Manager of troubled Columbia apartments owes thousands for code violations. Is it her fault?
There’s a new twist in the saga of the Colony Apartments and the city of Columbia’s attempt to hold its owners accountable for flagrant violations that resulted in the mass evacuation of hundreds of apartment units days after Christmas.
A manager for the property who was fined 83 times for violations at the apartments is alleging that the city has not lawfully communicated about the violations and that it has misrepresented her involvement with the apartments. Now, she’s asking a jury to dismiss the charges if she can’t get a jury trial by July.
The Monroe Group, a Denver-based property management company, operates Columbia’s Colony Apartments at 3545 West Beltline Blvd. in addition to more than 80 properties nationwide. After residents at the Colony Apartments said they went without heat or running water for days in late December, city officials intervened, evacuating the property. Evacuated residents were sent to hotels, where some stayed for weeks.
The city spent several days in late December inspecting the units at Colony Apartments and found that in addition to no units having running water or working heat, 144 of 300 units had additional problems. In at least 10 units, serious violations including gas leaks and the presence of carbon monoxide were reported. Eighty-three fire code violations were reported.
Ebony Nelson, the district manager for The Monroe Group, was the person held responsible for those violations.
Nelson currently has 83 open cases with the Columbia Municipal Court, each for a different code violation identified by city inspectors after the Colony Apartments were evacuated. Each violation comes with a $500 fine or 30 days in jail, making Nelson’s penalty more than $41,000 or potentially six years in jail if she’s held liable, according to a motion filed Tuesday on Nelson’s behalf by Columbia attorney Chris Kenney.
Nelson, who lives in North Carolina, came to Columbia Dec. 29, two days after residents were evacuated. Nelson helped “stabilize” the situation, helping coordinate transportation, meals, gift cards and hotel vouchers for the displaced tenants, the motion says.
The motion also claims that the city has not provided documents regarding the Colony Apartments situation or the code violations. The motion asks for that document discovery and a speedy trial by June or July “so she can clear her name.”
“She’s entitled to both along with an apology from a city government that has personally targeted her for violations she had no role in causing,” the motion adds.
If the city cannot provide the documents Nelson is asking for in time for her to have a trial by July, all charges should be dismissed, the motion adds.
In a separate action against the Colony Apartments, the city is suing the Monroe Group and asking a judge to force the company to pay $52,129.10 to cover the costs of evacuating hundreds of residents and the costs for repairs at the apartments.
Those costs include more than $28,000 for Columbia police personnel, which includes both uniformed officers and code enforcement officers; $20,818 for Columbia-Richland Fire Department personnel; $1,654 for meals for the evacuated residents; $971 for the usage of the police department’s mobile command bus; $394 for bus rentals to transport the evacuated residents; and $77 for Parks and Recreation personnel time.
While the Monroe Group is clearly the named party in the city’s suit against the company, Nelson is the only person whose name is on the code citations, which carry a misdemeanor criminal charge.
