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A recent Facebook post by a local car repair shop owner regarding city codes enforcement was the subject of discussion during City Council’s Jan. 3 pre-agenda work session.

The subject was introduced by City Administrator Tony Cox as “a car repair place that has cars outside the codes standard and efforts in code enforcement resulting in the property owner reacting.”

Virgil Webb, who owns East Main Service Center in the downtown area, posted a statement on Facebook: “I own 3 pieces of property on Main Street and the codes officer said I could only have 5 cars I have 3 employees and we drive to work so I can only have 1 customer.”

The post was shared by several of Webb’s social media friends and responded to in person by Morristown Mayor Gary Chesney, as reported on his personal Facebook page, Gary Chesney at City Hall.

“This morning, we went back and revisited the site and looked for some of the concerns that are on the site and that will need to be resolved,” Cox said. “My understanding is that in three weeks we’ll go back and check on progress on site. There are a number of cars that are not tagged, that are not operable. That are a number of parts stored outdoors that would fail to meet a number of code requirements, both zoning and storm water codes.”

According to City Planning Director Steve Nielson, the primary concerns are vehicles that are blocking the line of sight at the intersection of East Main and Montvue and cars parked in the right of way.

“You’ve got a lot of vehicles that are untagged, inoperable,” Nielson said, citing a vehicle with a 2013 tag.

“We walked through and looked at all the cars. Some are marked to be demolished. He did not receive a notice to go to court. We just sent him a notice saying there are some violations that we need to sit down and talk about. There was no discussion of closing his business. We went through and we talked about which cars could go. We talked about the process of tagging the cars and getting rid of some other cars. He’s got cars that owners dropped off years ago and have never done anything with. We told him, ‘We understand this isn’t going to get corrected overnight,’” Nielson said.

Nielson said city staff acknowledges that Webb has been in business for a number of years and said it’s to be expected that there would be inoperable cars at the site of the business – “That’s why you have a repair garage,” he said.

In addition to those cars currently under repair, Nielson said there were unregistered vehicles and others that had registration tags from 2013, 2015, 2016.

“There were a number of cars that had no tags whatsoever; and it’s not realistic to think those have not been sitting there for some time,” Nielson said.

Chesney added, “This is not a new problem. It’s something that’s been going through you all’s office; as I understand it, you’ve been communicating with Mr. Webb for many months.”

According to Nielson, City of Morristown Codes Enforcement Officer Jonathan Maxey had stopped in to see Webb at least two times before sending him a notice, explaining to him what the concerns were.

“He didn’t take any steps to improve the situation, and the notice helped get the things rolling,” Nielson said.

Chesney asked, “The codes department has fielded complaints periodically from members of the public over visibility and appearance, is that also true?”

Nielson nodded in agreement. “And I’ve gotten complaints too. And that’s the thing; when we look at other sites that have compliance issues, the first thing they do is point to that (site) and say, ‘Well, you’re not enforcing regulations on them.’”

Maxey, who was present at the meeting, reported to council there was an outstanding notice that was sent to Webb by city staffer Lori Matthews in 2018 and it was never closed nor placed in compliance.

Maxey told council that he and another codes enforcement officer visited Webb in person several months ago to request that he work to get into compliance because Maxey anticipated a complaint would be filed.

Common in codes enforcement situations are businesses or individuals who have received notices from the city to come into compliance and who will then ‘tattle,’ or file a complaint on those who they feel are also out of compliance.

As Maxey anticipated, the complaint was recently filed by an individual he described as a repeat offender.

“That said, as we all know, I’m not here to base it (a decision) on a ‘like.’ I like Brother Virgil; he’s a good man and one heck of a singer, I might add. But that’s beside the point … this is about ordinances and codes that you all have adopted, approved. And then I’m supposed to go out and do my job, which is to enforce them … “

Chesney expressed Council’s appreciation for Maxey’s job performance, adding “It’s kind of a thankless job, we understand that.”

“As I told Mr. Webb in our conversation, the public has a right to expect certain standards of appearance and safety (to be) met. And at the same time, business owners have the right to expect to be treated with fairness and dignity when officers such as yourself or Mr. Johns or Mr. Nielson show up and let them know there has to be improvements made. I think as long as those two sides are understood, we’ll make progress,” Chesney said.

Council member Al A’Hearn commented that he could think of three other businesses on Main Street that have cars that seem to be a similar situation.

Maxey said that he will make it a priority to address any complaints filed by individuals who take to time out of their day to do so – “Anybody who wants to file complaints at mymorristown.com, I will look into it and address it the same way I did Mr. Webb’s,” he said.

Cox rounded out the discussion.

“To boil it down, this is a common occurrence in codes enforcement operations,” Cox said. “We’ve got a series of really, fairly small problems that can be resolved with cooperation. I think we’re on that path, as far as getting things done. What happened in this case is that we’ve made some social media claims that were not quite pertinent to the facts and got some people riled up with bad information. I think we’re back on the path now to be able to address and come into compliance, which is what we try to do with every case we come up with.”