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Moving to the public portion of the hearing Karen asked for those wishing to speak in favor of the bill to <br />come forward limiting their remarks to three minutes each. Eight spoke in favor summarized as follows: <br />Judith Robert, President of the Keller Park Neighborhood Association said the bill would encourage <br />landlord responsibility. <br />Dan Demler, South Bend Police Department, step in the right direction to eliminate nuisance calls. <br />Kyle Chamberlin, representing the Bradley Co. (Apartments) He had concerns about the sizes of <br />categories and hoped those responsible landlords working on problems could have any penalties <br />mitigated. <br />Theresa Sedlak, hoped for a bill that would result in prompt compliance. <br />Susan Ewing, property owners or managers need to be held accountable. <br />Jennifer Tindell, hoped the owners of vacant homes would be brought to task. <br />Mike Schmuhl, classify calls coming from non - profits. i.e. Center for Homeless <br />Becky Kaiser, can anything be done to bad tenants. <br />Karen White gave the same opportunity to speak to those opposed to the bill. Two people spoke. <br />Mark Conover, representing the Apt. Owner Association said they shared a desire for safe housing; <br />however they had reservations about what they termed a "broad brush approach." Levying potentially <br />excessive fines. <br />Patty Russworm, complained that responsible landlords are not being notified of calls to their <br />properties in a timely manner making compliance difficult. <br />Karen allowed Tim Scott a rebuttal. Tim said while most landlords are responsible there are those that <br />are habitual offenders. He added he was open to suggestions to fine -tune the bill. <br />Finally under Council comments Henry Davis wondered whether a new bill was even necessary claiming <br />that if laws on the books were enforced and the Police, Code and others did their jobs the problems <br />would go away. <br />David Varner said we have to improve the way we identify property owners. Too often only a corporate <br />entity is identified. <br />Kathy Cekanski - Farrand noted much collaborative work has been done on the bill; but the Council was <br />still open to input. She emphasized that a fair enforceable bill will rely on communication. <br />