Draft Mediation Letter

.

{Pssst! Someone buy "A is for Asshole" on Amazon and read it to Lynda.}

My attorney asked me for a *short* draft mediation letter outlining the case and my expected outcomes from next week's mediation session. The letter, he said, will be forwarded to the mediator and to the defendants in advance of the session.

For the loyal supporters following the lawsuit, you will find nothing new here. For the rest of you, the points are focused versions of the three aims I spelled out two and one-half years ago, on April 4, 2008, in a letter to the City of Manteca:

My aims are threefold. (1) The immediate need is nighttime noise cessation. (2) The next goal, in the short term, is to have the City of Manteca spell out for me and my neighbors the legal responsibilities (and necessary formal variances!) this business has in a residential neighborhood. (3) My long term goal (and the Planning Department’s goal?) is to have the business assets and operations removed from the property (perhaps to a commercial zone?)



You will see below only slight wording changes in those aims, even though in April 2008 everyone was still suckered by Lyin' Lynda's big lie... you know, the one about how she was running a "legally grandfathered business." {Pish!} A fourth aim of mine, since the necessity of a lawsuit was forced on me, is to lay the costs of exterminating these roaches this sordid affair on the guilty parties.

BEHLING v. ALLEN, et al.
Case # 39-2009-00212085-CU-OR-STK
Mediation letter
November 29, 2010


Plaintiff charges the defendants with noise nuisance caused by reason of their illegal land use of operating the business known as TLC Catering and commissary from their residential property zoned R-1. Prior to the lawsuit, all municipal administrative remedies were denied to plaintiff. Upon filing this suit, the defendants immediately engaged in retaliatory noise increases, which were made part of the first amended pleadings. Soon after the first amendment, unwarranted and harassing closed circuit digital (CCD) camera surveillance of plaintiff on his property commenced.


Plaintiff’s aim is to live in peaceful and quiet enjoyment of his adjoining residential property by:


A) stopping the incessant noise nuisances and retaliatory intrusions emanating from 810 Fishback Street, including business uses and noises, all-day/every-day harassment playing of the yard radio since June 4, 2009, and intrusive, overreaching use of CCD infrared surveillance cameras since October 11, 2010;


B) obtaining a complete recision and extinguishment of the deceitfully gained June 1993 “legal, nonconforming” use designation for 810 Fishback Street either by defendants’ sworn statement of confession, or by City of Manteca’s written determination, or by Superior Court order;


C) effecting the cleanup and rehabilitation of 810 Fishback Street to residential only use by complete removal or demolition from the property of all assets - buildings, structures, vehicles, equipment, appliances, fixtures, inventories, etc. - used in conducting the business from 1987 to 2010 (preliminary asset list is attached); and


D) recovering plaintiff’s costs, damages, and legal fees incurred to obtain obstinate defendants’ compliance with state laws, municipal ordinances, and common courtesies.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Preliminary asset list of TLC Catering and commissary


(This is plaintiff’s list because attempts to verify these assets, first by interrogatory, then by demand for production of acquisition documents, again by request for admissions, and finally by request for on-site inspection, have in all cases produced only non-response or evasions by the defendants.)


Mobile home, license # FQ1259


Covered dirt floor structure behind mobile home (eastward) and all equipment in it


Trailmobile refrigerated shipping container behind the mobile home (eastward)


Grease barrel storage corral and grease barrels


Two (2) Mobile Food Preparation Units (MFPUs, or catering trucks)


One Vending truck


One trash truck


Covered concrete floor structure on the north property line


Equipment and appliances on the north property line:

• Scotsman icemaker and condenser
• Follett ice storage/dispensing bin
• Admiral freezer/refrigerator combo
• Kenmore upright freezer
• Bally walk-in freezer

Chest freezer on covered porch attached to east side of main dwelling


Outdoor radio mounted on outbuilding


Surveillance cameras


All other unverified buildings, structures, vehicles, equipment, appliances, fixtures, parts stocks, inventories, and detritus currently or formerly used in the nonconforming uses

- - - - - - - - -

.

Extreme Tardiness in Admitting Discontinuance of TLC

.

Lynda Allen and her Farmer's Insurance lawyers (2009-2011)
- - - - -

Damn good likeness of Lynda, above, don't you think? She is remarkably well preserved even though this portrait of her was painted over 500 years ago by Jan Provoost (1462/5 - Jan 1529). On a minor note, she has picked up a few facial lines since that sitting... (and her hair?... ooooh... what she has now must be a wig!) After all, the slop slinging catering business is sooo cutthroat and competitive.

But I digress...


Request For Admissions

The three pages following comprise a set of requested admissions from the defendants. The purpose was to allow them to bolster their [nonexistent] defense by declaring their discontinuance of the illegal land use. Please note the date on the third page, the Proof of Service - July 19, 2010.

The inexcusably tardy admissions

Shortly after August 13th I received papers almost identical to the first two pages following, but never received the Verifications (third page.) Repeated attempts subsequently to obtain the Verifications resulted in... nothing.

Ninety days after the request (thirty days allowed under court rules), comes now the following three pages, which comprise the scuffing, foot dragging belated response of only one defendant. The other [it is alleged] is all stove up with breast cancer and [it is surmised] cannot read, comprehend, communicate, or govern her small motor skills sufficiently to sign a Verification.

(Hello?! Earth, calling Lynda! You can appoint each other as medical marijuana caregivers, but you cannot delegate power of attorney or get a notary public to witness each other's "X" mark? I've seen the property transfer shell games you and Ravaged Red have played over the years to avoid bill collectors. Your pattern of lame excuses and shady actions continues...)

The reader will please note the dates. Lyin' Lynda signed her Verification on October 18th (but why in Tracy, CA? Is that where Red is hiding convalescing these days?), while the legal person signed the Admissions on October 19th. (Catering race observer quoted, Yoda, "Smarter the lawyers are getting.")

At this rate of discovery, perhaps we might... just maybe... bring about a resolution before Death comes to claim the Miser and her lovers.

.

{Shhhh! This Is Supposed To Be A Surprise Birthday Present...}

.

credit

I told you before that I am an afficionado of all things "catering" (except for eating any food sold from a catering truck... and icemakers... and commissaries... and outlaw owners.)

So, let me tell you! When I came across these gorgeous little cardboard fold-up models of catering trucks, I immediately KNEW what to get Mellow Yellow for her birthday this weekend! You see, the reason is she got deathly sick and had to quit her business (finally! on a residential property, no less!) and has to get rid of all those commercial vehicles (and other business assets) on her property. So much stress on the poor woman. And Code Enforcement is on to her... they say:

Tue 9/21/2010 3:29 PM
Your request # 460464 has been resolved with the resolution:
Code Enforcement is aware of the situation and will be addressing the appropriate violations. Thank you for your concern.

This is in reference to the Complaint on Garage Sales you submitted on 09/13/2010 6:28 PM
Location: 810 Fishback Street
Description: Re: Request #455382, the two vehicles in question were pushed in front of a container/trailer. They are visible from the sidewalk without elevating any cameras - or eyeballs.

The complaint above was actually regarding Abandoned Vehicles, but they got confused, I guess, when I asked the below question online:

Wed 9/1/2010 3:17 PM
This is in reference to the Question you submitted on 09/01/2010 2:46 PM
Description: How many vehicles can be sold, or offered for sale, from a residential property without an auto dealer's license? 1? 2? 3? 4? 5? 6? more?

