DA files charges to force Camelot II, Windsor Oaks cleanup

The Bexar County district attorney's office charged 12 landlords with misdemeanors Thursday, alleging they failed to clean up their properties in two troubled Northeast Side neighborhoods.

The charges of maintaining a public nuisance come almost two months after officials announced a crackdown aimed at helping clean up conditions in those two neighborhoods, which District Attorney Susan Reed described as Third World-like.

“This is quite a bit of work for a short period of time,” said Adriana Biggs, the chief of the DA's white-collar-crime division. “I don't see as quick results as we would like, but there really is no other way to go around it, other than this just jumping through these hoops in the civil and criminal arena.”

The 12 landlords own 10 properties in the troubled Camelot II and Windsor Oaks neighborhoods, which have been plagued by illegal dumping and vacant homes that have become magnets for trash and debris.

Those 10 homes were among the 30 cited by the DA's office in October for violating the state's Health and Safety code.

Briggs added that 11 landlords had avoided misdemeanor charges by “abating the nuisance” on their properties so they no longer violated state law.

Additionally, she said the DA's office still was attempting to identify and locate the owners of three of the homes.

One of the houses is owned by a limited liability corporation that apparently hasn't registered with the Texas secretary of state; two of the landlords list their vacant property as their mailing address.

“It just takes a little bit of sleuthing to figure where these people are,” Biggs said.

Both Camelot II and Windsor Oaks are unincorporated neighborhoods that lie outside any city's boundaries and rely on the Bexar County government for services.

However, county governments don't have the ordinance-making powers that city governments have, which prevents Bexar County commissioners from simply requiring that landlords set up trash and solid waste removal services for their properties.

The DA's office adopted a strategy to try to force the landlords to clean up the mess by charging them with violating the state's Health and Safety Code. However, the code requires that property owners be given notice 30 days before any legal action can be taken, preventing a quick resolution of the problem.

“It can turn into a very long and drawn-out legal process,” Precinct 3 Commissioner Kevin Wolff said. “It's not what the courts were created for, they weren't created for enforcement. But that's essentially what we're having to utilize them for.”

He added that having to depend on the Health and Safety Code to mandate the cleanup also meant the problem had to reach a threshold where public health was endangered before the county could act.

Commissioners Court voted Nov. 20 to lobby for legislation that would give it the power to mandate that landlords with two or more properties in unincorporated areas of the county must set up trash service for their property. The Legislature convenes in January.