Clean Sweep is upsetting some residents
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Some Amarillo residents are upset with the city's Operation Clean Sweep program. They claim inspectors are violating their right to privacy.
Ed Bridges received a violation letter in the mail informing him he had to get rid of the metal and wood items in his backyard or else pay a fine, so he threw his grandchildren's toys away.
"I'm too old for this," Bridges said. "I can't handle this and when my grandkids come, they'll ask where's this, where's that. It's gone. The city made me throw it away."
They say one man's trash is another man's treasure. So how would you feel if you got a letter saying the car you owned for more than 25 years was referred to as a "junk vehicle" and had to be put in a garage or be taken by the city?
"I've heard stories of them taking people's fences down and pulling away their cars," Matthew Claynordyke said. "I would be sad if that happens to my old baby here."
More than 70 square miles of Amarillo has already been inspected. And the citizens I spoke with say they want Amarillo to be cleaner and safer, but they don't want inspectors peeking over their fences and violating their privacy.
"I worry about people's privacy and their rights just as much as they do because I have the same situation," said Building Inspector Jerry Hibdon. "I own a home. And I don't want people climbing on my fence. So I don't do that. That's their property and I respect their property,"
"We are going to make that letter a little softer, a little more user friendly," Mayor McCartt said. "We don't want to threaten anyone. That is not the intent. It is to manage your property so that your neighborhood is clean and that we have a cleaner city."