Reason Closed: The City does not have anything to do with an auto dealer's license so inquiries regarding this would need to be directed to the DMV. The City also does not have any rules regarding the sale of ones own vehicles. As example, If someone owned 10 vehicles and suddenly needed to liquidate them due to a need for cash, there is nothing that says that they can't do so. On the other hand, if they were purchasing vehicles to turn around and re-sell them, that would be something that would then be looked at as a business activity that would not be allowed. In addition, the courts have held that we can not regulate someone putting a for sale sign on their vehicle as this is considered a free speech issue.

Oh, so now it's a freedom of political speech to amass commercial vehicles on a residential property and illegally conduct business therefrom? And after closing the business, using the property as a commercial auto sales lot is also freedom of political speech? {imbeciles!}

{Deep breath! Exhale slowly... Slow heart rate and lower blood pressure.}

O.K. Back on track...

These darling little cardboard catering trucks, however, ARE legal for her to have on her property. And anyway, after "[Yellow] takes one toke with her famous lungs" * this'll look just like the real thing. Sorta ease her pain, like, ya' know... BUT, she has to be really careful while burning her roaches inside one a' these coaches, or she may just "go[] up in a puff of smoke." *

But please help me choose. I'm having trouble deciding which model to get her. Here's the current catalogue, and after that are some larger images. Please let me know what you think.

Señor Macho Taco Model




Customizable Model
(To reconstruct that sweeeeet TLC look and feel!)




Bleep Labs Model - for peddling anthropomorphic noise toys
(as if Lynda needed any help making more noise!)




Pirate Model
(Yum Yum, Hard Tack & Rum)




Muertos Model
(I thought this was the unofficial title of every taco truck out there?)




Yum Tacos Model




Kawaii Model
(can you imagine raw sashimi being sold from a taco truck?)




Zombie Model
(closest to truth-in-advertising of any model listed)




- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
* see highlighted lines

The Smoke Off
by Shel Silverstein

Now, in the laid-back California town of sunny San Rafael
Lived a girl named Pearly Sweetcake - you probably knew her well
She was stoned 15 of her 18 years, and her story was widely told
That she could smoke 'em faster than anyone could roll

Well, her legend finally reached New York, that Grove Street walk-up flat
Where dwelt the Calistoga Kid, a beatnik from the past
He'd been rollin' dope since time began, now he took a cultured toke
And said, "Jim, I can roll 'em faster than any CHICK can smoke"

So a note gets sent to San Rafael for the championship of the world
The Kid demands a smoke-off; "Well bring him on!" says Pearl
"I'll grind his fingers off his hands! He'll roll until he drops!"
Says Calistog, "I'll smoke that chick till she blows up and pops".

So they rent out Yankee Stadium, and the word is quickly spread
Come one, come all, who walk or crawl, tickets just two lids a head
And from every town and hamlet, over land and sea they speed
The world's greatest dopers, with the world's greatest weed.

Hashishers from Morocco, hemp smokers from Peru
And the Shashniks from Bagun (who smoke the deadly Pu-ga-ru)
And those who call it "light of life"
And those that call it "boo".

See the dealers and their ladies, wearing turquoise lace and leather
See the narcos and the closet smokers, puffing all together
From the teenies who smoke legal, to the ones who've done some time
To the old man who smoked "reefer", back before it was a crime.

And the grand old House That Ruth Built is filled with the smokes and cries
Of 50,000 screaming heads, all stoned out of their minds
And they play the national anthem, and the crowd lets out a roar
As the spotlight hits the kid and Pearl, ready for their smoking war.

At a table piled up high with grass, as high as a mountain peak
Just tops and buds of the rarest flowers, not one stem, branch or seed
I mean, Maui Wowie, Panama Red, Acapulco Gold
Kif from East Afghanistan, and that rare Alaska Cold

And there's sticks from Thailand, ganj from the island,
And Bangkok's blooming best
(and some of that wet imported shit
That capsized off Key West).

There's Oaxacan tops and Kenya bhang, and Riviera fleurs
And that rare Manhattan Silver, that grows down in the New York sewers.
And there's bubblin' ice cold lemonade, and sweet grapes by the bunches
And there's Hershey bars and Oreos (in case anybody gets the munches)

And the Calistoga Kid, he smiles,
And Pearly, she just grins
And the drums roll low, and the crowd yells "GO GO GO!!"
And the world's first smoke-off begins.

Well, the kid he flicks his fingers once, and ZAP that first joint's rolled
Pearl takes one toke with her famous lungs, and WHOOSH that roach is cold
Then the kid he rolls his super-bomb, that would paralyze a moose
And Pearl takes one mighty hit, and ...... that bomb's defused

And then he rolls three in just ten seconds, and she smokes them up in nine
And everybody sits back and says, "Hey.... this just might take some time"

See the blur of flying fingers, see the red coal burning bright
As the night turns into mornin', and the mornin' fades to night
And the autumn turns to summer, and a whole damn year is gone
And the two still sit, on that roach-filled stage, smokin', and rollin'...on

With tremblin' hands he rolls his jays, with fingers blue and stiff
She coughs and stares with bloodshot gaze, and puffs through blistered lips
And as she reaches out her hand for another stick of gold
The Kid, he gasps, "Damn it, bitch! There's nothin' left to roll!"

"NOTHIN' LEFT TO ROLL!" screams Pearl. "IS THIS SOME TWISTED JOKE?
I DIDN'T COME HERE TO FUCK AROUND; MAN, I COME HERE TO SMOKE!"

And she reaches 'cross the table and grabs his bony sleeves
And crumbles his body between her hands, like dried and brittle leaves
Flicking out his teeth and bones like useless stems and seeds
And then she rolls him in a zig-zag, and lights him like a roach
And the fastest man, with the fastest hands, goes up in a puff of smoke.

In the laid-back California town of sunny San Rafael
Lives a girl named Pearly Sweetcake - you probably know her well
She been stoned 21 of her 24 years, and her story is still widely told
How she still can smoke 'em faster than any dude can roll

While, off in New York City, on a street that has no name
There's the hands of the Calistoga kid, in the Viper Hall of Fame
And underneath his fingers, there's a little golden scroll
That says, "Beware of bein' the roller
When there's nothin' left to roll".

.

Hello, Darkness, My Old Friend

Every so often I still get that feeling like I'm slipping into the Twilight Zone, or an alternate parallel universe, where BDGs rule the world and government agencies serve as mere footstools for their convenience and comfort.

Such was the initial shock when I opened the response from the State Board of Equalization. Note closely the Close-out date of this Seller's Permit - 6/30/95.

This conjures up a couple of investigative theories:

The most obvious scenario - Has TLC Catering been operating for the last fifteen years without a Seller's Permit for the sales of any taxable {s***} off their truck(s) or the nontaxable purchases of consumable supplies using business accounts set up with vendors, such as Costco, etc. Allen's & Brassey's long history of noncompliance argues vigorously for this option; such as, letting the permit lapse but still rely on their one-and-only 1989 Fictitious Business Name filing to set up business accounts and lie and cheat their way out of paying sales and use tax.

Another plausible scenario - Did Allen & Brassey "sell" their company to a silent partner/investor, closed out the referenced Seller's Permit, and have been operating under another permit for the last fifteen years? The complete absence of other names, entities, numbers, etc. discovered so far means that they (or rather, their advisors) are very, very good at playing the corporate shell game to hide their actions. This would explain their absolute nonresponse to lawsuit interrogatories, demands for production, requests for admissions, and admissions of documents.

Well, because I have nothing else to do besides write letters and go to city council meetings...

Allen (to Mayor): I only have a couple years left in my business... if I make it. We don't talk. It's not that we need a mediator. He has nothing else to do or he would not have written those two big books.

Mayor: I don't think we want to get into the personal issues here.


