[B]URLINGTON — The city will pay $30,000 and revise ordinances as part of a settlement in a case brought by a city resident who said he was evicted from his Church Street apartment for calling police too frequently.
Joseph Montagno sued Burlington in 2016 alleging that the city violated his rights by tracking his 911 calls and encouraging his landlord to evict him if calls from Montagno and his fellow tenants did not decrease.
Montagno, 43, was represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont.
“Mr. Montagno is thrilled to have won important changes to Burlington’s ordinances that will provide due process for tenants and protections for victims of crime, ensuring that vulnerable people in Burlington will no longer lose their housing simply because they need police assistance,” ACLU attorney Jay Diaz said in a statement.
The settlement states that it is “a compromise to avoid litigation,” and neither party is making “any admission concerning liability” or “the strength or weakness of any claim.” Both sides are responsible for their own legal fees, but Burlington agreed to pay the cost of a mediator who brokered the settlement.
Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger said in a statement that he is committed to ensuring that all
residents have “the safe and high-quality housing they deserve.”
“184 Church St. has fallen far short of this standard for years, and has been the ongoing focus of Code Enforcement action as a result,” Weinberger said. “In this unusual instance, the landlord chose to start eviction proceedings rather than address the problems raised by the city. This was not the outcome the city was seeking. To prevent something like this from happening again, and to bolster our historically strong tenant protection policies, the city is working with the ACLU of Vermont to improve our tenant notification procedures.”
Last year, Montagno’s landlord at 184 Church St., Joe Handy, terminated Montagno’s lease for “no cause” and later initiated an eviction proceeding against him, according to the lawsuit. Handy owns Sisters and Brothers LLP, a major Burlington rental company.
Handy’s company refused to end its eviction proceeding against Montagno unless he agreed to leave by Aug. 31, 2016, six months before his lease was up, according to the suit. As a result, Montagno said he spent time homeless and living in an emergency shelter.
The lawsuit alleged that Burlington used its housing code to label tenants at certain properties as a “public nuisance,” and threatened landlords at those properties with the loss of their certificate of occupancy, which is needed to rent a property in the city — an allegation that city officials denied.
In 2016, police identified 184 Church St. as the source of the greatest volume of 911 calls in the city, according to a Burlington Free Press report. Police responded to the apartment complex 178 times from January 2015 to April 2016, the report said. The site is in back of the courthouse on Main Street.
At least 46 of those calls came from Montagno, according to the lawsuit. In one incident from May 2016 a neighbor threatened Montagno with a metal pipe.
Police responded and arrested the neighbor, who was charged with simple assault and disorderly conduct. The neighbor was subsequently ordered by a court not to go within 10 feet of Montagno, according to the lawsuit.
Records obtained by the ACLU showed that police were keeping detailed spreadsheets recording police activity at 184 Church St., and other city properties, including whether any one of the 26 tenants there was “involved in a call, whether or not they were the caller.”
In an email from September 2015, Burlington Police Lt. Matthew Sullivan emailed Code Enforcement Director Bill Ward providing him with a spreadsheet of police activity for 184 Church St., and asked if there was a “code angle” that could be used to “reduce calls,” according to the suit.
Ward sent a letter to Handy in February, 2016, identifying 184 Church St. as a “nuisance property” and “problem property based on police calls for service and Code Enforcement complaints.”
In that letter, Ward threatened to suspend Handy’s certificate of occupancy for the property if call volumes to police from his tenants were not stopped or significantly reduced, according to the lawsuit.
After meeting with police later that month, where Handy was again told to reduce call volumes from his tenants, Handy initiated an eviction proceeding against Montagno.
A day later Handy sent a letter to his tenants stating that “nuisance calls need to stop … If people continue to call for nuisance calls we will be forced to start evicting people,” according to the lawsuit.
In the settlement, Burlington agreed to amend its laws to require written notice to tenants when it communicates with a landlord about suspending their occupancy certificate, and to give tenants an opportunity to challenge the suspension of an occupancy certificate.
The new laws must also ensure landlords are not encouraged to evict tenants, except as a last resort, and provide new protections for crime victims seeking police assistance.
“This settlement is an important step towards creating a state and a city that works for everyone, and where no one is punished for asking for help. The ACLU remains committed to working with the City on efforts to enhance public safety while respecting constitutional rights,” said James Lyall, Vermont ACLU executive director, in a statement.
Montagno, a lifelong Vermont resident who has spent the last decade in Burlington, said he was grateful to the ACLU and other organizations that supported him.
“I’m so glad they are out there making sure that situations like mine are not swept under the rug, and supporting people who could use a hand,” Montagno said, “I also want to thank the city for agreeing to change. Burlington is my home and I care about it. I’m glad I could play a part in making it a little better.”
