HomeMy WebLinkAboutA001 - Council Action Form dated October 11, 2005 ITEM # �)
DATE October 11, 2005
COUNCIL ACTION FORM
SUBJECT: PROPOSED ORDINANCE CHANGES FOR THE RENTAL HOUSING
INSPECTION PROGRAM
BACKGROUND:
As a result of the rapid increase in the number of rental units, staff has been developing
recommendations for program improvements for the rental housing inspection program.
On August 23, 2005 staff presented recommendations to City Council in three areas.-
Administrative Changes, Ordinance Changes, and Current Year Budget Changes. The
Council then directed staff to prepare the recommended ordinance changes for their
consideration.
The following ordinance changes grew out of input received from Inspections staff,
customer input sessions, and benchmarking other cities' rental inspection programs:
1. The frequency of inspections should be determined by the results of the last
inspection conducted and should vary in length from 1 to 4 years.
2. Cancellations and no shows for appointments should count as the first free
inspection.
3. All letters of compliance should include an expiration date.
4. Condominiums and townhouses occupied as rental units should be charged the same
annual rental registration fee as freestanding single family rental dwellings.
In addition to the above items, during preparation of the proposed ordinance staff also
suggested that the rental housing appeal process be standardized to the appeal process
recently adopted in the plumbing code. This revision would specify that the initial appeal of
a rental inspector's decision would first go to the Building Official, and then to the Rental
Housing Board of Appeals.
The proposed ordinance changes do not significantly change the rental housing fee
structure. Annual registration fees will continue to cover 100% of this program's costs.
The proposed ordinance does increase fees for townhouses and condominiums that are
rented rather than owner occupied.
Attached is the proposed ordinance change, along with another copy of the executive
summary from the September staff report. Additional copies of the complete staff report
are available from the City Clerk's office.
ALTERNATIVES:
1. Adopt the proposed ordinance changes to the rental housing inspection program.
2. Give staff additional direction on ordinance changes to the rental housing inspection
program.
3. Reject all proposed ordinance changes to the rental housing inspection program.
MANAGER'S RECOMMENDED ACTION:
The recommended changes are a result of a process improvement team assigned to this
task. The staff consulted with four representative customer groups to develop the final
recommendations. The customer input sessions had a significant effect on the final
recommendations. With the many divergent interests involved in this process,
Council should not expect complete consensus on all of these ordinance changes.
All five recommended ordinance changes provide necessary benefits:
• The change in the inspection frequency, from the current 3 years to a scale from 1
to 4 years, will allow staff to focus its rental inspection efforts on rental units with
the most need while rewarding the best kept and well protected occupancies.
• Currently this program allows for two free inspections. Staff time is presently
wasted when appointments are not canceled or kept. The proposed change
allows for late cancellations and no-shows to account for one of the two free
inspections will help utilize staff time more efficiently.
• To be a legal rental unit you need a current letter of compliance. By assigning the
letter of compliance an expiration date we can better enforce the registration and
inspection of the rental units.
• In recent years many apartments are being converted into condominiums. This
means that each unit is a legal address and property. As individual rental units
they must be tracked and administered the same as a single family dwelling. The
proposed change would charge the same annual registration fees for all individual
addresses.
• By changing the appeal process to identify the Building Official as the first step we
can better serve our customers. The Building Official is identified by ordinance as
the ultimate administrative authority for many decisions. Often the Building Official
can resolve complaints in a more timely and less time consuming manner, thus
avoiding the need to carry appeals to the Rental Housing Board of Appeals.
For these reasons, it is the recommendation of the City Manager that the City Council
accept Alternative #1 adopting the proposed ordinance changes to the rental housing
inspection program.
Executive Summary
Background
As of February 2005, there were 10,419 registered rental units in Ames. As of August 2005,
there are 11,069 registered rental units. By utilizing the growth rate of the past three years,
Ames will have in excess of 11,500 rental units within the City limits by the end of 2005,
and 12,000 sometime in 2006. (For detailed growth numbers see pages 9 - 11)
At the start of summer 2005, rental inspections were past due for 1,789 units. There are
only three possible solutions for allocating resources needed to conduct rental housing
inspections:
1. Decrease the frequency or scope of the rental housing inspection program.
2. Increase the efficiencies within existing staff.
3. Increase the human resources available to conduct rental inspections.
This report recommends components of all three solutions.
Identification of Goals and Objectives
The rental housing inspection program's primary goal is to enhance our citizens' safety
through compliance with minimum standards by utilizing inspections and observation.
Objectives:
1. The Rental Housing Inspections Process Improvement Team (RHIPT) will utilize the
City's values to measure the alternatives and recommendations developed.
