Clinton City Council says let’s back up ten and punt on this one.
During the November meeting of council an ordinance to create a rental registration and inspection ordinance passed council by unanimous vote. The ordinance would require all rental property within the city to be registered and to be inspected on an annual basis. A local agent, responsible for the property, would also have to be registered with the city. The annual inspection was to be financed by a fee of $10 per inspection.
But not so fast. At Monday’s meeting of council more than a dozen concerned landlords came before council to express their concern with the ordinance. The objections came fast and furious.
Several landlords told council that the effect of the ordinance would be to put more of a financial burden on people least able to pay it. Mr. Ike Ray of Ike Ray’s Trailer Park expressed that opinion.
NX31 ‘IKE RAY’ 25 SEC
I now work for you. You have a say so in what I do on a yearly basis on every one of my properties. It becomes a fee that you’re getting from me but I’m gonna pass it on to my renters.
If they can’t stay we’ll get others but you’re gonna take the lowest of the low incomes and you’re gonna put more burdens on them.
City Counclman Norman Scarborough eventually pointed out that the only fee was $10 for an annual inspection. He said that worked out to 83 cents per month.
Mr. Ken Couser who said he owned several rental properties in the city of Clinton told council that the city’s numbers were way off and they were seriously under estimating the magnitude of what would be required to inspect all rental property in the city.
NX32 ‘KEN COUSER’ 17 SEC
The Clinton web site I used to gather some information estimates a total of 1,050 individual rental units in the city of Clinton. This has not been updated lately. I’ve heard comments that there may be potentially 4,000 out there now.
According to the latest data from the United States Census Bureau there are 3,334 total residential units in the city of Clinton. Of that number, 42.1% are owner occupied.
Mr. Stovall had last month expressed concern that if tenants complained about unsafe conditions they sometimes would be evicted. He said there was no way to prove that the eviction resulted from the complaint but he was concerned that that might be the case in some instances. Ms. Darlene King Summer disagreed.
NX33 ‘DARLENE KING SUMMER’ NX33
90% of the problem when they call and there’s a problem is because they, the renters, owe us money. They owe us money and we’re trying to evict them and they’re tearing our property up.
Darrin Bridgeman also addressed council and expressed concern about the potential increase costs associated with maintenance and repairs if the inspections are conducted.
NX34 ‘DARRIN BRIDGEMAN’ 25 SEC
Whose to say I’m gonna have to put more things in my house and if I only make $5,000 a year. I’m already paying property tax that’s gonna take two months of that funding.
Then you got insurance on top of that cause you don’t know if a renter is gonna burn your house down. Matter of fact I had one in Laurens. They just called me ‘Oh, my kitchen caught fire.’ They don’t care. I’m the one that’s got the investment. I’m the one that’s paying property tax here.
Mr. Stovall presented two graphs to illustrate his concern. The first shows the tax value of the city’s taxable property. The graph shows some rise and fall since 2002 when the tax value in Clinton was $10.9 Million and ending with the current year of $9.97 Million.
Mr. Stovall explained that tax values are critical because state law mandates that the city can only borrow 8% of the tax values. So, if the city needs to purchase a fire truck or build a park, he said, they have to operate inside that 8% restriction.
He then showed this second graph which indicates the fluctuation in the city’s 8% limit. On this graph, the blue line indicates the borrowing limit in actual dollars. The red line shows the same limit but using dollars accounting for inflation since 2002.
He told council that this graph shows a serious problem facing the city.
NX36 ‘FRANK STOVALL’ 24 SEC
A municipal tax value or borrowing chart should not look like this. That red line should be inching upward at a rate of 2% a year. It should be keeping up with inflation. And that blue line should be going upward at a much sharper curve to meet it. That’s what a normal city would look like.
This looks like Detroit.
He said that is why city staff was very concerned about the decline of property values and felt that something had to be done to address those values. He said that making sure that rental property inside the city meets minimum city construction code provisions is one way turn property values around.
But it wasn’t to be. At least not yet. After receiving information from all sides Councilman Eddie McGee moved to table the ordinance until further information could be obtained, specifically from the city’s current AND former building inspector. Mayor Bob McLean suggested that including the landlords in a workshop would also be helpful.
At the call for a vote council voted to table the proposed ordinance.