Gary Blair, owner, appeared
Terrance Fahey, tenant, appeared via phone
Staff report by Supervisor Der Vue: this is a partial revocation of the Fire Certificate of
Occupancy, only for unit 3, for failure to comply with the Legislative Hearing Officer’s
recommendation and Council vote to grant compliance to September 1 with the
exception that a structural engineer’s report was submitted to our office no later than
April 28, 2025. No report was submitted, and Monday April 28, 2025 instead property
owner Gary Blair stated the repairs were made to the post. An exterior inspection was
done May 30 by Building Inspector Steve Maki and the Fire Inspector. Inspector says:
today I met with Steve Maki onsite to review the repairs and provide opinion and
assessment. No permit was pulled as required in orders and he was unwilling to sign
off on stairs as they were. Several missing components and building inspector was not
certain if the concrete blocks were resting on footings or just a slab in the rear of the
house. He also stated that several other parts of the stairs were done incorrectly as
well and were not code compliant, though some of the issues may be old enough to fall
into legal non-conforming territory. Mr. Maki did state that the post was focus of the
orders, wasn’t repaired properly, and he wouldn’t sign off on the work in this condition,
even if a permit had been pulled. Due to failure to comply with the Council’s orders,
and the building inspector’s concerns about the integrity of the post, a partial
revocation of the Fire Certificate of Occupancy with orders to vacate was issued for
unit 3 only. That is the top level of the property and only has one entry/exit from the
rear of the property and up these exterior stairs.
Moermond: you took enforcement action. April 28 was deadline for that. Reinspection
was done May 30th, and the new orders June 9th with this being revoked and ordered
vacated unless corrected by July 10th. Mr. Fahey, tell me about your appeal.
Fahey: I’m not appealing the repairs that are needed. It is obvious the need to be
done. I have a 2.5-year-old daughter I have over half the time, I am appealing to get
more time. I have a place lined up but it isn’t available until August 1. That’s only 20
days past July 10th. I understand the repairs are needed but at this point I feel like it
is safer than my daughter and I being out on the street. I am simply asking until
August 1 when the new place is available. All of the repairs that are needed and that
the City is requesting are no fault of my own. I haven’t damaged anything or anything of
the nature. Unfortunately, this is what it has come too. I just need safe housing for
now.
Moermond: Mr. Blair?
Blair: I don’t agree with everything Terry said. His daughter, when he was renting, was
told she was making occasional visits. However, Terry has expressed he’d like to stay
if he could under the right conditions. He’s felt safe since this started a few months
ago. There are two staircases up to the third floor, not one. Terry chooses to use the
one with the post. That post has been inspected the past 3 decades.
Moermond: which was determined to be inadequate.
Blair: they didn’t have an engineer available, and it was expensive, and we were up
against the deadline. Rather than waiting on the inspection we decided to fix it. It was
an inexpensive fix. Its in better condition than when it was built. We did call to get it
taken care of. I have the inspection report.
Moermond: you’re mixing the term inspection and engineer review. When I hear
inspector I think Ms. Vue or Inspector Maki.