15 West Kellogg Blvd.

Saint Paul, MN 55102

City of Saint Paul

Minutes - Final

Legislative Hearings

Marcia Moermond, Legislative Hearing Officer

Mai Vang, Hearing Coordinator

Joanna Zimny, Executive Assistant

legislativehearings@ci.stpaul.mn.us

651-266-8585

Tuesday, December 16, 2025

9:00 AM

Room 330 City Hall & Court House/Remote

10:00 a.m. Hearings

Special Tax Assessments

RLH TA 25-397

Ratifying the Appealed Special Tax Assessment for property at 101

WINNIPEG AVENUE. (File No. J2513TW2, Assessment No. 258595)

Bowie

Sponsors:

Delete the assessment.

Mussie Asrat, owner, appeared via phone

Staff report by Supervisor Lisa Martin: tall grass and weeds in June, not done a word

order was sent, by the time the crew got out the owner had cut the grass. This is a trip

charge.

Moermond: I have a note you think the City got the wrong house. Tell me more.

Asrat: no one is living on the right side for 2 years. The grass is really time. I cut the

grass and after 3 or 4 days I got a letter from you guys with the warning. I said ok, I cut

it again. But the neighbor has very tall grass, it is a mess. A crew came, cleaned, and

cut it. It wasn’t my house. I work from home most of the time, and my mom and dad

live with us. No one came to touch our yard. No one. I think whoever complained

meant to complaint about the neighbor and gave the wrong address.

Moermond: this is a bill related to a letter saying cut by a certain day, if you don’t we

will send a crew, and they’re saying when the crew got there everything was fine. They

want to charge you for the trip they made. You are right that 107 did get orders to mow

at the same time. What I can’t tell because the computer system is down still, and the

information I do see makes me question things, so I’m going to recommend in that

one instance I’ll recommend this is deleted.

Referred to the City Council due back on 1/7/2026

Special Tax Assessments - Assessment Roll

RLH AR 25-98

Ratifying the assessment for Tall Grass and Weed Removal services

during June 27 to July 8, 2025. (File No. J2602TW, Assessment No.

268702)

Noecker

Sponsors:

Referred to the City Council due back on 1/21/2026

11:00 a.m. Hearings

Summary & Vehicle Abatement Orders

RLH SAO

25-62

Appeal of Deborah Ruberto to a Summary Abatement Order and Vehicle

Abatement Order at 235 BATES AVENUE.

Johnson

Sponsors:

The nuisance is abated and the matter resolved.

Voicemail left at 11:42 am: this is Marcia Moermond from St. Paul City Council calling

you about the orders on your property at 235 Bates. An inspector was out this morning

and says everything is cleared and the matter resolved. Have a good rest of the day.

Referred to the City Council due back on 1/7/2026

RLH SAO

25-60

Appeal of Emmett J. Owens, Jr. to a Summary Abatement Order and

Vehicle Abatement Order at 239 BATES AVENUE.

Johnson

Sponsors:

Grant extension to June 1, 2026 for tents and car port (via removal or site approval).

Vehicles are abated.

Emmett Owens, owner, appeared via phone

Moermond: calling about the orders and the most recent inspector visit. A few things I

wanted to check in with you about. One is the deadlines we were establishing for

things. It looks like we have deadlines for the exterior items by April 15th.

Owens: most of the stuff is moved. I let my neighbor know, she’s the one with cats.

I’ve called the police a couple times on the ice out here. This winter is hitting with a big

bang.

Moermond: I have given a lot of thought about your metal building, the one open on 2

ends and closed on 2 sides, because of its size you need to have a building permit for

it. If you can get a building permit approved it can be there. We can send you

information on how to apply for one. If you can’t get a permit we’ll have to figure out

when to get it down by.

Owens: they have them all over here on the east side and no one bothers them. Why

is it raining down so hard on me?

Moermond: I think because it needed repairs it came under the microscope.

Martin: there’s tent structures up as well, not sure when those went up, but those need

to be removed too.

Owens: the tents ain’t bothering no-damn-body. There’s got to be some other people

and I’m a hard working man and can’t have no decent retirement.

Moermond: look, I’m trying to work with you. If we get a building permit it will be ok. It

is a structure and is large enough it requires a building permit. I don’t know about other

car ports on the east side that do or don’t have permits. I only know I’m looking at

yours.

