The Fort Myers Beach Code Enforcement Special Magistrate will hold her first meeting in several months. There are 20 cases set to come before Magistrate Myrnabelle Roche next Thursday at 11AM. Sunset Grill owner Terry Persaud has 4 of those cases.
Two cases against Persaud involve renting beach chairs illegally on the beach. Persaud does not have a license to rent beach chairs behind his restaurant, to beachgoers walking by. His customers can use the chairs if they are dining at the restaurant.
It’s a case Persaud has lost before when code enforcement officers went undercover and Sunset Grill employees rented them chairs. He took the case to the magistrate with his attorney, said he was not renting chairs, and lost the case. He’s been racking up daily fines ever since. In March of 2021, Roche ruled that Persaud was in violation of her previous order not to rent the beach chairs. He was ordered to pay $9,575 in fines to the town. And, Roche warned Persaud to stop renting chairs and said the next time he violates her ruling it would be $500 per day. The cases are back before the magistrate for alleged repeat violations.
The third case involves the parking lot at the Sunset Grill. The violation in the case makes reference to a special exception Persaud was granted for the parking lot in March of 2020. The town claims Persaud is in violation of the special exception he was granted for that lot. The town says Persaud is in violation of the conditions of section 4 of that special exception of which there are 14.
The final case is for unsafe stairs and handrails.
The town and Persaud have been fighting with each other for years, so much so that the town is pursuing foreclosing on Persaud’s property.
Also on the magistrate’s docket is a case against the beach Baptist for recreational vehicles being parked at the church and the parking lot being used as a camp site.
And there’s one case for a turtle light violation against a beach resort.
As we all know the town select who they target to harass and discriminate against and it’s has been since they where sued for taking my property rights away !
As Ed is very familiar with , what is not reported in this story is the fact that there is federal case between both Persaud and the town and the Federal judge has already ruled that the town has violated several of my administrative rights and has restored my property rights but yet the town wants to dictate what you can and can’t do on your property and continuously violate there own ordinances with selective enforcement !
It is impossible to resolve any issues with this town , it will be a sad day when they loose one of the several lawsuits against this small town !
Because the losers will be the town residents who in the end will have to pay the cost $ not the town manger or the Mayor or the council !
Terry P
Replying to Lee Melsek’s comment: “Lee Melsek June 24, 2022 At 2:42 pm.
Steve, you’d be surprised who benefitted here over the years from selective enforcement and how many code enforcement officers resigned in disgust as a result. Or maybe you wouldn’t.”
It will be interesting to see if the new council (as of this November) can bring a stronger level of honesty, integrity and fairness to the council and to the code enforcement department. Selective enforcement and people of authority receiving special treatment and favors should not be tolerated. It would be refreshing to see a positive change of direction in the code enforcement department.
Lee — Perhaps you could write an expose’ to be printed in this Newsletter?
What Lee said. 100%. Also a long record of selective enforcement.
Steve, you’d be surprised who benefitted here over the years from selective enforcement and how many code enforcement officers resigned in disgust as a result.
Or maybe you wouldn’t.
The town is a sorry excuse.they have ruined the beach with their bullcrap
The question I have is why on earth does it need to be so difficult and why does it need to come to this?
Steve, so true. But the town has a long history of dragging its feet on code violations. A Connecticut lawyer/beach landlord once ran up over $75,000 in fines and town expenses over several years. The town finally settled for about $8,000, $30,000 less than the town manager at the time said was what the case cost the town in expenses.