Vellucci gets a pass and a pat on the fanny
Michael Vellucci, owner of the beleaguered Tavern on the Island, received yet another free pass from the City's Code Enforcement Board during a scheduled hearing on Thursday, June 5, this despite a recommendation from Code Enforcement Officer Pat Steuhler that he be fined $300 a day as a repeat offender for the latest charge of construction without a permit.
Instead, at the behest of board attorney Wayne Hall, the board agreed to find Vellucci guilty of the two counts and ordered him to acquire permits for the construction already performed. Vellucci was given 30 days to comply.
Hall is the law partner of City Attorney Bob Anderson in the Hall & Anderson law firm.
Vellucci, having already been found guilty of several counts of construction without a permit in the past, was appearing before the board on two new charges of construction with no permit. The board was authorized to levy fines against Vellucci of up to $500 a day for his latest infractions.
Vellucci was appearing before the code board on charges of two violations of construction without a permit. One charge was for non-permitted work at Tavern on the Island. The tavern is located at the far south end of the small strip mall building at 127 East Tampa Avenue.
The second charge before the board was for non-permitted construction of a hair salon at the far north end of the same building. Vellucci was caught doing the work at the future salon on April 18. A Stop Work Order was issued the same day at the salon construction site by Code Enforcement Officer Pat Steuhler.
Meet Vellucci's attorney: Wayne Hall
Hall, arguing on behalf of Vellucci through most of the hearing, stated repeatedly that Vellucci had applied for permits in both cases that were currently before the board, this despite testimony from Building Department Supervisor Karen Butterworth. Butterworth repeatedly stated that so far, the permits applied for in the Tavern on the Island location were ones that the code board had ordered Vellucci to apply for at an April 3 hearing when Vellucci was found guilty of several counts of construction without a permit. Butterworth and Code Enforcement Officer John Patek argued that the new charges before the board were the result of additional construction that had been done at the site, also done without a permit.
As to construction at the hair salon, Butterworth stated that Vellucci had applied for a construction permit on April 11, a week before construction had been started. That permit had been held up by the city's Building Department due to being an incomplete application. Vellucci and a work crew of approximately five men started work at the hair salon site on April 18.
Vellucci did not bring an attorney to the hearing. Instead, Hall appeared to be repeatedly acting as an attorney on Vellucci's behalf. Hall took the position that Vellucci has consistently been making sincere and valid attempts to comply with the city's building codes. On several occasions, Hall cross-examined code enforcement officers in furtherance of arguments put forth by Vellucci. Hall repeatedly reminded the board that Vellucci had applied for permits in all of the cases before the board, this despite testimony from city employees that Vellucci had not yet applied for permits for the work at the tavern that was the subject of this latest charge. This was all in addition to Hall's stated argument on behalf of Vellucci that the tavern owner should not be fined, a position that the board eventually accepted, as well as Hall's cross-examination of witnesses on Vellucci's behalf.
It became increasingly clear during the hearing that Code Enforcement Board Chair Diana Mier had abdicated her role to Hall, as Hall was plainly running the meeting.
Wayne Hall as Matlock
In one truly bizarre exchange of testimony, Hall cross-examined Vellucci and code enforcement officers over when construction had started on the salon portion of the building. Hall was advancing an argument on Vellucci's behalf that the city could not tag Vellucci as a repeat offender because construction on the hair salon might have started prior to the code board's April 3 meeting. The technicality that Hall was grabbing for was that if the construction in that unit was an ongoing effort that predated Vellucci's original conviction on April 3, he could not be a repeat offender and the city could therefore not legally levy any fines in the current case.
Vellucci had not suggested the idea as a possible defense, nor did he understand where Hall was going with the argument or that Hall was actually arguing on Vellucci's behalf as though Vellucci was Hall's client. Vellucci voluntarily and spontaneously stated under oath that the construction work had indeed started in the salon location on April 18, which would be after the code enforcement board hearing of April 3, thus shooting down Hall's defense.
Hall ignored Vellucci's admission and continued to argue that the city could not prove the date on which construction had started at the north end of the building and that, therefore, the city could not legally impose fines against Vellucci.
Mier and the board take pity, blame society, code enforcement, and Venice Florida! dot com instead
Vellucci acted unrepentant throughout the hearing, at one point raising his voice angrily at the board while accusing the city's code enforcement employees, the code enforcement board, and this web site of collectively conspiring to get him. Vellucci stated under oath that he has friends that work for the city and that these friends have told him the true story of how the city has organized the conspiracy against him.
The code enforcement board, along with attorney Wayne Hall, gave no objection to Vellucci deliberately misidentifying me as a registered sex offender. Hall did insist, however, that the board ignore my testimony about the events surrounding Vellucci's non-permitted construction work of April 18. Neither Hall or the board saw Vellucci's actions that day as a public safety issue, this despite the fact that Vellucci had stolen and destroyed a video camera belonging to Venice Florida! dot com in an effort to destroy evidence of the non-permitted April 18 construction.
In fact, police had quite a busy day with Vellucci on April 18. Later the same day, police were called back to Vellucci's tavern by neighboring merchants after they reported that Vellucci was harassing and frightening them with angry behavior at their stores. Vellucci, apparently believing that the neighboring merchants had caused code enforcement to show up at his construction site that day, had decided to take his anger out on the neighboring store owners. Vellucci was given a trespass warning from the neighboring shopping center. One of the accounts given to police was from a merchant who told police that he witnessed Vellucci yelling angrily and banging on another merchant's store window.
At Hall's insistence, the board was never informed of the full story surrounding the day's events. While I argued against Hall's exclusion of the testimony on the basis of public safety, the board de-facto ruled that intimidation in code enforcement cases is not a public safety issue that should be taken under consideration when deciding what penalties to assess in violation cases. "That's a criminal issue. This is civil," board member Norm Holloway stated.
Earlier in the same session, Code Enforcement Officer John Patek reminded the board of Vellucci's consistent pattern so far: "He does the work, gets caught, then is ordered to apply for the permits, then he does some more work, gets caught, and is again ordered to apply for the permits."
Mier cut Patek off, stating "You don't get to make statements like that. I get to make statements like that."
Mier would later make no statement like that.
Instead, based on Hall's recommendations, Mier voted with the rest of the code enforcement board to order Vellucci to get the required permits within 30 days for the now voluminous amount of construction work that has taken place at the site.
More criminal court for Vellucci (I was a camera)
Criminal charges are pending at the State Attorney's Office for Vellucci's actions when he was caught by Venice Florida! dot com performing the non-permitted work on April 18. Vellucci grabbed/shoved this writer and stole a video camera that belonged to Venice Florida! dot com. The camera, valued at over $300, was destroyed by Vellucci in the presence of Venice Police officers before he handed it over to police, this after multiple requests by myself and the police to return the camera.
Vellucci, in the presence of Police Chief Julie Williams and Police Captain Tom McNulty, later admitted to destroying the camera and promised to replace it. So far, that promise has turned out to be empty. Venice Florida! dot com is currently without a working video camera as a result of Vellucci's actions.
On May 30, Anna Krebs, an attorney in the State Attorney's Office, stated that Vellucci would be charged with Battery and Criminal Mischief, both misdemeanors.
