Council Approves Rental Inspection Program
Oskaloosa City Council – February 21, 2017
by Hailey Brown
Oskaloosa, Iowa – Oskaloosa City Council members voted 5-2 on Tuesday evening to approve and adopt a Rental Housing Inspection Program Administrative Policy. The program could be implemented as early as July 1, with inspections beginning in the fall. In the same action, the council voted to amend the 2017 fee schedule to include an annual registration fee of $15 per rental unit. Before amendments are official, there will be three readings held at city council meetings, with the first likely to take place on March 6.
During the meeting, City Manager Michael Schrock Jr. estimated that around 1,800 rental properties currently exist in Oskaloosa. According to documents included with the meeting agenda, the program has an annual estimated cost of $26,111 to the City and an estimated annual revenue of $27,900.
Prior to the vote, many members of the public spoke in either support or condemnation of the policy. Roger Beane of Oskaloosa approached the council about the pride he has in Oskaloosa and added that, “the new rental inspection would be a big step forward to make Oskaloosa the best it can be.” He also addressed that when walking around Oskaloosa to do a tree survey, he noted a large number of homes that were run down. Many landlords stood up to that claim, asserting that while there are a great deal of houses in poor condition, not all of them are rentals.
David Batman, an Oskaloosa resident and landlord of 19th century rental properties, said he has lived in other towns with similar policies and strongly urged the council to vote the policy down, citing that “half-baked social activism” would ultimately hurt the tenants. “A lot of tenants will be harmed if you pass this,” he stated before the vote. “There is gonna be people thrown out in the street and it’s going to be on the backs of anyone who votes for this.”
Proposed Oskaloosa Rental Housing Inspection Program Expense and Revenue Calculations – Click for larger view.
Landlord Irvin Slagter suggested the policy was simply punishing the good landlords due to the infractions of the bad. “The good people always gotta pay for the bad ones and it just don’t seem right to me,” he said.
Mahaska County resident Sharon Ferguson, who said she has been a health care professional for 44 years, disagreed with policy naysayers. “If we want [Oskaloosa] to be ‘simply brilliant’… then I think as a council you need to become a little more educated about what’s happening in the community,” she said, encouraging council members to adopt the program. The council ultimately agreed, as evidenced in the 5-2 vote.
A major goal of the program is to “provide safe and sanitary housing conditions for the residents of Oskaloosa by establishing minimum standards and regular inspections for all rental housing units in Oskaloosa,” according to the resolution presented by the council, which passed February 21.
Council member Aaron Ver Steeg (Ward 1) was one of two council members with a dissenting opinion on the proposed policy. “I don’t think we need a rental inspection program, we need the code in the book now to take care of the problems we have,” he stated. He also said that the City of Ottumwa has held a rental inspection policy for 30-40 years and he did not personally believe Ottumwa had improved at all since its implementation.
After three readings of ordinance have been conducted, the council will then be asked to approve a contract with Iowa Inspections, LLC to perform the inspections.
View the full policy here: Click to view
