John Deutzman's Blog

The confusing letter the city's Department of Finance sent out certainly could make one think they don't have a shot of beating a ticket. (See the other side of the letter.)

Here's the city's full position on the letter…

"Between September and November of 2008 the Finance Adjudications team piloted a program that gave 7,000 people who were very likely to be found guilty, based on the defense they wrote in their hearing request, a second chance to pay a reduced fine. In some cases, their requests contained an admission of guilt and a request for a reduction. We ended the program because it was labor-intensive and not efficient, but we believe as public servants it's our obligation to find new ways to serve the public better and efficiently and we will continue to do that."

The most troublesome part of the letter was that one could get the impression that a judge had already looked at the person's defense and either made a decision or decided the defense probably would not work. A reasonable person might be inclined to pay the reduced fine, thinking they do not have a shot.

If you were confused by the letter you can write to:

Chief Administrative Law Judge
NYC Dept. of Finance
66 John St., 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10038

I'd love to hear your opinion about this story!

John

>>LETTER, PART 1

>>LETTER, PART 2

Since March 2007, City Councilman Anthony Como has racked up 14 Department of Buildings violations and owes $8,850 in fines, according to the DOB. He accused Fox 5 of making a big "hoopla" out of nothing.

What do you think?

Here is a LINK to the DOB violations on his house.

The fine totals change depending on how much has been paid and what has been adjudicated, so some of what you see may not be up to date. The 14 active ECB violations have still not been corrected, according to the city.

There are three stories in one here:

1. A seemingly outrageous amount of overtime paid out. Money that the DEP justifies as the most cost-efficient way to run the hazmat unit and have the city covered around the clock.

2. The FBI nosing into a report of suspicious activity on a computer within the hazmat unit. Something that was knocked down but now investigators are curious about other things within the unit and at DEP.

3. An ongoing disrespect for the city take-home car policy with hundreds of employees using city cars on the taxpayers' dime without the proper written permission or reason for most of the cars.

As always, I want to hear from you, especially those who work inside the DEP who have been very open on my two previous blogs about the agency.

John

Here are some tips the experts recommend to help detect heating oil cheating:

1) Be aware that the problem of cheating/theft of heating oil exists.

2) Try to be there when the truck delivers.

3) Make sure the truck has an official Consumer Affairs seal on it.

4) Make sure the truck guy puts a blank receipt in the meter in front of you.

5) Make sure the meter starts at zero.

6) Measure your home tank with the "stick" method you will see in THIS VIDEO.

Here are some important and helpful links:

>>SIPPIN ENERGY OIL TANK CHART

>>US ENERGY GROUP OIL GAUGES

>>PETRO-METER OIL GAUGES

>>HOME HEATING OIL RESOURCES

>>NEW YORK CITY'S CRACKDOWN (PDF)

>>FILING A COMPLAINT IN NEW YORK CITY

>>OIL TANK MEASUREMENT DEMONSTRATION (VIDEO)

Feedback appreciated.

John

Do you think MTA CEO Elliot Sander needs police protection and needs to be driven around in an unmarked police car by an MTA police detective?

You pay for it though fares and taxes, so I'd love to hear your opinion.

Plus check out the salaries and perks given to other MTA big-wigs HERE.

It's worth looking at.  

John

   Jimmy Justice believes he is on a noble mission to expose hypocrisy among our public officials. Others think his antics are over the line. Now's your chance to speak up. Traffic agents aren't allowed to talk to the media so here's you chance to fight back anonymously.

   I will try to stay out of it unless we need a referee.

John

These curbside dealers disguise themselves as legitimate individual car owners innocently trying to sell a car.

Based on the above, here's a trick I've developed to detect shady "curbside dealers" on Craig's list, other online services or the old fashioned classifieds. It will save you lots of time and aggravation:

1. Find a car you like.

2. Get the contact's phone number.

3. Run that phone number in the "search" section of Craig's list or other on line services. (Note: with the old-fashioned classifieds you'll have to do a visual search.)

4. If the number comes up multiple times with multiple cars you either have:

---An illegal curbside dealer who you have to meet at some strange side of the road location.

---A legitimate dealership that is advertising multiple times.

5. Ask for their dealer's license number and if they have a permanent location for their dealership.

6. Check the dealership info with DMV and the Department of Consumer Affairs.

The frustrating part about this scam is that I've done at least 5 stories about fake bank check scams and people keep falling for them. Below you will find links to some excellent advice about these scams. But here's my two cents:

1. Any business deal that involves a wire transfer of money to someone you don't know and trust is extremely dangerous. If people just stop wiring money this scam would stop.

2. If you think you wouldn't fall for this, one consumer group estimated that billions of dollars have been lost in this scam.

3. The thing you absolutely need to know is that bank checks should all be considered to be fake for at least two weeks. Then triple check with your bank that the check has cleared.

Useful links:

>>FAKECHECKS.ORG

>>FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORPORATION

>>FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION

Here are some tidbits that were not in the story:

1. There are organized rings that will make you car "disappear" for you!

2. The video of the fires you saw was from the Nassau County Fire Marshal's Office. Along with the International Association of Arson Investigators, they intentionally set all kinds of cars on fire using all sorts of devious tricks. The investigators in training are not present for the "burning" but come the next day and have to solve the puzzle of how the cars were torched. They are pretty good at it.

3. When I worked in Miami, the city would drain the canals from time to time to clean them out. In some places, crews would find dozens of cars that were dumped for insurance reasons. Ah, Miami such a lovely town!

I'd love to here your two cents!

John

In New York, public parkland is considered sacred and cannot be given up without the act of the state Legislature.   That's the bottom line in this story.

How people didn't know their yards were much bigger than they were supposed to be and how the city never detected this problem remains a mystery.

My guess is that a lot of people kind of knew that their yards were actually encroaching on parkland but hoped nobody would ever take action.

Oh well.

John

1. City: Has fined building more than $160,000 for all kinds of violations. Can't do much more then fine the guy. Inspector seems wound up like a top.

2. Guy with building: Claims the city's lack of help has caused the disgraceful appearance of his building. Says because of all the fines he can't get a loan to fix the place up and can't even sell it because of all the fines attached to the property.

3. Neighbor: Owns buildings on each side of the eyesore. She's mad at the guy with the building and the city for not taking any action.

Given the above, do you have any ideas? And what's your opinion of the visit by the inspector?

John

New York City seems to have extremely strict and sound rules when it comes to allowing city workers to take home cars on a full time-basis.

Read the CITY POLICY.

To summarize, you are not supposed to take a city car home on a full-time basis unless:

1. You are required to report on a daily basis from your home to a job in the field.

2. You respond to emergencies frequently on an average of once a week.

3. Mandatory paperwork is required for authorization.

The city's Department of Environmental Protection seems to have forgotten about all of the above.

If you know of any city employee in any agency that seems to be violating the above strict guidelines, please CONTACT FOX 5 ONLINE or call 877-TELL-FOX5.

Read my PREVIOUS BLOG on this story.

Watch PART 1 of my story.

OK, I'm old enough to remember that anyone could become a Dick Tracy secret detective. For those of you much younger than me, Dick Tracy was a cartoon detective who tracked down evil characters like "Prune Face" (a guy with a shriveled up face) and "Itchy Brother" (a guy who scratched himself a lot).

If you sent your money to the right place you could get a Dick Tracy secret detective badge.

I wonder: Would the ticket writers issue a ticket to someone with a Dick Tracy placard in the window?

I'd love to hear about the stuff you see out there.

John