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REGULAR MEETING May 9, 2016 interested in being a positive force in the City but rather for those who fail to register properly anywhere in the state with their contact information. She does not want her taxpayer money going to having Code Enforcement and Police running around trying to track down these deadbeats who are not communicating with the City. A one (1) year review is a good idea to see the progress the bill will make. John Weintzber, 735 Portage Avenue, stated he has been the only home owner on his block since he has lived there. He is also a member of the Near North West Neighborhood Association and in all the years he has lived in the neighborhood this is something they have always wanted. It takes far too long to ever find something out about them. It would be a wonderful thing to have some more homeowners on his block and it may finally happen here as there was a house rehabilitated recently. Mary Bundy, 318 S. Francis Street South Bend, spoke in favor of the bill. She disclosed that she. is both a homeowner and a landlord in the South Bend City Limits and she is elated that this bill has come before the Council. She applauded all the speakers before her who really gave a good case for why this bill is needed. The whole idea about building cohesive neighborhoods revolves around responsible ownership. She enjoys being a landlord and is a responsible landlord and has no problem with registering. Any responsible landlord would not have a problem with registering also. The fines are not outrageous, bringing them down to $300 was very generous, and if you have too small of a fine it won't make a difference for owners who would rather pay fines than fix their properties. When a new home owner closes on a home, the realtor will tell them that as a new home owner they can register for the homestead exemption. There is no reason the realtors could not the same thing for this ordinance as well. Kathy Schuth, Executive Director of the Near North West Neighborhood with offices at 1007 Portage Ave South Bend, when she posed this question to neighbors during the past few weeks the answers she heard can be summed up with "it's about time ". We are not talking about the landlords in this room right now who care enough to come to these meetings, we are talking about landlords who do not treat the houses they own as if they lived in them or would want to live next to. There is a tremendous amount of resources that the City expends trying to find these landlords and the neighborhood associations are also expending time and resources as well. Just for an example, one of the houses they purchased in the past twelve (12) months was from an Israeli owner who had not realized his pipes had burst and the property manager had not been in the house in a year. The need for the ordinance has been eloquently displayed tonight but there are valid questions from the real estate community. We should be concerned about putting too many burdens on responsible landlords but that does not mean we should scrap this bill. Susan Bullock, 843 Forest Avenue South Bend, has lived there for thirty (30) some years and has seen the historic Chapin Park District improve over the course of their life. Most of the homes are now owned and well -kept but there are still a few that are rented and those landlords need to have Code Enforcement after them. This is a great idea and it is about time. If South Bend truly needs to come back we need to strengthen our weakest link and these neighborhoods that are highly rented are our weakest link because you have these landlords who do not take care of their properties. The poor of this community are trapped in these horrible situations and the City cannot help them because they cannot contact the owners. Jerry Niezgodski, 1113 North Elliot, spoke in favor of the bill. This is not punitive in regards to registration which is a problem with other college towns and it's great that it is only $5 for every property. This is aimed at the small fraction of terrible landlords who take advantage of the poor. The fines have to be in place to get the people to adhere to the rules and it just makes common sense. Let's make things more efficient for City offices and weed out those bad landlords. Those wishing to speak against the bill: Henry Davis Jr., 5117 Idle Wood Dr., spoke against the bill. There is an idea that this legislation is going to correct poverty and that is not going to happen and you will probably see a lot more of it because of this legislation. We have an exorbitant amount of people in this City who are poor and many of them live in these rental properties. You should craft legislation that incentivizes landlords to be better neighbors. Mr. Davis suggested an interlocal agreement with the County offices to provide the support to the City offices to find these landlords and creating a 12