"There was no procedure in place"
Story Created:
Sep 25, 2009 at 4:50 PM EDT
Story Updated:
Sep 25, 2009 at 6:17 PM EDT
UTICA, N.Y. (WKTV) - After five days of skirting around the issue, the City of Utica says it was the fire department's responsibility to follow up when the owner of the apartment building on James Street failed to register his building following a judge's order to do so.
Utica's Corporation Counsel, Linda Sullivan Fatata told NEWSChannel 2 on Friday to "talk to the fire department" to find out why Timothy Klotz was not brought back into court when he failed to register his building last year.
No Procedure in Place
Friday afternoon, Fire Chief Russell Brooks said there was no departmental procedure in place at the time to do a follow-up of a non-compliance issue.
It was in April of 2008 that the City of Utica cited the owner of the building, Timothy Klotz, for not registering the apartment building on James Street with the city.
Klotz pleaded guilty and was fined $100 and had a condition that he would register the building within 10 days.
Klotz never registered, so the city could not go into the building and inspect it.
The question has remained all week, what did the city do to follow up on the judge's ruling?
On Friday, Chief Brooks told us that the firefighter who was involved in this particular plea deal with the city attorney didn't understand what the condition meant, and what would happen if Klotz didn't comply.
The chief said the department was in its infancy stages with the new multi-dwelling code enforcements law and he says there was no procedure in place to follow-up a non compliance of a judge's order.
"There was a disconnect," he said.
Possible Lawsuits
Now, there is a question as to whether the city can be held responsible in any possible lawsuits filed by victims' family members.
One family member of one of the four victims of last Sunday's fire tells News Channel Two, she has no comment on whether her family will file a lawsuit against the city, or against the landlord, Timothy Klotz.
We talked with former Utica Corporate Counsel Leon Koziol, who has since represented several people who have filed lawsuits against the city.
Koziol said the cases could come down to what he calls, a level of involvement.
"That involvement clearly escalated when the City passed this law," Koziol said. "Because the city took on a responsibility, obviously, to inspect properties to prevent this very hazard. Obviously it didn't work here...something ran amok, and I think the families have a real concern to register their complaints."
The future
Chief Brooks says there is still no procedure in place for non-compliance issues like this one.
This is just one issue that Chief Brooks said will be brought up at Monday's first meeting of the newly-formed fire prevention task force.
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