Council still working on beefing up housing code; why not a $10,000 fine when a fire death comes in an unregistered apartment? asks Gulick

CEDAR RAPIDS - Why not a $10,000 fine? asked City Council member Kris Gulick at the Tuesday evening council meeting.

Gulick and his council colleagues are trying to adopt changes in the city's housing code that are designed, in part, to let city housing officials keep better track of rental properties. Better track means making sure rental properties are inspected, safe and obeying city regulations.

One of the proposed changes in the housing code would up the fine from the current $100 to $1,000 for landlords who do not register their rental units with the city.

Some on the council on Tuesday evening had questions about some of the proposed code changes, but council members who spoke embraced the idea of the higher fine for scofflaw landlords who operate under the radar screen and avoid city inspections.

Council members Monica Vernon, Don Karr and Justin Shields all made note that a 35-year-old man died on Monday in a fire in an apartment which was not registered with the city. The apartment did not have working smoke alarms, the city has said.

It was Gulick, though, who asked why the city couldn't fine landlords something like $10,000 in events in which they are not following city law and a death occurs.

Matt Widner, the city's building official, said the $1,000 fine is “common practice” in some other communities, and he said such a fine typically is “teeth enough” to get landlords to get with the city program.

Vernon called for a short amnesty program that would allow unregistered landlords to register should the council pass the new housing code. Widner said the intent is to ease the program in with the hope of getting landlords to comply.

His office estimated on Monday that 70 to 80 percent of landlords register now.

At the Tuesday evening council meeting, several landlords spoke out against some of the provisions of the new housing code. It calls for higher fees and for fees to be paid annually and not once every five years during a city inspection.

Some on the council said they were open to looking at the fee schedule, and council members Monica Vernon and Chuck Swore thought the city needed to re-engineer some of the proposed changes in meetings with landlords.

However, council members Justin Shields, Pat Shey and Chuck Wieneke agreed with neighborhood leader Sandy Bell. They said the city has been talking and working on an “Enhance Our Neighborhoods” initiative for some five years and it was time to implement it, the three said.

Shields was particularly pointed. He said landlords who did not know about the proposed changes after years of discussion at City Hall “weren't interested in hearing about it.”

He and Shey said the city could make changes in the changes once implemented if warranted.

Council member Don Karr said the changes in the housing code were all about public safety. And quality of life, Shey added.

As proposed, the new code would include a “crime-free agreement,” which tenants would sign with landlords.

The city's Widner said the agreement would give landlords more of a foundation to evict a tenant who had committed a crime on the landlord's property.

The new ordinance also requires a landlord to pay a one-time license fee of $50.

Landlords argued that renting property is not a gold mine and that most landlords are responsible.