A recent code violation by former Holmes Beach Commissioner Jayne Christenson was brought into compliance.
But that doesn’t mean the matter is resolved.
Code compliance supervisor JT Thomas told The Islander March 2 the vacation rental violation still would be brought to the city’s special magistrate as a repeat violation.
Harmari, a program the city uses to monitor short-term rental postings, recently detected a listing for Christenson’s property — owned with her mother, Sally Owen — at 132 49th St., as a one-bedroom unit available for rent.
Christenson is limited to renting the home 30 days a year due to its homestead exemption.
However, city code requires vacation units be advertised and offered for rent in their entirety — not as a unit or bedroom within the dwelling — and the posting violated that part of the city code.
The city cited Christenson with the same violation in 2021, when she claimed she made a “verbiage” error in an online ad, listing the property as a one-bedroom vacation unit.
Christenson and her husband, Joseph, emailed Thomas Feb. 11 to notify the city that the recent violation had been brought into compliance.
“What we found was that although we put the information correctly into the VRBO app with the intent to advertise the entire home, but limit the occupancy to 2 people, the actual advertisement seen by the public was different from what we could see in the owner portion of the app,” they wrote. “The app was automatically calculating and listing only 1 bedroom because we only described one of the bedrooms in the dropdown menu to limit the occupancy to 2 people.”
“We have now resolved the problem,” they added in their email.
Nevertheless, Thomas said the matter would be brought before a magistrate so a finding of fact regarding the property’s use could be established.
Attorney Sean Flynn of the Bradenton-based Flynn Law emailed Thomas Feb. 22 on behalf of the Christensons to request all discovery — evidence related to the case — be sent to his firm.
City attorney Erica Augello wrote in a Feb. 22 email responding to Flynn that there is no formal discovery process since it is a magistrate proceeding.
Augello wrote that they could submit a public record request for any evidence related to the case.
“The city will, as a courtesy, provide you with the PowerPoint presentation it will be submitting into the record in advance of the hearing,” Augello wrote. “I will make sure that as soon as it is compiled, a copy is sent to you. This usually occurs a few days in advance of the hearing.”
The case will go before the magistrate at 10 a.m. Tuesday, March 28, at city hall, 5801 Marina Drive.