For the second meeting in a row, Prattville residents accused Prattville’s city code enforcement department of wrongfully removing property from their homes and sticking them with the bill.
The issue first came to light earlier this month, when Lori Herring, a Prattville resident who serves on the Board of Eagle Forum of Alabama, approached the Prattville City Council.
According to Herring, she was initially contacted about a car in her driveway by a packet left on her front door. Herring says her son had the car towed, and the code enforcer came to her residence to verify the car's removal. Soon after, Herring returned home to find the city removing things from her fenced-in back porch, which she said included cake-making material, antiques, and her deceased father’s belongings.
Herring stated that the code enforcer threatened to arrest her if she attempted to interfere with the removal of items the city had reportedly determined to be “rubbish.”
After Herring’s initial story caught traction on social media, other residents came forward to share similar stories.
That continued on Tuesday, with another resident coming forward with a story of her own.
The woman, who identified herself before the council as Violet Williams, claims the city code enforcer l removed items from her back porch area and later sent her a bill.
“Y’all are going to charge me $625 for trash that was not trash?” Williams asked. “Some of it was [unintelligible] of my momma that died. And y’all took it without even asking.”
Williams also claimed that the enforcer took the steps she had for getting through her door, which was now challenging due to the multiple surgeries she had on her leg.
Williams echoed the complaints of the others who protested, claiming the enforcer arbitrarily determined that their property was “rubbish.” She was also audibly emotional at losing many of her late mother’s possessions.
“I want to know, who got a degree to tell me what ‘rubbish is?” Williams continued. “Because I can show you pictures of where I was cleaning up my back yard. There wasn’t no rubbish left out there.”
She continued, “Y’all foul down here. I’m just going to be straightforward. Y’all got to get it together because y’all not right. Y’all taking people’s stuff; doing people any kind of way. People on fixed income, y’all messing with.”
Herring also reappeared at Tuesday’s meeting, telling the council that any city ordinance that violated the 4th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
“According to a former city employee, the code enforcement officers are not trained to understand the importance of these enumerated rights and the importance of respecting those rights, even when such training has been requested,” Herring stated.
The commissioners did not address the accusations against code enforcement or those who spoke directly after public comment, likely due to disruptive attendees who were animated about alleged corruption in the judiciary and the sheriff’s department.
However, one council member did state that he believed the city’s code enforcement had “some process things we need to work through.”
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