Allen: Well, I try not to do that, but I'm just saying that somebody has a little extra time on their hands. (audience laughs)

With some of my extra time (and because I want a usable answer), I wrote back to the State Board of Equalization.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Board of Equalization
Disclosure Officer, MIC: 82
P.O. Box 942879
Sacramento, CA 94279


June 14, 2010


Re: Cancellation of Seller’s Permit and
Case # 39-2009-00212085-CU-OR-STK


Dear Mr. DaPrato,


In reference to the Close-out date of 6/30/95 on the attached page, are you informing me that TLC Catering has been operating from that date to February 12, 2010 (fifteen years!) without a Seller’s Permit?

On May 19, 2009, I filed a civil suit for private nuisance (noise and business use of residential property) against Lynda Allen, Theresa Brassey, and TLC Catering. Included in the complaint was the charge that they had a long history of missing certain necessary permits dating back to 1987. In my previous letter of May 26th, I was asking for the mere corroboration of a business discontinuance date – expecting something somewhere in the ballpark of early 2010. However, the information you provided appears to fast track the matter of Lynda Allen, et al, and their TLC Catering and Commissary business operation to the level of a serious tax evasion investigation.

If tax evasion is not the case because Ms. Allen used another - legal - Seller’s Permit number, I still make the request to know if or when such permit was surrendered.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Dealing with government agencies and public servants gives me this dark and dirty feeling. Am I merely pestering the Lords of the Universe, who want only to swat me into nonexistence? That's what I get for reading Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.

I'm trying to fit this newest puzzle piece into TLC Catering's illegal business expansion timeline. The June 1995 expiration of the Seller's Permit was one year after Allen & Brassey received their Health Department clearance to operate a private commissary (see chart) - from an illegal mobile home on their residential property. But they still needed business accounts to receive deliveries and services  from Crystal Dairy, Oroweat, Hostess Cakes, Darling Int'l, Costco, and whatever other commercial vendors utilized over the years... hmmm...
.

The Division and Rationale of D.J. Duties

The same regimentation that existed during TLC Catering's reign of terror is still displayed every day in the disc jockey duties:

1. Supreme Generalissimo Allen commands the rights of primogeniture*, reserving to herself the sexual rush of noisily broadcasting her spoor into the morning air;
2. Leftenant Brassey, the good soldier she is, fills in on the days, like Tuesday, April 6th, when Supreme Generalissimo is physically absent (every day mentally absent) or stove up;
3. Grunt Greene falls into the tertiary position - and laggardly performs the sickening act of turning OFF the radio in the evening (wrong endocrine secretions in that job.)

I posted the below here:

"As punctual as an alarm clock going off at 7:00 a.m. every morning, Lynda pops out her door in robe and slippers and shuffles quickly over to the outbuilding to turn on the yard radio. Loud, but not too loud. On her way back, a glance over her right shoulder to ensure the speaker is pointed my direction. When it's not, she's barely tall enough to reach up high with both hands and reposition it according to her purpose. Then she retreats back indoors, leaving the Mega 100.1 FM (KQOD, Stockton) morning show blaring for my enjoyment."

Things go on exactly the same morning after morning (except Lynda was two minutes early, 6:58 a.m., the other day) - same robe, same slippers, shuffle, volume, over the shoulder glance at the speaker, same hasty retreat back indoors.

 

I work all day in an office with Muzak (c) service and expect residential quietness before and after work. (When I want music at home, I'll put on something I like.) My neighbors, however are delivering to me a disservice - Muzak (c) at home - except I didn't order it, don't want it, will not pay for it, but cannot turn it off, let alone change the channel or control the volume.

• T, L & C thought (with their limited brain cells) to use musical noise to mask the "squeaks and squeals of loud, frightening contraptions" - the icemaker, vendor delivery trucks, catering trucks, and the hour-long ice bucket brigade - except the radio just added to the din.

"Muzak was created in the 1930s by General George Squier, who developed the use of military messaging technology to carry music. This new technology was particularly useful for piping music into elevators, which at the time [1930's] were loud, frightening contraptions. The soothing music helped calm elevator riders' nerves and masked the squeaks and squeals of early elevators." 

• T, L & C continue to deviate from Muzak's approach by thinking (there's that word again!) to use musical noise as a strategy to provide obtrusive and overtly perceptible cues or suggestions. In this regard they are kindred spirits to the torturers in Guantanamo Bay. 

Muzak's approach:

"It was during this time [1970's] that background music known as "Muzak songs" - rerecorded versions of classical, pop, country, and rock songs, minus the vocals - were adopted as a strategy to provide unobtrusive subliminal cues to shoppers. As the demand for original music grew throughout the 1980s, Muzak shifted its focus to Audio Architecture, and a new way of reaching the hearts and minds of customers was born."

T, L & C's approach:

"The use of 'acoustic bombardment' has 'become standard practice on the battlefields of Iraq, and… has joined sensory deprivation and sexual humiliation as among the non-lethal means by which prisoners from Abu Ghraib to Guantanamo may be coerced to yield their secrets without violating US law' ” (“Music as Torture” by Suzanne G. Cusick, Transcultural Music Review Vol. 10, 2006).

• T, L & C were for twenty-three years self-defined by their illegal and now defunct business operation. They have nothing lawful to do on their property, except reside there, and nothing gainful or useful (or legal?) to do away from their property. They are now poster children for the sayings: 
• “In works of labour, or of skill,
• I would be busy too;
• For Satan finds some mischief still
• For idle hands to do.” (Issac Watts)

and

. “The only thing worse than idle hands is an idle mind.” (Anton Lavey)

and

.  "An idle brain is the devil's workshop." (Henry George Bohn)

• T, L & C have spurned every overture to join the adult human race, desiring only to throw verbal and musical tantrums, continue litigation, decline to make or accept offers of settlement, and refuse to remediate their outdoor radio nuisance. I again refer the reader to the best article I have ever read about noise, in the .pdf newsletter The Quiet Zone:

The Nature of Noise

 

   See if you can find Lynda, Theresa, and Corky in there...

 

.
- - - - - - -

* primogeniture - Latin word meaning " first born". It refers to the common tradition of the first born child of the parents who, by this law, inherits the entire estate of the parents because he/she is the eldest of all the children. This law is no more in existence in most of the world's countries now, except in the Third World village of Manteca, California, and the estate at 810 Fishback Street.

Cleaning Up Some of TLC's Environmental Waste

.
Just to make sure the general public in Tracy and Manteca are protected from the lawless bent of my neighbors, I sent this letter to my helpful contacts at the Health Department to give them a heads up.

- - - - - - - - - - - -


San Joaquin County, Environmental Health Department
Attn: Jeff Carruesco, Program Coordinator
600 E. Main Street
Stockton, CA 95202

March 18, 2010

Re: Superior Court Case # 3-2009-00212085-CU-OR-STK,
Behling v. Allen, Brassey, TLC Catering and Commissary


Dear Mr. Carruesco,

The enclosed picture shows that Lynda Allen and Theresa Brassey, owners and operators of TLC Catering, have elected to cease business operations on their residential property located at 810 Fishback Street in Manteca and not move their operation elsewhere. If they have already contacted you with that decision, please provide me and my attorney with copies of all correspondence between the parties and the health permit cancellations for TLC Catering's MFPU's and the private commissary.

If they have not yet contacted you, please flag their account and provide the documents requested above as they become available.
. . .

