Barstow to hold town hall on controversial rental-inspections law - VVdailypress.com

Barstow is considering changes to a rental inspection mandate its city council quietly made law last summer after locals learned it gives city officials and county “enforcement agencies” broad powers such as entry to apartments and homes without a warrant or consent from landlords or tenants.

Now, members of the public will get a chance to share their thoughts on the policy directly with Barstow lawmakers at a town hall meeting on March 23 at 5 p.m. at the Cora Harper Community Center, 841 Barstow Road.

The town hall was originally set to be held on Jan. 13, but was postponed when Barstow instituted an eight-day shutdown of city business amid a spike in COVID-19 cases.

Barstow’s official reason for the new mandate was to boost property values, public health, and “environmental justice” and “create an aesthetically pleasing community by cleaning up neighborhoods and enforcing municipal codes.”

But opponents have questioned whether the ordinance violates constitutional guarantees against unreasonable searches.

Accounting for owner consent

City Attorney Matthew Summers is proposing some substantial tweaks to the rental-inspections ordinance to address Constitutional issues raised by critics while allowing the program to remain a powerful new enforcement tool.

Barstow's Rules and Policies Committee, a panel of city council appointees whose powers include reviewing proposed legislation before sending it to the council for consideration, will host the town hall.

The policy-shaping panel already reviewed the rental inspection program last year. It then sent those measures to the city council, which approved them in two unanimous votes on June 21 and July 19.

The upcoming town hall marks the first event focused on giving the general public an in-person chance to share input on and criticism of the inspection mandate.

The rental inspection mandate technically took effect on Jan. 1, but Barstow lawmakers have suspended enforcement.

The revisions as proposed would make two key changes:

• Barstow officials will no longer proactively enter rental homes and apartments on every property within city limits at least once a year, though they can still do so in certain cases
• Landlords can instead “self-certify” that they meet the city's standards by filling out a form Barstow officials will craft and provide each year, with a state perjury charge among tools it can use if it determines a false statement has been made.

Chris Heldreth, who is both the Building and Safety Department director and fire marshal of Barstow, has been the point person for the rental inspection program in public meetings. But he told the Daily Press in January that the proposed revisions were drafted by the city attorney, Summers, who also “cleaned up and edited” the initial version of the policy.

The proposed revisions are a result of backlash from residents and outside lawyers who learned of the program’s existence months after the city council approved it.

Other municipalities in the U.S., including Victorville and Palmdale, have implemented rental-inspection programs in recent years.

As currently written, Barstow's program mandates a system of annual inspections for all properties containing at least one “rental dwelling unit.” However, it grants immunity to healthcare facilities, student dorms, and hotels and motels that pay the city's transient occupancy tax.

Of particular concern to critics is the lack of a requirement that agents acting as inspectors for the city obtain a court-approved warrant if a landlord or tenant refuses to consent to them entering a property.

Rob Peccola, an attorney with the Institute for Justice, which litigates and lobbies against policies it views as government overreach, previously told the Daily Press this equates to “an end-run around the Fourth Amendment.” The Fourth Amendment protects against "unreasonable" searches and seizures.

“At the very least, there should be a requirement that when a tenant doesn’t voluntarily consent to a search of the inside of their home, that you have to go get a search warrant based on probable cause,” said Peccola, who has won courtroom challenges against similar programs in other cities and counties.

The modifications Barstow officials are proposing acknowledge this constitutional standard.

“No interior inspection shall take place without the consent of the owner or their authorized representative unless the Building Inspector or their designee has an inspection warrant,” the revised language states.

The revisions include an exception that city-designated inspectors can enter if they determine a rental property "constitutes an imminent danger to life, health, or safety.”

Other than that, Heldreth said in an email that “the city will not enter the residence unless the tenant asks the city to enter.”

‘Self-Certification’

To avoid an interior inspection each year, the proposed revisions allow landlords to fill out a “self-certification checklist” stating that they meet various housing and property standards, under penalty of perjury and potential follow-up inspections.

