Editor, Ceres Courier,

Front page news read, in part: "Lawrence Yohana has been complaining to the Ceres City Council about pot smoking, cursing, fighting, loud music, urination, loitering and disrespectful attitudes..."

These are all code violations that if not addressed becomes criminal. This type of code violations are listed in the Ceres Municipal Code under Title 9 - Public Safety and Moral. Chapter 9.40.010 - Public Nuisance Defined includes, but not limited to, "detriment to property values."

Let there be no misunderstanding, the city of Ceres Municipal Code is under the jurisdiction of the city's code enforcement. So, why is the Ceres City Council continuing to not forward Mr. Yohama and Sam Ryno Park area residents to code enforcement because now Mr. Yohama couldn't give his house away? Not to mention the city's civil liability for the detriment to property values adjacent to Ryno Park for failure to follow the current code enforcement complaint process and politely ask these code violators to please stop creating a public nuisance.

California Government Code provides for property owners to collect triple damages for their property value losses sustained from the city of Ceres and the Ceres City Council's willful intent, with malice, for their failure to act or enforce these current code violations.

In the meeting on April 11, Ceres City Council members appeared sympathetic and agreed they wouldn't want this problem where they live. I feel the City Council's intent was to send a message, see what will happen if you continue to complain. The entire neighborhood is afraid to make any complaints and locking themselves up inside their homes. If these neighbors only knew this would happen, they would have never complained. The only thing these residents want the city to do is just attempt to stop this public nuisance, not lock up their park. My question is, if I file these same complaints, regardless where in Ceres I live, is this how I will be treated?

The Ceres City Council has publicly made it clear to all code violators and criminals that the Ceres Municipal Codes are all unenforceable. What the Ceres City Council meeting should have done instead of redefining public nuisance code violations, was to simply explain the code enforcement process. The only thing you need to do is go online and fill out the Public Service Request for Public Nuisance and let code enforcement do what they do best. In fact, the Ceres Code Enforcement has had 96 percent success rate.

Craig Keesler,
Ceres

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