Owens: it has to be a white family that has it then. You got a bloodhound tracking me

down in my retirement days. It is BS. You got chris carter coming around bothering

me. There’s a school right here and kids are walking by safety and they duck in to get

warm. It is bogus. That’s going to cost more money to get the damn building permit

which other people don’t have.

Martin: the contents of the carport, we have exterior storage that needs to be removed

or enclosed in a garage. They aren’t outdoor furniture.

Owens: ok I can donate them but this is just….man….

Moermond: don’t keep it up for longer than six months. The gray colored tarp thing and

a tan colored one.

Owens: in the front or back?

Moermond: in the back. The gray one is besides the car port and the tan one beside

the gray one.

Owens: Ms. Martin can come and take this big ass tree down that’s causing

corruption.

Moermond: it is your tree, not a right-of-way tree.

Owens: it isn’t my tree; it has been here 30 years. I can’t see out my front window

because of the tree. It totaled out 2 of my vehicles. In front of 235 and 237 Bates. I

paid to have someone trim it.

Moermond: I see it now. We can get you some information on the Forestry department

on who to contact, they may be able to help.

You have until June on the car port. Apply for a building permit and see what they’re

looking for. It may go smoothly, I hope it does. I’m sorry for the hassle.

Owens: I’m a marked man over here. I’m trying to retire and now my Christmas is

ruined. It is going to cost more money to put the damn thing back up every six

months. This don’t make no damn sense. Drive the east side and see all the stuff

people are getting away with and you got inspectors tagging you up for nothing.

Moermond: the same rules apply throughout the City. I’m afraid we can’t tailor it for

Dayton’s Bluff area. We’ll try and slow things down so it doesn’t cost money all at once.

Owens: if we can just forget about it. I wish the inspectors would come pick up the

dope pipes on my sidewalk or whatever and trimming the tree branches that keep

growing.

Moermond: and I just said I’ll call forestry on that. you get an automatic six months on

those sheds. That just leaves us with the car port.

Owens: its obvious I’m not going to have a good new year. Can’t a black taxpayer get a

break around here?

Moermond: this goes in front of Council January 14th. You can definitely talk to them

and look for a different solution. They may have one for you.

Owens: I replaced my fence with a wood fence like you wanted and I got railroaded and

had to pay $10,000 to put it up.

Moermond: Ms. Martin, when the inspector went by were there problems with the

vehicles?

Martin: the vehicles are fine, he moved those.

Owens: wow.

Moermond: we’ll send a follow up letter. You talk to Council January 14th at 3:30.

Owens: I’ll try to get my neighbor Debbie to come down. Not no Bruce Johnson. I own

half this building here and I’m the most disrespected.

Moermond: I left her a message saying she was done. All her items were taken care

of.

Owens: alright. Maybe she can give me some advice. Being a damn target. This is just

me and her this Bruce whatever, oh boy.

Referred to the City Council due back on 1/7/2026

RLH SAO

25-75

Appeal of Rashad Turner to a Vehicle Abatement Order at 805

MINNEHAHA AVENUE WEST.

Bowie

Sponsors:

Rescheduled to 12/18 at 1 pm per owner's request.

Moermond: per request of owner this is continued to Thursday at 1 pm. He is

unavailable today.

Laid Over to the Legislative Hearings due back on 12/18/2025

Making Finding on Nuisance Abatements

RLH SAO

25-58

Making finding on the appealed nuisance abatement ordered for 2016

FREMONT AVENUE in Council File RLH SAO 25-55.

Johnson

Sponsors:

The nuisance is abated and the matter resolved related to TG&W.

No one appeared

Moermond: we have a situation where we have a couple of deadlines. We’re checking

on the tall grass and weeds and that has been dealt with. There is a ton of new snow

which has taken care of that.

The deadline for the Vehicle Abatement Order, camper, is January 9th. That hasn’t

come yet, however the inspectors noted there are 2 other vehicles on site that are not

code compliant and orders are forthcoming on those two from the Department. We’ll

send an email to Mr. Puhala confirming that.

Referred to the City Council due back on 1/7/2026

2:00 p.m. Hearings

Fire Certificates of Occupancy

RLH FCO

25-75

Appeal of Aychoeun Tea to a Fire Inspection Report at 318 EDMUND

AVENUE.

