When Oak Harbor Mayor Ronnie Wright installed a fence this summer over a foot above the height limit per the city code, it remained unchanged well after neighbors reported it to the code inspector. This led to a neighbor’s accusation that rules were being bent to benefit the mayor.

The mayor, however, claims that he is fixing a matter that he just found out about.

“I want to assure the community that I take city codes and compliance very seriously,” Wright wrote in an email. “I am fully committed to following the rules and understand the concerns raised regarding the height of my fence.”

Messages between Wright’s neighbor Destry McKenzie and Code Compliance Officer Ray Heltsley confirm that Wright may not have followed the orthodox process, and other Oak Harbor residents in the same boat may have faced penalties by now.

The disagreement between Wright and his neighbor came to a head at a recent council meeting when McKenzie complained publicly, saying that talking to the mayor directly about the problem hasn’t worked.

On Aug. 15, Wright had started the construction of his fence, and McKenzie pointed out that it crossed the property line and that it was too tall.

“(Wright) was very difficult to speak with,” McKenzie said at the council meeting. “He was irate and very loud. I could sense that he was frustrated.”

When McKenzie’s wife asked Wright if he would remove the rocks lined up against the neighbor’s fence before constructing his own, “he got even more irate and blatantly told my wife to shut up,” McKenzie said.

Wright described himself differently.

“I want to emphasize that I have the utmost respect for all members of this community,” he said. “My goal has always been to serve this city with integrity, and I will continue to do so.”

The fence stands at 87 inches and 91 inches at its highest post, McKenzie said, well above the city code limit of 72 inches.

On Oct. 7, McKenzie reported the fence to the city inspector, and on Oct. 10, a code compliance officer came to the property to take photos of Wright’s fence.

According to the city website, once a code has been confirmed to be violated, the inspector issues a notice letter to the violator giving 10 days to fix the problem. If the violator has not fixed the problem in 10 days, a notice of violation will be sent with another 10-day deadline. If this is ignored, the violator is guilty of a misdemeanor with a penalty of $250.

Each day of violation is a separate offense. Intentional refusal to comply is punished with imprisonment of 90 days, a $1,000 fine or both.

In the case of Wright’s fence, however, McKenzie said he was told by the compliance officer that the second notice would not be submitted, and no further action would be pursued.

Heltsley did not respond to a request for comment.

McKenzie said in an interview that after the council meeting he was told that Heltsley and the city attorney spoke with the mayor once again, and the violation is moving toward being resolved.

“I don’t know who this guy is,” McKenzie said. “I mean, I know who he is. He’s my neighbor. He’s the mayor, but it’s not right that just because he holds that leadership position he can get away with something like this, and the code inspectors and the code inspector leadership feels the same way.”

Wright claimed that he did not receive a notice regarding the fence until November.

But text messages exchange between Heltsley and McKenzie in October indicates Heltsley followed the traditional code compliance timeline with the note, “a violation is a violation regardless of who does it.”

Wright focused his efforts on changing the code, claiming that “numerous existing fences are not in compliance.”

Councilmember Jim Woessner said he was unaware that the code compliance staff had already been involved at the time of November’s meeting.

“If we find out as a council that that that we’ve got some policies that are being mis-implemented or misinterpreted or being manipulated in a way that they weren’t intended, then I for one, certainly as a council member, would intervene,” he said.

Much has changed since Wright became mayor in January, he said.

“I’m a firm believer in agreeing to disagree and trying to keep the discourse civil, but at the same time, I don’t think any of us are blind to the fact that change is happening and that some of those changes may have a negative impact,” he said. “We have to monitor those very closely.”