The judge overseeing a code-enforcement dispute between the city of El Cajon and one of its former elected officials has issued a decision that appears likely to offer both sides a measure of satisfaction — and of discouragement.
Judge Joel R. Wohlfeil said city officials should be granted access to a home owned by former Councilmember Bessmon “Ben” Kalasho in order to determine the extent of unpermitted repairs and whether the property may present a danger to the public.
But he declined to approve the city’s request to name a receiver to oversee the management of the Fletcher Hills home, something El Cajon officials said they needed due to Kalasho’s failure to respond to city notices.
“The court is not persuaded that plaintiffs have carried their burden that ‘the violations are so extensive and of such a nature that the health and safety of residents or the public is substantially endangered,” the judge wrote.
In the same decision that Wohlfeil declined to appoint a receiver, the judge said the $2.5 million or more in civil penalties sought by the city “bears no rational relationship to the alleged harm to the public.”
Instead, Wohlfeil ruled that the amount of any fines that Kalasho must pay should be determined once the condition of the house is fully compliant with El Cajon city codes.
The decision came after an April trial in which Kalasho represented himself.
The former city council member, who resigned in 2019 while facing lawsuits and allegations of conflicts of interest, spent three days in San Diego Superior Court challenging the city’s code-enforcement actions.
He said the civil case amounted to political persecution orchestrated by former council colleagues who did not appreciate his brash approach to local governance.
The city said Kalasho thumbed his nose at rules requiring permits for major improvements to the house and then repeatedly ignored the city’s order to cure the problems and allow inspectors inside.
City officials also accused Kalasho of placing the house into a trust whose executor was not a real person.
San Diego County records show the trust that co-owns the house at 1620 Cliffdale Road is managed by Maximilian Von Ayers — a person city officials could not locate and who does not appear in any public databases.
Lawyers for the city portrayed the action as a ham-handed way to shield the property from creditors. A trial witness testified that he spoke to Von Ayers and the person sounded much like Kalasho.
In his decision, Wohlfeil said Von Ayers appeared to be a fictitious person made up by the former council member.
“The court finds that this part of his testimony is credible,” Wohlfeil wrote. “Based on Mr. Ayala’s testimony, the court finds that Mr. Kalasho and Maximilian Von Ayers are one and the same.”
The trial was unusual in another way, beyond the former elected officials representing himself.
Kalasho and his wife, Jessica Kalasho, were the subjects of arrest warrants issued in 2023 after they failed to appear in court for a proceeding in an unrelated lawsuit.
They were able to appear in court — testifying on their own behalf and Ben Kalasho cross-examining the city’s witnesses — only because they received a stay in the arrest warrants.
They are both due in another San Diego courtroom June 9 to report for eight-day jail sentences they received after being found in contempt.
A status conference in the code-enforcement case is scheduled for the following week.