Bowie

Sponsors:

1) Grant appeal to be removed from C of O program and 2) deny appeal on orders and

transfer them to Code Enforcement.

Aychoeun Tea, parent of owner, appeared via phone

Moermond: calling about your son’s property at 318 Edmund.

Tea: my son is in Region’s Hospital. There’s no one there. I don’t know how long before

he comes out.

Moermond: the question is whether he lives there or not.

Tea: he lives there and right now he’s in the hospital.

[Moermond gives background of appeals process]

Staff report by Supervisor Keith Demarest: this is a single-family home and the owner

shows an address going to a P O box in Minneapolis, leading us to believe this is an

unlicensed Certificate of Occupancy property. November 5 2025 fire received a referral

from Animal Control stating they had a call to check the wellbeing of a German

Shepard. Animal Control was unable to make contact with resident or owner. Strong

odor coming from property. At that point Animal Control forwarded their response to us

for further assistance. November 11 we received another referral stating a smell was

still present at the property. November 12 fire safety received an update from Animal

Control saying they contacted someone saying she was keeping her sons dog at while

he has been away. She plans to move the dog to another house in the City which they

were going to follow up on. The person mentioned they were moving it to 657

Sherburne and we later found that is also a Vacant Building and shouldn’t be occupied.

November 12, 2025 we made our first visit to the house. No answer at property.

November 17, another inspection at 11 am, no one was there, the short orders posted

Friday before were off the door. I have yet to talk with anyone in person about this

address. At this point believing this was an unlicensed Certificate of Occupancy

property sent orders to owner claiming they would need to get a Fire Certificate of

Occupancy and allow inspections along with some exterior issues including missing

address numbers and window screens.

Tea: he talked to long. I’m driving.

Moermond: sorry Mr. Demarest talked for so long.

Tea: you know what he said? I never got anything. I take care of everything for my son,

he can’t do anything you know that. I talked to Animal Control and I would take the

animal out because my son is sick and cannot handle the dog. It wasn’t to 657

Sherburne. I said I’d bring to my house. A different place. No one lives at 657

Sherburne.

Moermond: well you own it, it seems likely you would have been the one to mention it.

Aychoeun Tea: why do they want to come check out my house?

Moermond: orders were sent to the property owner of record, which is a P.O. Box.

That’s unusual if its owner occupied. More to the point, not only was there not only the

dog situation, there was a strong odor of urine and feces coming from the house.

That’s concerning for the health of whoever is in the house. I would add that I was

hearing there were no foot prints for any dog being present and sounded like it was

closed up in the house without anyone taking care of it. The smell would say the dog is

relieving itself inside the home. That’s why they’re involved. That’s still a problem if its

owner-occupied. My question back to you is what is going on with this situation? Does

your dog just stay with no one tending to it?

Tea: no, the dog isn’t over there now.

Moermond: it was there, was there anyone going there a couple times of day to take

care of it?

Tea: yes, my friend who lives a block away was taking him out every day.

Moermond: have you been there?

Tea: yes, we took care of everything. We cleaned up. I had a lot of—you

know—furniture, whatever, my house.

Moermond: is it your house or your son’s house? Your name isn’t legally on the house.

His name is.

Tea: it is his house. He is in the hospital. I always tell him I bring the dog with me.

Moermond: I’m not confident in the situation with that. I’m concerned the dog was

neglected. When was he sick?

Tea: 2 weeks ago.

Moermond: this was going on before that then.

Tea: I always use a P.O. Box so it all goes to the same place. 17165 is the new box.

He is sick. He’s lost 50 lbs. I need time, it is really hard for me. Just give me a little

time.

Demarest: this is a typical response from us. When the owner’s name doesn’t coincide

with the address on County records it leads us to believe the property owner isn’t on

site. We do try and make contact and get in the house and check for safety issues.

Moermond: we will take this at face value and say he is the owner-occupant and refer

these orders to Code Enforcement to confirm safe and sanitary conditions on the

interior. Let’s close the Fire Certificate of Occupancy file and do a referral. There will

be follow up, Ms. Tea, but from different staff.

The other thing I wanted to flag was property taxes haven’t been paid since at least

2021 and it is due to forfeit in 2027 to the state due to nonpayment. You may want to

look into that situation.

Tea: where should I go to pay the taxes? He had no job.