough people speak up, people who are being victimized by the City’s unwillingness to fairly and impartially enforce its own ordinances, even our mayor and city council ought to take notice — if they respect their constituents.

I would also encourage Mr. Womack and his neighbors to bring their concerns to Representative Kathy Sims.   Those neighborhood concerns were created by the administrative and procedural actions of the State Department of Correction.

 

7 Comments

  1. The city’s comp plan recognizes the importance of stable established neighborhoods and protecting them from incompatible uses. Two ordinances are, I believe, relative to the protection of stable established neighborhoods. One involves the requirement of group homes or boarding houses to obtain a special use permit. That permit request will notify neighbors of the request hearing. At that time, the neighbors may learn of the parameters of the project and choose to express their thoughts on the project at a public hearing. The second ordinance involves the location of criminal transitional facilities in commercial zones.

    It took two years for the non-compliant group home on Hastings to cease and desist via a court order. For months and months and months, city coddled the operator of this business, and a couple of others – all non-compliant. By the way, I attended numerous council meetings to remind the city of its responsibility to enforce its adopted ordinances due to inaction on the city’s part. I was told by Mike Kennedy that the council did not want to hear from me on this issue and preferrred anyone else!

    The city did ask me for a list of addresses of possible non-compliant group homes. I gave them a list. To the best of my knowledge, most continue unabated to this day.

    Comment by Susie Snedaker — August 7, 2011 @ 9:36 am

  2. I saw this story on the news and immediately thought of the work Susie has done in trying to get the problem taken care of.

    Comment by Stebbijo — August 7, 2011 @ 10:39 am

  3. Susie, thank you for all the years of work you have done on this topic of illegal halfway houses in residential neighborhoods! The city, particularly Mike Kennedy, has been pushing officials to take no action on these houses. Is this part of his efforts to erase homelessness? At what price?…the innocence of our children?

    Comment by mary — August 7, 2011 @ 4:31 pm

  4. Your welcome.

    In the case of the Hastings issues, a couple of positive things have happened: The city includes the sex offender registry on the city website under Police. We now have legislation regarding the distance between the residence of a sex offender and a school and/or a school owned property where children might congregate. I was hoping to include parks as well, but that was excluded.

    Again, the current issue is simply one of zoning enforcement.

    Comment by Susie Snedaker — August 7, 2011 @ 9:29 pm

  5. I rather have a neighbor who has learned the hard way than someone who has not been caught yet. Sex offenders and felons live all around us. Each of us have the responsibility to use common sense to assure our families are safe, no matter where we go or live.

    Many people are sharing rent in neighborhoods. What is the differnce between several young people living in one house or a group home? The group home has more rules!

    Comment by LTR — August 8, 2011 @ 3:55 pm

  6. LTR,

    The illegal group home operators say they have rules. They may even be able to show you those rules, but the rules are not enforced consistently and uniformly. Often, in the illegal homes, they are not enforced at all. There is another difference: Several young people living in a house will be cited for ordinance violations. “Disabled” people living in illegal group homes enjoy a protected status in the city of Corrupt d’Alene. The city fears being sued by “disabled” druggies and drunks and being forced to defend against allegations of housing discrimination based on the occupants’ allegedly “disabled” status. The city attorney would rather capitulate to illegal group home operators than risk being sued by them. If the City officially ignores illegal group homes, then when something (violence, fire, etc.) happens there, the City can plead ignorance. The City will then harrumph and bluster about how, if they had only known what was going on, they would have stopped it. That is, of course, a lie.

    Comment by Bill — August 8, 2011 @ 6:42 pm

  7. Bill,

    I do not fear those former druggies and drunks who want to have a new start at life. People on probation are closely watched by probation officers to assure they stay on track. I have been blessed to witness many of those druggies and drunks be reunited with their families and become contributing community members.

    Comment by LTR — August 9, 2011 @ 7:48 pm

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