FINALLY – A Public Hearing on DeKalb’s proposed (again) housing ordinance

Here is an example of how government intrusion evolves:

Village of Mt. Prospect Recent Ordinance Changes (see MEETING WITH DEKALB CITY MANAGEMENT MOUNT PROSPECT CRIME FREE HOUSING OVERVIEW – Pg 2)

There have been many examples of serious criminal acts committed by tenants of Mount Prospect within the Village, BUT not always “in. at or on the leased premises”; these acts were not considered a public nuisance and did not count as a public nuisance against the leased premises under the pre·amended Crime Free ordinance.Additionally, the more egregious criminal acts were given the same weight as lesser offenses. The ordinance was amended to include the following:

1. Public Nuisance: Formal notifications will be issued for criminal acts defined as public nuisances committed by tenant{s), any member of the tenant’s household, tenant’s guest{s), and any person under tenant’s control, occurring within the Village limits. Previously, formal notifications were issued only for acts at, on or in the leased premises.

2. Chronic Public Nuisance Property: Any rental unit, whose tenant(s), any member of the tenant’s household, Tenant’s guest(s}, and any person under Tenant’s control. commit any two or more public nuisances. one of which constitutes a felony offense within the Village of Mount Prospect within any one year period. or any three (3) or more public nuisances within the Village of Mount Prospect within anyone year period, and any multifamily rental structure whose tenant{s), any member of the tenant’s household, tenant’s guest{s), and any person under tenant’s control, commit any six (6) or more public nuisances within the Village of Mount Prospect within any one year period.

3. Crime Free lease Addendum: The Crime Free lease addendum, which is required as part of All lease agreements, has been amended to reflect these changes.

Mt. Prospect is the pattern community for the proposed Crime-Free-Rental-Licensing-Inspection-and-Disorderly-House ordinances under consideration of the DeKalb city council. For now, if staff recommendations are approved, landlords would only have to worry about starting the eviction process (to avoid fines and/or license forfeiture) if a guest of a tenant committed a crime or public nuisance while at the leased premises. Later as staff self-evaluated the success of the program it could be expanded to evicting tenants from leased premises if one of their guests committed a crime or public nuisance anywhere in the DeKalb city limits.

My guess is if you’re going to continue to run government from the position of, “if you don’t like what we’re doing to you then go ahead and sue yourself and oh by the way you’re paying for our attorney, too,” then it’s probably safer to pick on renters. Might a DeKalb homeowner’s guest commit a crime or public nuisance?

Videos from a DeKalb Area Rental Association (DARA) press conference:

For some excellent background information, check out here and here. City Barbs nailed it. The landlords and tenants are right to question the motivation behind this yet another attempt at government intrusion.

A special meeting of the City Council of the City of DeKalb, Illinois, is called for Wednesday, September 19, 2012 at 6:00 p.m., in the City Council Chambers, of the DeKalb Municipal Building, 200 South 4’h Street, DeKalb, Illinois.