Man who faces demolition of house by city hall to be in court this week

MASON CITY – A man who was singled-out by city hall to have his house demolished will be in court this week for trial.

Phillip Flinchum, age 68, faces the prospect of his house at 32 6th Street NW being demolished by city hall. City hall aggressively moved to tear his house down last year, and city councilman Scott Tornquist publicly declared the house “structurally unsafe”.

However, NIT is told no city staff have ever been inside the house in regards to this matter, and no true inspection of the property has ever taken place. City inspectors did venture onto Mr. Flinchum’s property and covertly take photos, however. These photos and other “evidence” have now been introduced into the court proceedings. A non-jury trial is set for Thursday, May 28.

Last September, attorney Randy Nielsen for the city and Michael G. Byrne for Flinchum worked with judge James Drew to arrange a stay of proceedings as legalities were sorted out in Mr. Flinchum’s attempt to prevent the demolition. Due to these legal proceedings, the city cannot proceed to demolish Flinchum’s house until – and if – a judge rules in their favor.  The city selected McKinness Excavating to tear the house down at a cost of $11,000 to taxpayers.

Leading up to this lawsuit, Mr. Flinchum pleaded with the city council not to tear his house down. He went before the council – including Travis Hickey, who in about 5 years has never complied with orders from city hall to complete work on his garages – on a number of occasions at city council meetings and asked for time to clean up his yard and remove the contents of the home. He did follow through with cleaning up his yard and removed a semi-trailer full of items from the house last year. He completed painting and minor repairs. He then put the house up for sale with a realtor from Schoneman Realtors.

However, around that time, Tornquist made his disparaging remarks at a public meeting about Mr. Flinchum’s property.  Tornquist told a group of Mason City citizens that the city was not tearing the house down because Mr. Flinchum is a “hoarder” but because the house is “structurally unsafe”.

The city, despite the work from Mr. Flinchum and volunteers, moved aggressively to bring the wrecking ball.  The realtor disappeared, and now Mr. Flinchum has a “for sale by owner” sign in the front yard.

Last year, NIT requested documents from city hall that show an inspection by city building inspectors or engineers that list the structural issues that supposedly make the house unsafe.  City Hall replied with 8 pages of documents.  The documents supplied to NIT show no evidence that an official inspection of the house was ever made, and city officials appear to have never been inside Mr. Flinchum’s house.  In fact, in the city’s own words in documents submitted to NIT, the entire reasoning behind the demolition of the house states: “Due to calls from neighbors about the condition of the property, the past history of nuisance calls and lack of response from Mr. Flinchum and because the property was not being used as a residence we proceeded with a Letter of Intent to Condemn.”

NIT will report on any outcome from the court proceedings.