Your department's files were extremely helpful to me in reconstructing the scope and duration of Allen's and Brassey's illegal operation. I only wish your department had been more diligent to verify their lack of property rights for this operation twenty-three years ago. Nevertheless, I am pleased that 1) the current poor economic climate, 2) my lawsuit against them for their lack of land use permits and causing a noise nuisance, and 3) their lack of business insurance have all combined to present this single option to the owners of TLC Catering and Commissary.

Sincerely,

Photos of the Bitches and Hens Next Door

(Sorry, no cats or bats...)

New Years Eve entertainment consisted of photographing the two little, yappy house dogs, who were let out late in the evening to "do their thing" in the caterers' yard. (Too bad my camera's lens isn't wide angle.) Say, Hi, to Rufus and friend. Believe me, these are the cutest living organisms on the property.

This other picture of the three yard dogs (at least their tails) was taken earlier this year during Lynda's foray into experimental fence reconstruction using the latest architechural styles. Anyway, they are newly licensed. Can you believe it? The neighbors were guarding their illegal business with "undocumented guard dogs"! According to Manteca's scripture-quality records, meet Gus, Whiskey, and Blue.

Kinda appetizing, don't you think, to have FIVE dogs roaming the half-acre property of a couple undocumented caterers? You know... crapping, pissing, shedding, sticking their noses into ice buckets, given free access to everything?

Manteca's may as well not have animal control ordinances. For those who remember... No, the simple question posed to Manteca's Police Chief over six weeks ago has not been answered. That question did not even address the cats and the chicken.

Ah, yes...don't forget the flying chicken shit factory. This bird could just as easily perch on a catering truck as a porch roof - and let it fly.

I doubt the commercial commissaries (the REAL ones) have a zooful of animals running wild around their premises. But, hey... what do I know? This whole catering truck business and its operators, judging by the TLC Sisters, give me the creeps. (What does TLC mean, anyway? Twisted Libidinous Cisterns?)

Besides, after all, doesn't the San Joaquin County, Environmental Health Department send a sanitation inspector next door ONCE a year to make sure the feces of the dogs, cats, chickens, and a couple old bats don't contaminate the burritos? Gives ya warm fuzzies on the outside - and maybe the inside, too - don't it?

Eat hearty, mates!

Deceitful Pattern Continues

Lynda Allen's myopic worldview is practically a religious expression subscribed to by Theresa Brassey and Corky Greene, and all the other hangers-on who drift through their tight orbit. The tenet goes something like this:

"I do what I want... and it's none of your damn business!"

This bedrock belief underlies every action they take. Even though they make their TLC Catering business my business, they refuse to mitigate any of this incessant noise from illegally operating their commissary and roach coach from their property:

• continuous and on/off icemaker operation, day and night
• filling plastic buckets from the ice bin at least three times a day
• wheelbarrowing ice buckets back and forth
• outdoor radio all afternoon and evening (Who besides Lynda hasn't heard of ear buds?)
• vendor on-site deliveries of inventory
• vendor on-site pickup of waste cooking grease
• accessing numerous outdoor refrigerators and freezers
• unlatched (and illegal) plywood access door slamming in the breeze
• wee hour yard chatter
• keeping too many and unlicensed junkyard dogs (trained with TLC!)
• vendor on-site services to business equipment
• MFPU departure and arrival
• noncompliant parking surfaces under mobile accessory vehicles, and
• a loose chicken

They have turned their property into a compound to close off any view of their doings.
They quickly open and close the driveway gate only by pre-arrangement.
They have chased newspaper and TV reporters from their property.
They lie to code enforcement officers (who are only too happy to believe the lies.)
They lie to animal control officers (who are only too happy to believe the lies.)
They lie to the city council (who are only too happy to believe the lies.)
Their lies were well-received by the polymorphous city attorney.


Most recently, the defendants' brilliant counsel avoided (evaded?) giving up a material witness's whereabouts, and when a process server (an officer of the court) tried to find the witness, these legally-deficient women attempted to evade service by telling the officer to get off their property and not come back.

Hello?! Isn't being uncooperative during litigation a bad thing? A rational defendant would want a material witness to substantiate their defense, so they are either not rational or have no defense...

... or both {smilie}

Of course, judges deal continually with such putzes, so these indiscretions are not likely to provoke any sanctions. What are a few more rounds of game-playing after perfecting their technique for twenty-two years? These women have had much more than their share of "due process" - that term is more correctly called "undue process."

Oh, by the way, we got the witness served with a subpoena. {BIG smilie}

T, L, and C are now on the hook... carefully, we reel them in.

The Un-Dead Rise Once More

Peace succumbed once more. She was only nine days old.

born: Monday, October 12, 2009 (Columbus Day)
died violently: Wednesday, October 21, 2009





On Wednesday afternoon, the peace murderer, Bill Crystal of AAA Emergency Refrigeration (209) 988-2773, retrieved the dead Scotsman from Hell and breathed a new half-life into its brainless shell. The resuscitated god-machine found its mechanical voice, roaring to the world all evening and all night long, while the three harpies played loud music and performed their dancing incantations around it. The Devil's scene from the Burns' poem, Tam O'Shanter, below, comes to mind.



Peace vanished, exterminated by the Bacchanalian orgy.

At 12:30 a.m., one devout worshipper, with her charms and prancing presence, stimulated the metal monster to engorged capacity - to the brink of overflowing. A brief expectant pause ensued, with its storage organ fully distended, until...

Beginning at 3:00 a.m., another consort worshipfully bowed and scraped before the reverberating Giver of Ice, manipulating it twelve times within as many minutes to crashing, disgorging climaxes, and trundled away with twelve buckets of its petrified bodily fluids to be insinuated into the Mother of All Kitchens. A few more buckets of potent strippings were teased from the occult relic before the witching hour was up.

At 4:20, the third harpie, the high priestess, revved up her monstrous MFPU (a more appropriate acronym can never be invented); with fire in its belly and ice in its veins, she wheeled the unwieldy contraption, smelling of diesel and rancid grease, onto the street to "pee" for a couple minutes; then drove away in order to spread the drippings of the Scotsman's liquefying seed throughout the neighboring municipality.
.
.

- - - - -
C.S. Lewis wrote in his foreword to Screwtape Proposes a Toast, "... I never wrote with less enjoyment... [T]hough it was easy to twist one's mind into the diabolical attitude, it was not fun, or not for long. The strain produced a sort of spiritual cramp. The world into which I had to project myself while I spoke through Screwtape [ed., or about TLC Catering] was all dust, grit, thirst and itch. Every trace of beauty, freshness and geniality had to be excluded. It almost smothered me before I was done."

Icemaker's Vacation; Ice Bin Steals The Show

Monday was just a beautiful day all around - despite the twin noise events of the 3:00 a.m. Ice Bucket Brigade and the 6:15 a.m. icemaker start up. The day's weather was fantastic, tropical. A big Pacific storm was rolling onshore that evening and the afternoon's cloud cover convinced me at lunchtime to put a plastic bucket over the security camera out back.

.

The best part of Monday's lunch was NO ICEMAKER.

The best part of Monday evening was NO ICEMAKER.

The best part of Monday night/Tuesday morning was NO ICEMAKER.

.

The best part of Tuesday's lunch was NO ICEMAKER.

The best part of Tuesday evening was NO ICEMAKER.

The best part of Tuesday night/Wednesday morning was NO ICEMAKER.

.

{May it be so ever. God be praised.}

There is one wrinkle, however. The icemaker and the roof-mounted condenser were merely giving the ICE BIN its moment in the spotlight.

Remember the property of ice called regelation? The ice from the weekend, still in the very large bin, tended to regelate or clump together in big chunks. Tuesday morning's Ice Bucket Brigade was bad enough - loud enough - with Corky fighting to chip the ice into pieces and get it into the plastic buckets.

