Code Crackdown : Bell Gardens Files 34 Health, Safety Complaints on Landlords

This city has filed 34 criminal complaints against owners of deteriorating buildings in one of its most sweeping crackdowns on health and safety code violations in the past 10 years.

Complaints were issued to the bishop of a local evangelical church, to a La Mirada man who converted a dilapidated garage into a bedroom and to a factory that makes pillows.

City Atty. Cary Reisman said that in addition to the charges he has already filed at Huntington Park Municipal Court, he plans to file about 30 more criminal complaints against property owners who have consistently refused to correct health and safety violations.

He plans to prosecute at least 100 cases this year, more than twice the number he has prosecuted each year for the last 10 years.

“We have been getting the feeling from the community that people don’t think we mean business,” City Manager Claude Booker said. “We do.”

Assistant City Manager Michael Martinet said that about 24 property owners were named in the recent complaints. All of them had failed to correct health and safety violations including faulty electrical wiring, excessive trash, and illegal garage conversions. At least two-thirds of the property owners are absentee landlords, most of whom do not live in the city, he said.

“A lot of them think that because this is Bell Gardens that they can get away with it,” Martinet said. “They get real upset when we file charges. The fact of the matter is that they don’t think they’ve done anything wrong. They drive up in their gold-toned Mercedes convertibles and say they don’t have the money to fix the place up. We don’t buy it.”

The Soldiers of the Cross of Christ Evangelical Church, a worldwide group of Christian missionaries with headquarters in Florida, was charged with a total of 95 counts of violating several dozen health and safety codes at nine of the homes it owns in the city.

The church, located at 6466 Foster Bridge Road, is surrounded by small homes that are owned and occupied by about 150 of its missionaries, a church spokesman said. Booker said that many of the homes have been divided to allow multiple families to share facilities. City officials charged that Bishop Rolando Gonzalez and church member Luis Zepeda are responsible for failing to fix deteriorating roofs, dangerous wiring and inadequate ventilation, among other faults.

Zepeda said that the Soldiers, who wear all-white uniforms and are frequently seen in airport lobbies soliciting donations for the needy, have been harassed by city officials for most of the eight years that they have held church services in the city.

“We are missionaries, we believe in keeping property up to standard,” Zepeda said.

He said he has proof that the city has been harassing the church, but declined to discuss the case until it goes to court later this month.

City officials, who are accustomed to charges of harassment from recalcitrant landlords, said that neighbors have complained about the church, and that church officials have had at least two years to correct the problems.

The city also filed two complaints against Emilio and Maribel Leon, a La Mirada couple who own apartments in Bell Gardens, Bell and Los Angeles. On recent inspections, city inspectors Lourdes Rodriguez and Megan Wineman found that the Leons had allowed trash and debris to accumulate in piles around the apartments. A child rode his bike in a yard where an old refrigerator had been abandoned. Inside a garage, they found stuffing for pillows piled in one corner, and two industrial sewing machines, a motorcycle, weightlifting equipment, a twin bed and religious candles piled on a makeshift shelf.

“This is very dangerous,” Rodriguez said, pointing to the piles of fabric.

Rodriguez and Wineman blame the Leons. The Leons also rent two homes on the property, and the tenants keep their homes tidy, they said.

Emilio Leon said that things are “not that bad.” Tenants said he never visits the property.

“The junk belongs to my tenants,” he said. “I rent the house. Those who rent don’t take care of it.”

He said he first received a notice from the city about the property one week ago. However, city records show that the first letter asking the Leons to comply went out in March, 1988.

City Manager Booker said complaints have increased recently because the city’s dense population has caused a spate of illegal building, homes are aging, and the absentee ownership in the city “has gone up at an alarming rate.”

He said that the city will prosecute in all cases where the property owner does not follow the order of the Rehabilitation Appeals Board, a board of residents who offer the property owner one of the last chances to correct a violation.

Booker said building inspectors usually begin a case when a neighbor or tenant calls to complain or inspectors see something questionable while on routine patrol. If a property owner does not comply with the written requests of building inspectors to correct the violations, he is asked to appear before the Rehabilitation Appeals Board.

After hearing the property owner’s case, the board typically gives the owner a certain amount of time to comply with the building code. If the owner still does nothing, the city attorney arranges a conference in which property owners are told that unless the problems are corrected, they will be prosecuted.

The city has never lost a case, and several property owners have been jailed, Reisman said. Those who are not jailed face a maximum penalty of $1,000 or six months in jail for each count. Most property owners correct the problems after the conference rather than risk prosecution, Reisman said. Only about 11% of the violators wind up in court, Assistant City Manager Martinet said.

Times staff writer Rick Holguin contributed to this story.