Sacramento resolves $270,000 code enforcement case. It centered on a Curtis Park hot tub
The city of Sacramento has resolved a set of lawsuits in which it sought more than $270,000 in fines and penalties from a a Curtis Park homeowner who installed a hot tub in a side yard.
The case, which played out in three separate lawsuits, was one of Sacramento’s most expensive pending code enforcement actions.
The bill began racking up in spring 2019, when the city started charging Robin Brewer at least $250 a day in code violations for installing the hot tub and fence in her side yard that abuts Curtis Park without permits, her attorney Daniel O’Donnell told The Sacramento Bee previously.
The city in April 2019 sued Brewer in Sacramento Superior Court, and Brewer, an attorney for the state Department of Water Resources, in 2020 filed a counter suit. Brewer’s lawsuit alleged the city had told her she did not need permits for the hot tub, then after she installed it, said she did need them.
In October the city signed an agreement to pay Brewer $10,000, in exchange for her dropping her counter lawsuits. As part of the deal the city also agreed to drop its original suit.
Brewer agreed to obtain a permit and finish building her wall around the hot tub at the corner of East Curtis Drive and Montgomery Way, by March 15.
“This settlement agreement resolves three lawsuits,” City Attorney Susana Alcala Wood said in a statement. “The city looks forward to Ms. Brewer applying for her permits, as required by the city code, and bringing this matter to a close.”
The three lawsuits included the one the city filed against Brewer, one counter lawsuit from Brewer against the city, and another lawsuit from Brewer against then-Councilman Jay Schenirer.
The city has not dropped a similar lawsuit against another Sacramento homeowner. Retiree Daniel Altstatt, 83, whom the city sued partly for working on old cars in his fenced East Sacramento backyard, still owes $573,000 to the city.
In May, 3rd District Court of Appeal Judge Louis Mauro rejected Altstatt’s appeal, finding officials appropriately enforced city codes at his property. Worried his house could be seized, he filed a petition to the California Supreme Court, which declined to hear it. He has now filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court, but it is very unlikely to be heard.
Sacramento has a process by which property owners can appeal a code violation, the city blog post about Altstatt said. It also offers extensions and support with compliance plans.
Both code violation cases were launched as the result of neighbor complaints.
This story was originally published January 7, 2023 at 5:30 AM.
