By WES REYNOLDS
Journal Staff Writer
Mayor Chuck Shaheen said he did not insruct the Code Enforcement Office to end a felony investigation of someone taking illegal action related to the removal of up to 1,000 tires from from a condemned building located on Commercial Circle.
Last year, before Shaheen took office, the city hired a man to remove and properly dispose of the tires, paying him $700. The job was never completed.
According to a police report, tires matching the description of those in the condemned building, formerly White’s Tires, were found near the end of city owned property at Foy Evans Drive.
It was later dicovered Fransisco Resendez, the man hired for the tires removal, was without a license to transport the materials because the EPA classifies material as “hazardous material”, and he was subsequently fired.
A city code enforcement report says the investigation ended at the request of Mayor Shaheen.
However, Shaheen denied vocalizing any wishes to stop an investigation of criminal suspicion.
“Code enforcement came to me and asked me to sign a letter to approve prosecution of a suspect.” Shaheen said. “I was shown absolutely no evidence or information proving wrong doing. I’m not going to sign something like that.”
Shaheen said he was caught off guard by the request and was left wondering why a Mayor’s signature would even be needed to bring charges against someone in a court of law.
“Why in the world would law enforcement come to the mayor about a federal crime?” Said Shaheen. “I am not in the crriminal justice field. I want the city police to do their job. I was taken aback wondering is that normal procedure?
Shaheen also noted, in light of the turn of events regarding a request for prosecution approval from code enforcement, he was recently wondering why he kept getting other unrelated police reports delivered to his office throughout the the week.
“I adomantly support our great police department 100% to do their job effectively, said Shaheen. “And make no mistake, we will crackdown on crime in our great city, but the mayor should not get involved in an approval to prosecute. I couldn’t sign something against a person whom I’ve seen no evidence against and I still don’t understand why the Mayor would need to sign a letter approving a prosecution.”
Shaheen, while recognizing he is new to the mayor’s office, said he isn’t sure if the procedure was commonplace in the past, but will not be in the future. He also commented, “Chief Evans will not come to me about prosecution in the future.”
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