Because of a bill, HB 1313, that came to the floor of the Statehouse your efforts to fight crime, vandalism, trash and dangerous properties is threatened.

This bill says that after February 28 no local government can enact legislation that deals with these in relations of landlords and tenants to the City. Specifically, HB 1313 says:

Sec. 4. (a) As used in this 4 section, “regulation” refers to an ordinance, rule, or other enactment by a political subdivision relating to any of the following:

(1) Landlord and tenant relations.

(2) Rental agreements.

(3) Real property subject to a rental agreement.

(b) A regulation that does any of the following may not be adopted after February 28, 2013:

(1) Requires an owner or landlord to be licensed or to obtain a permit from the political subdivision to lease a rental unit.

(2) Requires an owner or landlord to enroll or participate in a class or government program as a condition for leasing a rental unit.

(3) Imposes a fee or other assessment for any of the following:

(A) Inspection of a rental unit.

(B) Registration of an owner, landlord, or rental unit.

(C) Any other purpose. However, this clause does not prohibit imposition of a fee relating to the construction of rental unit, such as a building permit fee.

This section expires July 1, 2014.

This moratorium is on until next year. In the meantime, there will be a summer study committee to look into the issue.

And, what is the issue? One city up north went wild and decided to partially fund their general fund from exorbitant fees charged landlords for inspections! It is reported they are charging $100 per unit.

This is not what the City of Evansville and the Evansville Police Department has in mind or is doing with the ordinance in front of you.

Please fight for our neighborhoods. This program is about knowing who can make decisions to clean up a property or remove an abandoned vehicle or a evict meth dealer. Make no mistake. The good actors will cry out for they are doing everything right. Thank them. But, ask them, what would they do in your position.

Yours truly,

Gail Riecken,
State Representative, D 77

FLANDERS, a privately owned, third-generation manufacturer of motors, power systems, and automation solutions, is giving back to the Evansville community by sponsoring a leadership seminar for employees and partners of the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation.

The seminar features leadership strategies created by The John Maxwell Company, a company that FLANDERS has collaborated with for years to promote leadership development training internally. FLANDERS cares for its employees and the community and routinely offers development opportunities that help cultivate great leaders.

FLANDERS’ passion for the community led to a natural fit when partnering with the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation to develop its leadership in a two-hour presentation on February 27 titled “The Five Levels of Leadership.” International speaker Chris Fuller will be presenting the seminar which is based on an award-winning book by John Maxwell.

The presentation will be an interactive workshop that encourages individuals to reflect on what kind of a leader they are and how they might improve as a leader.

The five levels of leadership include:

1. Position – People follow because they have to.

2. Permission – People follow because they want to.

3. Production – People follow because of what you have done for the organization.

4. Personal Development – People follow because of what you have done for them personally.

5. Pinnacle – People follow because of who you are and what you represent.

Through in-depth explanations and examples, Fuller will describe each stage and demonstrate to those at the conference how they can move to the next level to become more influential, respected, and successful.

Fuller is an international leadership speaker, author, and consultant with experience in many aspects of business including leadership development, sales, strategy, and finance. He is President and CEO of Influence Leadership, Inc., a company focused on serving businesses and business leaders through the development and strategic growth of their people. Most notably, Fuller is the world’s leading facilitator and course developer of John Maxwell’s content.

The Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation has invited its school board, executive leadership team, principals, athletic directors, up-and-coming leaders in the corporation, and community partners that work directly with the school corporation on behalf of students and parents.

“The EVSC wishes to thank FLANDERS for providing this generous opportunity for our leaders who impact more than 23,000 students and their families every day,” said Superintendent David Smith. “While our leaders do a tremendous job every day with the multitude of complex decisions that must be made, we welcome the opportunity to learn more about developing our leadership skills as we strive to be better communicators and leaders in this changing educational landscape.”

Teens, Realtors & Vectren Join Clean Evansville Trash Pick-up Volunteers will focus on South Green River Road Corridor
More than 100 people will join Mayor Lloyd Winnecke picking-up litter Saturday, March 2, from 9 to 11 a.m. along the South Green River Road corridor and around Harrison High School. The group will include more than 40 volunteers from Youth Resources’ Teen Advisory Council, 21 from F.C. Tucker Emge Realtors, 18 from ERA First Advantage and 25 volunteers from Vectren.
Volunteers will be divided into six clean teams. Team 1, led by Mayor Winnecke, will start near Washington Avenue and Green River Road and work east toward Royal Avenue. Team 2 will start near Harrison High School south parking lot and focus on areas along Fielding Road and Cullen Avenue. Team 3 will start near Green River Road and the Lloyd Expressway and works south toward Lincoln Avenue. Team 4 will start near Washington Avenue and Green River Road and work north toward Bellemeade Avenue. Team 5 will start near the Lloyd Expressway and Burkhardt Road and work south toward Lincoln. Team 6 will start near Lincoln and Burkhardt and work south toward Washington Avenue.
Volunteers gather at the parking lot in front of Washington Square Mall, at the corner of Green River Road and Washington Avenue, around 10:30 for the wrap-up ceremony. Following the a few remarks from the Mayor, the trash collected will be hauled to the landfill by Republic Services.
Volunteers are now being recruited for a city-wide clean-up on Saturday, April 6, which will be in conjunction with the annual Keep America Beautiful Great American Clean-up. Anyone interested in joining a team or forming their own team should call Mike McGarrah at Keep Evansville Beautiful at 425-4461.

