Several landlords were on hand for Monday night’s Vandalia City Council meeting to discuss an ordinance change that wasn’t.
Back at their July 21st meeting, the Vandalia City Council voted to make a change to an ordinance that they believed would make it easier to go after property owners, or landlords, to collected on past due water bills. But, one week later, Mayor Doug Knebel made the decision to return the ordinance to the City Council with written objections. So, the change would not be going into effect and now the matter will be referred off to the Water and Sewer Committee for further discussion.
Before discussion on the matter started on Monday night, Mayor Doug Knebel addressed the crowd and let them know that no action on the matter would be taken at the meeting.
One of the complaints of the Landlords on hand for the meeting was they were not contacted or consulted ahead of time. Another question was asked is what is the purpose of the change, of potentially putting this on the landlords—and Mayor Knebel explained the city’s thinking.
As Mayor Knebel stated this was for rare situations in the past where an issue such as a leak was not addressed by the landlord and that ran into a very large bill–much larger than the deposit amount. And, the way the ordinance is currently written the city would not be able to go after the landlord in those cases. Mayor Knebel says the normal situation–where the City collects a $200 deposit when the water is turned on and then would shut off the water after no payment is made for 30 days–the cost is covered by the original deposit and he said this is probably 99.5% of all situations. He stated again the proposed change was for very specific and rare instances where landlords were not taking care of their property and it led to a very large water bill. Landlords on hand asked if they could be liable or the City could come back to them even in different situations. City Attorney Ryan Connor addressed the question.
Mayor Knebel also made it clear the City is not going to go to the cost and trouble of putting a lien on property or other remedies for smaller amounts—because it would actually cost the city more to pursue it than it is worth in many situations. Meanwhile, Alderman Bret Brosman—who is the head of the Water & Sewer Committee—addressed the crowd.
To reiterate, the ordinance change that was approved on July 21st will not be going into effect. The matter will now be before the Water & Sewer Committee for further discussion. That meeting has not been scheduled as of this time, but will likely be scheduled in the very near future.
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