But the monumental Ice Follies took place Wednesday morning! Like Vulcan wielding his smithy hammer on his anvil, this Ice Queen had her big metal scoop singing its CLANGING song as she hammered and chipped away at the diminishing chunk of increasingly (two-days) regelated ice in the bin. The power, the ferocity, rang out in every strike of cast aluminum on frozen water! But it was not monotone; the sound effects changed with the chosen striking surface of the scoop, and the meter of the song advanced and declined with each striking angle and each bucket filled. The performance easily stole away any opportunity for inattention - let alone drifting off to sleep. The artist played the instrument magnificently!

Together, this frigid goddess and her sheet steel ice god, rule the frozen wasteland to the south.

{Standing - wide awake - ovation}

What Is Two Times Zero?

A friend sent me a local newspaper story on adding another code enforcement officer to the city's workforce. (I'll leave the other discussion about general fund deficits and worker layoffs for later treatment.) The position is to be paid from Redevelopment Agency funds and the officer is to be proactive regarding blights in neighborhoods caused by failure to follow city ordinances.

Here is my nomination for his/her very first case: The owners of 810 Fishback Street are operating a catering truck and a commissary from their property, but they do not have the necessary zoning permit for a home occupation and do not meet the requirements to obtain one.

How long do I have to wait until this officer learns what the codes are, how to document the violations, and how to apply the enforcement sanctions? The ability to do background research is sorely lacking in current personnel, and we are to believe current personnel can train someone new?

Actually, the biggest question I have: How this officer is going to learn the city's procedures at all? It appears the City of Manteca does not have any procedures for code enforcement, judging from this email response.

- - - - -
Sent: Thu 1/15/2009 3:34 PM
From: Tilton, Joann [jtilton@ci.manteca.ca.us]
To: Richard Behling
Subject: Request for code enforcement policies and procedures

On January 6, 2009 you request copy's of Manteca's code enforcement policies and procedures, via email.

My research of my records and via the Police Chief shows we do not have the documents (policies and procedures) being requested.

I provided the Police Chief with the 2006-07 Grand Jury report you emailed to me and he is not familiar, nor could he find the information mentioned on page 51 of this report.

Thank you for your patience while awaiting a response.

Joann Tilton, MMC
Manteca City Clerk
- - - - -

The San Joaquin County Grand Jury reported that they reviewed code enforcement policies and procedures from cities around the county, including Manteca. But, as one can see, when those policies and procedures were requested, the Manteca Police Chief doesn't know what I'm asking for.

Time will tell if code enforcement in this city gets any better or remains just another way to keep payroll money flowing to the well-connected.

This whole thing seems to be one more example of city puffery. It follows very closely on the heels of last year's "plan" to delete a vacant sworn officer position and hire and train two CSO's (Community Service Officers), cross-training them to answer code enforcement complaints as well.

$130 Per Week

That's how much a local catering service business would charge me each week to park my catering truck in their corporate yard. You know... that truck I'm going to buy from "a guy."
.

The $130 weekly per truck price includes water and electrical outlets, Darling International waste grease dumps, trash dumps, and two "barrows" (large contractor wheelbarrows) of crushed ice each day. The account carries weekly charges for additional ice, cleaning and food service supplies, a very large assortment of prepackaged foodstuffs, and some institutional sized ingredients for cooking onboard the big kitchens-on-wheels.
.

$130 per week = $563 per month = $6, 760 per year per truck (today's dollars.) Below is a chart (larger chart) that lays out how many trucks TLC Catering had cleared for sanitary operations by County Health for each year from 1988 through 2008. Truck #3 is still in use in 2009 = 22 years.



In this calculation, the present value of the rent "savings" is assumed for all years.


If all these 22 years of business rent were transacted today, TLC Catering pockets $466,000 not available to any other catering businesses who operate legally. This is the core reason why TLC Catering was able to stay financially afloat all these years. This is the core reason Allen & Brassey fight like rabid dogs to preserve the false grandfathering claim of property use legality. For over two decades, this and other money was obtained illegally, while the City of Manteca stood by, blind and stupid.
Those hard dollars didn't appear out of thin air, either. They were purchased with non-monetary social costs paid by their neighbors: primarily, a quality of life degradation caused by noise pollution equivalent to harassment and assault and, secondarily, a continuing business blight putting severe pressure on residential property values.
There are a couple other very significant financial aspects to this case - the "savings" of middleman profit margins, and repeated refinancing while riding the real estate bubble. These will be discussed later as more information becomes available.

What She SAYS - -vs- - What She DOES

Quote from Lynda Allen to City Council: "I have my refrigeration man [here] that can tell you about the ice machine... that's not really a problem... because it doesn't run all night."

- versus -

Recorded incidents of all-night icemaker operation:
Apr 08 - 7 nights
May 08 - 7 nights
Jun 08 - 9 nights
Jul 08 - 13 nights
Aug 08 - 2 nights
Sep 08 - 0
Oct 08 - 1 nights
Nov 08 - 0
Dec 08 - 1 nights
Jan 09 - 2 nights
Feb 09 - 1 nights
Mar 09 - 0 (City Council Meeting)
Apr 09 - 1 nights
May 09 - 1 nights
Jun 09 - 0
Jul 09 - 9 nights
Aug 09 - 15 nights (edited 8/31/09)

- - - - - - -
Actually, the ice machine does run all night much more often than she cares to remember or admit when not under oath. (Oh, by the way, congratulations to TLC Catering on setting a new record last month - almost 50% of all nights - 15 out of 31).
And don't forget the Ice Bucket Brigade - an integral part of the icemaker's operation. Every weekday morning from 3:00 a.m. to 4:00 a.m. my air is polluted with banging of empty 5-gallon plastic pails, the repetitive, clattering noise of shoveling ice into those pails, latching and slamming ice bin lids and doors, and other disturbances related to the illegal operation of TLC Catering.
And one of Snow White's dwarves whistles while she works... (Hi Ho, Hi Ho, We get to play with Snow...)
I truly DO understand that a business such as this requires preparations during early morning hours. That is EXACTLY why such businesses should not be located in residential zones.
Allen & Brassey's claim of grandfathered land use is FALSE - and TLC Catering should be MOVED elsewhere (... or shut down, if that is T, L, and C's choice.)

Do I Take That as a "No"?

Another beautiful Sunday morning starts on T, L & C's schedule. Even with fans in the window and door during the night to keep the bedroom cooled off, the icemaker easily penetrated the "white noise" at 6:40 a.m. In a virtual repeat of two weeks ago, I again decided to enjoy my breakfast al fresco and as far away as possible from my neighbors' noise - icemaker rumbling and squealing through its cycles, yard radio blaring (this time on KJOY), the two little dogs yapping, and the Harpies hollering at each other across the gravel business yard.


What I didn't know was that I walked right into another drama that spilled out onto the street and across the way. Balancing the bowl of cereal with milk and the insulated cup of iced spiced cider, I set up the folding chair in the morning shade just outside the yellow gate. Moments later, Corky and a woman named Gail came out the neighboring driveway and crossed the street diagonally from 810 Fishback to 785 Fishback, which house is directly across from mine. Lynda followed them as far as the sidewalk and hollered (bellowed is too big a word for such a miniscule person) some other things at them, still trying to impose control on everyone and everything.


