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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2002 09-17 HCM MINUTES OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE HOUSING COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF BROOKLYN CENTER IN THE COUNTY OF HENNEPIN AND STATE OF MINNESOTA REGULAR SESSION SEPTEMBER 17, 2002 SHINGLE CREEK CONFERENCE ROOM CALL TO ORDER The Brooklyn Center Housing Commission was called to order by Chairperson Yelich at 7 p.m. ROLL CALL Chairperson Mark Yelich, Commissioners Ernie Erickson, Kris Lawrence-Anderson, Mary Barrus, Kathleen Carmody and Lloyd Deuel. Also present were Council Liaison Tim Ricker and Community Development Specialist Tom Bublitz. Commissioners Dennis Snook and Judy Thorbus were absent and excused from the meeting. Commissioner Michael VonDeLinde was absent and unexcused from the meeting. APPROVAL OFAGENDA The Community Development Specialist requested that an item be added under other business regarding a possible appeal under the City's Housing Maintenance Code. There was a motion by Commissioner Erickson and seconded by Commissioner Carmody to approve the agenda as amended. The motion passed. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Au; ust 20, 2002 There was a motion by Commissioner Erickson and seconded by Commissioner Carmody to approve the minutes of the August 20, 2002 Housing Commission meeting as submitted. The motion passed. CHAIRPERSONS REPORT Chairperson Yelich stated the only item he had for his report was to compliment the City on an excellent trash removal pickup this past weekend. REVIEW HOUSING COMMISSION DRAFT RECOMMENDATIONS REGARDING REVISIONS TO CITYRENTAL LICENSING REGULATIONS The Community Development Specialist reported on follow-up items from the last Housing Commission meeting regarding the Brooklyn Park ardinance and information from the Brooklyn Center Police Department regarding rental licensing. With regard to the Brooklyn Park follow-up items from the August Housing Commission meeting, the Community Development Specialist reported the following items: With regard to Section 117.463 paragraph C3 which states that "The City Manager will 9-17-02 -1- provide recommended criteria for application denial to licenses", the Community Development Specialist reported that these criteria have not yet been established by Brooklyn Park and that it is the intent of the City to work with the Multi Housing Association of Minnesota to develop guidelines. He also noted Brooklyn Park staff indicated it is not their intent to try to micro manage apartment owners and managers. The next follow-up item involves Section 117.463 paragraph D of the Brooklyn Park ordinance indicating that "licenses that have a police call rating of at or above .32 calls per dwelling unit during a preceding 6 month period will be deemed Level 3 licenses". The Community Development Specialist noted that this section had been revised in the final ordinance to read "licensed apartments that have a police call rating of at or above .64 calls per dwelling unit during the reporting period will be deemed Level 3 licenses". The next follow-up item addressed by the Community Development Specialist was the City of Brooklyn Park's fee schedule for rental licenses. He distributed the licensing fee resolution and noted that a Level 1 license in Brooklyn Park requires an additional $5.50 per unit, Leve12, $13.75 per unit and a Leve13 Provisional License requires an additional $33 per unit in addition to the rental establishment fee. The second area of follow-up from the August meeting addressed the issue of how calls for service are currently handled in the Brooklyn Center Police Department and how they could accommodate the potential changes to the rental ordinance including statutory citations for various offenses. The Community Development Specialist reported the following items based on a discussion with Sergeant Kevin Benner of he Brooklyn Center Police Department. There are approximately 1,700 to 2,000 calls for service er month cit wide includin P Y g single family homes, commercial/industrial etc. Of these, 400 calls per month are generated from the major apartment complexes with 8 units or more. The LOGIS program that provides data for the monitoring of calls for service relative to Section 12-911 in the ordinance is called Reflections. LOGIS uses a system based on the Minnesota Offense Code (MOC). Each month, apartment owners/managers get a report summarizing the number of calls and types of calls by apartment unit. The Minnesota Offense Code is used by LOGIS and LOGIS is linked to the MOC system but LOGIS does not have the capacity to tie into local ordinance number citations. Sergeant Benner indicated it should not be a problem to implement any statutory references sinca there are a relatively small number of stgatutes cited in the ordinances. The computer screen in the Police Department shows a summary of violations and types of offenses such as firearms, disorderly conduct etc. Additionally, anyone doing this summary of the offense can type in the case number and get an entire police report. The Community Development Specialist distributed a sample Conduct on Licensed Premises tracking sheet and monthly police incident report letter used by the Brooklyn Center Police Department. Commission members discussed Section 117.44 License Period, in the Brooklyn Park ordinance. The Commission's initial recommendation included an annual inspection. Based on current staffing levels, an annual inspection would most likely necessitate the hiring of additional staff. The Commission discussed a possible alternative to annual inspections which would involve an 9-17-02 -2- aimual evaluation of the calls for service but not necessarily an annual inspection of the apartment unit. Commission members agreed that their recommendation would be to renew and evaluate licenses on an aruival basis but provide bi-annual physical inspections of the units. Commissioner Lawrence-Anderson stated she believes it is still important to include all apartment complexes including the smaller complexes in any ordinance revision. There was a general consensus of commission members to include all rental units in any ordinance revision. The Commission next discussed the issue of private security at apartment complexes. The Community Development Specialist pointed out that some apartment complexes in Broolclyn Park have hired private security guards for their complexes. One of the issues discussed was whether tenants calling private security guards should more appropriately call sworn police officers to respond. The Coinmission concluded that the use of private security in and of itself is not necessarily good or bad and that if the end result is a reduction in illegal activity at a given complex, this would be a positive influence. Commission members next discussed the issue of the use of criminal background checks and Chairperson Yelich pointed out that nothing in the ordinances reviewed by the Commission prevents people from renting to criminals even if a background check is done. Councilmeinber Ricker pointed out that background checks essentially put the liability of renting to an individual on the owners and managers if they choose to rent to soineone with a criminal history. He added that Minnesota Law requires apartment owners to operate their businesses in a competent manner and use of criminal background checks is part of this process. Chairperson Yelich emphasized that the ordinance may not prevent owners from renting to persons with criminal histories but the ordinance does make them aware of the risks. The Commission concluded its discussion by noting that the Community Development Specialist was to prepare a inore lengthy review of the Commission's analysis of rental licensing ordinances for the next meeting at which time the Commission will review their analysis with the City's Community Development Director. OTHER B USINESS The Community Development Specialist explained that the City had received an appeal from one of the City's apartment complexes relative to enforcement of Chapter 12. He pointed out Chapter 12 establishes the City Council as the Board of Appeals but references the Board of Appeals taking into consideration any advice and recommendation from the advisory Housing Commission relative to specific appeals. Due to the time constraints regarding a response to an appeal in the ordinance, it would be necessary for the Housing Commission to hear the appeal earlier than its normal meeting date on October 15�'. He pointed out that if the appeal went forward the Housing Commission would have to move its meeting up one week to October 8 to meet the time restraints. 9-17-02 -3- i There was a general consensus of commission members to agree to meet on October 8�' if the appeal moved forward. The Community Development Specialist noted that he would contact commission members regarding whether or not the appeal will be heard by the Housing Commission. Commissioner Deuel discussed the cunent street improvement project underway in the City and explained he had received a number of negative coinments with regard to the poor public relations displayed by the City's contractor on the street improvement in the southwest part of the City. I I ADJOURNMENT There was a motion by Commissioner Erickson and seconded by Commissioner Lawrence-Anderson to adjourn the meeting. The motion passed. The Brooklyn Center Housing Commission adjourned at 8:35 p.m. i'lk1 Chair n 9-17-02 -4-