At the Monday, June 27, 2023 meeting, the Board of County Commissioners heard a presentation from Assistant County Attorney, Abigail Jorandby, regarding possible amendments to the County's code enforcement process, including the dissolution of the Code Enforcement Board and the appointment of a Special Magistrate to hear and decide on code enforcement cases.
Currently, property owners that fail to comply violations on their property within the time frame provided by a code enforcement officer are sent to the Code Enforcement Board for a determination and possible imposition of a fine/lien against the property. Under the proposal, a Special Magistrate would be appointed by the Board of County Commissioners to hear code enforcement cases and render decisions as to code enforcement violations. Typically, a Special Magistrate is a local attorney who is familiar with local government code of ordinances, code enforcement processes under Florida Statutes, rules of evidence, and quasi-judicial hearing procedures.
Notably, Chapter 162, Florida Statutes, permits the appointment of a Special Magistrate and many jurisdictions throughout the State of Florida have recently moved to this process, recognizing that the legal training and experience of a Special Magistrate results in a more fair and expeditious process for all parties involved. In addition to the implementation of a code enforcement Special Magistrate, the proposed changes include the ability of the County to abate or correct violations that "threaten public health, safety and welfare or imminent destruction of habitat or sensitive resources". Thus, under this proposal, the County would have the ability to enter onto property for the single purpose of correcting a health, safety and welfare violation and to place a lien against the property to recover any associated costs.
In addition, Ms. Jorandby noted that under the proposed ordinance changes, the daily fine amounts will remain the same, however, the maximum fine amount for a code enforcement lien will be limited to no more than 35% of the assessed value of the property, thereby limiting the actual total amount that a code enforcement lien could accrue.
The new Ordinance would also allow the Special Magistrate to hear and decide on cases involving:
- Land Development code violations
- Zoning code violations
- Unsafe structures violations
The proposed Ordinance will be considered for adoption at a public hearing to be held on Monday, July 24, 2023 at 6:00 p.m. To view the proposed Ordinance, please click here.
If you have any questions, please contact the Nassau County Attorney's Office at (904) 530-6100.
-Sabrina Robertson
Public Information Officer