2. The RHIPT will strive to develop alternatives that help reach the City Council's goals
of:
a. commercial revitalization
b. connecting our community with each other and the City government
c. strengthening our residential neighborhoods
d. developing affordable housing opportunities
3. The RHIPT will strive to develop efficiencies in administration, clerical support, and
inspection methods.
4. Long Term - Develop incentives and/or programs to reward property owners who
work with neighborhood associations and maintain their properties.
Process
A considerable effort has been put forward to improve a process through the use of
innovation, benchmarking, and utilizing the City's values while keeping in mind the mandate
given by the City Managers and the goals articulated by the City Council. The Rental
Housing Inspection Prioritization Team (RHIPT) composed of staff members directly involved
in the work and departmental administrative staff members have lent their skills and
considerable effort to this endeavor. The RHIPT is comprised of Clint Petersen, Russ Scott,
David Brown, Craig Hageman, Mike Fry, and Gayle Hornung. Although all members are not
in total agreement with each component, a consensus recommendation is brought forward.
Description of Customer Input Sessions
In order to facilitate good open communications with rental housing stakeholders four
customer input sessions where held in April. All four customer input sessions were well
attended. Stakeholders where invited to one of the following four group discussions:
1. Large landlord/managers
2. Small to medium landlord/managers
3. Neighborhood association members
4. Tenants
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Summary of Customer Input Sessions
All four customer input sessions were well attended. This process was very fruitful with
several new ideas brought forward. It was no surprise that there were differences in
opinion between tenants and landlords, neighborhood associations and landlords, large
landlords versus small landlords, or any combination thereof. Although the differences on
some specifics vary greatly, there were common areas of agreement.
For a complete breakdown of customer comments, please see Appendix C-H.
Although the differences on some specifics vary greatly, there were common areas of
agreement.
1. The inspection of rental housing should be an official act conducted by City employed
inspectors, not by a private firm.
2. The length of the inspection cycle, currently set at three years, is not a primary
concern to any of the four groups represented. Some want it shorter, some want it
longer, many feel it is appropriately set, but the length of cycle is not as important
as targeting and prioritizing the rental housing inspection efforts.
3. The City of Ames rental registration fees are quite low in comparison to private
enterprise and many other comparable cities. Although no one advocates an
increase in fees, an increase such as $6 per unit per year was not seen as excessive.
4. Better use could be made of the City's web site. Posting a self inspection checklist
would help prepare landlords before the inspections are conducted.
S. Self inspections appear to be problematic in several ways.
a. The reliability and credibility of self inspections appears to be in the eye of the
beholder and distrust is expressed when anyone other than the represented
group is the person held responsible for conducting the self inspection.
b. Most landlords do not have the resources or knowledge to know the ordinance
requirements. Large landlords have a better ability and familiarity to enforce
their own code evaluations.
c. Self evaluations may take more time for the landlords than the current evaluation
process requires.
d. Neighborhood association and tenant representatives believe there should be a
tenant evaluation to accompany a landlord self evaluation if any is adopted. Most
see a problem with a correlation of two types of evaluations and a problem in
getting tenants to comply with a self evaluation.
e. Self evaluations may be helpful when coupled with another alternative that
provides for City inspectors on site evaluations.
6. More effort needs to be focused on bad rental properties and an incentive program
developed for good landlords or property managers. Most agree that time
represents money, and while no one asked for their costs to be reduced, there were
several requests for saving time for landlords and managers.
7. The age of the building has nothing to do with the need for that building to be
inspected. More important is the attention paid by the owner/managers and the
maintenance program as a determining factor for its inspection cycle needs.
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Summary of Recommendations (For detailed recommendations see pages 21-24)
Recommended Administrative Changes
1. The building official is to produce, evaluate, and distribute a quarterly analysis of the
rental housing inspection program.
2. All written communications regarding rental inspections need to be clarified to
enhance effective communications.
3. The use of part time employees for rental inspections should continue.
4. The rental housing database was written over 15 years ago and is inadequate and
inflexible. A new database with expanded query options should be developed.
5. A process improvement team with adequate budget should be established to explore
in field technologies for use by the rental inspections staff.
6. Establish responsibility and accountability for the inspection program. Consolidate
the rental inspections to fewer team members. Use clerical resources for scheduling
and inspectors for inspections.
Recommended Ordinance Changes
1. The frequency of inspections should be determined by the last inspection conducted
and should vary in length from 1 to 4 years.
2. Cancellations and no shows for appointments should count as the first free
inspection.
3. All letters of compliance should include an expiration date.
4. Condominiums and townhouses should be charged the same annual rental
registration fee as freestanding single family dwellings.
Recommended Current Year Budget Changes
1. Hire part time employees that are resident student renters. The estimated annual
program costs of $31,946 will increase annual rental registration fees by $2.88 per
rental unit. Expand the hours and periods when rental inspections can be conducted.
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