City of El Paso fines Downtown building owner

tonight: controversial property owner billy abraham is evaluating what to do after the city last night decided to fine him more than two million dollars. abc-7’s maria garcia is live in our newsroom… the city’s building and standards commission approved the fine… saying abraham abused the system by neglecting a dilapidated building downtown. abraham’s attorney calling the decision ridiculous… and says other businesses owners will be affected too: 06-12 51-1:02 00:09 we want to send the clearest, strongest message possible to this owner and to other owners who are going to delibirately and with a calculated plan ignore the codes, ignore their responsibility and ignore the safety of this community 08:56 he’s there poster boy to whip in the public that’s what they’re trying to do abraham’s attorney and the city at odds. the city in 2010 ordered abraham to fix several building and fire code violations. the city says while it worked with abraham to address the violations, he took the city to court – where the issue lay tangled for six years. 01:23 the order is vague and ambigious and he was trying to comply as best he could with what he understood it to be. abraham’s attorney says he was trying but the city says abraham offered only empty promises. 08:03 the tenents are making due with very substandard facilities. like for example bathroom facilities, plumbing and there’s also hazards related to the fact that storage of combustibles and debris above the first floor so we have evidence to show that there are a lot of things that could have been done during the six years those tenants the city refers to: a u- p-s store and this dress shop that pay rent to abraham. 03:39 the business owners are not at fault. but if abraham doesn’t fix a slew of violations in 30 days, he’ll lose his certificate of occupancy, forcing philip kim to remove his dress shop from the building. 12:54 it’s truly unfair 14:08 penalize the tenant i don’t think that’s right abraham is in prison for a dealy drunk driving crash. his attorney says abraham is still deciding what to do next. as live look at the borderland tonight