National City Councilman Jerry Cano has corrected a dozen building code violations, putting his home in compliance with National City’s building code for the first time in five years.
After finally obtaining building permits in April for his Mary Lane home, the city attorney gave Cano a May 24 deadline to correct his violations before being fined and penalized for remaining out of compliance.
“I can confirm he met the deadline,” said Roberto Contreras, deputy city attorney.
The Star-News reported on March 15 that Cano had five years’ worth of building code violations for non-permitted work at his Mary Lane home.
Just seven months into his newly elected position as a National City Councilman in 2013, Cano was issued two Notices of Code Violations for non-permitted work at his Mary Lane home.
Despite being sent several Notices of Violation, the councilman was never issued any fines or penalties for those violations.
Instead, the city filed a Recordation of Notice of Code Violations against his property. A recordation is a legal document that limits a property owner’s ability to sell, refinance or construct anything until the code violations are corrected.
Now that Cano is in compliance, City Attorney Angil Morris Jones said she did not know if the recordation remained in place or if it had been removed.
Morris Jones said she needed to check in with the city’s building department regarding the recordation.
The city on April 30 hired the Lozano Smith law firm to investigate how Cano’s building code case was handled since residents at council meetings alleged that Cano received preferential treatment because he is an elected official.
“I don’t have any comments on what happened before I got here,” the city attorney said.
“In regard to what happened since I’ve been here he’s been treated like everyone else.”
Morris Jones said she anticipates the investigation into Cano to be nearing its conclusion.
“I look forward to it being done as soon as possible,” she said.
On the same day, The Star-News reported about Cano’s building code violations, Morris
Jones sent the councilman a letter, notifying him that he had until April 3 to complete a new building permit application, pay a $118 fee for a plan check review and submit either the previously submitted plans that were approved on Jan.22, 2015 or submit new plans by a designer.
Cano met those directives but was not allowed to submit the previously approved plans from Jan. 22, 2015 as they had already expired.
A plan check showed that Cano needed to make corrections to his submitted plans, which he did. Cano obtained a building permit on April 24. Cano paid $189 for a plan check and plan review.
To obtain the permit, Cano paid a $1,136.16 penalty, receipts show.