The subject of the front yard entertainment, which was now disturbing my hoped-for peaceful breakfast, was Cody, a dog resembling Lynda in age and in his propensity to bark at everyone and everything. Corky kept Cody in the front yard of the vacant house, vacant for more than the two-plus years I've lived across from it. Old Cody's purpose was to guard the unoccupied house, and he did a very good job of barking at every cyclist riding by, every dog out walking its master, and every group of noisy kids sauntering along this street behind the high school. He was a great watchdog, his barked warnings often taken up in chorus by the neighbors' pack of hair-trigger junkyard dogs.


Anyway, Gail was acquiring Cody. She walked him away on a leash with instructions to call Animal Control for his registration information. A couple hours later Corky and Lynda were in the yard across the street loading up the dog house and plastic pools (for water) into one of their big, shiny, black pickup trucks for delivery to Cody's new owner. My guess is that the owners of 785 Fishback decided they want to prep the old place for sale, so Cody had to go.


What a sight that was of Lynda and Corky in their summer daytime uniform - small black sports bras, khaki shorts, and boots with scrunched down socks. I considered taking a picture of them out on the public street - especially after what took place earlier - but I couldn't find my camera because I was scrubbing my corneas with sandpaper, trying to remove the image burned there. You know what I'm talking about - some women just ought not wear certain things after certain physiological changes take place (if you dare, see the cartoons of "Maxine," drawn by John Wagner, or "Granny," drawn by Robert Brown.)

Oh, yes, earlier. . . During Cody's removal, Lynda edged closer and closer toward me inside the chain link fence by the sidewalk. Of course, she wanted to be party to the happenings across the street, but my mere presence was thwarting her almost irrepressible desire to verbally interject in the proceedings. Her attention was obviously split, judging from the frequent, furtive glances my direction. She retreated southward when Gail and Cody took off northward. Within a few yards, Gail realized she dropped her cell phone somewhere in Cody's former pen during the jostling of the excited dog and the two of them returned to look for it, Lynda joining them in the search. The phone was found, cell phone war stories were exchanged, and cell phone features compared before dog and mistress again left.


Now, mind you, Lynda is the sharpest cookie in the kitchen utensil drawer. I had finished my Grape Nuts and was nursing my iced cider while contemplating the just completed tableau, when my photophobic neighbor came along the sidewalk to stand directly facing me - with her camera phone open and ready. Without my permission, she took several images of me taking my leisure over a Sunday morning breakfast on my own lawn. The exchange went like this:

Me: Good morning, Lynda.
She: (No answer, but proceeded to take several images on her camera phone.)
Me: Do you want me to smile?
She: I wish you would. (Finished taking a few pics, she turned to go.) By the way, I'm not moving the ice machine.
Me: Not yet.
She: I'm not moving it. I tried working with you. . . (Classic Lynda communication style, letting her sentences trail off as she walks away.)
She: (yelling from her driveway) You sit there, no friends, no family. No wonder you're so ugly!


Poor, desperate, black widow, Lynda S Allen, had shot her wad. I did not respond to her verbal ejaculation.


That brief dialogue (which sounded very much like a monologue) indicates that Lynda rejects my counter-offer of moving the icemaker PLUS a two-year business sunset provision. The signs were there. In the week after the counter-offer, there was not a single preparation undertaken to move the icemaker. Quite the opposite, a pile of 4x4's, 2x4's, and fenceboards appeared and, over three days, a new, taller section of fence went up. Additionally, the section rebuilt earlier, close by the icemaker, acquired a new layer of old fenceboards mounted horizontally, and every knothole, chink, and crack blocked to the height of seven feet on my side.


Talk about paranoia! What do they think? That if I can't see the commercial delivery trucks coming and going, or Corky's 3:00 a.m. Ice Bucket Shuffle, then I cannot HEAR those things - and much, much more as they broadcast their business noise over the fence night and day? The yard radio gets louder and louder in an effort to camouflage the operations, substituting their unfortunate taste in music for the hellish noise of the icemaker.


Taking Lynda's response as a "No f...ing way!" it appears we are still playing for ALL the marbles.

The Grandfather of All Reports

Here we go... Settle in for a nice story.



Allen & Brassey: TLC on Fishback Street


Documented Narrative

In 1969, Dale & Georgia Mae Grubb purchased 8.78 acres at 18590 S. Fishback Road, two blocks south of Manteca city limits, from the Marshall’s and the Montgomery’s.[A] As is sometimes the case, seven years later one set of older parents (dad, 81; mom, 76) came to live with them, so they put a mobile home on the property.[B] The County's Planning Department issued Dale Grubb a mobile home permit in April 1976,[C] and the dwelling was numbered as 18594 S. Fishback[D]. This temporary permit required two annual signoffs: a declaration of continued necessity and current California DMV registration. The last entries on the permit were in 1981. The Grubbs sold their 8.41 acres in 1983 (they earlier deeded .37 acre to Sandra Daniel in August 1976.) It is obvious the permitted use of the mobile home was discontinued, but it was never removed from the property as the permit required.

Elsewhere in San Joaquin County, somewhere between Manteca and Tracy, Lynda Allen and Theresa Brassey ran some kind of catering truck or vending machine business. One man remembers these two women selling foodstuffs from a small vending truck at his employer’s place in Tracy (West Star, a sheet metal shop) and also servicing stationary vending machines. A second man guesses that one of their customers was the Tracy Defense Depot, based on a later Fictitious Business Name filing. A third man remembers these women parking their trucks, with the TLC Catering “brand,” on a property on Airport Way in unincorporated Manteca and he did mechanical work on the trucks at his shop on Wetmore Street. His memory of them is clear because they always paid his bills late.

Lewis & Anne Mego were employed at the Livermore National Laboratory, he as a nuclear physicist, she as an administrative assistant. Moving from the Bay Area, they purchased the Fishback property from Dale & Georgia Grubb, recording the deed in November 1983.[E] What they did with Grubb’s abandoned mobile home is certain in two respects: 1) they did not remove it from the property, and 2) they did not operate a catering truck business from it. The couple lived quietly on Fishback Road while governmental agencies went about the task of helping Brocchini annex his land - and many other people's property - into Manteca city limits. Property holders were assessed a per-acre fee to pay the costs for the privilege of annexation.[F]

The Manteca City Council adopted a resolution during their October 27, 1986 meeting in order to apply for the annexation of the Pacific Road-Brocchini area, including the east side of Fishback Road.[G] San Joaquin County's Local Agency Formation Commission gave final approval to the project on December 17, 1986,[H] which date grants “grandfather” protection to previously lawfully established land uses.

An elementary school was scheduled to be built right behind the Mego's property (later the plan changed to Sierra High School) and in March 1987 the Mego's deeded all but one-half acre to Manteca Unified School District.[I] Grubb’s abandoned mobile home had to be moved about 100 feet west to remain within the Mego's new rear property line. Since one of the couple had reached that magic age where they could move into a gated retirement community, in April 1987 Lewis & Anne Mego purchased a new home from Homes by Pann,[J] moved onto Tiffany Walk in Manteca, and put the Fishback property on the market. The Mego’s had no business use of the property that could grandfather.[K] The noncompliant mobile home could not be grandfathered - only ignored by unaware owners and dismissed by irresponsible County Planning and County Building employees.[L]

This abandoned mobile home became a textbook case of an “attractive nuisance,” utterly irresistible to the pair of Allen & Brassey. They were drawn to the Mego’s Fishback property because of the affordable size and private location of the parcel and, undoubtedly, because Dale Grubb’s mobile home was still illegally on the property. (Hmmm, a quiet, backwater lot with an existing trailer to store our catering supplies and inventory - what a great place to set up shop! But the price the sellers want… hmmm... how can we swing that?)

