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REGULAR MEETING May 9, 2016 fines will lead to compliance but in reality research has shown the severity of a penalty does not change behavior but it is the probability of getting caught that changes behavior. We have to figure out the enforcement part not the fine structure first. If we truly want to make sure that these absentee landlords are held accountable this is not the ordinance to fix that problem. This bill will not get the bad landlords. We do need a registry but we should not tie all of these issues together and should not put fines on those good landlords. The first step we should take is table this and engage with the professional community because landlords are also citizens and residents and they have a right to be listened to as well. Councilmember Randy Kelly disclosed he is also a landlord and has an LLC. While there has been a lot of talk about violence or lawlessness he never read this bill as a tool to mitigate those issues. It is simply a way to help Code Enforcement, Police and Fire to more easily find the owners of these properties. A registry is necessary and we should give this a try. Councilmember Kelly expects that the Council will tweak and look at this issue going forward. He also agreed with Councilmember Williams- Preston that it is not about the fines it is about the threat of getting caught and this bill does create more of that threat of getting caught. Councilmember Jo M. Broden thanked everyone who has provided feedback and for all the changes that have been made from the original bill. All of those changes have been for the good. The one (1) year anniversary review should be included into this bill as an amendment because the City should always be self - reviewing our practices. There is an added responsibility that we need to broaden that idea of a review as well. She does agree that striving for perfection should not stop you from producing good work or progress but we can still get closer with this bill. But the things that cannot be tweaked are the legal issues with the bill. Going forward with further discussion, and maybe even just table this for two (2) weeks, there are some legal questions that still need to be addressed including the questions regarding the legality of the excessive fines and how home -rule plays into that. We have a responsibility to get those fines right and nobody wants to be in a class action lawsuit. We don't know if fraud as defined in this bill can be criminally prosecuted. There needs to be additional discussion on these legal issues. This is going on seven (7) hours of meetings when you include the committee meeting earlier today and good public policy is not shaped in this type of environment. The input from the public helps us create better public policy, especially the people in the industry. If people are not willing to sit in multiple committee meetings than maybe they should get a different part-time job. Councilmember Broden expressed her support for a registry and the benefits it can bring but this is not the right one. This should be tabled and brought back and the legal issues need to be answered adequately. Reasonable amendments are possible but we should try to get this as right as possible collectively before passing the bill. We should not send this bill forward until those legal issues are resolved. Councilmember Dr. David Varner stated that this issue of finding landlords has been a problem for over twenty (20) years and ever since he's been on the Council. If you cannot locate the owner there really is not much you can do and that is frustrating to us as Councilmembers, to the neighbors of the property and to anyone else who is involved that would like to see an improvement. His expectations for this from the beginning and now are essentially that at the end of the year we are going to have a very good list of the cooperative landlords. Almost by default, the folks and properties that do not comply will fall into the category that we are going to have to keep a better eye on them. Landlords who don't wish to attempt any type of compliance are going to be noticed and if they get extra attention that's not such a bad thing. The folks in Code Enforcement have been faced with this issue again and again. After twenty (20) years now we can make a nice attempt at a landlord registry that will start a process that can morph into something better and of course it's not perfect and adjustments will probably be made. It is the job of lawyers to contest what you are trying to propose and that's going to happen no matter what we do or which way we act on this. Councilmember Varner also disclosed that at one point he was a landlord but disposed of every property so he does understand landlord issues. There are always going to be questions, let's get this started and if there are lawsuits there are lawsuits and that is part of the game but hopefully there won't be. Councilmember Oliver Davis stated this evening they discussed a bill on the agenda in the Utilities Committee that they did not have to vote on. That is appreciated because we were given 16