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HomeMy WebLinkAboutBernard Lennon - Constituent AssistanceHello Mr. Bond, I work in Congressman Posey’s office. This constituent requested assistance from my office, but I don’t believe it’s a federal issue. Is this something your office could assist with? I have provided his contact information and email to me below. Sorry for the length! Thanks, Jakob Klemm 321-632-1776 Mr. Bernard M. Lennon 126 Oak Ln Cape Canaveral, FL 32920-3408 (321) 799-3650 abc777@cfl.rr.com <mailto:abc777@cfl.rr.com> David Greene, City Manager of Cape Canaveral Florida: I was given an assurance that the City of Cape Canaveral would not issue any more Certificates of Occupancy to the housing development “Sheropa LLC.” until the surveying error is resolved. The Certificate of Occupancy is an assurance that all codes and laws are in compliance, the impact fees have been paid, there are no safety issues and the property borders are located correctly. Patrick T. Lee is a former Mayor of Cape Canaveral (1985-1988). Bob Hoog, who is the current Mayor of Cape Canaveral, and was also the Vice Mayor to Patrick T. Lee. During this time frame, Patrick T. Lee was convicted and sentenced to almost 6 years in federal prison for fraud. Patrick T. Lee currently owns the company “Sheropa LLC.” that is building homes for resale on Oak Lane in Cape Canaveral. My home is also located on Oak Lane. I first met Patrick Lee and Ronald Abeles (a partner in Sheropa LCC) about a year and a half ago when they were in front of my home planning their development. Patrick Lee was commenting how this development would not have been possible had they not been exempted from the $80,000.00 impact fees. A few months go by and surveying markers were placed in an odd place on Oak Lane. A few weeks later Harrack Trucking and Clearing arrived and threw 5 car tires onto my property. I threw the tires back to Sheropa property. This was followed by more debris and heavy equipment repairs being performed on my property. This lasted for weeks and created a big mess on my property so I brought It to the attention of Ronald Abeles. His angry response was he could not be their 24 hours a day to watch over the subcontractors. After a few weeks of bringing this to the attention of everyone involved within the Sheropa LLC development, I turned to Duree Alexander, Code Enforcement Officer for the City of Cape Canaveral, for help. Duree Alexander could not say enough good things about Ronald Abeles. I explained to her my experience was not the same and I had exhausted all attempts to resolve this issue with Sheropa LLC. She insisted on having Ronald Abeles contact me to resolve this. That night while my family and I walked to the beach after dinner, Ronald Abeles tracked us down in his car and started screaming “you do not go to City Hall, you come to me, now repeat after me, you do not go to City Hall you come to me.” He yelled this 2 or 3 more times and drove off. The next day I told Duree Alexander this story and once again she could not not say enough good things about Ronald Abeles and that was the end of it. After the first heavy equipment repair job, broken parts were tossed onto my property and a very strong chemical smell lingered in the entire area for weeks. I went back to code enforcement with this new information. Duree Alexander said she would take care of it but she did nothing. Now another piece of heavy equipment broke down for a few weeks with the exact same results. Once again a strong chemical smell. After another visit with Duree explaining this second incident, she assured me she would take care of it. To this date Duree Alexander has done nothing to clean up this chemical spill by Harrack Trucking and Clearing on my property. Next Sheropa LLC. moved a large trash dumpster from their property onto my property and replaced a porta toilet with a special porta toilet with graffiti that said F*** YOU, intended to intimidate me, and placed it on my property. This is the only time I had results from Code Enforcement because a short while later Sheropa moved the dumpster back to their property and replaced the porta toilet with one that did not have graffiti on it. Sheropa LLC then installed forms to pour the cement pad for 139 Oak Lane. I immediately knew the house was located incorrectly. I was out with a 100-foot measuring tape when Patrick Lee arrived and asked what I was doing. I explained to him the error his surveyor had made. The next day Walker surveying arrived to recheck his work. When I approached him he had a temper tantrum, throwing tools and cursing me for not being trained in surveying and telling him how to do his job. After 5 minutes he concluded his work was accurate. The next day I was outside with the 100-foot measuring tape again when Patrick Lee arrived. He told me I need to find another hobby and quit bothering him with the survey. Patrick Lee then told me his ocean front home has an extra 10 feet, his justification for ignoring this survey error. At that time Patrick Lee was not aware that 300 feet from where we were standing next to the Circle K is a surveying monument that has been successfully used to locate all the local improvements for years. The previous owner of 123 Oak Lane hammered a rebar into the ground about 12 feet inside the public right-a-way of Oak Lane. This may be the error that snowballed into the problem Sheropa LLC now has. I went to the Cape Canaveral building department informing them about the surveying error and all the other problems. I was assured by the building department they would not allow Sheropa to get away with the surveying error and they would deal with the other problems. The next day cement trucks