By Cynthia Rozzo | SunshineLawCitizen.org

It started with grass — and ended with a lesson in how power, when unchecked, can turn a city code into a weapon.

In the small City of Parker, Florida, what should have been a simple conversation about property maintenance turned into months of intimidation, costly public records requests, and one mayor’s relentless targeting of a private citizen.

That citizen was me.

Just weeks earlier, in Part 1, I shared how a single code violation opened the door to deeper questions: Why was our property cited while others weren’t? Why did the Mayor himself file the complaint? I had a hunch the Mayor didn’t like me poking around asking for public records on city projects, financials and then having the gall to speak up at city meetings. So, what happens when citizens assert their legally-mandated right to access public records?

This is what happened next.

A Familiar Pattern: The Second Strike

Back in October 2022, my husband George and I were already familiar with Mayor Andrew “Andy” Kelly’s special interest in our vacant lot. He had personally filed a code violation against our commercial property, accusing us of having “untended grass.”

We complied. We started clearing, mowing, and tidying the lot, we were halfway done when Parker’s Code Enforcement Officer “Mr. T.” later confirmed we were “good.” But I had questions. So, I filed a public records request to see how enforcement was being applied along the same stretch of Highway 98.

That’s when I discovered something telling: the adjacent property, which was also overgrown, had not received a single code violation notice in the past 2 years

When I brought this up, the code enforcement officer backed off and told us we were “good.”  So, we stopped cutting the grass and left the back of the lot uncut. But I believe the Mayor waited a couple of months, then came back in December and re-issued the same code  for “untended growth” against our property — and this time, also issued a matching violation against the adjacent lot.

It felt retaliatory. It felt personal.

The January 3rd Showdown

We interrupted our holiday break and drove down from our safe suburban enclave in Atlanta to the small town of Parker, Florida (population 4,300)–a place we were preparing to make our forever home– to confront the Mayor at the city’s bi-weekly council meeting.

At the January 3, 2023 City Council meeting, the Mayor invited anyone to speak during the public comments portion, so my husband stood up to share our side of this code enforcement story and ask a simple question: why was the Mayor personally filing code violations against us?

My husband’s words captured what many citizens feel when facing selective enforcement:

“I feel that there’s something else going on… I’m not quite sure what… that we can’t talk about it up straight and then we have to go through violations . . .”
( Timestamp: 8:30–8:42)

The exchange that followed said everything about the power dynamics in this small-town government.

Mayor Kelly interrupted repeatedly, painting our property as a public safety hazard. He claimed that our overgrown grass — which had been recently cut — was harboring “vagrants” and “robbers.”

The Mayor’s statements, recorded in the official meeting video, included lines like:

“We have people robbing houses and they’re hiding on your property,”
“You can see the bicycle tracks where the vagrants move back and forth… robbing occupied houses,”
“Ma’am, mow your grass.”

He didn’t ask questions. He issued commands.

What should have been a calm discussion about city code turned into a public spectacle — a sitting mayor berating a citizen at the podium for daring to ask questions.

When Words Don’t Match Facts

Mayor Kelly insisted that enforcement was city-wide. At the January 3, 2023 City Council meeting, in response to my accusation of being targeted, he stated:

“No ma’am, the entire city of Parker is being done… if your grass is four feet deep you’re going to get a code violation, you’re going to get a notice to mow your grass.”
(Timestamp: 11:34–11:41)

So I fact-checked him — again — with another public records request.

If our property was truly a “vagrant hideout” or “robbery route,” the city’s own police records should reflect that. So, the next day, I filed a public records request with the city noting the addresses of the overgrown, commercial lots along my corridor along with a request for incident reports at those same addresses filed from the Parker Police Department.

The request covered all of 2022 and every police incident report along Highway 98. The result was definitive:

Not a single robbery report for the entire year.Only one record of a “Trespass/Unwanted Person” at 6021 E. Highway 98 — the day the Mayor and my husband toured the property together.

In other words: the “vagrant” the Mayor cited in his defense was the same incident he personally witnessed and used to justify his code complaint against our property.

Meanwhile, the same records revealed that other commercial lots along Highway 98 — none of which had been cited — had far more police activity.

One vacant property had over 50 suspicious vehicle calls, another logged nine trespassing incidents, and yet another recorded thefts, vandalism, and disorderly conduct — yet not one of those properties had a single code violation for “untended grass.”

That’s not consistent enforcement. That’s targeting.

 

The Price of Transparency

When ordinary citizens “fight” city hall, they often discover how costly transparency can be.

Between my various public records requests, the City of Parker billed me for hours of staff labor — including one email from Code Enforcement Officer “Mr. T” explaining he spent an entire workday fulfilling my request to look up approximately twenty code violations, charging $81.00 for his time.

The Parker Police Department charged me another $36.37 for incident reports: two hours of labor and 31 printed pages at ten cents each.

Those charges might sound small, but to any citizen trying to hold local government accountable, they represent a financial barrier to transparency — one that shouldn’t exist in a state that prides itself on Sunshine Laws.

And yet, I paid them — because sunlight matters. And I don’t like being lied to.

 

Speaking Up: January 17, 2023

By the time the January 17 City Council meeting arrived, our grass was cut. But the overgrown grass wasn’t the point anymore.

I stood at that same podium where the Mayor had scolded me two weeks earlier and presented my findings verbally and passed out a hard copy of my “investigative report”.

• No robberies on that part of Highway 98 all year.
• Only one “vagrant” incident — the Mayor’s own tour.
• Other vacant lots that had “untended growth” –which most vacant commercial lots in Parker are overgrown—with criminal incidents were left untouched by Code Enforcement.

“Selective enforcement” isn’t just unfair — it’s illegal under the Fourteenth Amendment. When a city applies rules against one property owner but not others, it’s discrimination disguised.

The Mayor, visibly defensive, tried to redefine his claims. He said not every “law enforcement contact” results in a report, implying there could be undocumented incidents. It was a weak attempt to move the goalposts after the facts didn’t back him up.

Then came his signature line, as if to dismiss months of documented bias:

“No one’s targeting you, ma’am.” <cough>

Except, of course, the public records — the Mayor’s own code complaint included — told a very different story.

The longer I stayed engaged in Parker, the more I witnessed favoritism, selective enforcement, and a troubling pattern of special treatment by those in power. This blog will spotlight case studies showing how I used public records to confirm what began as hunches—and ended as hard evidence–and i think, made for a [little bit] better local government.

What This Means for Every Citizen

Selective enforcement thrives in silence. It depends on citizens not asking questions, not requesting records, not showing up at council meetings to speak on the record.

But the truth is simple: you have the right to know how your local government operates. You have the right to access records. And you have the right to challenge authority — even when that authority wears the title “Mayor.”

Because if one citizen can be targeted for whatever whim by an elected official, then any citizen can be next.

 

A Call for Sunshine

My story isn’t unique. It’s a reminder that when citizens push back, document everything, and use Sunshine Laws to demand accountability, they expose more than bad grass — they expose bad government.

To every resident reading this:

• File the public records request. Get the Facts.
• Attend the council meeting.
• Speak up when the facts don’t add up. If you can’t speak up, write an email to your elected official.

Because the only thing worse than selective enforcement is silence that lets it continue.

>>>>>>>

>Seen something similar in your community? Drop a comment or send me a message—your voice matters.

>Know someone who’s been targeted like this? Share this post with them. Let’s connect the dots.

> Want to challenge selective enforcement in your town? Start by asking for the public records.