The City of Evansville will host the last in a series of three public road meetings Friday, March 1, from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. at Holy Rosary Catholic Church, 1301 S. Green River Road, to share information about 2013 road paving projects and to receive comments from local residents. Mayor Lloyd Winnecke will open the meeting with a brief introduction, and City Engineer Pat Keepes will present a PowerPoint presentation followed by a question and answer session. Residents who cannot attend the meeting may submit suggestions to the City Engineer’s office at 436-4990.

I would like to try and bring a little clarity to the Residential Rental License issue. I have no problem with someone disagreeing with what we are trying to do, but I do have a problem with the false information that is being spread. In the February 26 Is It True, we were compared to the Bolsheviks in the Russian Revolution when it said that we were forcing the landlords to partner with us. Then we are compared to the Front Door Pride Program and Tom Barnett. Lastly, there is some rambling about us accelerating the Detroitization of Evansville and saying that this program will turn Evansville into South Chicago, the Bronx, Gary, Detroit and the USSR. My administration has been very accessible to the CCO, one simple phone call for clarification would have prevented this. To be clear, IT ISN’T TRUE!

This ordinance is not being driven by “Big Brother” but by two street level police officers who have worked closely with Evansville’s Neighborhood Associations for the past several years. The reason Officers Corbin and Krogman wanted this ordinance was to be able to more quickly contact the manager and/or owner of a property. I have been asked how this ordinance will prevent crime – it won’t. It is one more tool that will help law enforcement, nothing more, nothing less. We attend the neighborhood association meetings and follow up on the issues they present to us, many of these involve rental properties and apartment complexes. The problem is many of these properties are owned by people who do not live in Indiana or register them under an LLC with no contact information. As a former Crime Prevention Officer myself, I know with certainty how hard it can be to track some of these owners down. It is important to note that Officers Corbin and Krogman have been meeting with property owners, apartment associations, neighborhood groups, attorneys and city councilors for the past year discussing this ordinance and the Crime Free Multi Housing Program. They gave a shortened version of their presentation to the entire City Council last November. They have also received signed letters of support from thirty-two of Evansville’s thirty-eight Neighborhood Associations. The Ordinance is asking for owners of rental properties to register with the city, which means to provide:

1. The full legal name, address, e-mail and work number of each owner
2. The full legal name address, email, work and cell phone number of each property agent/manager
3. The address of each Residential Rental Building
4. The number of Dwelling Units in each Residential Rental Building

The fee for the license will be ten dollars ($10) per owner, per year, regardless of how many Dwelling Units they have. The original ordinance stated the fee was going to be fifty dollars ($50) and we amended it, as this was never about income. So if an apartment complex has one-thousand units, they will write one check for ten dollars ($10).

The above is all this Ordinance requires, nothing more. The Crime Free Multi Housing Program is separate from this and will be 100% voluntary – not forced. Officers Corbin and Krogman already have over sixty property owners and/or managers signed up to attend their first class. The CFMHP will happen with or without this ordinance. Here is a link about the program if anyone would like to read further: http://www.crime-free-association.org/multi-housing.htm

In the future, please feel free to contact me personally if you have questions on anything we are doing.

Sincerely,

Billy Bolin
Chief of Police

Footnote: This letter to the Editor of the City County Observer is posted without editing, opinion or bias.

STATEHOUSE – State Representatives Ron Bacon (R-Chandler) and Mark Messmer (R-Jasper) will host a Third House session this Saturday, March 2.

Host: Pike County Farm Bureau and Pike County Chamber of Commerce

What: Third House meeting with Reps. Ron Bacon and Mark Messmer

When: Saturday, March 2, 9:00 a.m.

Where: Pike Central High School Auditorium; 1810 E. State Road 56 in Petersburg

Reps. Bacon and Messmer will discuss how the Legislature is progressing now that session is at the halfway point with bills changing houses of origin and will take questions from the audience. The public is encouraged to attend.

Sometimes a person just has to stand up for what they believe is the right thing to do. In the case of the City Council meeting tomorrow to discuss requiring all landlords to register and pay a $50 per year partnering fee to the City I believe the City would be overstepping their authority to require this. It is bad enough to cause chaos in the business community by playing favorites in the hospitality, retail, and restaurant business as is being pushed with the hotel but this landlord thing is too much.

As a City Councilman, I am in strong support of less crime and safe neighborhoods but have yet to see a case where a local or even the federal government has ever made things better by meddling around in housing. Just here in Evansville the Front Door Pride program overspent and underperformed while the old safe house project found a way to spend $240,000 on apartments that could have been bought from a real estate broker for $20,000. It just doesn’t make sense to force the nonsense of government onto Evansville landlords.

City government has some jobs it has been hired by the voters to do. These are to provide fire and police protection, maintain the roads, parks, and sewers, and enforce existing codes. Evansville does enjoy excellent fire and police protection but the other areas are performing well below what is acceptable. What the heck can a government that can’t mow the grass and fill potholes add to the rental property owners?

An annual tax on each rental property of $50 will just be passed on to the already struggling renters. If the City knows so much and this program is so good they should just do it for free. Some parts of Evansville do have blight and crime. Forcing landlords to fork $50 over to the City will not change that one bit. I know because I myself am a landlord and have experience with both good and bad tenants. The City has not been very helpful to me as a landlord and $50 a year will not make that any better.

I have only been a member of the City Council for a little over a year. During that year I have seen too many things to make me shake my head in disbelief. This one takes the cake. My intention is to vote NO on this resolution and encourage my fellow members of the City Council to do the same. It is time we learned to do our job as custodians of the City of Evansville and let others alone to do their jobs.

Al Lindsey, City Councilman 6th Ward