{"id":85486,"date":"2026-10-20T22:24:55","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T02:24:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=85486"},"modified":"2026-10-20T22:25:03","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T02:25:03","slug":"lakeland-considers-abolishing-citizen-code-enforcement-board-for-special-magistrate-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/10\/20\/lakeland-considers-abolishing-citizen-code-enforcement-board-for-special-magistrate-system\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakeland Considers Abolishing Citizen Code Enforcement Board for Special Magistrate System"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img data-dominant-color=\"99b09f\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #99b09f;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"239\" height=\"222\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 239px) 100vw, 239px\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Screenshot-1-24.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-85487 not-transparent\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here are the key details surrounding the proposed changes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Key Details of the Proposal<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Transition to a Special Magistrate:<\/strong> Under the proposed ordinance, the volunteer citizen board\u2014which currently handles unresolved property maintenance, garbage, and zoning code violations\u2014would be replaced entirely by a Special Magistrate system. Former Lakeland City Attorney <strong>Joe Mawhinney<\/strong> was appointed as a Special Magistrate on October 5.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Change to the Appeals Process:<\/strong> Currently, residents can contest an initial hearing officer&#8217;s decision within 10 days to be reviewed by the citizen Code Enforcement Board. Removing the board would eliminate that intermediate step, making <strong>circuit court<\/strong> the sole formal option to appeal a Special Magistrate&#8217;s final order.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Discussion &amp; Concerns:<\/strong> During an agenda study meeting, Commissioner Ashley Troutman raised concerns about whether a single magistrate would offer residents sufficient flexibility to correct issues when acting in good faith. City legal representatives noted that code enforcement staff will continue to recommend flexibility during proceedings.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Timeline &amp; Next Steps<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>First Reading:<\/strong> Conducted on <strong>Monday, October 19, 2026<\/strong> (no vote was taken).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Public Hearing &amp; Final Vote:<\/strong> Scheduled for <strong>November 2, 2026<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here are the key details surrounding the proposed changes: Key Details of the Proposal Timeline &amp; Next Steps<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85487,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzEwXC9TY3JlZW5zaG90LTEtMjQud2VicCIsInR4dCI6Ikxha2VsYW5kIENvbnNpZGVycyBBYm9saXNoaW5nIENpdGl6ZW4gQ29kZSBFbmZvcmNlbWVudCBCb2FyZCBmb3IgU3BlY2lhbCBNYWdpc3RyYXRlIFN5c3RlbSIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiZG9pcyIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.CIhx-avaSu2Gw3lO4W3FujBp7k6sY6iBRbECYnqLZQcMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzEwXC9TY3JlZW5zaG90LTEtMjQud2VicCIsInR4dCI6Ikxha2VsYW5kIENvbnNpZGVycyBBYm9saXNoaW5nIENpdGl6ZW4gQ29kZSBFbmZvcmNlbWVudCBCb2FyZCBmb3IgU3BlY2lhbCBNYWdpc3RyYXRlIFN5c3RlbSIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiZG9pcyIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.CIhx-avaSu2Gw3lO4W3FujBp7k6sY6iBRbECYnqLZQcMQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[7591],"tags":[237,16070,15642,18312,15493,18314,18313,18318],"class_list":["post-85486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-city-of-lakeland","tag-lakeland","tag-city-commission","tag-city-government","tag-code-enforcement","tag-local-news","tag-property-maintenance","tag-special-magistrate","tag-zoning"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85486"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85488,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85486\/revisions\/85488"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}