City Council Hashes Out Inspection Program Details

Oskaloosa City Hall

By Hailey Brown

(Oskaloosa, Iowa) – Continuing momentum to implement the Rental Housing Inspection Program, an ordinance was passed on Monday night to add Chapter 15.60 and to amend Chapter 15.04.150 in the Oskaloosa Municipal Code. This ordinance includes a requirement that all rental properties have the name and contact information of the landlord posted somewhere onsite. While this particular plan was previously discussed at other meetings, the actual verbiage had been left out of the already approved plan. Now that it’s been approved 5-2 by the council, this requirement will be incorporated into updates to the administrative plan in the future. Tom Jimenez (Ward Two) and Aaron Ver Steeg (Ward One) were the two dissenting voters to the plan.

Added to the motion was also the need to include two ex officio members to the Board of Appeals. Mayor David Krutzfeldt said during the meeting that he would prefer the two appointees reside within Oskaloosa city limits and would also prefer one landlord and one tenant as representation. Ex officio means “by virtue of one’s position or status”. In this particular instance, ex officio members would abstain from voting and would not count toward a quorum but would have an opportunity to voice an opinion on things brought before the board.

“If we find that that’s not working, we can always come back and modify it at some point in the future,” said Doug Yates (Ward Three). Council members agreed that if the positions needed to be revised or revisited in the future, it would be a possibility. Council members also continued conversation about an audit 180 days after program implementation to see how the program could improve.

During the public comments portion of the meeting, two landlords came to speak to the council about the program. The first landlord to speak was Royce Spoelstra of Oskaloosa and he was concerned about the burden of having fire extinguishers checked each year.

“I realize this train has left the station already, but I did want to make one last plea on the rental inspection program for a slight change,” said Spoelstra. “I understand that the code says every co-plex has to have their fire extinguishers checked and certified and tagged annually by a certified professional – but you’re asking for it in every house and I’m pretty sure that you guys didn’t take your fire extinguishers down to Ottumwa that are in your homes to have them certified last year.”

Fire Chief Mark Neff addressed the council and informed them that inspections can be done on-site and that it would not be a requirement to drive them all to Ottumwa for renewal.

Dave Polkowske of Oskaloosa spoke again, continuing from the last meeting on the rental inspection program. “I talked to my attorney today and I says, ‘probably when the inspector calls me to inspect one of my houses, I’ll be there, my attorney will be there, and an inspector will be there – and I’d let my attorney handle the inspector and the inspection. I know it’ll cost me a little more – it’ll cost my tenants a little more. But that way I know the stuff is being handled properly,” he stated.

Polkowske also said he thought there was a lot of vague wording in the current inspection policy, especially surrounding wiring, which he thinks would be difficult to enforce.

The inspection program, which was approved 5-2 during the Feb. 21 Oskaloosa City Council meeting, has an estimated annual revenue of $27,900 and an annual estimated cost of $26,111 to the City of Oskaloosa. The program could be implemented as early as July 1, with inspections beginning in the fall.