Pensacola magistrate finds Lejeune Drive property corrected, orders $200 in court costs

Special Magistrate Matthew Hargraves found on March 4 that the property at 7765 Lejeune Drive was not in compliance by the posted deadline but had been brought into compliance by the hearing date, and he ordered the property owner to pay $200 in court costs within 30 days.

Tom Lucia, a code enforcement specialist for the City of Pensacola, said the case was opened Jan. 14, 2025, after a sanitation department complaint that the property lacked active sanitation service. A notice of violation was sent by certified mail on Jan. 14 and later posted on the property and at city hall after the certified mail was returned unclaimed. Lucia told the authority the city’s sanitation account (CIS) showed the final bill had been paid and that the case had been corrected.

Magistrate Hargraves found by clear and convincing evidence that the property was not in compliance as of the required date on the posted notice (noted in the hearing as Feb. 10, 2025), that notice had been properly provided by posting, and that the property had been brought into compliance as of the hearing date. Hargraves declined to assess daily fines because of the correction but ordered the $200 prosecution court costs to be paid within 30 days (calendared in the hearing as April 3, 2025).

Lucia confirmed there is an officer affidavit stating the property was posted Jan. 31, 2025, and provided a copy of the posted notice. The magistrate’s finding and the order for payment were entered on the record; the transcript contains no vote tally because the magistrate issued the ruling.

The ruling closed the Code Enforcement Authority’s request-to-find portion of the March 4 agenda.