Focus in on some updates from the administration.

So thank you, everybody, for coming.

And I will quickly mic pass over to you all to kind of take it off.

So I'll just start and then I'm gonna pass it to Catherine.

We have a lot.

This is a lot tonight.

So I'm just kind of warning you in advance.

This is all related to the build Bureau of Building Standards and Safety, which you would have known as code enforcement before.

And we're gonna go through kind of each of the things we're talking about.

I want to say before we start, this is a study session, as you know.

Nothing here is in stone.

We have work to do with you, you'd have to make approvals here.

So both for your benefit and for the public's benefit, I don't want this to be construed as this is gospel now.

It's not.

We're bringing to you to say, let's talk about this.

We have some suggestions, okay?

So with that, hand it to Catherine.

Awesome.

So for some that don't know me, my name is Catherine Easterling.

I'm the director of neighborhood and economic development, which I oversee our building standards and safety uh code enforcement.

And so today's uh presentation is really going to focus on our rental uh program transition, uh fee moderate modernization, and then also uh any ordinance updates that will be uh be focused on those.

And so jumping into slide two, um, our executive summary.

Uh so the Bureau uh is really proposing uh updates to our rental and mechanical inspection services.

Uh we're really looking to improve this from our housing quality, strengthened property, um property maintenance, which is our code enforcement.

You'll keep hearing me say property maintenance.

We're looking to transition our phrasing from saying code enforcement to our property maintenance, um, and then really looking at uh our enhanced cost recovery.

Do you I don't it's not changing if you want the slides?

Let me try, thank you.

Sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn't.

There it goes.

Okay.

Good.

Okay, yeah.

Okay.

So the um the proposed in-house uh rental registration uh program will be modernized through our rental registration fee increase, uh, and that's proposed and uh the implementation of a proactive inspection cycle, ensuring that all rental units are inspected and more and uh more frequently inspected when there are deficiencies that are identified.

So the Bureau is really looking also looking to bring in the mechanical inspection, and this is also uh through a third party, and we're really looking to really improve service quality coordination across our permitting uh department, inspections and enforcement, uh, while also capturing revenue that has uh previously been uh or currently being outsourced.

Slide three.

So the Bureau of Building Safety Standards and Safety is led uh by our bureau chief Steve Yuk Yerkeritz.

Um so through the Bureau, I would say like it's we also have departments under there, kind of like our public works.

So we have property maintenance, which is our code enforcement, we have our rental registration and inspection program, and then we also have our building trades.

So uh electrical inspectors, uh plumbing inspectors.

So, really kind of jumping into the background of our our study session here.

We're really uh looking uh our focus is gonna be on the rental program transition and fee modernization.

And so the city uh and the reason why we're kind of moving to the words this is that we've received consistent uh feedback from our stakeholders and so property owners, tenants, and um our staff uh and inspectors have provided continuous feedback on how we can improve this process.

And the the high the feedback that was highlighted was um inspection consistency, uh the responsiveness to complaints, right?

Because we we don't own some of this process now, uh, that has uh been limited, and then coordination across um our code enforcement efforts, and then the other is is that we don't really are don't have the ability right now to be able to capture some of this data because it lives in multiple places.

So this proposal is really a direct response from that feedback to really improve our accountability, strengthen our housing quality, and then align uh with our broader neighbor neighborhood stabilization goals, as you know, we're going through some of these plans and looking at how we can be able to increase housing, and so I think this is just part of that broader effort.

And so your role today, we're really looking to understand um feedback uh before we get to a formal action.

So, some of the rental program, um, the background of the rental program and then the challenges that uh that we're we're we're currently facing right now.

So in uh 2006, uh the city very uh established the rental registration and inspection program, and that was really to ensure uh safe and code compliant housing.

Um and the city um from that uh from that that that uh program that was initiated in 2006, uh the city also uh settled a lawsuit back in 2018 uh that provided some additional provisions on how and when inspections are um are being handled uh uh from the apartment association.

And counsel, I I wanted to put that in there so that you're aware of that because I think as we're asking you to do some things, we think you know, I don't know, I don't think anybody was on council then, so we didn't know this either, and so in doing our research, we think it's important that you know that this was an issue back in 2018 and there was some work done.

Okay.

So looking at the background of the uh the the rental program and how the system's currently uh working today.

So rental inspection services are delivered through a local third-party contractor building inspection uh underwriters, BIU.

Um, and so this it's always lived there.

So we've never had the rental program in-house.

This has always been a third-party uh contract.

And so the the the city uh what the city owns in this process is is that there's 13,489 rental units.

Um the city owns the licensing in uh the administrative process, so we are the ones that issue the licenses, and then send out any type of invoicing is is provided in those administrative functions.