arrived to pour the pad for 139 Oak Lane. It was obvious the pad was at street level, not 3 feet above like the City of Cape Canaveral insisted my home be built in 2009. This concerned me because I have seen 6 inches of standing water at that location after a rain. Things went from bad to worse! Someone ordered a city drainage canal a far distance from home to be cleaned out and transported that debris onto my property at 126 Oak Lane. SIX TRACTOR TRAILER LOADS OF DEBRIS DUMPED ONTO MY PROPERTY!!!! Was it to intimidate me? Most likely! Was the continued intrusion onto my property to teach me who was in control? Most likely! Did this have the added benefit of covering up the chemical spills form Harrack Trucking and clearing? Absolutely! Prior to this event, I had no idea of Patrick Lee’s sordid past or him being a former Mayor of the city of Cape Canaveral. All attempts to find who ordered this dumping have been ignored. I can only assume that one or both of the Mayors are the only ones with enough authority to order this type of retaliation. For over a year, Sheropa LLC has created a major issue on Oak Lane averaging issues 1 to 2 times per week. And this is only me--other residents of Oak Lane are having the same problems with Sheropa LLC with the same results as myself. It has been a full time job for me to manage all the mess Sheropa LLC has created. It took two weeks of effort to have Sheropa LLC remove the two 35-foot palm trees that Harrack Trucking and Clearing slid under the vegetation on my property thinking I would not see it. Harrack Trucking and Clearing also hid the 5 car tires back on my property. There were drunken landscapers’ beer bottles, homeless people, doors slamming all night for months on end because Sheropa LLC refused to put on door knobs, probably because they knew it kept me awake at nights. After many complaints to the City of Cape Canaveral, Michael German finally put in a request for Sheropa to install the door knobs. I asked the neighbors if they could hear the slamming. They thought it was months-long lightning storms. A paver brick driveway was installed at 135 Oak Lane. The next day I informed Duree Alexander about two wheelbarrow loads of broken paver brick that match the driveway at 135 that were dumped onto my property. Duree informed me I could not prove Sheropa LLC was responsible. Just after that incident I watched while Harrack Trucking and Clearing loaded a large excavator onto a trailer in front of 123 Oak Lane. Harrack Trucking and Clearing Crushed the utilities and gouged out the vegetation leaving huge ruts. I took pictures of the damage so Duree would have proof. Duree assured me this issue would be resolved. As of today no vegetation has grown back and the large ruts have eroded into a mini Grand Canyon. I brought all of the issues to the attention of the City of Cape Canaveral. With the exception of the door knobs and porta toilet, all were ignored. In fact, after the City dumped 6 loads of debris onto my property, they quit responding to me all together. This includes issues involving public safety, such as large trucks brushing against the power lines because Sheropa LLC displaced Oak Lane, and a large hole dug in the right-of-way by Sheropa LLC months ago that has no road barriers or lighting. This dangerous hole continues to get worse because it is 3 feet deep and 4 feet in diameter and weeds have grown to the same height as the road giving the illusion there is no hole. A pedestrian, bicycle or car could easily fall into the hole. Bob Hoog, the current Mayor of Cape Canaveral, made an unannounced visit to my home on 3/18/2016. He had an aggressive stance and refused to shake my hand, obviously trying to intimidate me. I suggested we examine the survey error. Mayor Hoog was very angry with this suggestion and he would not discuss the issue because, he said, his father built some of the first mobile home parks in Cape Canaveral without surveys and therefore surveys were useless to him. I told him I have a [property abstract] which is a collection of legal documents that chronicle transactions associated with my property along with a signed and sealed survey by a licensed surveyor in the state of Florida. He barked out “it doesn’t mean a damn”. To me it seems delusional for Mayor Bob Hoog to believe he and Patrick Lee can conspire together to take away a large portion of my property and get away with it. The extreme accuracy of GPS and modern measuring tools combined with quick access to documents makes it impossible to get this wrong. That’s why I am now concerned with the liability for the residents of Cape Canaveral with this type of delusional thinking. I will get my property back but what kind of mess will the neighborhood be in? You believe and I quote “I don't want to conjecture what the findings will be or what may occur thereafter. However, I will reiterate that this more than likely will be a civil matter between private parties.” I believe this is a criminal matter between the City of Cape Canaveral and the people of Cape Canaveral. I keep in touch with my neighbors who are having the same problems as myself involving this matter: large parcels of their property taken by Sheropa LLC, construction debris, property damage, safety issues. Talking with the neighbor at 123 Oak Lane, the city required him to pay for a survey of the Sheropa LLC development and if it proved Sheropa LLC had taken his property, he was promised a stop work order would be initiated. Sheropa LLC has taken so much of his property with this incorrect survey that it no longer qualifies for R-1 zoning. The survey my neighbor was required to pay for was very expensive because it took two people months of research at the