Chapter 16

I wrote Mr. Wilkinson a letter, dtd October 4, 1999, and, again, made a formal complaint against Mr. Miller, the contractor Mr. Wilkinson had forced us to hire.  I stated, “I sent a copy of everything to you, Mr. Wilkinson, and you have not responded to my correspondence.  I am asking that the Building Inspection Department perform its duties regarding this complaint against our former contractor, Mr. Doug Miller.”  

I wrote Ms. Ustick a letter, dtd October 4, 1999, and reported, again that City Officials had been negligent in enforcing registered contractor complaints which they are obliged to do.  I stated, “I am asking you to insure that the Pensacola Building Inspection Department follow the law.  I am also asking that the Building Inspection Department perform its duties regarding the irregularities and apparent illegalities conducted and performed by our contractor, Mr. Doug Miller.”

City Attorney Caton was still ignoring my repeated requests to stop the illegal Certificate of Occupancy swindle.  I wrote him on October 8 1999, pointing out that he had not answered my memos of August 24, 1999 and September 20, 1999, in which I asked that the City Officials stop this illegal demand which was refusing me the legal operation of my business and illegally demanding construction which was harming my historic property.

Mr. Wilkinson sent a letter, dated October 6, 1999, regarding my complaint against the contractor, Mr. Miller. 

The Director of Building Inspections, Mr. Wilkinson, stated:  "On October 6, 1999, I met with Mr. DeStefano of the Escambia County Contractor's Competency Board, Mr. Miller and Mr. McFatter to determine if there have been any violations of the laws regulating contractors.  After careful review of all the contracts provided by Mr. Miller and the discussion with him and Mr. McFatter, there is no evidence to show violation of any laws regarding contracts.  It does, however, appear that you may have contractual disputes between yourself and your contractor.  These disputes are a civil case and will have to be pursued through the court system."

Amazingly, in two days, from October 4 to October 6, Mr. Wilkinson had read all of my documentation regarding my official complaint against Mr. Miller, had called a meeting with Mr. DeStefano of the Escambia County Contractors Competency Board, Mr. Miller and Mr. McFatter, had held the meeting on October 6, 1999, and prepared the report, also dated October 6, 1999. 

Mr. Wilkinson did not notify me of this meeting so that I could attend.  The people who were at this meeting were Mr. Wilkinson, who had refused permits to all contractors except Mr. Miller, Mr. McFatter, whom Mr. Miller insisted I hire to receive his payments (I was learning that Mr. Miller had unpaid judgments against him, regarding contracting, and didn’t want his payments confiscated to pay these judgments), Mr. Miller and Mr. DeStefano. 

Mr. Wilkinson stated that, after reviewing the contracts and after discussion with Mr. Miller and Mr. McFatter, he could find no evidence of violations.  It appeared that Mr. Wilkinson had ignored Mr. Miller’s specific violations of Escambia County Ordinance Section 18-36 Prohibitions and Florida Statute, Section 489, Contracting which I had detailed in my letter.  I later learned that, at this meeting, Mr. Miller confessed to taking a huge amount of our building supplies and historic artifacts (overmantels, spindles, railings, sconces, etc.), boasted of these facts and that all attendees acted as if it were a celebration – jovial and telling funny stories about me.

Mr. Wilkinson and Mr. DeStefano did not report Mr. Miller’s confession of grand theft to the appropriate agency as required by Florida Statutes.  Mr. DeStefano did include Mr. Miller’s confession of “holding” our property (grand theft) in his report to the Escambia County Contractor Competency Board.  Mr. Mayo nor any member of the Board reported Mr. Miller’s confession of grand theft to the appropriate agency as required by Florida Statutes.

On October 08, 1999, Mr. Wilkinson sent an email to Ms. Ustick which stated, “I received the copy of the informational memo so I called Ms. Mead yesterday afternoon.  I left a message with her daughter that in October an information memo would be going to council because the proposed ordinance was still under review.  I said the projected presentation to council would be in November.” 

I had not received a copy of the memo where they were discussing me and my property.  On October 11, 1999, I requested and received a fax of the “FOR INFORMATION ONLY” generated by Ms. Ustick.  All of her statements regarding our property are false.  We have not been notified of any technical building code violations on our part.  I have not filed a civil suite against Mr. Miller, who Mr. Wilkinson forced us to hire which I can prove because he refused permits to all other contractors I sent but he stated I should hire Mr. Miller and only granted permits to Mr. Miller. 

Once again, false information is sent out to try to cover up the illegal/criminal actions being committed against my husband and me.

Contrary to this memo, the only thing holding us up is the illegal demand that we get a new Certificate of Occupancy (when the official regulations only asks that a copy of the current one be presented) and then demanding illegal requirements in order to obtain said new Certificate of Occupancy.  This illegal requirement has been holding us up since July, 1998.  Only updates to maintenance (no construction required) were required by the Professional Property Inspection Report we received before we bought the house in July, 1998.  I gave a copy to the Pensacola Building Inspection Report to the Pensacola Building Inspection Department.  The house was in use when we bought it and could have been put to use the day after we bought it.  All of their demands have been illegal, unfounded and unnecessary.

The only reason we had to hire a contractor in the first place is because City Manager Bonfield and Mr. Wilkinson, Director of the Building Inspections Department, said that we could not operate our business, even though no construction needs were found in the Professional Property Inspection we paid to have conducted before we bought this historic property.  Against the construction law, City Manager Bonfield and Mr. Wilkinson demanded that we get a new Certificate of Occupancy and drew up a list of unnecessary construction projects (with Mr. Miller) which resulted in Mr. Miller stealing our historic artifacts, stealing our building materials and charging us a lot of money to remove these artifacts so he could carry them off.  In addition, Mr. Miller and his crew spent a lot of time, that we were paying for, to crawl under our house, dig in our yard and search the walls looking for historic “treasure.”  If Mr. Wilkinson had not illegally forced us down this road, we would have no problems with a contractor because we didn't need a contractor and would have no mythical “technical building codes” which were cited as supposedly holding us up.

I wrote to Ms. Ustick.

I sent a copy of my memo to Ms. Ustick to each City Council Member, the Mayor and City Manager Bonfield.