HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-RHAC-2005-06-29Hi Folks,
Here're the meeting minutes for the Rental Housing Advisory
Commissioin meeting on 6/29/05, whe nwe met wiht Mike N, from the
City's Building Department.
My apologies for the delay in getting them out
Dave
Forwarded message:
> From shane@zanzinato.com Thu Aug 11 10:39:00 2005
> MINUTES
> RENTAL HOUSING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING
> 06/29/05
> In attendance: Dave Breeden, Mike N (Deputy Building Commissioner),
Patty
> Sipman, Michael Taylor, Flora Sagan, Joyce Muchan, Shane Seger.
> Mike Niechwiadowicz, Deputy Building Commissioner spoke to the
commission
> about the state of the city's building department. Phyllis Radke was
> originally scheduled, but unable to attend.
> Mike indicated that over the years, the city's building department has had
> to do more with less. The department deals with Code Enforcement,
Building
> Permits, Electrical Permits, Demolition Permits, Zoning /Land Use
> Information, and Exterior Property Maintenance (including snow and ice
> removal from sidewalks, rubbish & refuse, unkempt lawns).
> Staffing for the department is made up of exterior maintenance personnel,
> electrical inspectors, housing inspectors, and code inspectors
> (housing /building combination).
> Over the last 25 years, building department staff has been cut by half.
> Recently a 6 -month position was added (building inspector) which will
> hopefully continue into the next budget year and beyond.
> There was a question from a commissioner on whether or not any staffing or
> logistical analysis had been done to consider the efficiency of the
> department. Mike said it had been talked about over the years.
> Mike talked about the difficulties of keeping up with an estimated 8,000
> housing units in the city, and with the increase in construction. Mike
> indicated that the building department gets more calls than the fire and
> police department combined. With that workload, it is often difficult to get
> to exterior maintenance complaints in a timely fashion.
> There was a question about the process involved in housing inspections.
> Roughly, Mike described the process this way:
> - Search database to see which certificates are up
> - Send letters to property owners
> - Property owners are required to schedule an inspection
> - Inspect (generally involves some education and some enforcement)
> - Give notice of corrections
> - Repeat inspections
> The housing boom, and increase in sales, is also increasing the workload on
> the department. Every time a property is sold, a certificate of compliance
> needs to be issued.
> Given all of the above, staffing levels are definitely a concern. A solution
> might be to add more positions or give more resources to a department that
> actually makes money for the city. The cost of positions in the building
> department, because they bring in fees /fines from their work is less than in
> other departments. Mike gave the example of a $30,000 position which
might
> cost the city $12,000 /year after you take into consideration the extra
> revenue that staff might bring in.
> ACTION ITEMS
> An action item was taken to have a subcommittee of the RHAC meet with
> Phyllis (Dave, Joyce, Patty)
> There was some interest in comparing the level of enforcement in other
> communities with the level of enforcement in our own.
> Should the RHAC advocate for technology upgrades. Mike N. thought a
useful
> capital project for the department would include putting all of the records
> online, in a searchable way. This would increase access to information,
> possibly even making it accessible on the web. The commission or the
> department would need to get more recent cost estimates. An argument
was
> being made that compliance and enforcement of compliance could limit the
> city's liabilities if there were every an incident between landlords and
> tenants that could be traced back to the building department not being able
> to do it's work of inspections in a timely manner.
• The idea of a checklist of landlords, and producing an information site for
• landlords under the auspice of the building department was also considered.
• This is the constant balance between education and enforcement.