Oct 20 2008
With all the crime in California, why put an 83 year old woman in jail over a garage?
[LA Times]
La Quinta, Calif., resident says the space was a bedroom when she bought the house 30 years ago, but the city says it’s her responsibility to undo the illegal conversion. Ageda Camargo was sitting in her shady frontyard, wondering aloud if jail is as bad as it sounds.
“I’m thinking of writing Martha Stewart to ask what it’s like,” said the soft-spoken 83-year-old. “Do they put you in a cell? I wouldn’t want to be in a cell.”
These weren’t idle worries. Camargo, a grandmother of six, has run afoul of La Quinta’s code enforcement in a big way, big enough to put her behind bars. The city near Palm Springs insists that one of her three bedrooms is really an illegally converted garage. She insists it’s just a bedroom.
“What right do they have to call this a garage?” she asked, walking around the room with its cabinets, sink, bathroom and refrigerator. “I never called it a garage. How do they know it’s not a bedroom? If this is a garage, then they owe me a bedroom.”
For 18 months now, code enforcement officials have been after Camargo to turn the bedroom back into a garage. Insisting that her home is her castle, she has ignored more than a dozen warnings. Her resistance crumbled last week when a local judge ordered her to comply or face possible jail time.
“It’s traumatic. It’s like tearing my house down,” she said. “I bought this place 30 years ago, and it was always a bedroom. And now they are trying to shove this down my throat.
City building and safety director Tom Hartung said that an illegally converted garage poses health and safety risks but that going to court is a last resort.
“To say we should not enforce the ordinances based on the demographics of the owner of the property is unrealistic,” he said. “We can’t do that.”
Hartung said that in his 25-year career, he’s seen only one person jailed over a violation.
“I think we are very fair,” he said. “I don’t think you will find a more reasonable department.”
Camargo grew up on a family farm in nearby Thermal. In 1977, she moved to Avenida Montezuma in La Quinta, attracted by the isolation and soaring views of the nearby Santa Rosa Mountains. Her troubles began when a code enforcement officer spotted a light shining from her garage into the street, a code violation. He noticed her trash cans in front of the house (another violation) and weeds poking through the concrete (yet another one). But what really caught his eye were the garage doors. They were firmly fixed in the driveway and didn’t open. Windows lined one side wall of the attached structure.
“He began yelling orders at me and said he wanted to bring in inspectors,” Camargo said. “He wanted to come in, and I said, ‘No way am I going to let you in. Are you telling me this isn’t America anymore?’
Undeterred, code enforcement sent letter after letter warning that continued defiance could mean a fine or jail. The department gave her repeated extensions to undo the conversion. Still she didn’t budge.
Read more here.
[From me]
Don’t they have more dangerous people to go after than an 83 year old grandma? She bought the house 30 years ago like this. Why don’t they grandfather her in? Also what dangers come from converted room? Our home in seminary in Ft. Worth had a “den” that was garage years before. I never felt like we were in danger. California has enough problems than to go after sweet elderly women.
What do you think?
