part 1:
Look Hans, no permits
Building and Code Enforcement Director Hans Behrens has been running interference on behalf of a renegade gay bar's construction and renovations; Behrens won't say why as he insists that there is no construction going on
-- John Patten, 03/15/08
-- jpatten@veniceflorida.com

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RELATED VIDEO FROM 03/11/08 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
Ed don't wanna hear about it
Patten tries to tell this story to council, gets shut down by the mayor
Patten fires back
Same meeting, but several hours later -- Patten regroups, fires back
 

Hallucination #1: There is no construction
Based on inquiries made by this web site, city hall has launched a limited internal investigation into its own code enforcement practices. At the center of the target is Building and Code Enforcement Director Hans Behrens and his handling of the permit process for Venice's first gay-friendly nightclub, Tavern on the Island. The bar is located on Tampa Avenue, directly in front of Mike Miller's three towers on the north end of Venice island.

Behrens' own staff picked up on the fact that the nightclub was going through extensive reconstruction without any construction permits or inspections, this as far back as late August of last year. Staff members were ready to slap the business with code violations when a curious set of incidents sidetracked them. In September of 2007, Code Enforcement Officer John Patek was ordered off of the property by tavern co-owner Mike Vellucci after Patek observed ongoing construction work in progress. Patek called the Venice Police, who calmed Vellucci down, but it was decided that the inspection would be held off for a bit. Behrens reportedly visited the property within a few days after conferring with Patek. Patek noted a number of construction permit violations, none of which he has been allowed to follow up on.

Meanwhile Behrens had taken the formal stance that no construction was taking place at the site and that the new renovations were limited to painting and the moving of some furniture. "They haven't done any construction, it's the same layout as Norma Jean's," Behrens told me in an interview on January 17th.

Norma Jean's is a restaurant/bar that previously occupied the same space. The building had been vacant for two to three years after Norma Jean's moved into their new digs on South Tamiami Trail, just outside of city limits.

Hallucination #2: We have no photos
When asked if there were any historic photos on file to justify his statement about no construction at the business, Behrens replied that he was sure that the city had no photos. A subsequent public records request made by this web site revealed that there were indeed numerous photos on file that clearly showed that the building had gone through (and was still going through) extensive renovation. The request also revealed that a number of these photos had been provided to Behrens with commentary prior to my questions about the existence of the photos.

Hallucination #3: Just painting and moving some furniture
Repeated complaints by neighboring businesses and residents to the mayor, city manager, and the city's code enforcement department only caused Behrens to dig his heels in even deeper in his insistence that no construction or renovations were taking place. "All they have done is some painting and moving some furniture around, that's it, and you don't need any permits for that," Behrens stated to me.

Despite my inquiries, the numerous complaints to city hall, and even a published rant in the Gondolier's Let 'Em Have It column, the city manager and council seemed to be in no hurry to look into the matter.

A recent set of inspections on the site for plumbing and electrical, based on an application for an occupancy permit, reportedly uncovered a number of new problems. I'll be taking a look at those documents sometime in the next week or so as time permits.

Hallucination #4: Those are just planned changes, they haven't been built yet
In a January 17th meeting/interview with Behrens, he gave out numerous deceptive and self-contradictory answers to my questions. Behrens' story was so self-conflicting that within a day or two of the interview, I commented to City Manager Marty Black, "I'm not saying that Hans is on the take, but he seems to be deliberately making every conceivable effort to make me suspect that he is."

At the beginning of the January 17th meeting, Behrens indicated that he was ignorant of the sheer existence of Tavern on the Island -- he had no idea what I was talking about. I had to describe the place and location to him, whereupon he he seemed to remember something about the place: "Oh, yeah. I heard about them. Are they open yet? I didn't know they had opened already."

Behrens stated that he hadn't seen the location yet. When I reminded him that he had responded in person to the owner's request to prevent Code Enforcement Officer John Patek from performing any future inspections, he suddenly remembered being at the location while insisting that he knew that no construction work had been done. Remember, only minutes before he had told me that he had never heard of the place.

OK, moving right along. I informed Behrens that I had been to the site and that I had observed construction taking place, notably the tavern's main bar and drink server station, which was half-completed when I visited the bar prior to its opening. Behrens insisted that the work was cosmetic and that the bar and drink serving area were leftovers from Norma Jean's, this despite my own account of seeing the bar in an unfinished state several months prior.

Hallucination #5: These planned changes already exist as they aren't really changes, they're leftovers from a previous tenant
Behrens then pulled out a set of plans that had been submitted. Curiously, these plans were on the very top of a pile of plans on a counter next to his desk. Behrens didn't rummage or make any attempt to make it seem like he was looking for a document, he just grabbed the top set of plans without thinking about it and promptly opened them up on his desk. So much for that total lack of knowledge story that he had been trying to sell me earlier -- he had obviously been reviewing the plans very recently.

