Mayoral rival Yoon facing fines over code violation

He says two inspectional services officers came to his campaign office in Fields Corner this week, declaring the "Yoon For Mayor" posters taped in the storefront windows a code violation and threatening a $1,000 fine every day unless he gets a "site cleanliness permit."

Yoon says it smells of harassment. "Who's doing the complaining here?" he said. "You've got to wonder."

His campaign workers were even more explicit. "This is exactly the kind of politics we're going to stop," said a Yoon consultant, Jim Spencer. "We're not going to let it be about dirty tricks."

The Inspectional Services Department says Yoon is getting the same treatment as everybody else and that the warnings occurred during a sweep of the entire business district. "To have accusations out there like that is an insult," said Michael B. Mackan, ISD's chief of code enforcement police. "There's no selective enforcement."

Mayor Thomas M. Menino's office said officials there had nothing to do with the inspection, which had been requested by the Fields Corner Main Street Association, one of 19 nonprofit business associations that are run with technical help and funding from the city's Department of Neighborhood Development.

"It wasn't a punitive thing at all," said Dorothy Joyce, the mayor's spokeswoman. "It's simply to make sure the businesses are being good neighbors, not just with the people of the neighborhood, but with each other."

Yoon's staff members were first warned about the problems two weeks ago, when they were moving into the office and a representative from the Main Street Association stopped by.

Evelyn Darling, executive director of the association, said she advised Yoon's staff that ISD would be coming through the neighborhood later in the month and the campaign should get its trash in order and remove some of its posters so at least 60 percent of the windows were exposed. She said her group had visited other businesses as well, in an effort to help them avoid similar code violations.

Yoon's campaign said it removed some signs in response to the warning and made sure staff took trash home at night.

Then, on Tuesday, Yoon's staff members were working inside the office when two inspectional services officers and a representative from the association stopped by and told them they would be fined $1,000 a day if they didn't get a "site cleanliness permit" in two weeks.

The permit, intended to combat rodents and windblown litter, requires businesses to certify that they have a Dumpster, a person responsible for it, and a schedule for emptying it.

The inspectors also said Yoon needed to remove more signs from the windows, for the safety of police responding to emergencies and for the aesthetics of the neighborhood. ISD said it had visited 135 other businesses on Dorchester Avenue, walking the street with a Vietnamese translator and giving similar warnings as part of an "educational seminar" on city codes.

"We just informed people they have two weeks to get their act together," said Darryl Smith, ISD's assistant commissioner of government services, who added that inspectors had done a similar sweep in East Boston. "It's a form of spring cleanup."

Yesterday, it didn't look as though Yoon's staff had taken much action in response to the warnings. The windows were nearly covered with blue, white, and maroon campaign posters, as well as a hand-lettered sign declaring "all welcome." Spencer said the campaign didn't have a Dumpster because "we don't serve food." He said he was researching city codes and wants to comply but was still wondering about the warnings. "We find it curious," he said.