City Imposing $74,000 Lien On Walden Pond

The New Port Richey City Council agreed Tuesday, July 9, to impose a lien for $74,248 on Walden Pond Mobile Home Park, where the city cleaned up a mess last year on the taxpayer’s dime.

The council voted unanimously in favor of putting a lien on the property, which is owned by Walden Pond, LLC. Formal documents needed for the process will come before the city Council at its next regular meeting.

Last summer, Walden Pond Mobile Home Park fell on hard times. Its owners tried to close the park, but didn't follow legal procedures to remove residents. Some tenants left, but others stayed. Problems plagued the park, including trailer stripping and scavenging. The owners removed the dumpsters city code says they’re required to post at the park.

The $74,248 lien the City Council agreed to impose covers the costs of demolition of crumbling trailers and cleaning up the property. It also includes staff time.

On Oct. 2, 2012, the City Council passed an emergency resolution condemning more than 50 vacant trailers at the park.

City leaders at that time opted to give the park owners a chance to clean up the mess, with the expectation that Walden Pond Pond, LLC, would sign a settlement agreement with the city and complete some measures to improve conditions at the park, such as putting up fencing and posting security.

By the middle of the month, Walden Pond had not signed a settlement agreement, installed fencing or posted security.  

So an exasperated city council on Oct. 16 gave the go ahead to just have its own contractor raze the trailers at the city’s expense and clean up afterward.

Paul Beraquit, who has identified himself as managing partner of Walden Pond, LLC, was not present at the hearing and didn’t return call for comment. Bryan Sykes, the attorney representing the company was there in his stead.

Sykes said his client didn’t deny that the work had needed to be done, but “the most expeditious path of resolving that was not taken.”

“We question whether the costs were reasonably incurred,” he said.

He admitted communications had broken down between the city and Walden Pond, LLC, in October but that the company had submitted a contract for removal of trailers, and had tested the condemned trailers for asbestos. He said a work permit was denied. He said the company could have completed work on razing the trailers in early November, before the city tore them down.

He said that the company wasn’t denying the park was in bad condition. It had been operating at a loss, he said. Tenants hadn’t been paying rent, he said. The process of getting folks to leave Walden Pond was “the biggest debacle I’ve ever dealt with from a legal perspective in my life,” he said. He said the park’s leasing office had been vandalized. He claimed people forged leases and that there were squatters.

He said that when it came to the city’s expectations, there were timelines the company “could not possibly perform in. “ He said the company didn’t install fences because it was waste of money with the demolition planned. He said the dumpsters were removed to deter squatters. It had asked to turn off water at the park.

“We’re trying to shut down the park,” he said. “We’re trying to make it as unappealing as possible to be there. And yet we didn’t get any assistance from the city.”

Public Works Director Sherman Applegate said the fencing was needed to mark off the construction area.

Florida Statutes prohibit landlords from turning off water or other utilities provided to tenants. Finance Director Doug Haag said the city could not turn off the water at the request of the landlord if the landlord has a contract that requires them to provide that utility to a tenant.

Mayor Bob Consalvo said he believed the city had given Walden Pond “ample time to comply” with city expectations. The city heard “excuse after excuse,” he said.

“We spent the money because it was the right thing to do to get this property taken care of,” he said

Deputy Mayor Bill Phillips a said the council spent an “inordinate amount of time on a private property matter in trying to keep our community in order."

Walden Pond, LLC, issued evictions last week to the few tenants remaining at the park, with one still pending Monday. Councilman Chopper Davis raised the prospect the city could still have to spend money on the property.

“There’s still some problems there, and it seems, there’s going to be other costs,” he said.  

Walden Pond still owes the city $80,000 in utility fees. There were leaks in water lines at the park that went unfixed by the property owner, city officials say.

Officials plan to recover the costs for those fees in a separate lien process.

The total amount owed to the city, including the costs in Tuesday’s lien and the unpaid utility fees, is around $155,000.

In addition to the money owed the city, Walden Pond, LLC, has also been cited eight times for code violations.  It has paid those fines.