The plans showed the carpentry and partial plumbing layout for the tavern and bathrooms, indicating a new bar and new bathroom fixtures. Behrens explained that none of the work had been done yet, that this was all in the planning and review stage and that, as a result, no construction permit was needed yet.

I gave Behrens a look that conveyed what I was thinking -- what planet do you think we are presently on? I informed Hans again that I had been in the establishment and that most or all of what I was seeing in the plans already physically existed. That set off another round of convoluted and mind-boggling backtrack statements.

I noted the bar and bathroom had been redone with the new fixtures as shown in the plans. "Right," Behrens stated, "those are all things that are leftover from Norma Jean's."

"Look Hans, I worked construction in my teens and twenties. When I was growing up, my step-father owned his own plumbing and heating contracting business. I think I can remember how to read a set of plans, and these clearly show that these are all proposed changes."

"No, you don't know what you are talking about and none of this work has been done yet. These are all proposed changes in the plans."

Was this dialog being scripted by Lewis Carroll? Joseph Heller, maybe? Behrens had successfully reduced me down to his level of blubbering idiocy. I made one last grasp for reality: "That's what I just said -- the plans indicate proposed changes, but Hans, this work has been done."

Behrens smiled and shook his head, somewhat paternally. He then tried to circle me back again to his way of thinking, but my brain suddenly imploded. I couldn't argue with him any more. The bats were coming, descending into the desert under a hot Nevada sun; a heart was loudly beating from under the floorboards; calliope music from Cooger and Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show could be heard in the distance.

I got the hell away from him while I still had the will to live.

And the hits just keep on coming
Meanwhile, more reports have come in to city hall about Tavern on the Island. Electrical work, plumbing problems, upstairs lofts being used for (ahem) short-term rentals, junked water heaters in the alley, walls being removed from the interior (possibly reducing the structural integrity of the roofing support), no sprinkler system installed, a clothes washing machine with its used water running into a storm sewer -- these are all allegations that are being fielded by Behrens' code inspectors, who are now living in fear for their jobs should they actually try to investigate.

In late February, I forced the city to allow me to interview John Patek. The interview was arranged and moderated by Assistant City Manager Mary Holcombe. Surprisingly, Holcombe gave me free range on my questions as long as I didn't ask Patek to speculate on anything.

What I discovered was that in a normal situation like this, where one business was moving in after another moved out, the city would have compiled a fairly thick permit jacket by this point in time. With Tavern on the Island, all that was on file officially was the occupancy permit application and subsequent paperwork along with an after-the-fact sign permit. The city had obviously done some plan review, but no mandatory financial charges had been paid and no permit had been applied for to review and act on the plans (so why was there any plan review going on? why did Behrens and his assistant Dan Weigner have the plans to review?-- that's a set of questions that I forgot to ask, and now I am afraid to as the answer might well land me in an asylum). As such, the submitted plans that I had seen on Behrens' desk are ghost documents, not part of the official record.

No building, electrical, mechanical, or plumbing permits had been applied for, this despite numerous citizen complaints and mounting evidence within the city's own records that such work had been taking place. Behrens was still sticking to his story that no construction that would require any permits had taken place.

Additionally, no demolition permit had ever been applied for back in 2005 when Norma Jean's had been dismantled and moved out, even though the city had after-the-fact photos on file of the results of the demolition work.

Not an isolated case
A single aberration? Hardly. What is going on now with Behrens' denials about Tavern on the Island is a nearly identical situation to what happened a few years back with now-closed Venice Island Pub. In that debacle, pub owner Anthony Tundo had made numerous modifications to property on Venice Avenue that he was renting from Jean Trammell's The Venice Company. Attorney Jon Preiksat, on behalf of Trammell, argued unsuccessfully with Behrens about a number of alleged permit violations, including some electrical work. Preiksat begged Behrens to send somebody to the location to inspect the electrical boxes to ensure that the work was up to code. According to Preiksat, Behrens took the side of the pub owner and refused to allow the inspections, stating that he did not want to intervene in a landlord/tenant dispute. While Preiksat argued about public safety, Behrens shrugged his shoulders.

Additionally, I have been tipped off about other past incidents of a similar nature, more than I can investigate on my own at this time.

COMING NEXT: City launches limited internal investigation
The city investigates its own (this is always good for a convoluted hoot) while the mayor runs interference for Hans Behrens

John Patten is the head of Web Operations for Creative Pages, and has worked in broadcasting for over 12 years. He can also be incredibly rude at times.