INGLEWOOD, Calif. – An Inglewood resident posted on social media their frustration with the amount of broken sidewalks in and around the City.
Eye on Inglewood family. I came to yall February last year to tell you about a woman who filed a claim on my homeowners insurance policy because she tripped on the city owned sidewalk in front of my home. I was surprised when an adjuster called from my insurance company. And y’all came for me. Said I was a liar. How could she find out the name of my insurance company without ever speaking to me, and so on. My insurance company investigated and found that I had no liability because the sidewalk is owned by the city. There was a crack in the sidewalk because the tree roots from the tree the city planted are invasive. Well, after the claim was denied she decided to sue me and the city. I was served in March of last year and it has just come to a conclusion after a settlement that came out of mediation. The plaintiff refused to dismiss me from the lawsuit because she’s not a good person and didn’t care where she got her money from as long as she got paid. Even though I don’t own that sidewalk, the tree, nor do I have the authority to repair the sidewalk or remove the tree, the city would not take full financial reaponsibility. They claim they didn’t know the sidewalk needed repair because I didn’t tell them. Even though I bought my house in 2011 and there are pictures of when the house was listed in 2010 and the crack was in the sidewalk before I purchased my home. Even though the city trims that tree about once a year and failed to identify and rectify that issue. Even though I have two degrees in film, not public works, and I’m not qualified to identify what should be repaired on public property. To add insult to injury, I had to pay $10k last year to repair my mainline because the roots from this tree were infiltrating it. This came at a time when I was just laid off from my job. Well, today this lady who literally had some minor scrapes just won a $95k settlement. $87,500 from the city and $7,500 from my insurance company. My insurance company only paid because going to trial would be more expensive. This was all because the city was adamant not to take full financial responsibility. I told the city, I want them to cut the tree down and they were giving me the run around talking about they can’t talk to me because the lawsuit was ongoing. The lawsuit where I am a codefendant with the city? Like I’m not the one who’s suing?!!Inglewood is full of sh**. I want my $10k back for the mainline repair. The city has no process in place for sidewalk inspection. They will only fix it supposedly if the homeowner tells them. City of Inglewood, your lack of process in place is not the homeowners responsibility! I’m unemployed. I take care of an elderly mother, and I have a 5 month old baby. These people are despicable and should be ashamed of themselves. Mr. Marine Flynn, you should be fired from your job. You want homeowners to determine what should be repaired on the city’s sidewalks, but you have no guidance for us on what should constitute repair. If we don’t know what constitutes a ”dangerous condition”, you’ll blame the homeowner for you not doing your job. Put a process in place to regularly inspect the sidewalks! I am not done with the city of Inglewood. I’ll be figuring out how to get on the agenda for a city council meeting. I’m want a process put in place for regular sidewalk inspection. It’s a shame our tax dollars are being spent to settle lawsuits that could be avoided if people took pride in actually doing their jobs. They could have reimbursed 8 mainline repairs for homeowners in this city instead of paying Ms. Barrero a ridiculous settlement of $95k because they were negligent to repair the sidewalk in front of my home. Not to mention after the lady tripped, it took the city 22 months to repair the sidewalk! It’s insane y’all! Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.
Eye on Inglewood Facebook group
The upcoming Oct. 10 regular city council agenda shows FOUR claims filed against the City for broken sidewalks near SoFi Stadium and unkept trees.
The resident posted photos of ANOTHER tree that has fell and there hasn’t been any recent rainfall to blame it on.
Public Records Request’s submitted to the City in February of this year asking for inspection reports from West Coast Arborists, who have a multi-year contract for tree maintenance and grid pruning totaling $1.4 million, have gone ignored.
The agreement is with the City’s Public Works Department that currently lacks a full-time Public Works Director. Their office has been notified about another city vendor, Nationwide Environmental Services, not using water when cleaning the City’s streets.
City employees jobs were removed and outsourced to contractors who are NOT PERFORMING yet continue to be awarded contract extensions at the taxpayer’s expense.
What are our councilmembers Alex Padilla, Gloria Gray, Eloy Morales Jr., Dionne Faulk and Mayor Butts gonna do to ensure residents safety from falling into broken sidewalks and/or being crushed by a falling tree?