Deadline for Cedar Rapids’ new nuisance abatement initiative training approaching

CEDAR RAPIDS - City Council member Pat Shey helped lead the campaign for the city's new nuisance abatement initiative called SAFE-CR, and on Tuesday he said the city was not going to get weak in the knees about what the law requires.

Some 285 people with active landlord licenses - there are about 2,200 in total - have yet to complete a city mandatory landlord training session, and if they don't attend the one on June 30, they will be in violation of city law requiring the training by July 1. For those who don't comply, the result may be that they have their ability to rent property suspended, revoked or denied, city officials said on Tuesday.

Shey said the City Council stands behind the city manager and city staff and any punishment they dole out for landlords or their property managers who choose not to comply with the city nuisance property initiative, which took effect on Oct. 1.

Amanda Grieder, coordinator of the SAFE-CR program, told City Council members last night that 103 of the 285 landlords or property managers who need to complete training have registered for the June 30 event, and more have been registering daily, she said. She said most of these are small landlords, some renting out just one property.

Grieder's program has conducted six landlord training sessions to date, and those responsible for more than 95 percent of the city's rental property have complied with the one-time training requirement, which costs $50, she said.

Shey, an attorney, said he and other professionals must complete ongoing education credits each year, and so it is not too much to ask landlords to complete a once-in-a-lifetime class, he said. Landlords with nuisance properties may have to repeat classes.

The SAFE-CR program covers both rental property and owner-occupied properties, and it tallies points against property owners if they are found to have nuisance issues like junk in the yard, unmown grass or housing code violations and don't remedy them. Property owners also tally nuisance points when the police are called to the properties they own, which is intended as an incentive, for instance, for landlords to pay attention to their properties and their tenants.

Shey said 113 properties accumulated sufficient points to be labeled a nuisance since Oct. 1, but the owners of all but 13 have worked with Grieder's office to remedy problems, he said.

The program also has levied about $9,000 in fees against nuisance property owners for repeat calls for service from police and other city departments, Shey said.

At last night's council meeting, landlord Jeff Niemeier panned the city's SAFE-CR program, saying that it levels civil fees against landlords for police calls to their properties even when the tenant is not charged with a crime.

Mari Davis, a landlord and property manager who in May filed a lawsuit in Linn County District Court to try to stop aspects of the city's housing initiative, predicted that she'll succeed like a larger group of landlords did in a court action in 2010 to stop a different landlord program.

Shey said the City Council passes an assortment of resolutions and ordinances in any year, but the nuisance ordinance put in place in 2013 was 'a complex piece” of city legislation that this city doesn't take on routinely. Much public input and refinement went into the final product, he said.

'The point of the legislation is to get substandard homes into compliance to make sure everyone, whether you live in an apartment or a home, has the right to the quiet enjoyment of their property,” Shey said.