The latest geniuses are about to approve housing regulations so comprehensive it will require adding a five person department layer to the DeKalb Police Department. By the way DeKalb’s about five officers short of what’s needed to get a handle on violent crime in the city.
But these regulations will turn landlords into law enforcement agents because bad guests beget bad tenants who beget bad landlords and let me repeat Mayor Kris Povlsen, DeKalb has bad landlords. For example, if a tenant has a guest that breaks the law while visiting the rental property, the Disorderly House Ordinance requires a record to be made in the tenant’s and the landlord’s file. A second incident raises the stakes and another could put an investment property at the mercy of the city manager. Rest assured tenants who have guests that can make bad landlords will be evicted with an assist from the Housing Registration and Inspection Bureau.
Nearly 70% of the voters in a record turnout election didn’t want the city manager to appoint a $5,000 a year city clerk. Any wonder why investment property owners in DeKalb are nervous?
Questions. Is an owner-occupied single family property owner subject to the same penalties as an apartment building owner? If not why not? Aren’t there guests of homeowners who break laws? Why not three strikes and the city will pull your occupancy permit? If circumstances warrant creating such government aids to evict bad people how do you discriminate between landlord, owner-occupant and tenant?
Coincidence or not. The City of DeKalb needs to up its share of pension obligations. The Housing Registration and Inspection Bureau needs five new staff members. Actuaries are now calling for monies that could be used for operations. Money that could be used for new hires. The increase in the City’s 2013 property tax levy is about what is needed to bankroll the new department.
Crater in the plan? NIU residential campus and HUD housing projects are exempt.
Some on the council are convinced that apartment renting is a lucrative income generator. What if NIU saw the same thing and decided the way to survival was to capture that lucrative income to replace IOUs from the state? The private sector rental investment properties would fill the vacant-except-for-vagrants foreclosed and bank owned lists quicker than the new construction boom-to-bust single family homes.
Let’s see. How about some common sense. A different approach. DeKalb’s got decaying homes especially in the older parts of town. Those areas most prone to be in a TIF District. Many of the homes are decaying because their value dropped through the floor and the owners are still wondering when and if the Great Recession has ended. They don’t have the funds for property improvements and they’re sure not going to go further into debt even if the banks would let them.
TIF money could be used to get voluntary property inspections.
“If we find a problem we’ll help pay for fixing it,” said the Property Improvement Bureau, funded by TIF. People would probably line up for that kind of service. Vouchers would be used at local vendors, suppliers and providers stoking the DeKalb economy. Imagine that. Instead of fighting against another TIF District there would be clamoring for the program.
True, empire building complete with monuments only made possible by the vision of out of town consultants would have to take a back seat to community development. The trickle down the road impact of building a new city hall just isn’t as exciting as getting a check that helps solve a problem and gets spent locally. It just isn’t.
People respond to help a lot differently than they do punishment. They really do.
Click Here To Submit A News Tip Or Story
9 Comments
I had a eureka moment today regarding the housing ordinance and would like to share it with you. After 2-3 hours of digging through cityofdekalb documentation, I thought, “This is way too complicated, why not just have the landlord sell the house to the tenant with the option to buy it back at a later date, i.e. when the tenant wants to move out?” Eureka!
Here are the details. (Disclaimer: Consult your attorney.)
1) Landlord, if you haven’t done so already, title your house or apartment in the name of a corporation, INC. or LLC. Illinois was a bit expensive for incorporation compared to other states the last time I researched the topic, a few hundred dollars perhaps. You should have the property titled to a corporate entity anyway to avoid nosy lawyers and courts from prying into your personal financial affairs.
2) Contract with the former-renter/buyer to sell your property, with the option to buy it back within a certain period of time, perhaps 99 years. When the property is titled to the corporation, and ownership is transferred from one (real) person to the next, there are no taxes, and no government headaches. No one but you and the new owner even know the transaction has taken place. The piece of paper representing the corporation is simply exchanged like a poker chip at a card table.
3) Show the former-tenant/new owner the proposed Crime Free Lease Addendum in one hand, and the incorporation papers and contract in the other hand. I think we all know what choice they are going to make.
4) Throw a big kegger party with lots of fermented malt beverages, fireworks, abusive language, and be sure to park in the yard. Toss the rental agreement in the fire pit. Rejoice.
As a final note, I must say it feels great to be done researching this. On to the next threat of unconstitutional government intrusion.
That’s my prescription folks. Have a nice day.
A five thousand dollar per year City Clerk? Wow. And people told me that my suggestion to bring County Board Members’ pay down to one dollar per meeting was extreme…
Again, this is why we need to bring zero-based budgeting to the public sector. I have worked for private entities that have used it very successfully. Line item incremental budgeting yields this type of “non-forward” thinking. Zero-based budgeting takes a lot more work the first few times, and department heads would have to really work to build a budget each year from the bottom up, but the ultimate savings could be huge as obsolete and ineffective programs are discarded in favor of programs that show a real ROI.
Could someone please provide a link to the proposed Crime Free Lease Addendum. Thanks.
http://www.cityofdekalb.com/CityCouncil/Agendas/2012%20Agendas/111312.pdf
See Page 39
Crime Free Lease Addendum: This would require the inclusion of an addendum as part of all new and renewed leases stating that in consideration of renting a premises, a tenant (and their guests) agree that s/he will not engage in defined unlawful activities. In the event that they do, such behavior is deemed a violation of the lease and establishes cause for the termination of the tenancy.
NOTE: I cannot seem to find the ‘defined unlawful activities’ spelled out anywhere except perhaps at this presentation titled PovlsenPresentation that includes
-Open container of alcohol
-Public urination
-Unlawful dispensing of trash/litter
-Unlawful Possession of firearms
-Excessive noise -Public disturbances
-Destruction of property -Theft
http://www.state.il.us/lcc/under21/PovlsenPresentation.pdf
It will be interesting to see how the three-strikes rule is interpreted. If a landlord can lose their rights when a tenant/guest walks into the street with an open container of alcohol(1), drops the can on the ground(2), and then urinates on a bush(3), what a laugh it will be.
Yep sure is. The thinking of the city manager, the mayor and the city council (most that are kot rerunning for office next term) is that even at 70% still in favor of an elected clerk they dropped the pay for that elected city clerk and will appoint their own city clerk at a more repsectable salary to do their beckon calling. They will show us we don’t really know what we want. WELCOME all to the attitude that home rule gives a gestapo form of leadership…….oops sorry really meant to say city manager form of government with home rule authority…..my bad!
A five thousand dollar a year city clerk? Is that number correct?
Guess you must have missed the action and this article because of the busy schedule a successful County Board campaign must have been for you Stephen:
http://dekalbcountyonline.com/shall-the-city-clerk-be-elected-or-appointed/
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Or, just use the contract and title in lieu of incorporation. Sorry guys, I’m a slow learner.