UPDATED – If the DeKalb city council approves it a new department within the DeKalb Police Department will be formed to address tenant behavior and morals as well as to inspect rental and owner occupied properties to make sure property maintenance is up to code. The new Housing Registration and Inspection Bureau will be up for discussion at Wednesday night (Oct. 10, 2012) special meeting. It is the sole agenda item for the full city council meeting. A glowing TIF report and a proposal to lend Darden Restaurant $900,000 will be discussed during committee of the whole without public input.
Under the plan a “sidewalk” inspection program of all housing units (both rental and owner occupied) on a three (3) year cycle where one-third (1/3), or 3000 buildings, would be inspected in year one, 3000 buildings in year two, and the remaining 3000 buildings in year three.
According to the back-up material, one half of this program’s costs would be borne by the City’s General Fund using funds already provided in the 5 year financial plan (along with some lesser, to-be identified sources of funds). The other half of this program’s costs would be recovered by annual fees collected at the time of registration.
Rental units owned and operated by NIU would be exempt. The Housing Authority’s 180 units in the three (3) buildings that they own and the ninety (90) privately-owned rooming houses that exist in DeKalb would also be exempt from the new registration and inspection programs (they are already regulated through other federal and local programs).
The Housing Registration and Inspection Bureau would be staffed with five (5) people as follows:
- One (1) Program Coordinator who would provide overall supervision, landlord/police liaison services, and crime free training; Annual cost: $123,000 (salary & benefits)
- One (1) Office Associate who would provide clerical and office support, record keeping, and data control; Annual cost: $ 56,000 (salary & benefits)
- Three (3) Inspectors, each of which would be responsible for inspecting 1000 buildings each year, conducting follow-up inspections, attending court and administrative hearings, conducting general City-wide property maintenance enforcement tasks, etc. Annual cost: $200,000 ($66,000 each/salary & benefits)
The total annual costs for the program is projected at $454,000. Additional one time start up costs totaling $135,000 requested are for Hardware/Software ($25,000) Office EquipmentlPhones ($30,000) and Vehicles (4 @ $20,000 each).
This special meeting of the City Council of the City of DeKalb, Illinois, is Wednesday, October 10, 2012 at 6:00 p.m., in the City Council Chambers, of the DeKalb Municipal Building, 200 South 4th Street, DeKalb, Illinois.
The regularly city council meeting scheduled for tonight, Oct. 8, 2012, does not address the proposed Housing Registration and Inspection Bureau. I got the agendas criss-crossed and I apologize for the error. It has been corrected in the original post.
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8 Comments
David, you’re going to get me started on home rule again. The Big Hoax of Local Control. It’s really Control the Locals through a buddy network of fiefdoms.
They should have never laid off building inspectors in Dekalb with the plethora of zoning violations in the 9500 Dekalb apartments. There was plenty of work to do and code enforcement is needed more than ever with the problem areas in Dekalb. It is unfair to tenants and their neighbors to allow properties to decline This apartment glut has caused a major threat to the quality of life in Dekalb. It affects not only the city but the county and the schools. This problem needs to be addressed but it will not be fixed easily.
Mac, you can pick up a lot of garbage and cut some major grass with $454,000 per year. I think they are afraid of doing any real labor. What is your take on it?
Any property owner who knows their rights will probably be laughing at this charade, since local government has no real authority to vote away property rights unless the property owner consents to this by signing a “permit”. No signature, no contract, no deal.
For property owners who are unclear of their rights, a good place to start would be to read the work of Clint Richardson titled “Understanding The Contractual Relationship.”
Gracie, this has been on their wishlist for a long time, and it has nothing to do with loud parties or code violations since there are already laws on the book to address these issues. Even if the current council votes this down, they will bring it back every 3 to 6 months with increasing arm-twisting and manipulation until it is passed.
David, why do you suppose they keep bringing it back? To raze John Street? Put a green space riverwalk buffer for the lagoon? Or just to keep buddies on the payroll?
A new division of the POLICE department?? Are we in a police state now DeKalb?
And didn’t we BORROW money to lay off people recently? What the heck is THIS about? $379,000 a year for FIVE new staff members PLUS FOUR new vehicles???
Please tell me this is a joke.
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Mac wrote, “David, why do you suppose they keep bringing it back? To raze John Street? Put a green space riverwalk buffer for the lagoon? Or just to keep buddies on the payroll?”
In general, I would say all of the above, since it appears local government is basically looking to check things off from the to-do-list and support the buddy system as you call it. The key to their control and power is the democratic process itself, where they take advantage of a relatively uninformed council and public to gain consent for their various projects.
This is a good example of why the word democracy never appears in the constitution. In a republic form of government, you would need a unanimous vote from city council with all members in agreement versus the majority vote of democracy we have today. You have 51% of the people telling the other 49% how to run their lives.
We would not even be voting on whether or not to circumvent the constitutional rights of privacy, due process, property rights, or any other rights, since any local government official who would propose such a thing would be prosecuted and throw in jail where they belong. Assuming they had taken a written oath of office to obey the constitution they seek to circumvent.
Any form of direct taxation including the “property tax” would also be disallowed under a constitutional form of government. You can look to North Dakota for more insight into this, since they are currently considering whether to eliminate the property tax and return more government control to the people.