Code Enforcement Spotlight 2020

Mayor Anthony Copeland invites you to check out our latest Department Spotlight "Code Enforcement" With the Building Department. Join Director James Portalatin as he invites you on a ride-along with the Department and staff. Let's keep East Chicago clean and do your part by keeping your property and business up to code.

[dennismcclelland]

would you mind if i ask you a serious question? i agree with there being a need to prevent unhealthy conditions and to stop disease from manifesting and spreading. i am concerned with the arbitrary use of words present in code. as you may have guessed, yes, i am presently being harrassed by my local "city", and it is getting quite oppressive. i am looking to understand various perspectives, and i found your video. i will get to my questions. what is the standard for determining what is "garbage and rubbish"? what i am experiencing is that just about anything falls into this category using a subjective standard of the code enforcer, and what is okay one day is not the next. and i have sudied the court rulings, and they give a more objectively concrete description. additionally, i am told that i am in violation by having my tractor out of an enclosure, or a wheelbarrow out of an enclosure. i must have a trailer stored, yet when am i supposed to be allowed to use my trailer? and that leads me to a final thought that really gets me digging deeper: why am i supposed to be in a mindset of "when am i allowed to use my property". the constitution leads me to believe that i am under no obligation to ask anyone for permission to have and to enjoy property, and the history of our people shows that the only justified use of the police powers is for any dangers arising from a health risk. how is it a thing that code enforcers wake up and feel justified that they can come to my property and tell me that my generator, my tractor, and my wheelbarrow sitting behind my home and out of sight are violations? how are they violations, of what? of some arbitrary order from the desires of a local dictator, who dictates to me what i am allowed to do, and can threaten to take my things if i dont go spend money to build a whole building around my wheelbarrow? this is simply getting out of control, the constitution protects against such abuses of power, and the remedy for this abuse lies in the citizen-victim filing charges that the government entity is committing the tort of private nuisance by unreasonable interference with the use of land. aesthetics is not a justified use of police powerrs to deprive citizens of the enjoyment of their property. an injunction is required to enforce your rights. i am under no obligation to protect the value of your property, whereas the government is under an obligation to protect my rights to own and use property, under no stipulations, so long as i am not creating a public health hazard. stop doing things that you are not authorized to under the constitution. it is not your duty to bully poor people in order to impress yourselves at how "nice" something looks. you are not authorized to ensure that someones property value is maintained or increased by making the poorest of the poor do things that are based upon arbitrary and subjective standards. what you think is "excellent" should never be used to deprive citizens of their constitutional rights. who gets to determine what a property is valued at anyways, and if it is stated that my activity is affecting local property values, prove it. how can anyone even say what something will be worth to someone else, at some future moment? it is your duty (under the constitution) to act in the interest of the community, to prevent adverse conditions relating to public health. knock it off, i am allowed to be different, maybe i like multicolored fences, or tall grass. i dont have to make my fence appealing to you.