11-28-16 Health and Public Safety

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there were "straw sales." He explained that a property owner would sell his property to someone until his nuisance status had cleared and then just buy it back afterward, and so dodge any penalties. He stated that the team has been excellent at working with owners to solve these problems before they have a chance of having their properties added to the Chronic Nuisance List. Committeemember Broden asked, And that's online that you can check on nuisance properties? Councilmember Scott responded, Right. Committeemember Broden asked, Is there anything, though —with regard to transferred papers — if there is a sale? Similar to if I have water in my basement, I have to make that disclosure that my property has chronic problems with water. Is there anything within our documentation, relative to sales— Officer Lane interjected, We've only had one (1) time where that occurred and it was at Miami Hills, actually. They were actually a designated nuisance property, at the time. The owner decided to sell the property, so I did an educational component with the prospective owner. I told him, "Sir, just so you're aware, this is currently designated under Nuisance Property." I explained it to him. I sent him a copy of our ordinance that we have online. He moved forward with the property, understanding that there might be fines involved. And, actually, there were fines involved. And, actually, the new owner paid their fines. So, it was very smooth and it worked out great. Committeemember Broden asked how the law that protects anyone who might be engaging in illegal drinking or drug use that calls 911 to help save someone else who is overdosing or alcohol - poisoned, etc, falls within this ordinance. Officer Lane responded that in a scenario like that, they would be protected. He stated, Our ultimate goal is to solve problems. If someone has an alcoholic problem, our ultimate goal is to give that person help. We are not going to a landlord or owner saying, "Hey, here's the problem, and you need to evict." It's not about eviction. There are a lot of ways to solve the problem. Committeemember Broden asked if that then falls under the ordinance's "no victims of crime" rule. Ms. Colborn responded, Officer Lane does review all these individually, so before any of them are even verified as a valid complaint. We do have that extra layer scrutiny with them. Committeemember Broden asked if reports on an annual basis have worked well and if adjustments needed to be made. Councilmember Scott responded, We're on adjustments. So, we did have meetings six (6) months in a year into this. We have kind of let it go this past year. We did come back up with these improvements. There is a list online of nuisance properties for public view. Keenan, I believe, did a report in June. There was a report filed on how everything is going.