Vote on housing could be close
Published 9:17 am Thursday, August 21, 2008
Though the proposed rental housing ordinance in Albert Lea is better now — four months after it was initially submitted to the Albert Lea City Council — than it was when it first began, there’s still no way for everyone to be in total agreement with it when it is finished, Fire Chief and Building Inspector Paul Stieler said Wednesday.
Multiple parties are involved in the ordinance’s formation, and all of their interests have to be considered, Stieler said. In the end, landlords have one part, just as tenants, Realtors and city councilors also have a part.
Stieler made these comments in response to concerns raised Tuesday by landlords during a Responsible Landlords Association meeting.
Landlords said if four key issues in the ordinance were resolved, they would be able to vote to approve the ordinance.
Stieler said whether these issues are resolved, the Rental Housing Task Force will vote on the draft at its Sept. 2 meeting. Even if the task force disapproves the ordinance, it will then move on to the council.
“I’m glad they’ve been part of this task force,” Stieler said about the landlords. “They’ve provided some very valuable input, and it’s a better ordinance because of it. But are we in 100 percent agreement? No.”
He said he has taken the most recent draft of the ordinance and given it to City Attorney Steve Schwab to review. The city will follow any advice Schwab gives because he’s the person who defends the city in court.
Right now, he said, the group is down to some minor word changes.
“The intent of the ordinance as the city sees it is to provide some protection for tenants, yet make the tenants responsible for their actions,” he said. “The same thing for the landlords — to provide them some protection, yet make them responsible. When we look at the ordinance that way, it works for both sides.”
A breakdown of the 12 Rental Housing Task Force members:
Chuck Brumbach: representative from Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services
Jon Ford: executive director of the Albert Lea Housing Redevelopment Authority
Jack Potts: representative from Trailside Apartments
Milton Ost: representative of the Trades and Labor Assembly that runs Senior Tower and Senior Court
Lisa Frank: tenant
Dawn Freeman: Realtor
Emelie Paulson: Realtor
Terry Fox: property manager
Steve Kurth: property manager
Mike Carstens: landlord
Lanier Pratt: landlord
Linda Bottelson: mediator
Stieler said he thinks if people would look at the ordinance in its current state, a majority of them would feel it will accomplish the goals of providing safe, sound housing for tenants and protecting the housing stock in Albert Lea.
Addressing some of the landlords’ concerns, Stieler said the city is looking into what it would take to develop a tenant registry, but he is not sure this will be included in the final ordinance.
If something such is a registry were passed, it would be passed separately, he said. The police department is actually the entity looking into the registry.
Responding to a request from landlords to move the timespan for a provisional license from six to nine months, Stieler said he could extend a provisional license in case of weather problems, but otherwise he is not willing to change it to nine months.
“This ordinance is written to deal with the problem people,” he said. “Most of them aren’t going to need nine months. They’re not going to need nine weeks.”
Stieler said the city planned to have a group on the task force that they knew would not be in agreement. That way, several different viewpoints could be involved and considered.
“Is everybody in agreement? No. Will they ever be in agreement? No,” Stieler said.
He noted he thinks the city has addressed all of the concerns raised by members of the task force, but that doesn’t mean they’re necessarily in agreement.
It will be up to the vote Sept. 2.
The Rental Housing Task Force was formed earlier this year after the Albert Lea City Council voted in April to table an ordinance that would have established a method of registering landlords and enforcing the already-in-place minimum housing standards to the living conditions of people who rent apartments and houses.
The ordinance would have required that before receiving a license, landlords would be required to have an inspection of their properties prior to renting them. Then, subsequent inspections would be conducted every few years, depending on the results of the previous inspection. More than a dozen landlords showed opposition to this idea at that council meeting.
The landlords formed an association and continued to show much opposition to the ordinance while meeting with the task force.