Rockford City Council Codes and Regulations Committee Update

July 9th, 2014 by Dickerson Nieman

Attention investors: Although this is happening in Rockford, if it passes we think other municipalities will probably follow. On Monday the City Council Codes and Regulations Committee addressed two issues that are relevant to members of the RAA (Rockford Apartment Association). The first issue is a proposal for the city to use a hearing officer instead of a judge to determine if a person is guilty of ordinance violations. This is a significant change because in a code hearing, the person who accuses you and the person who judges you are both employed by the city. The state law allows the city to have this power. We only asked for one protection for citizens accuse of an ordinance violation. That is that it be included in the law that if an ordinance specifies an accusation of guilt be determined in court then a hearing officer should not try the case, guilt should be determined by an impartial judge. The Residential Quality Support Ordinance falls in the category of a general ordinance and we wanted to make sure that any penalties imposed under that ordinance are imposed fairly. It includes significant penalties against a landlord who is accused of being unresponsive to a situation that is considered a chronic nuisance. The proposal to use code hearings instead of the courts for accusations of general ordinance violations was presented to the codes and regulations committee with our requested language included; however, Alderman Ann Thompson Kelly made a motion to strip our provision. The ordinance passed committee without this very important protection. It now is before the whole council. The second item of concern is that the Residential Quality Support Ordinance was presented to the Codes and Regulations committee for revision. That action was unexpected. The administration wants to remove the provisions of the ordinance that they objected to when it was passed. Those provisions are what we included to ensure that the expectations on landlords would be reasonable and that provided for tenant accountability. Now the city wants to remove them before they have tried to implement them. This is an issue I need members to become involved in. The proposed revisions to the ordinance are attached. One positive thing happened at the council meeting. When the Residential Quality Support Ordinance was passed it stated that any situation that becomes a chronic nuisance would be referred to a housing board. The housing board is an advisory committee that would provide the landlord a plan as to how to abate nuisance behavior occurring at a property. If a landlord accepts the advice and enters into written agreement to follow it then they would not be exposed to penalty under the ordinance. The ordinance specifies that the RAA and the Realtors both have representatives on the housing board. This procedure is intended to make sure that the actions a landlord are asked to take are fair and reasonable. At this time the city has not seated the housing board. The administration was opposed to being required to refer chronic nuisance situations to the housing board. They wanted the ordinance to read that the city "may" refer the case to the housing board. The version of the ordinance passed by the council did read that the city "shall" refer situations that qualify as a chronic nuisance to the housing board. When the ordinance was published the word "shall" was replaced with the word "may". Tonight, Alderman Tom McNamara addressed the discrepancy in the language on the council floor. We want the published ordinance corrected so that the language that was voted on is what is published. Please contact the members of the City Council who represent you or your properties to discuss these issues. Below is the link to the contact info of the City Council. All are invited to attend the City Council meeting next week to demonstrate your concern over what is happening. Thank you for supporting RAA on this important issue. http://www.rockfordil.gov/wards-and-aldermen.aspx

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Tags: rockford, apartment, city council

Rockford City Council Codes and Regulations Committee Update

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