Property registration proposal

Vivian,
At Pacman’s suggestion, I went back and read many of the historical posts on this board. In doing so, I learned a great deal more about our city, its issues, and its leaders. I also gained more respect from this board’s participants (I even watched the video of you “torching” city council over their misdeeds concerning the cemetery). However, you lose credibility (at least in my eyes) when you make statements as though they are fact when they are nothing more than an opinion. Quite frankly, I don’t think that some of the statements are even your opinion……. they are meant to “incite” others.
Thank you Greygoose for thinking that I have such great power of persuasion over others but I believe it was statements made by Mr. Adkins that “Incited” the 100 plus landlords to show up at the last council meeting.

1. You state that it is a known fact that Mr. Adkins is going to model the program after the current Section 8 program. Who knows about this “fact” other than you? I respect your researching abilities. Where did you dig up this “fact”? It doesn’t make since to me.
Because it is what Mr. Adkins has stated.
He has stated that the tracking software will be like the program now being used for Section 8 program. The data base will include all the information on the landlord, property and copies of the inspections as they are completed so he can push the magic bottom and have all the information at his finger tips...
The Mr. Adkins that I know would like nothing more than to get rid of the Section 8 in our city. He is on record that the “Section 8 model” is costing the city money. Why would he want to duplicate it?
This was the opinion of Mr. Adkins in his 96 page report…It is NOT the opinion of HUD in their answer to Mr. Adkins report.
 
2. Nobody, including you, thinks that a landlord registration program is really going to cost more than four times the Section 8 program. Common sense tells me that the high cost of the Section 8 program is directly proportional to the subsidy that the federal government pays to support it. It's sad, but that is the way government programs work.
NO…it is my opinion that a $25 registration fee or $185,000 a year will not fund this rental registration program therefore the city  will need to charge an additional fee for any and all inspections.
First you have the cost of the advanced tracking software.
At a minimum he will need to hire one person for data entry and scheduling of inspections and three inspectors plus autos if they require a yearly inspection of each rental unit if he uses city employees..
This is a simple math problem…You have 7,500 units to inspect annually or about 29 units per day. An average inspection takes about 15 to 30 minutes depending on the size and the condition of the property. Then you have drive time between each inspection then add in time for any re-inspections.

3.  I’m not sure what you are talking about when you state “what is known” and “the numbers provided by the city”. What is there to know that you don’t know? What numbers are you looking for? The program is a concept at this point in time. I feel comfortable that we will learn more as the program is put together. My comfort stems from the fact that there will be a handful of private citizens (landlords) on the committee. I will give you this…… based on what I have learned from reading historical posts on this site, the city has way too many financial accounts and it is way too easy for them to move the money from one to another. I am not comfortable that city leaders always have our best interests at heart when they spend these funds.
Yep that’s just what we need is another city hand picked committee.
I guess we will meet back here in 90 days and compare notes.
 
4. You make it sound like collecting money from “deadbeat” property owners is a bad thing. My educated guess is the city is not collecting on many of these charges because, you guessed it, they can’t compel many non-resident property owner to comply because they can't be "served". If you are a local land owner, you deserve to pay 2.5 times the cost of mowing if you are too sorry to take care of it yourself. As for “where does the money go”, I have no idea but assume that this information is a public record and available to you if you really want to see it.
No…you seem to believe the city spin that they can do NOTHING to solve many of the property problems. I gave you an example that they do have the tools and have used them and even made a profit from them.
If they want to serve notice on an out of town non compliant property owner they could use a processor server…and it is a matter of record they have successfully used this method in the past.
 
I think that people like you, VV, Pacman, MikeP, acclaro, Spider, etc. are invaluable to a city like Middletown. The city leaders know that you are out there looking over their shoulders and will hold them accountable if they don't “do the right things” for the citizens that they represent. Sensationalizing your viewpoint gets you nowhere in my book and, in my opinion, will cause the city's leadership to take you less seriously.

On a separate note…… does anyone know what landlords have been chosen to participate on the registration committee?
No