some background on Regina Preston-Williams, who many news sources (and TYT etc camp)

Last edited Fri Nov 15, 2019, 04:05 PM - Edit history (1)

are using to try and ratfuck Pete. Google her name plus Buttigieg and its amazing how many stories come up, almsot all of the negative.

She has a powerful motivation to to try and take him down.

Update: she was crushed in the South Bend mayoral primary, losing badly to the Buttigieg-backed candidate (she received less that 5%)

BTW, the local paper, The South Bend Tribune, is no friend of his

https://www.southbendtribune.com/news/elections/south-bend-mayoral-candidate-says-her-code-violations-will-help/article_cbd0ec12-9dfe-5422-8b90-fa72b448258a.html

SOUTH BEND — More than two years ago, the city of South Bend sued Common Council Member Regina Williams-Preston and her husband over unpaid fines from code violations on nine properties they owned.

The combined fines at one point topped $72,000.

The couple and city have since settled the cases, and Williams-Preston is now running as a Democrat for mayor. But rather than hurt her election chances, she says the case will motivate her to help other African-Americans with limited resources if she’s elected.

Williams-Preston claims the city targeted her and her husband’s properties, and those of their neighbors, with “aggressive code enforcement” to further two goals: Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s pledge to address 1,000 vacant and abandoned homes in 1,000 days, and the West Side Main Streets Plan, which calls for revitalizing the neighborhoods between Western Avenue and Lincoln Way West.

The city filed the suits against Williams-Preston and her husband, Tyrone Preston, in July 2016 — seeking $7,238 in costs and fines from her and about $65,000 from him. The couple, collectively, owned nine residential properties in the city, including their home on North Elmer Street. They planned to renovate some and demolish others.

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They were cited for 41 code violations, despite the homes having sat vacant for longer than a decade, and the couple couldn’t afford to pay the fines, Williams-Preston said. Some of the citations were for parking cars on the empty lots and their own yard.

Under terms of a 2017 out-of-court settlement, the city dropped the suit in exchange for Williams-Preston’s agreement to make $50 monthly payments toward a $2,131 debt, according to city records. The city ultimately demolished the three tax sale houses — two of them on the couple’s block and the third located seven blocks away – and Tyrone agreed to pay $25,000 toward the city’s demolition costs, a debt he’s paying off in $350 monthly payments, Williams-Preston said.

snip


Williams-Preston also said then-City Attorney Cristal Brisco acknowledged in a conversation that the process the city used to determine the size and number of fines levied against a property owner was too subjective.

“The city found that the way in which they assessed civil penalties was not something that they could defend in court,” she said. “They used to fine $200 or $250, but during the 1000 Houses in 1000 Days, they said well, we got to get these properties in the hands of the city, so we’re going to up those fines.”

But the city administration disputed that characterization of its position. Buttigieg spokesman Mark Bode said no one from the city would comment on Williams-Preston’s claims. But he pointed to a July 2017 email exchange between Brisco and Williams-Preston, obtained by The Tribune through a public records request, as evidence that Williams-Preston is wrongly portraying the city’s stance.

“As per our conversations over the last several months, civil penalties that were assessed without a consistent procedure were to be dismissed not just for my properties but for all residents in South Bend,” Williams-Preston wrote to Brisco, after asking her why some of her properties still had liens.

Brisco replied that the county solid waste district had imposed the liens for nonpayment of recycling fees.

“Your email,” Brisco wrote, “states that based on our conversations over the past several months, you’ve come to understand that civil penalties that were issued without a ‘consistent procedure’ were to be dismissed for all residents in South Bend. This statement implies that there is a systemic problem with the civil penalty process in South Bend … This is inaccurate, and there seems to be some confusion regarding the information I’ve previously provided to you.”

When asked this week for comment on the email exchange, Williams-Preston maintained her version of the story.