Don't violate city building codes, especially if you plan to be a member of the city council.
Santa Cruz City Councilman Micah Posner has learned that lesson the hard way after news of an illegal shed he built and rented out on his property was released to the public.
"It wasn't OK for me, in my position," Posner admitted of the decision to convert the shed into an unpermitted residence and rent it out for $700 a month. "I don't want to encourage people to break the law."
Posner said he knew the structure constituted a "minor infraction of the building code," but noted that he was not a sitting member of the council at the time it was built. The structure appears to have been converted seven years ago and rented out through January. The city Planning and Community department finally red-tagged it on Jan. 19.
Posner has already evicted the tenant and begun the process of permitting. The case has since been closed with no fine issued.
Read more about Posner's mea culpa here.
Image Credit: Flickr User 25792994@N04, https://flic.kr/p/95iJuo via (CC BY 2.0)