Vacuous Truth and the Vacant Building Ordinance

Dailykos.com on Vacuous Truth:

“Often we can start with a false statement and prove anything we like, if we know how to pull the right implication from the initial falsehood.”

A new ordinance was just passed that reduces your personal property rights! It will be selectively enforced (as most ordinances are by BSB) and used to target specific people.

This new ordinance is the vacant building registry. The great thing about this passage is that the first issuance of a violation notice will have to go to Butte-Silver Bow. Community Enrichment will be handing the notice to Chief Executive Vincent for 8 vacant buildings at the Anselmo Mineyard. These Nationally significant historic structures do in fact fully meet the violation provisions for registry of vacant buildings in this new ordinance.

The registration fee will be $25/year for each vacant building. With these 8 vacant buildings the registration cost for BSB will be $200. If BSB fails to register these buildings, a $500 per building violation fee will be charged, for a total of $4,000 per the ordinance.

With the registry BSB will have to submit written requirements to Community Enrichment of their plans and timetable for the care and closure of each of these structures. These closures will have to meet the Secretary of the Interior Standards per BSB requirements of the use of public funds and as a Certified Local Government that is established as a federally established program.

Of course, this would be an example of BSB not having its own house in order before writing an ordinance for the sole purpose of being able to bully their way onto citizen’s private property and make an uninformed and uneducated judgement call against their building.

As the local expert on Butte buildings I can tell you this: there is no one on BSB staff that is qualified to make these judgement calls. But they will be made anyway, and enforced with vigor.

It is a sad state of affairs that our local government works against its own citizens who take pride in owning their historic properties and make investment in them as they can afford to.