Frank Scarfield catches a lot of breaks. For more than a decade, the man who owns several Baltimore City and County apartment buildings and the old Seagram?s distillery in Dundalk has avoided fines for operating an illegal junkyard, renting out unstable buildings and razing warehouses without demolition permits.
Now, Scarfield is refusing to pay a fine for adding to junk he was ordered to remove more than two years ago at the Seagrams site, off Sollers Point Road. County Code Enforcement Officer Raymond Wisnom in May angrily reinstated a $27,000 fine issued, but never paid, in 2005 ? and added $16,000 for new violations.
“The site was to be in compliance on or before April 25, 2005,” Wisnom wrote. “This is May 2007. The brick rubble remains on site with some added block rubble, clay soil, large stones, junk and metal debris, barrels and containers.
“Trailers have been added as well as kennel use. Mr. Scarfield has defied the order of February 15, 2005.”
Scarfield, who referred questions to his attorney, has asked county officials for a new hearing. Though past the 15-day window to appeal, county officials said they are more interested in compliance than collecting fines and might reconsider.
If the county denies Scarfield a new hearing, the fines could be added to his tax bill, said Don Rascoe, deputy director of the county?s Department of Permits and Development Management.
“We don?t want them to pay the fine and still have it unsightly,” Rascoe said of the site.
But residents said the county repeatedly looks the other way while Scarfield, who has donated to County Executive Jim Smith?s political campaigns, breaks the law.
The county never collected fines after Scarfield removed the roofs from three warehouses, then razed them without securing demolition permits, according to the handwritten notes of a county inspector who visited the property in April 2005.
The county chastised Scarfield in 2002 for keeping tenants in the buildings without occupancy permits. Many are still there today, neighbor John Scott said.
“He is a plague on the community,” said Scott, a former employee at the plant. “He thinks he can run around and do whatever he wants, and he can because no one is stopping him.”
Councilman John Olszewski, D-District 7, said Scarfield has attempted to evict tenants and tidy the property.
“All the complaints from before are pretty well under control,” Olszewski said.
A woman who answered the phone Thursday at the office of Scarfield?s attorney, Lawrence Melfa, said he is on vacation.
Landlord?s record
» October 1995: State inspection records note the removal of old still and copper and brass materials “covered” in asbestos.
» August 2000: A Baltimore County inspector files a report on the removal of three roofs and issues a correction notice.
» February 2002: County inspection reveals the buildings are still roofless and unstable. Tenants are illegally occupying the buildings.
» July 2002: Scarfield?s attorney postpones a hearing four times. The county fines Scarfield $18,000 for not stabilizing the three roofless buildings. Tenants still present.
» February 2005: The county gives Scarfield 45 days to clean up dump conditions and fines him $27,000.
» April 2005: Scarfield razes three warehouses before he obtains demolition permits.
» May 2007: No work done. County reinstates $27,000 fine and adds $16,000. Payment has not been received to date.
