Rental inspection ordinance placed on hold

BARSTOW — Barstow has placed its proposed rental inspection ordinance, which has drawn concern of city intrusion from residents, on hold after protests to a similar document stopped progress in Ontario.

Jeanette Hayhurst, a former housing coordinator for the city who is spearheading discussions on Barstow’s ordinance, said the city hopes to learn and mimic Ontario to create a document on which the city, landlords, tenants and property managers all agree.

“I want to see what Ontario comes up with,” Hayhurst said. “Because if that’s language that everyone can agree with, that puts us one step closer.”

Barstow’s ordinance was already held up in the Redevelopment Agency in April. During a meeting to approve a lawyer to review the draft ordinance before moving forward, several residents and a local attorney, Robert Conaway, suggested the ordinance could violate the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution. Steve Smith, who spoke at the April 21 meeting, presented the agency with documents showing court cases in other states where similar ordinances have been struck down.

Others questioned the scope of the inspections, which require landlords to meet high standards of health, safety and habitability, and the fees that would be associated with the inspections. In Ontario, similar objections and a planned protest of the ordinance’s second reading at a recent City Council meeting caused the city to place the ordinance on hold and reopen discussion, said Karen Fricke, the executive director of the Apartment Association Greater Inland Empire.

In Ontario, Fricke said her organization objected to the $36 annual fee charged per unit, which she called too high, and to inspections of interiors of units, which she called unnecessary. A draft of Barstow’s proposed ordinance requires a one-time $50 registration fee, then an inspection fee that ranges from $100 to $550. Inspections will be every two years, Hayhurst said.

Fricke said she sees problems with the proposed Barstow ordinance. She is concerned about sections that could levy fines against owners for alcohol abuse by their tenants. The proposed ordinance does state that owners could pay a fine for alcohol abuse or criminal activities committed by tenants or others under the tenants control but only if the tenants are found to have committed different types of crimes, from violent acts to acts of vandalism to drug use. Fricke said she would be happy to work with Barstow in developing a fair ordinance.

Hayhurst said there are members of the apartment association in the small group that has been meeting in Barstow to discuss the ordinance. If Ontario and the apartment association can hammer out an ordinance they agree to in Ontario, Hayhurst believes it will smooth the path for an ordinance in Barstow.

Carol Randall, property manager at the Alliance Management Group in Barstow, is both a member of the apartment association and the small group that has been meeting on the ordinance and said that letting Ontario moved forward ahead of Barstow will give the city good guidance in drafting a fair ordinance and let Ontario have first crack at the anticipated legal challenges.

“We could head off our problems by looking at how other cities are addressing them,” she said.

Already, the Barstow’s draft ordinance has borrowed heavily from other similar ordinances, Randall said. Hayhurst said both cities’ ordinances have the same end in mind — to eventually create an ordinance that will achieve the city’s goals, reduce crime in the city and make sure rental units do not have health or safety violations, without an undue burden on renters or owners and managers.

Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4121 or aaron_aupperlee@link.freedom.com

Read the proposed ordinances

City of Barstow's ordinance: Scroll down to the Proposed Residential Rental Ordinance (Draft) on the page

City of Ontario's ordinance: Scroll down to the “Attachment ‘A’ Proposed Systematic Health and Safety Inspection Program” link at the bottom of the page