county courthouse and physically surveying as far away as Port Canaveral. I was told that after that amount of effort the survey was 100% accurate. It proves that all 4 homes Sheropa LLC has built are about 12 feet too far north, taking that amount away from my property, and about 12 feet too far east taking that away from 123 Oak Lane. Did the city place a stop work order? NO! You then required him to sign a contract making him financially responsible for another survey of your choosing and to commit to abide by the results! Apparently you were unable to find a surveyor who would side with the former mayor, Patrick Lee, so you scrapped that whole idea and determined the expensive survey was not valid and the former mayor Patrick Lee can take his property. Earlier you emailed me this quote: “My understanding is that the two surveyors are working through the discrepancy in the surveys and once they reach consensus will submit their findings. Please note that a Certificate of Occupancy will not be issued until this issue is resolved.” I was told by neighbors that long before you sent me that email that you knew Sheropa LLC’s surveyor had conceded he had made a mistake on the survey and refused to talk to anyone after that. The reason you sent that email was so Sheropa LLC could accelerate construction to 24 / 7. I am told that in itself is a code violation. One neighbor was harassed by a Sheropa LLC contractor at 11:00 p.m. on a Sunday night to open her garage door so they could plug in to the power because the noisy generator broke down. David Greene, as the City Manager of Cape Canaveral you have let this get so far out of control I don’t know where to begin! Its unbelievable you ignore the very serious safety issues! We are fortunate no one has been injured or killed yet! The dangers need to be resolved IMMEDIATELY, before someone is injured or killed. Next the issues involving the homes that you have already given a Certificate of Occupancy need to be informed of the issues involving their homes. Sheropa needs to repair all the damage it is responsible for including the roadway, utilities, and private property. Then as a community we need to find a solution that everyone can agree to fix the damage caused by the Sheropa LLC. Florida has a very broad public records law. As a result, any written communication created or received by the City of Cape Canaveral officials and employees will be made available to the public and/or media upon request, unless otherwise exempt. Under Florida Law, email addresses are public records. If you do not want your email address released in response to a public-records request, do not send electronic email to this entity. Instead, contact our office by phone or in writing uld be initiated. Sheropa LLC has taken so much of his property with this incorrect survey that it no longer qualifies for R-1 zoning. The survey my neighbor was required to pay for was very expensive because it took two people months of research at the county courthouse and physically surveying as far away as Port Canaveral. I was told that after that amount of effort the survey was 100% accurate. It proves that all 4 homes Sheropa LLC has built are about 12 feet too far north, taking that amount away from my property, and about 12 feet too far east taking that away from 123 Oak Lane. Did the city place a stop work order? NO! You then required him to sign a contract making him financially responsible for another survey of your choosing and to commit to abide by the results! Apparently you were unable to find a surveyor who would side with the former mayor, Patrick Lee, so you scrapped that whole idea and determined the expensive survey was not valid and the former mayor Patrick Lee can take his property. Earlier you emailed me this quote: “My understanding is that the two surveyors are working through the discrepancy in the surveys and once they reach consensus will submit their findings. Please note that a Certificate of Occupancy will not be issued until this issue is resolved.” I was told by neighbors that long before you sent me that email that you knew Sheropa LLC’s surveyor had conceded he had made a mistake on the survey and refused to talk to anyone after that. The reason you sent that email was so Sheropa LLC could accelerate construction to 24 / 7. I am told that in itself is a code violation. One neighbor was harassed by a Sheropa LLC contractor at 11:00 p.m. on a Sunday night to open her garage door so they could plug in to the power because the noisy generator broke down. David Greene, as the City Manager of Cape Canaveral you have let this get so far out of control I don’t know where to begin! Its unbelievable you ignore the very serious safety issues! We are fortunate no one has been injured or killed yet! The dangers need to be resolved IMMEDIATELY, before someone is injured or killed. Next the issues involving the homes that you have already given a Certificate of Occupancy need to be informed of the issues involving their homes. Sheropa needs to repair all the damage it is responsible for including the roadway, utilities, and private property. Then as a community we need to find a solution that everyone can agree to fix the damage caused by the Sheropa LLC. Florida has a very broad public records law. As a result, any written communication created or received by the City of Cape Canaveral officials and employees will be made available to the public and/or media upon request, unless otherwise exempt. Under Florida Law, email addresses are public records. If you do not want your email address released in response to a public-records request, do not send electronic email to this entity. Instead, contact our office by phone or in writing