One of the first items discussed at the city council meeting on September 21, was a resolution regarding the amount of $19,830 of unpaid citations from a Clovis resident.
Resident Daren McDaniel who lives in the Bullard and Armstrong area has accumulated 43 citations for public nuisance since September of 2014. McDaniel has failed to pay or appeal any of the citations and the city is moving to put a lien on his property to collect the money.
Corporal Josh Kirk from the Clovis Police Department who is the beat corporal for the area said that McDaniel has been cited for numerous code enforcement violations and has been arrested several times for drug related incidents.
Kirk said that he has issued 27 administrative citations, has arrested McDaniel 13 times and Clovis PD have been called to the residence 161 times in the past five years.
According to some of McDaniel’s neighbors he has been a threat to the neighborhood for six years. One neighbor said that McDaniel rides his bike at late hours of the night and loud music is heard at all hours of the night from his home.
Another neighbor commented that there are car parts all over the front lawn and that cars have been left out on cinder blocks for months. The neighbors also claimed McDaniel flew a drone through the neighborhood to intimidate and harass his neighbors.
Councilmember Ashbeck said that she felt that the amount of money being lien on the property was not enough, because the city had dealt with this for too long. Councilmember Vong Mouanoutoua asked if it would be easier to send to collections than to put the lien on the property.
Mouanoutoua was told that putting the lien on the property was the most effective way for the city to get the money back from the citations.
After several more comments from concerned neighbors, the city council voted unanimously to approve the resolution to put a lien on the property.
One more item on the agenda was the 2019-2020 Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report (CAPER) expenditure of block grant funds resolution. The block grant was to help rehab some homes making them more accessible for residents with disabilities.
The grant also helped with a capital project for the city, helping re-do an alley making it more safe for the residents. The grant also helped area base policing, the senior meals program, and the COVID-19 emergency housing program.
Mayor Drew Bessinger said that he was glad to see all the good work being done with the grant and that projects like the alley renovation project makes it less inviting for people to litter in the alley.
The council voted unanimously pass the resolution and adopt the CAPER for expenditures of the community development block grant funds.