City Ignored Its Own Code To "abate" My Wildlife Refuge. Prosecutor Dropped The Case, But The City Still Wants Me To Pay For The "service" That Destroyed 15+ Year-old Specimen Plants.

Location: Missouri

I need advice on a municipal "abatement" nightmare.

The Background:

Exemption: My property is a state-law qualified wildlife refuge. NWF, who is affiliated back to the Missouri department of conservation and has been delegated permissions for oversight into private wildlife refuages, such as my multi-acre plot, and whom we are listed.

Crucially, there is a specific heading in our City Code that expressly exempts wildlife refuges from the "long grass" provisions; It is one sub heading over from the code we were cited under.

The Dismissal: I brought this to the City Prosecutor. He agreed, dropped the case via email after we mention the city code specifically has a exemption, and confirmed we did not need to attend court.

The Issue: Despite the explicit exemption and the prosecutor dropping the case, Code Enforcement is still trying to collect "abatement fees."

While the case was pending, the city mowed my property without my consent. They are also other administrative issues here, including a complete lack of notification.

Documents: I foia requested it's all internal and external communication requests regarding our phone number, email address, and relevant case / code enforcement data.

We have proof the relevant parties refused to talk to us, and were not able to provide proof that the notices were even initially sent. For context a bunch of City offices are were being moved between buildings at the time that this occurred. , I'm guessing regardless that's got lost in the shuffle. We would have worked with code enforcement had we been aware of their concerns.

Regardless of the reason, that's not something that I should have to pay for as a private citizen because they failed to do their correct administrative processes.

The Damage: This "service" destroyed several 15+ year-old Yucca plants. These were already established, adult specimen plants when I moved in 15 years ago. They are a core part of the refuge habitat and have significant replacement value; it sounds like 300 to $1,000 each, and half a dozen or more destroyed. Since these were being used for erosion control is also the possibility of longer term damage.

My Questions:

If the City Code expressly exempts me, did the city commit a trespass or an illegal "taking" by entering and mowing?

How can I force Code Enforcement to acknowledge the Prosecutor's dismissal and the code exemption to void these fees?

Since the damage to the 20-30+ year-old plants far exceeds the mowing bill, should I file a formal "Notice of Claim" for property damage to get them to back off the fees?