The brochure presented to committee members explaining the rental registration and revitalization programs
The brochure presented to committee members explaining the rental registration and revitalization programs
By Charlotte Caldwell
SIDNEY – The Rental Registration Ad Hoc Committee discussed changes to the rental dwelling registration ordinance and reviewed a brochure for the program with about 20 people in the audience at a meeting on Feb. 28.
The changes included the time property owners have to come into compliance on page eight of the ordinance and the penalties for not registering on page 10.
The changes read, “Any violation that is disclosed in the course of the inspection of the premises in question shall be brought into compliance within ninety (90) days, unless immediate life-safety risks are present as determined by a building inspector. Additional time may be requested, on a case-by-case basis,” and, “Any owner/entity that failed to timely register shall be assessed a late fee of $125, payable within 60 days of the notification; should this owner/entity still fail to comply after being assessed the administrative fine, the owner/entity shall be subject to up to 30 days in jail and a fine of up to $250 per subject property.”
The committee’s landlords again expressed their disapproval of any jail time being part of the penalties and any fees for registration. Committee member Tim Gleason mentioned he has always been against jail time as a penalty and thought the time given before being subject to jail time was short. Committee member Tom Echemann also disapproved of the paragraph on page 10 saying owners will distribute local and state legislation information to tenants annually and to each new tenant because he thought doing it annually would be unreasonable.
“I feel like you guys were listening to us and then you kind of dug your heels in the sand and said that’s it,” Gleason said.
“I know that I haven’t said a lot, I’m listening a lot. And I’ve gotten lots of emails from lots of different people on both sides of the issue, so I am still trying to wrap my head around all of the information. So for those of you that have called and sent me emails, I thank you,” Committee and council member Jenny VanMatre said.
Another meeting of the committee was not scheduled as the ordinance with the changes and all of the materials from the committee meetings will be presented to City Council soon, but a date hasn’t been set.
A copy of the full ordinance draft and all the materials discussed can be found on the city’s Documents on Demand website in the Feb. 28 meeting’s agenda packet, which can be found in the Rental Dwelling Registration Ad Hoc Committee folder.