On November 10, 1987 - eleven months after the annexation to Manteca was finalized - the property was purchased by Allen & Brassey. The deed was recorded along with a deed of trust for the promissory note payable to the Mego’s.[M], [N] With the recording of the deed, unsuspecting Manteca and unfortunate neighbors became hosts to a couple of parasitic entrepreneurs. Allen & Brassey immediately moved their business assets and operations onto the property from wherever they were previously based, surely ecstatic they no longer had to pay a business expense (rent) to house the trucks. These women played fast and loose with the rules, evaded regulations of any kind (they still do), and proceeded to operate their existing, unregistered business at their new location for the next sixteen months without obtaining a Home Occupation permit or its earlier counterpart. (See the TLC Catering Chart.)

Manteca renumbered the old county addresses to new city addresses. The main house that was 18590 became 810 Fishback,[O] and the unlawful mobile home at 18954 became 812 Fishback.[P]

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Please PAUSE reading here.

The case of unlawful use of residential property has been made. Let Allen & Brassey choose - relocate their business to a commercial zone, or, go out of business. Either way, they must remove all current and abandoned business assets and cease all business operations.

If you proceed, please understand that what follows does not alter the facts outlined above. The remainder of this narrative is a tragically comic documentary of the confused nonsense displayed by city and county personnel in dealing with the situation. Despite its entertainment value, the purpose of the following is to ensure the complete rehabilitation of 810 Fishback Street to its residential-only status by detailing all the "arms and legs" of this cancerous catering company that is to be removed from the property.

RESUME reading . . .
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Theresa Brassey, Lynda Allen (and a woman called Corky) finally recorded TLC Catering as a fictitious business name on March 15, 1989, the only such filing by them in the County Recorder’s Grantor/Grantee Index.[Q] The first publication of the notice appeared in the Manteca Bulletin on March 18, 1989[R], and has two other fictitious items besides the name: the business start date was listed as March 1, 1989, and the business address was listed as 27500 Chrisman Rd in Tracy. This would place their business in unincorporated County of San Joaquin, but that address does not exist in the County's current Graphical Information System, District Viewer.[S] All other similar addresses along the east side of that stretch of county road belong to the Tracy Defense Depot - likely a customer, maybe their best customer - but not TLC Catering’s business address. The most important reason the two scofflaws listed a county address was to evade Manteca’s requirements for a business license and a land use permit (precursor to a Home Occupation permit.)

Then the mobile gourmets really got busy. San Joaquin County, Environmental Health Department (EHD) records show TLC Catering swapping trucks and trading license plate numbers on existing Health Permits re-issued in 1989. With money obtained from who-knows-where, they purchased three large Mobile Food Preparation Units (MFPU’s), including at least one new 1989 Chevy.[T] These monstrosities are kitchens on wheels, each as large as a sizable motor home. Unfortunately, the perishable foods are ice-cooled rather than refrigerated.

Allen & Brassey did not have a Commissary Permit from EHD. This is shown in a March 7, 1991 letter from TLC Catering to EHD, which listed the four external commissaries utilized by the business at that time.[U] All of the commissaries listed were away from the property, the main one being a Save Mart supermarket in Tracy. Brassey failed to mention any utilization of their residential property as a commissary. Current correspondence from EHD indicates these “law-abiding citizens” did not move their trucks onto the property prior to acquiring the private commissary.[V] (That, however, only strengthens the case of illegal enlargement after warning.)

Both the County of San Joaquin and the City of Manteca adopted ordinances in 1992 establishing a special class of land use permits, known as Home Occupation Permits. It is for people who operate all, or part, of their approved business from their homes in residential zones. The wording of Manteca’s Code, Section 17.61.030, defines the concept of “grandfathering” for preexisting nonresidential uses:

“Nonconforming use” means any use of land or property that was lawfully established and in compliance with all applicable ordinances and laws at the time the ordinance… became effective, but which… is a use not listed as permitted,… or [is] subject to permit in the zone in which it is located. (emphasis added.)

An element common to all grandfathering provisions is a restriction on enlarging or expanding the protected use. Allen & Brassey added a fourth truck to the TLC Catering fleet on August 5, 1992.[W] It was a smaller Limited Food Prep truck, also a 1989 Chevy. The application listed Bonnie Jean Carson of Lathrop as the driver and California Commissary at 2440 Airport Way in Stockton as the commissary.

Why bring up grandfathering in relation to the 1992 Home Occupation ordinance when it has already been proved that operating and expanding TLC Catering on the property was an unlawful land use from the moment Allen & Brassey moved in five years earlier? The top four reasons are: #4) The recently added fourth truck was crowding the half-acre lot; #3) The new ordinance prohibited the business from having non-resident, non-family employees; #2) These employees were parking their cars on the street in front of neighbors’ houses, and the neighbors complained; and, the most important reason, #1) Without properly verifying the property purchase date and any County Planning permits, code enforcement investigators believed Allen & Brassey’s fraudulent claim that the property’s use was lawfully established. After evading City regulation for five years by falsely listing a county address in their public filing of fictitious business name, these two shysters dodged another bullet by constant repetition of their lie about the business being grandfathered. Their constant chant, “We have operated our business on the property ever since we moved in,” is entirely true – except they moved in after annexation. The public documents show that Allen & Brassey were never on the property before December 1986 and never had a Manteca permit to use this property for business purposes before the 1992 ordinance - but that never stopped them from promoting this falsehood.

These women were not asked the question, When did you move onto the property? Any observant code enforcement officer who bothered to verify their story could have ended this travesty many years ago. (Lest any current pots start calling the former kettles black, the identical “softball Q&A” took place just last April with the present code enforcement officers.[X] ) In the absence of any proactive code enforcement, Manteca badly bungled its first citizen-complaint-driven opportunity to enforce zoning law compliance by these two charlatans. Even worse, in an error of mind-boggling proportions, Manteca handed these women the KEYS TO THE CITY in a June 1993 letter saying they had “legal, nonconforming” status.[Y] They must have been euphoric! Untouchable goddesses! They had successfully snuffed their nosy neighbors and hornswoggled those pestilent Manteca regulators! "Life is good!" Allen was heard cackling.

(Note: The letter is not a permit and only legally established uses can be grandfathered.)

Yet the TLC Life just kept getting better! Emboldened by Manteca's emasculation, three months later Allen & Brassey assumed home occupation (land use) permission from Health Department (food sanitation) permits and made an application payment to EHD to establish and operate a private commissary, naming their property at 810 Fishback Street as the location for inspections.[Z] (The current Manteca code enforcement officer opined that Allen & Brassey were merely attempting to “legalize” what they had been doing “since they moved in.” When did they move in? Sorry, but they still need a land use permit.) The nine months following September 1993, was likely the period when a walk-in freezer and a refrigerated shipping container were hauled onto the property, refrigerators and freezers were plugged in everywhere, lights and floodlights strung up, and an ancient, noisy icemaker was improperly installed. The illegal mobile home, that longstanding error, was swallowed up in the larger commissary operation, pieces of which were scattered all around the property. The following June, the Health Department plan checks were done and in July 1994, EHD issued a Commissary Permit to the owners of TLC Catering. Again assuming nonexistent permissions, Allen & Brassey began taking commercial deliveries to their property, something expressly prohibited for home occupations. They were now set with four catering trucks, a fully equipped private commissary, and commercial vendors whose big trucks delivered supplies and services to their doorstep... they were unstoppable.

