When living in an area with other houses nearby, it is important to ensure any changes you make to your property won’t negatively impact your neighbors.

What would you do if you were called out to inspect some changes to the drainage path of two properties, and found that one of the neighbors was a real jerk?

That is what the government employee in this story had to deal with, and while he ended up getting the problem solved, he abused his power in the process.

It is a really bad idea to make a government employee angry

This one is a double government employee event and what you should know is if you get the attention of a government employee and make them angry they will make your life a living hell. Sorry this is a long one.

The setup is that I was working for a local county government in the permitting department that handled drainage and flood plain enforcement.

I received a complaint from a homeowner (nice guy) who lived next door to a house that was part of an incorporated village (not nice guy).

This makes things a little complicated.

Nice guy lived in an unincorporated portion of the county and hence the call to me as an agent of the county.

I drove out to the site and to investigate and discovered some interesting facts.

The permitting agent for the village allowed the incorporated homeowner to fill his lot effecting the drainage which caused the unincorporated lot to flood every time there was anything more than light rain.

Nice guy indicated that there was some tension between him and not nice guy and part of the issue was that nice guy and his partner were a gay couple.

OP called the village inspector.

This ran up a red flag for me but in trying to be impartial I took the information and some photos for the file and indicated that I would contact the village to find a resolution.

I wrote a letter and then called the village inspector (jackwagon) to discuss.

I was told by jackwagon that the village could do as it pleased and that I could do nothing to stop not nice guy from doing as they pleased as it was approved by the village.

There was then a comment about those type of people (the gay couple) making complaints just to cause trouble.

I was now on the case and it was time to make sure everything done on the incorporated lot was 100% legal.

The government worker called them out!

At this point the game was certainly now on because if there is one thing that grinds my gears it is bullying.

I went back out and spoke to nice guy to let them know what I was up to and also that I was not going to let this slide.

I then started investigating the elevations on the two lots and what fill had been placed on the incorporated lot.

The not nice guy came out and started getting belligerent about my presence and ongoing investigation.

He incorrectly stated that I did not have jurisdiction over his lot and that he would be calling the police.

I patiently listened and then pulled out my two way radio and requested that the home base dispatch both a village and a county police unit to the location.

I then indicated that since there was a regulatory floodplain on his lot I did in fact have jurisdiction and that I would be exercising my right to determine the impact of his fill activities upon that floodplain.

Both of the police units showed up and I let them know what was going on.

He has to mark the property.

They were both appropriately agitated to have to waste their time and let not nice guy know that I was within in my authority to proceed with the investigation.

A little while later, while I was measuring things, jackwagon showed up.

He stated berating me about harassing the village resident and threatening calling my boss and filing a complaint and so forth.

I invited him to do so quoting which parts of the code he should indicate I was violating.

I was using marking paint to show the limits of the floodplain for the photos for the file and what do you know jackwagon’s shoe got painted when he tried to stop me.

Obviously he was even more angry as was the homeowner due to very bright orange paint in the grass in his yard.

The paint wasn’t really that bad.

I pointed out I had done the same on the neighboring lots but they just kept complaining.

It was actually marking chalk that comes off pretty easily.

Interestingly, I found two really wrong things on not nice guys lot:

(1) there was fill placed in the floodplain

(2) a garden shed was built on the fill and partially within the floodplain. Both are a big no-no and are actually against federal law.

He explained what needed to happen, but it didn’t go over well.

So, the course of action had two parts:

(1) make the incorporated homeowner remove the fill and shed from the floodplain

(2) let nice guy place fill in their lot outside of the floodplain to counteract the fill remaining in not nice guys lot outside of the floodplain.

I also told nice guy it would be a good idea to run a field tile on their side to drain the water that would inevitably pond up between the two lots when it rained.

Predictably, not nice guy and jackwagon got super angry when I sent the letter out that there were violations that either had to be corrected (remove fill and shed) or apply for a revision of the floodplain with the Army Corps of Engineers (good luck with that).

Things escalated quickly!

This then led to a meeting at the county office with not nice guy, jackwagon, my supervisor and myself.

Quickly things went to 11 and there was yelling by jackwagon about abuse of power, etc.

The department head came into the conference room and told them both they were wrong and that they should leave peacefully and comply or face the consequences (fines).

The best part was that not nice guy had to apply for a permit and guess who was the one to review and approve it. That’s right yours truly.

Was he abusing his power? Maybe.

Now, I was following the letter of the law but you have to know that poor government workers are underpaid and overworked.

Strangely the permit for nice guy was almost immediately approved while not nice guy had to have a very thorough review to ensure it was correct.

You could make a case I was abusing my power but I can assure you that the timing for their review was well within acceptable limits.

Also, how could I be held to account that they misfiled three times before they finally got it right.

That took a lot more effort than it should have.

Generally, if you behaved like a civil human and came to the office we would help you get things done properly so the permit would go through first time but not nice guy decided he could do it all in his own so it took him three tries.

Had he come to the office I would have given him the same service as others but he decided to take the hard route and therefore I didn’t give a single inch when it came to the submission being perfectly correct.

Ultimately, the situation was resolved but it took a lot more effort than it should have.

I can see why people hate government workers. They should provide the same service to everyone equally, even if they don’t like them.

Let’s see what the people in the comments on Reddit have to say.

How about nobody abuse their power.

Some people support this type of abuse of power.

Here is someone who thinks their application deserved scrutiny.

This person doesn’t think they were abusing their power.

Being nice is almost always helpful.

Some people think abusing their power is a good thing.

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.