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Wheeling officials received a mixed bag of comments Monday night from local landlords and tenants both for and against a proposed rental inspection program.
The Public Safety Committee of council met Monday night after initial public discussion about the proposal was continued from a meeting last week. Committee members last Tuesday had requested more time to look over the draft proposal for the Rental Inspection Program and to give the public a chance to provide input before any ordinance would be forwarded for consideration before the full Wheeling City Council.
A crowd of nearly 20 local landlords and some tenants attended Monday's committee meeting, many of them stepping to the podium to express their concerns -- and in some cases, their enthusiasm -- about the plan.
The proposal in large part aims to hold slumlords accountable for their properties in the city.
"I'm for whatever programs we have to clean up our neighborhoods," said John Basil of Ohio Street. "I love Wheeling Island, and I love the city. I hope this works out for the good renters and for the property owners -- the landlords."
David Watkins of South York Street said he owns several properties on Wheeling Island and supports the program, but said it needs to be a fair program.
"I don't think we would be in the problem that we're in now where we need this program if we'd have had more enforcement in the past from the city of Wheeling," Watkins said. "The city failed its residents in that aspect. If the city was more on top of its codes and code enforcement over the years, then we would not be here now talking about a landlord inspection program."
Some rental property owners spoke out against the measure, while many voiced concerns about problem tenants, noting that some are tough enough to handle without additional city codes that could make life even harder on their landlords.
"The tenants are getting very savvy in what they can do," said Nancy Bates, who noted she has had rental property she has owned for 30 years. Bates said, at times, tenants create problems and landlords must jump through hoops in order to simply gain access to fix problems on their own rental property. "I think this is opening a can of worms that's just giving them fuel for the fire. When are we going to put responsibility on the tenants?"
According to the draft proposal, landlords would be able to complete a self-inspection checklist to comply. The list would be given to tenants at the time they sign their lease agreement. If at any time a problem arises, it would be the responsibility of the tenant to immediately notify their landlord.
Rental property owners who fail to address the problems could be held accountable by the city, and depending on the violation, landlords could either lose the ability to rent their property until outstanding issues are addressed or they could lose their right to self-inspect. The city would then perform inspections -- at the cost of the landlord -- until the problems are addressed. After two satisfactory city inspections, the rental property owner would regain their right to self-inspect.
"I don't think it's going to be effective," said Morgan Wood. "It's just going to raise rents.
"Good tenants and good landlords, you're not going to have problems. It's the sleazy landlords and the sleazy tenants who are going to find a way around it and are going to create problems."
Committee member Councilwoman Rosemary Ketchum commended fellow Councilman Ben Seidler, chairman of the Public Safety Committee, for his efforts with the proposal.
"I do agree that we need rigorous accountability," Ketchum said. "However, I also agree that we need consensus."
Councilman Dave Palmer, committee vice chairman, expressed a number of concerns about the draft in its current form.
"I absolutely am not in favor of any fee, period," Palmer said, joining others who raised protests against a proposed $25 registration fee for landlords. "Some of this checklist is a little bit overbearing for what we're trying to do here. I think as a whole we're overreaching here a little bit."
Seidler said Wheeling is probably one of the few cities in the country of its size that does not have a rental inspection program in place.
"I've been on council for less than a year now, and these problems have existed for 20 years, and nobody has addressed them yet," Seidler said. "I want to have our landlords police their own properties, take care of their own business and clean their own crap up, and let our city code officials go attack the other ones who are not taking care of their own business."
The Public Safety Committee is expected to meet again in another future work session to continue discussions about the proposed program.