HomeMy WebLinkAboutPublic Input Kirk Watilo
tǒĬƌźĭ LƓƦǒƷ ağƩĭŷ ЋЉͲ ЋЉЋЉ
My name is Kirk Watilo and I live in the Tustin Water District boundary. On September 24,
2019 unbeknownst to me a citation for watering during the day was written at 8:03 AM. The
citation came in the mail days later while I was on the East Coast with a photo of my sprinklers
running outside my gated garden area. The photo was taken from the staff member sitting
INSIDE the City of Tustin Water District vehicle.
I left the next day for the East Coast, and as I ALWAYS do before a trip, I check both front and
back yard irrigation systems. I found a drip system that needed work which is tied to the valve
that the inspector saw for which the inspector wrote the violation. If you look at the picture
that was taken, I have a wall around my front garden area and there is NO WAY the person
taking the picture would have seen me on my knees working on the drip system.
Immediately after the East Coast work trip, I went to Jackson California to help a friend with a
home project and returned on October 7. Soon after I returned from these trips, I saw the
citation and wrote a response, explaining everything that had occurred.
After receiving the citation in early October I called the inspector. His response was that usually
he communicates with the owner if he sees someone in the front yard. Neither of those things
occurred as he would have fallen over me in the front yard. His curt verbal response on the
phone was to write a letter of appeal. His supervisors and your City staff members should ask
him point blank if he got out of the truck, looked around for me, or rang the doorbell.
I wrote an appeal letter two days after I got home and read the citation. I received a reply
stating that the appeal was denied due to missing the 10-day response window. I am appealing
that very short time for a response. The letter said I had to mail in the funds or suffer
additional penalties. I sent in the fine amount as directed although I vehemently opposed
sending it in without the right to speak to someone first.
Kindly ponder two questions and if the answer to either of them is yes, Mr. Watilo has a valid
point, then PLEASE direct your staff to return my funds and change their tactics on water fines:
First, when is a resident in the City of Tustin Water district area supposed to work on their
sprinklers with the existing water restriction guidelines? If you say before 6AM with a
headlamp on, my response is that is unrealistic.
My second question is what is a reasonable time to respond to a letter received in the mail
st
from a municipality in the 21 century with people traveling throughout the world? My entire
career was in community association management and we gave owners 30 days to pay their
assessments and a 15 day window before a late fee was charged. I strongly feel a 10 day
window is ridiculously short.
The reply to my appeal was that I was non-responsive in that 10 day timing and that was it. No
opportunity to speak to anyone about the facts as outlined previously.
I went to the City offices and was directed to write a letter to the Finance Department head
explaining my plight. I never heard from him so after TWO months, I emailed. I was advised
that Sean Tran would be contacting me soon. Well, the person that actually called me was the
staff member who wrote the original citation that was not interested in listening to my
explanation in the first place.
Since there really is no appeal in the Water District process that makes any sense at all, and
based upon all that I have shared, I had no recourse but to waste your valuable time to
hopefully find someone with common sense to listen to my case and direct a City Department
to reach out and resolve this matter.
Thank you for your time.
Kirk Watilo