The full extent of statements landlords would have to attest to is unclear. Heldreth told the Daily Press in an email Thursday that “the checklist has not been finalized (because) staff is awaiting direction from (the city council) after the town hall to complete that.”

The proposed revisions to the inspection policy state that the city can create additional rules at its discretion regarding which landlords are eligible to fill out the checklist each year.

Summers told the Daily Press in January that several cities in California have their own self-certification programs for renters, including San Bernardino, Sacramento, Stockton and Richmond.

“If the city becomes aware of a false self-certification by a landlord,” Summers says, it could take enforcement action.

It would first report the issue to the district attorney for prosecution under perjury, a felony in California punishable by up to four years in state prison.

“The district attorney would need to prove, generally, that the landlord signed the document under penalty of perjury, knew the information was false and had intended to make that false declaration,” Summers said.

The city could get an inspection warrant and enter rental units that it suspects of being out of compliance. It could also slap fines and penalties on landlords and get a civil injunction requiring correction of conditions at the property, Summers said.

Another piece of the policy that civil-liberties advocates criticized — relating to the range of people whom Barstow can designate an inspector of a rental property — remains untouched in the proposed revisions.

The untouched section states: “The building official,” currently Heldreth, “in his discretion may require inspections by other city departments and/or San Bernardino County enforcement agencies, including but not limited to the County Health Department and Barstow Fire Department.”

This means city police and county sheriff's officers can take the role of inspector for Barstow rental properties.

Peccola argues that this enables law enforcement action against renters in ways that aren’t permitted under inspection warrants, technically known as administrative warrants.

This doesn’t prohibit inspectors from conducting exterior inspections of rentals or assessing the property from areas where they don't need a warrant, which is one of many ways the city could pursue further action against landlords and owners.

The public gets to speak

Heldreth said that at the town hall, “the city’s intentions are to educate and listen.”

The Rules and Policies Committee agreed upon the proposed revisions at its meeting on Nov. 30 but they have yet to go to the council for final consideration.

The council won’t have a formal role in the March 23 town hall, but its presence would be crucial to the public's input leading to any material action.

Rose is the council’s representative on the Rules and Policies Committee, but how many of her council colleagues will attend the town hall is unclear. Heldreth says all five council members are invited.

If the council votes at a future meeting to direct staff to make additional changes to the rental inspection policy, Heldreth said, “we will have to postpone moving the ordinance forward.”

The policy would then undergo further changes at a future Rules and Policies Committee meeting. The committee would then send its final policy to the council for another process requiring a pair of approving votes.

The revised inspection program will take effect 30 days after it gets a second approving vote from the council.

Heldreth said in January that if all of these things happened, his suggestion would be to initiate inspections at the start of July.

Public awareness of and opposition to the current policy — and the new fees it requires landlords to pay, which likely will be passed onto renters — arose months after it passed in large part due to the efforts of Ira Gwin, a lifetime local who is owner and landlord of Hillside Apartments, which he believes to be the oldest apartment complex in Barstow.

Gwin learned about the policy after reading a Daily Press report on a series of hikes to fees that Barstow charges for various public services, he said. Gwin then got a copy of the July 19 agenda packet at which some of those charges were approved, where he found the fine print of the rental inspection program.

Like other landlords and renters, Gwin argues the program unfairly targets rental housing for problems that landlords aren't solely responsible for. They say motels and vacant buildings play just as big a role in eyesores on the city landscape as an example.

In the past handful of months, multiple private lawyers have spoken at city council meetings to argue the policy's current design could subject Barstow to legal liability.

“I've put my retirement into this town, and I've put my life into this town,” Gwin said. “For them to treat people in town like this is an affront.”

Charlie McGee covers California’s High Desert for the Daily Press, focusing on the city of Barstow and its surrounding communities. He is also a Report for America corps member with the GroundTruth Project, an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization dedicated to supporting the next generation of journalists in the U.S. and around the world. McGee may be reached at 760-955-5341 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @bycharliemcgee.

source: https://www.vvdailypress.com/story/news/2022/03/10/barstow-town-hall-rental-inspections-law/6989477001/

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