CALVERTON PARK — Ever since Jeff Wilson moved into a matchbox house with a well-kept lawn on the west side of town more than four years ago, he says he’s had trouble with City Hall.Ìý
Wilson said Calverton Park fined him for not getting a new occupancy permit after the place he rents on Bascom Drive changed hands. And the city also came after him, he said, when weeds took over a shared fence line between his place and the boarded-up property next door. Now, he has to go to court.
Wilson said the city takes advantage of renters like him, and he may need to leave.Ìý
“I understand you still got to get revenue for the city,â€ÌýWilson said. “But some stuff is playing with people’s livelihoods.â€Ìý
And Wilson isn’t the only resident getting bogged down by penalties in Calverton Park.
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After Michael Brown was fatally shot by a Ferguson police officer in 2014, local governmentsÌý— especially in north ºüÀêÊÓƵ CountyÌý— came under scrutiny for relying on fines and fees that disproportionately targeted minorities. State legislators passed a law that set limits on traffic-related fines and court fees. And fines in many of those places dropped significantly.
But in fiscal year 2022, Calverton Park, which is nestled into the northwestern border of Ferguson, collected and disbursed $190,175 in fines, according to an Ìýfiled with the Office of State Courts Administrator.Ìý For a city of just over 1,100 people, that’s equivalent to $166 per resident — the highest per capita rate among the county’s 88 municipalities, according to a Post-Dispatch analysis — and around $93 more than the next-highest municipality, Edmundson.ÌýA portion of those fines were issued to nonresidents.Ìý
The city’s lawyer, Stephanie Karr, said the city’s location is a factor affecting traffic-related fines.ÌýNorth Florissant Road cuts through town, connecting Interstate 270 and Florissant on the north to Ferguson on the south. And McCluer High andÌýan elementary school also bring a lot of traffic.Ìý
But it’s not traffic-related enforcement that concerns some residents, but rather enforcement of other municipal ordinances.ÌýThey say they’re dinged for tall grass and trash. Parking in front of their homes. Expired tags.
Lamont Witherspoon, who’s lived in Calverton Park for six years, said it feels as though the city purposefully looks to fines and fees to generate revenue.
“That’s where the nitpicking come and the B.S. and stuff like that come from,†Witherspoon said.Ìý
At the same time, many homeowners in the city said they appreciate the city’s oversight.
“As a resident, I don’t always like it because, you know, like, they want to have a building inspection every year and stuff like that,â€Ìýsaid Cindy Elson, who splits her time between Calverton Park and Kirkwood. “But at least they’re on top of things.â€
Mayor James Paunovich said the city is in a battle to stay attractive to homebuyers. He pointed out that 75% of the houses on the west side of town are rentals, many owned by out-of-state corporations.Ìý
“Now, these homes need to be maintained,â€ÌýPaunovich said. “If they’re not maintained, they will just go derelict. And what we’re trying to do here: We’re trying to retain homeownership versus home rental.â€
‘Know your rights’
Joe Carr has lived in Calverton Park since the mid-2000s. He’s gotten citations at times for fence or vegetation issues, he said. Sometimes, he thinks they are fair; other times, he says, “No, I’m going to have to call someone about that.â€
Residents said the city nitpicks them for all sorts of violations.Ìý
Throughout town, there are “No Parkingâ€Ìýsigns. None are visible in front of Autumn Lawrence’s Bascom Drive home, though. Even so, she said her cousin received a parking ticket for parking on the street in front of her home.
Lawrence stays in a rental with her mother. For her, getting an occupancy permit has been a hassle. To do so, her home needs to pass an annual inspection.Ìý
When a Grether Avenue renter — who didn’t give her name to the Post-Dispatch for fear of retaliation — went to turn in an occupancy permit, she said she got fined for living in a rental there before she obtained the permit.
Wilson said penalties have left him feeling like the city is taking advantage of him. He had to learn his rights as a renter, he said.
“You got to know your rights and stuff like that and what the municipality can do and what they cannot do,â€Ìýhe said.
In some jurisdictions, renters don’t owe landlords rent if there’s no occupancy permit submitted for a rental, said William Waller,Ìýmanaging attorney of criminal and municipal defense at ArchCity Defenders, a public interest law firm. In others, like Calverton Park, ordinances allow the city to penalize either the landlord or the tenant, he said.
And tenants aren’t best situated to ensure a rental passes inspection and obtain an occupancy permit, Waller said.
“They’re renting a place on the representation that it’s habitable and up to code and legal, and paying for that privilege,â€ÌýWaller said.
Mayor Paunovich said the city only goes after renters after first trying to reach their landlords.
“Our thinking there is, the renter is going to go after the landlord himself,â€ÌýPaunovich said.
‘Go somewhere else’Ìý
Residents also complain that Calverton Park is towing vehicles off driveways, a practice KTVI (Channel 2)Ìý. Lawrence said the city warned that it would tow her mother’s Jeep because of its expired tags.Ìý
A city bans residents from keeping partly dismantled, wrecked, dilapidated, abandoned or non-operational vehicles on private property, outside of a garage or a basement. It also bans vehicles that don’t have proper registration from sitting on private property.
TheÌýordinance lays out an abatement process. The city gives violators at least a 10-day notice before they have to meet with its health commissioner. After that, violators are given 20 days, or a period deemed reasonable by the commissioner, to take care of the nuisance. City officials then can abate the nuisance. Violators get a week after the commissioner’s decision to file an appeal.Ìý
The city obtains warrants before towing vehicles, the mayor said. Then, it charges the vehicle owners for the costs and labor related to the abatement through a bill, which can become a lien if unpaid.
Another resident — who didn’t tell the Post-Dispatch his name because he alleged the city would harass him — said the city towed his car off his mother’s driveway because his transmission was broken. At the time, he was living in a trailer by Coldwater Creek. It flooded, and without a truck, he couldn’t tow it out. He said he lost everything.
And a friend asked John Thiessen of Grether Avenue if he could store a car for two weeks. Those passed, then a month and another, Thiessen said, and the car didn’t get picked up off his driveway. He received a notice in the mail warning that if the car wasn’t removed, the city would start charging him money.
“And I said, ‘Listen, come take the car. ... It’s not my car. I don’t care,’â€ÌýThiessen said.
The city towed the car and charged Thiessen a fee, which he’s paying off through $10 payments every month, he said.
“I’ll fight them on principle at certain times,†Thiessen said. “But then there’s other times it’s just worth it just to give them a little $110.â€Ìý
Thiessen says Calverton Park isn’t a high-dollar community. People there are just trying to live, he said.
“As long as I don’t have trash everywhere ...Ìý my response is leave me alone,â€ÌýThiessen said. “You know, it’s my property.â€
He said the city should instead pay more attention to dilapidated buildings.
But Paunovich said Calverton Park looks a lot better than surrounding communities because of its code enforcement.Ìý
“You leave our city and keep going west on Young," Paunovich said of the road that cuts into Hazelwood, “you see the difference in the housing. You see the difference in the overgrowth of leaves and trees. You’ll see it visually, and those people who live there, they also see it too."
Strict enforcement of the city’s ordinances “has nothing to do with revenue," he says.Ìý
“It has everything to do with following the law. If you don’t like to follow the law, then go somewhere else."
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