===== Current note regarding commercial deliveries =====

Despite poor, little Lynda Allen telling code enforcement on 11/17/08 that she "now buys supplies on a nearly daily basis from Costco,"[AA] she failed to mention that TLC Catering is still on the weekly delivery routes of three large food vendors. For twelve years these delivery trucks made stops at 812 Fishback to sell products to the commissary for the four catering trucks in use; then three more years for just two catering trucks; now only one. To service the trucks and commissary:

· The Crystal Dairy[BB] (now owned by Foster Farms) refrigerated truck arrives - brakes squealing - every Monday morning at 3:00 a.m.

· The Hostess Cakes[CC] (Interstate Bakeries Corp.) truck delivers weekly, usually on a Friday, arriving between 5:30 a.m. and 6:30 a.m.

· Oroweat[DD] (Bimbo Bakeries USA) makes an unattended delivery around 12:00 noon each Monday, where the Oroweat driver opens the security gate and drives onto the property.

· A very special vendor, Darling International Inc.,[EE] the nation's largest recycler of inedible animal by‑products, makes time in its Manteca route schedule for an as-needed pickup of TLC Catering’s waste cooking grease, which is stored in barrels on-site until pickup. (Dairy operators also use this vendor for the hauling away of "downer" cows.) A very large pumper truck has been observed twice, months ago at 10:45 p.m. and more recently at 3:00 a.m., for a very noisy forty-five minute vacuum collection process.

===== End current note =====

So impervious were they to lawful regulation that Allen & Brassey failed to re-file Fictitious Business Name (FBN) statements as required every five years. By law they should have re-filed in 1994, 1999, 2004, and 2009. Whether TLC Catering is a legal business or not; whether they hold a valid Home Occupation Permit or not; the State of California requires every person doing business for profit, under a name other than his or her own, to file a Fictitious Business Name statement and re-file every five years thereafter.[FF] If any of the information changes (such as the business' principal address), then re-publishing the notice in a newspaper must also occur. One legal consequence of failure to file current FBN statements is that any legal action, as plaintiff or defendant, cannot be maintained under that business name in court.


The City of Manteca took Allen & Brassey (or was it TLC Catering?) to Small Claims court in June 1996 over unpaid garbage bills for both 810 & 812 Fishback.[GG] No FBN was entered on the initial court filing. Four years later, in August 2000, the judge ordered the debt erased and ordered the City to exempt (the owners? the business? the address?) from the city’s garbage collection program. What defense was offered? What was the basis for the exemption? The answers are most likely buried in papers somewhere in Manteca's City Attorney's office. One guess is that Allen & Brassey put up their well-worn “legally grandfathered business” defense against the City for past and future fees. (Oh, the irony! Manteca must have forgotten the KEYS TO THE CITY letter they gave to these fighting hens. On the other hand, Allen & Brassey should have been barred from a TLC Catering defense in the absence of a current Fictitious Business Name statement.)

One costly bottleneck still existed for TLC Catering / Allen & Brassey. Their PG&E bill must have been astronomical because, on top of their household and water well pump usage, they were also running all the business appliances: standard refrigerators and freezers, industrial walk-in refrigerators and freezers, an inefficient outdoor icemaker, floodlights and strings of yard lights, besides the hot water heater for the mobile home/commissary and plugging in the parked MFPU's. In April 2004, they had their next door neighbors, Roger & Flora Stewart of 786 Fishback, obtain a Manteca building permit for Power Independence of Stockton to put up seven massive solar panel arrays and install the wiring and 10,000-watt control system to handle all these electrical needs.[HH] Of course, the installation was on 810 Fishback - not as permitted for 786 Fishback - so just how the City and the Stewarts were conned by these con artists is a mystery. Final inspection took place in September 2004.

TLC Catering gave up two EHD catering truck permits after 2003 and another permit after 2006. One truck and some commissary equipment (the illegal mobile home, standard refrigerators and freezers, and, most regrettably, the noisy icemaker) continue in operation. Unused business vehicles, large walk-ins, and other equipment encumber the property[II], like so much flotsam and jetsam, mixed in with other vehicles and a restaurant business-specific enclosure or “corral” for waste grease barrels. Unpermitted and otherwise shoddily built covered patios are attached to the illegal mobile home and the legal outbuilding. (Falling into that last category is the “sound-enhancing” plywood box around the icemaker, designed by an unemployed truck driver and constructed by him as a paid but undeclared employee.) Because Allen & Brassey evaded city refuse pickup for yet unknown reasons, commingled household and business trash piles high in an open pickup until hauled off to the county transfer station.[JJ]

[A] Grantor/Grantee Index, Deed to Grubb, Recorder’s Document # BK3321PG143, dated July 22, 1969.

[B] Mobile home, DMV license plate # FQ1259.

[C] San Joaquin County, Mobile Home Permit, April 1, 1976. Two pages.

[D] City of Manteca, Engineering Department, Engineering Grid # 24 D.

[E] Deed to Mego, Recorder’s Document # 83084852, dated November 25, 1983. Three pages.

[F] Revised Annexation Proposal, Memorandum of January 16, 1985. Four pages.

[G] City Council Minutes, 10/27/1986, Resolution R7838 adopted. Three pages.

[H] LAFCO Certificate of Completion, Recorder’s Document # 86105713, dated December 17, 1986. Seven pages, including other material.

[I] Grantor/Grantee Index, Deed to Manteca Unified School District, Recorder’s Document # 87025020, dated March 23, 1987. Two pages.

[J] Deed to Mego, Recorder’s Document # 87028587, dated April 2, 1987. Two pages.

[K] Email from Crosby, County Planning Department, dated August 14, 2008.

[L] Code enforcement case notes, CE-08-753, 11/20/2008, 9:01 a.m., with Rick Matuska.

[M] Deed to Allen & Brassey, Recorder’s Document # 87103627, dated November 10, 1987. Three pages.

[N] Deed of Trust to Mego, Recorder’s Document # 87103628, dated November 10, 1987. Three pages.

[O] Letter from Hulsey, City Engineering, dated December 30, 1986
.
[P] Letter from Hulsey, City Engineering, dated January 7, 1987. Two pages, incl. picture.

[Q] Grantor/Grantee Index, Fictitious Business Name, Recorder’s Document # 98000597, dated March 15, 1989.

[R] Manteca Bulletin, March 18, 1989, Page B-4, Public Notice.

[S] Screen prints from San Joaquin County District Viewer for Chrisman Road in Tracy, California. Two pages.

[T] Code enforcement case notes, CE-08-752, Vehicle Information, License # 4A09350.

[U] Letter from TLC Catering (Theresa Brassey), dated March 7, 1991, to EHD.

[V] Email from Jeff Carruesco, EHD Program Director, dated 1/27/09.

[W] EHD Application for a new food vending truck, dated 8/5/92.

[X] Code enforcement case notes # CE-08-182, 4/17/08.

[Y] Letter from Cantu, Manteca Planning Department, dated June 29, 1993.

[Z] EHD Account Statement, dated 08/15/94. Commissary application payment posted 09/17/93; Commissary permit posted 07/13/94.

[AA] Case notes, CE-08-753, 11/17/08, 2:01 p.m.

[BB] Picture of Crystal truck, and information from Foster Farms Dairy website. Three pages.

[CC] Information from Interstate Bakeries Corporation website. Two pages.

[DD] Picture of Oroweat truck, and information from Bimbo Bakeries USA website. Two pages.

[EE] Information from Darling International Inc. website. Two pages.

[FF] Fictitious Business Name Statement form and instructions. Two pages.

[GG] Small Claims Court register page for Case # MS-34246, filed June 21, 1996. Two pages.

[HH] Manteca building permit, dated April 2004. Two pages.

[II] Annotated pictures of TLC Catering’s operations yard. Two pages.

[JJ] Picture of Manteca’s refuse pickup “opt-out” program for unlawful businesses.