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Long Beach congresswoman’s problems with houses continues

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Known as much for her house troubles as for her lawmaking, Rep. Laura Richardson is once again taking heat from neighbors and officials who say she must do a better job of maintaining her Sacramento pad.

In August, the Sacramento Code Enforcement Department declared the Long Beach congresswoman’s vacant, three-bedroom, 1 1/2 -bath house a “public nuisance.” Now the city has posted a notice of violation, citing neighborhood complaints that the Democrat’s lawn is out of control.

While the offense is a minor one, it hints at the ill feelings that have developed toward Richardson by her neighbors, who say she has little regard for their upper-middle-class neighborhood.

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The city’s first action came after police were twice called to investigate reports of a suspicious person around the house, perhaps a homeless man squatting there.

Code enforcement inspectors who visited the house twice found “junk and debris” in the driveway and rotting fruit that attracted rodents in the backyard.

Richardson bought the house in early 2007 after being elected to the Assembly. In August of that year, she won a special election to Congress. Richardson did not return calls Monday.

Neighbors complained at the time that the sprinklers were never turned on, that grass and plants were dead or dying, and that the backyard gate was off its hinges.

They said Monday that little has changed. “It’s a run-down vacant house with all the typical signs,” said Sean Padovan, a retired Sacramento police officer. Telephone books are piled on the porch, the gate is broken and the lawn has grown 2 feet high, he said.

Max Fernandez, Sacramento’s director of code enforcement, said that after receiving the complaint that the lawn hadn’t been mowed, a code enforcement inspector left a notice of violation on the house April 24 that gave Richardson 14 days to fix the problem. When the inspector drove past the house Monday, he said, the lawn had been mowed, which would close out the incident.

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Even after the front lawn was mowed, neighbors said, the backyard weeds grew to 2 to 4 feet high. They are worried that the weeds could become a fire hazard.

The house has been no end of trouble for Richardson.

She bought the house for $535,000. It went into foreclosure and was sold at auction to real estate investor James York for $388,000 on May 7.

York sent in a crew to renovate it, and neighbors complain that windows are still papered over.

In an unusual move, Richardson’s lender, Washington Mutual, took back the house and returned it to Richardson.

York sued. The case was settled out of court.

Richardson has a history of problems making her house payments, defaulting seven times on three different houses. --

jeff.gottlieb@latimes.com

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