By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter

                A group of Rainbow Lakes Estates residents Tuesday complained bitterly about having to tolerate squatters living in their neighborhoods and demanded Levy County Commissioners explain why nothing was being done about it.

            Keith Dering said squatters are often living without running water, electricity, or toilet facilities in makeshift homes, beat-up campers, or tents, next door to taxpaying property owners.

            “We have squatters. We have people living on property – bunches of them with no well, no septic, and no electricity,” he said.

            Residents were also angry that code enforcement officers for Levy County were aware of the problem but apparently weren’t trying to move the squatters out of the subdivision.

            Rainbow Lakes Estates is an unincorporated community in southeastern Levy County that straddles both Levy and Marion counties.

            Commission Chairman Rock Meeks said he and Development Department Director David Myers plan to meet with Marion County code enforcement officials next Thursday to exchange information on how they are handling the situation compared to Levy County.

            “If there’s something that we’re not doing, that they’re doing, that we need to be doing, we’re going to be doing it,” Meeks said, adding, “or if they’re doing something they’re not supposed to be doing we’ll point it out.”

            Meeks said the county’s hands are tied by a state statute that requires residents to sign a complaint form concerning the squatters and identify the exact parcel number before the county code enforcement officers can do anything.

            Meeks along with Commissioner Matt Brooks and Commissioner John Meeks said the county’s code enforcement officers aren’t authorized to simply remove someone from a piece of property without notifying the owner of the parcel being used by the squatters. The owner would be involved in the removal and ultimately a judge would rule on the matter.

            “We’ll have to contact the property owner because a lot of time it’s happening unbeknownst to them,” Brooks said.

            Linda Johnston wondered why county law enforcement couldn’t get involved in obvious violations of county codes. She wondered what would happen if the property owner says “that’s their son or daughter or whatever living on the property.”

            Brooks said people aren’t allowed to have a camper without water or anything else.

            Commissioner John Meeks added that it’s a very difficult situation.

            “About five or six years ago we had an influx of people living here illegally and we cracked down on them. They usually go across the county line – Alachua, Marion, or Citrus – people know how to work the system. But Dave (Development Department Director David Myers) will go down to address this. He’s just got a lot on his plate.”

            Meeks said the county will figure out how to identify the parcels as a first step.

            “I can tell you we as a board do not have authority to throw people off property or arrest people living on property. It has to go through a judge. It has to go through the court system when we start posting fines and that takes time,” Meeks said. Do not get frustrated with the process. We have no control over the process. Yes, we do have code enforcement people who work for this board. Whenever it goes to court, it’s in the judge’s hands. Sometimes that process is slower than we want.”

            Debra Coffee said she built her house on one parcel and gradually increased it to 17 parcels.

            “And now we have a guy right around the corner who runs a generator all night long that we have to listen to. He has a rinky-dink fence with the oldest camper you can imagine – a piece of junk,” she said. “Besides listening to a generator all night, we have had our fence cut twice. They left the top wire and bottom wire. I think what they were doing is passing buckets of water through my fence where my horse trough is.”

            On the subject of signing a complaint form, Coffee is concerned she might be subject to retaliation.

            “The thing about signing a complaint, honestly, if these are vengeful people. I have my name on my car. They can call me, they can poison my horses, shoot my dogs,” she said.

            County Attorney Nicolle Shalley said the 2021 Florida Legislature passed a law that does not allow code enforcement officers to initiate proceedings by using an anonymous complaint. In other words, they can’t drive past a violation and start the proceedings without a signed complaint from someone. She said if the violation poses an “immediate threat” to the health, safety, and welfare of the public, county code enforcement officers could act.

            “I think the question is – what do the courts consider that high of a level of imminent threat that the court would uphold,” Shalley said.

            Commissioner John Meeks said there is one other option if a resident doesn’t want to sign a complaint.

            “You can always contact a commissioner and have the commissioner file the complaint on your behalf,” Meeks said. “I’ve done that on a couple of occasions in cases where individuals presented themselves as being very nasty to their neighbors. They don’t want to be nasty to me.”

            Resident Bruce Coffee said he feels sorry for someone who doesn’t have as much as his family, referring to the squatters, but at the same time, he said he has worked hard for what he owns.

            “All the neighbors, they worked hard to have a nice place to be proud of, but you can’t be proud of it when you have to drive by all this stuff,” he said.

            Coffee said he can’t understand why code enforcement officers can’t just walk up to the violators and order them to clean it up.

            “Why does it have to go all the way to a judge to do that?” he said. “Why should we need him. What good is he?”

            Commission Chairman Rock Meeks said state statute has tied the county’s hands.

            “The government needs to change, or elect someone that will make a change,” Coffee replied.

            He added that when people get on his land, that’s another issue.

            “I can handle myself and so can other folks. I’m from the great state of Kentucky. Mind you, we know how the good ole boys would handle it. They just throw your ass out.”

            “I appreciate your comment, and I promise you it hasn’t fallen on deaf ears,” Commission Chairman Rock Meeks said.

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Board of County Commission Regular Meeting January 4, 2022; Posted January 5, 2022