Assembly delays Telephone Hill evictions until Nov. 1 due to lack of proper tenant notice
- Mark Sabbatini
- 20 hours ago
- 4 min read
Property management company failed to properly document eviction notices sent to residents that were set to take effect Oct. 1, mayor says
By Mark Sabbatini
Juneau Independent
Residents of Telephone Hill who were being evicted from their homes Wednesday were given a one-month reprieve on Monday night by the Juneau Assembly, after the city attorney said the legal eviction process wasn’t fully followed.
The property management company, JPR Management Services Inc., posted eviction notices on the doors of affected residences, "but did not document that they did so, for example, by taking a photo or documenting the time and date that the notice was placed on the door, " City Attorney Emily Wright stated in an email to the Juneau Independent on Tuesday.
The eviction of the 13 residences, effective Oct. 1, was approved by the Assembly earlier this year as part of a redevelopment plan to build mid-rise apartments with about 150 total residential units. Dozens of residents and supporters pleaded at an Assembly meeting last Monday for a reversal of the decision, but city leaders said the intent to redevelop the area has been known to residents for years.
However, Mayor Beth Weldon, after the Assembly met Wright in executive session during a Committee of the Whole meeting Monday night, announced that on Sept. 25 "the city attorney was alerted by Alaska Legal Services that at least one resident of Telephone Hill did not properly receive notice that the city was ending their rental agreement."
A followup check by city staff with JPR determined "the property manager company did not provide legal proof of service," Weldon said.
"At this point city staff have been able to verify that emails were sent on May 28 and Aug. 17, and notices were posted on the doors, but were not documented," she said. "We appreciate being alerted to this important issue. Given the information we have new notices to vacate will be provided tomorrow. Tenants will be required to move out by Nov. 1."
Thomas Faust, who as the JPR’s property manager posted the eviction notices on the residences, said he didn’t want to comment on the mayor’s charcterization of what happened, but he followed the city’s instructions with the new notices Tuesday to "redo it from ground zero so that nobody has any question and make sure that everything is is to the letter of the law, so that everybody gets a fair shake at the protections under the Landlord-Tenant Act."
The 30-day delay is offering some relief to Shoshana Seligman, a Telephone Hill resident for the past decade, even though many of her belongings are already packed — and she said Tuesday morning she isn’t planning to unpack. She said she was able to rent living space in another house during the coming month — and thus will have to pay two rents — but hasn’t been able to find a place yet to move with all of her belongings.
Ideally, she said, the city would postpone its evictions until there is a concrete redevelopment plan in place. City officials have stated a developer is unlikely to bid on the reconstruction project until demolition and other site prep work is done, in order to reduce the uncertainties about what work will be involved in construction.
"It would be a lot easier to bear the stress of it if there was some plan that made sense, that seemed viable," she said.
Wright, in her email, stated the city received letters from two attorneys stating their clients did not receive proper notice.
"Given the lack of documentation, the Assembly decided that it was best to provide new notices to all," she wrote.
There are several ways to serve notices, according to Wright.
"This includes hand delivery, posting on a person's door if you knock and no one answers, and certified mail," she wrote, noting email is not considered proper notice unless a person consents to that option. But whichever way is used, there needs to be documented backup."
Reimbursement will be sought from JPR for any costs the city incurs as a result of the 30-day delay, Weldon said.
It is not known yet if the 30-day delay will significantly impact the timeline for the redevelopment, Deputy City Manager Robert Barr stated in an email to the Independent on Tuesday.
"We'll be working over the next month to keep the project on track, specifically by beginning what hazardous materials testing work we can as we expect a number of folks to have moved out and not need the extra month," he wrote. "We won't know whether this delay will have a negative impact on the project until later in the winter. It will likely depend on the weather."
Christopher Burton, owner and broker of JPR, said in an interview Tuesday his company coordinated all of its actions with the city’s lands department, so "I don't think it's a finished conversation yet" in terms of responsibility.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.
