Wafting barbeque smoke is apparently against the law in Pinellas County.
A Pinellas County, Florida, permitting official has sparked some nationwide discussion about the powers of local government after he was caught on video chastising a couple of residents for the code crime of letting their barbeque smoke leave their property.
The exchange, which lasted more than five minutes, was captured on video. It shows the local government official responding to the complaint of a neighbor who lives diagonally across the street from the barbequers, and telling them bluntly: Hey, you must contain all smoke within your property line.
The residents, meanwhile, express shock and disbelief.
“So this is a nuisance,” one of the men said, referring to the idea of smoke from a barbeque drifting into the street, the YouTube video showed. “So this dumb[expletive] neighbor over here –– nobody on the street, I been here 40 years, has ever complained.”
The government official then says, of the complaining neighbor: “She may be upwind.”
He then referenced how he took three pictures of the smoke drifting off the barbequers’ property, and reminded how such breaks local code.
“I can smell it again right now, but I’m on your property,” he said. “You’re allowed to have the smells on your property, so that doesn’t count. But when I’m on the street, that’s when it counts.”
The shocked men then ask, “So you can’t smell barbeque smoke on the street,” without breaking the law? And one adds: “Is that against the law? Man, everybody around here cooks out.”
They then tell the code officer the neighbor who complained about the smoke and smell has targeted them for the last three years she’s lived in the neighborhood, calling the police and fire department every time they barbeque.
And then this from the government official: “So I’m just suggesting there is a rule in play here and what you’re doing looks like it may be counter to the rule … I’m simply suggesting it appears from my observations of your site here you have smoke leaving.”
The video shows the men expressing disbelief and one of them saying: “So we’re supposed to control the smoke and the wind? Where it’s blowing? … What else can I do?”
The permit officer tells them he has to write them up and turn in the complaint to his department.
from PropagandaGuard https://propagandaguard.wordpress.com/2015/07/27/county-cracks-down-on-wafting-bbq-smoke/
from WordPress https://toddmsiebert.wordpress.com/2015/07/27/county-cracks-down-on-wafting-bbq-smoke/
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