Five delinquent code cases, one $2,900 break: Council makes unpaid fines a lien on the tax roll

Continued from April 15, the Council's public hearing on unpaid code enforcement fines came back with corrected math — staff said it had found a commercial-versus-residential rate misapplied and late fees improperly compounded — and with five property owners' account balances ranging from $7,836.00 to $85,366.94. The addresses: 259 Madrona Avenue, 10 Post Street, 11 Locust Avenue, 212 Riviera Circle and 75 Via Barona. The Council voted 5-0 to confirm the record of costs and place the amounts as special assessments and liens, with two changes.

“I never received any of this stuff till the 11th hour. And then we thought it went away.”— Wallace Baldwin, co-owner of 259 Madrona Avenue

At 259 Madrona Avenue, staff described unresolved short-term rental and building and life-safety violations — unpermitted electrical, plumbing, a water heater — going back to 2014, with 45 documented attempts to reach the owners. Co-owner Wallace Baldwin told the Council he hadn't seen the paperwork. Council Member Wei pointed to the 45 contacts and said the numbers were justified; Vice Mayor Pollson said Madrona Canyon is one of the most important areas to protect from fire hazard and that she saw no miscalculation. The full amount stood.

The one reduction went to 11 Locust Avenue, where the owner said a former community development director had emailed that citations would be waived. Staff said records had been lost and it could not verify the email, but did not dispute that it likely existed. The city attorney told the Council the test is "the effect that it has on the person receiving the email, and what a reasonable person would think after receiving an email like that." Council Member Kandell proposed dropping the 91-plus-day late fee — a $2,900 reduction — contingent on the owner obtaining a business license within 30 days. The rest, roughly $21,200, stands.

Two other appeals failed. At 10 Post Street, where an elevated garage and retaining wall were built without permits, David Pinkasov, a son of the owner, asked the Council "to consider maybe reducing and waving the accumulated late fees and penalty portions of the assessment"; Mayor Andre said that in fairness to owners who paid their fines and fixed their violations, he came down on the side of assessing. At 75 Via Barona, Josh Goslinger — who bought in 2024 knowing about an illegal basement unit — said "my goal here is not to complain, but to get to a remedy," but Council Member Margules said the owners knew the demolition was required and waited for final plans. 212 Riviera Circle was continued to June 17 after owner Joseph Seedler said illness kept him away. The city attorney noted this was the final administrative step; after this, review means going to court.

Staff also reminded the room where the authority sits: "Staff are not able to wave delinquent fines and penalties. Only the city council can wave a fine or a penalty."

Downtown merchants: scaffolding up since November is emptying our stores

A string of downtown business owners and one longtime resident used public open time to press the city about construction scaffolding and awning that has stayed up on a Magnolia-area building since November, shading storefronts and narrowing the sidewalk. Businesses at 483 Magnolia Boulevard were among those named.

“I'm going to go out of business having said nothing.”— Sarah Harrison, downtown merchant

Sarah Harrison described what it has done to her shop: "I have no visibility and the overall aesthetic of the building is impacting my very expensive absolutely fabulous store." Alex Berisov said customers assume the block is shuttered: "It impedes the light and it doesn't do anything for the rest of us. Customers are not happy. Looks like those businesses are closed."

Resident Brenda Macauen raised a safety concern and asked for a place on the calendar: "I saw a blind man walking through there having terrible difficulty because it was jamming up in all the plywood and stuff... I would like to ask the city council to maybe put this on the next agenda."

Mayor Andre said the city is aware of the situation and cannot formally respond to comments during open time, but that staff would reach out and continue conversations with the property owner. Separately, the Council has a June 17 workshop on tools for addressing vacant properties, with no decisions to be made that night.

Council leans toward unfreezing a planning job, buying an electric mower, and waiting on the OPEB check

Community Development Director Andrew Mogensson opened the department budget presentations with a staffing comparison: Larkspur sits in the "limited" service tier with 5 full-time employees, the lowest among comparable cities — Corte Madera runs about 10 — while state mandates and permit workload keep climbing. The city manager said Larkspur is probably on the cusp of a five-plus-year permitting peak, and that it may be time to look at whether more work can be brought in-house rather than sent to consultants.

Public Works Director Julian Skinner made the flip side of the capital-projects argument: every finished project is one more thing to maintain. His department is around "standard" staffing but trending lower as infrastructure grows, with storm response looming amid anticipated severe El Niño conditions and mandated programs like NPDES and sign retro-reflectivity.

Council consensus direction: unfreeze a planning position and program it into the budget, pursue an electric lawn mower at roughly $40,000 using climate initiative funds, keep a $50,000 placeholder for a consultant to run community outreach on library and recreation priorities, and program but not yet transfer a $250,000 OPEB trust contribution, revisiting in spring 2027. The transient occupancy tax and Chamber discussion moves to the June 3 budget hearing, with a full Chamber presentation; the Capital Improvement Program review was also pushed to June 3.