County Renters Being Hit With Wide Ranging Legislation for Renters . . .and Owners

Sent in by: Teresa Douglas, Mike Dill and Besa Schweitzer posted in Lemay Neighborhood Association.

IT'S NO JOKE! THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING

Last night, concerned citizens of St Louis County pleaded with the County Council to NOT impose this monstrosity Landlord License bill upon the people. This is a bipartisan resistance.

I have come to the conclusion that this bill will allow the County to impose massive penalties on property owners. It sets up a process where the Director of Public Works can pick and choose who they target and there is no appeal process. This will allow the County to seize any property they want when these excessive fines cannot be paid. ($1,000 and/or 1 year in jail for each day of violation)

The agenda last night showed a vote for the original flawed Substitute #1 for Bill 204. Three to five minutes before the meeting started, Councilman O'Mara handed out Substitute #3 for Bill 204 for a vote in the meeting! There is no way anyone had the opportunity to read this new bill during the meeting.

When it was time to vote for final passage of Substitute Bill #1, O'Mara introduced Substitute Bill #3 for adoption. A verbal vote was taken and to me it sounded like the Nay vote was the loudest, however, Council Chairman Dolan pronounced "The Ayes have it". Councilman Erby requested a roll call vote. Visibly irritated, Dolan took the roll call. Just as we were warned, our own District 6 Councilman O'Leary flipped his vote to Aye.

THIS BILL WILL PASS IN TWO WEEKS, unless O'Leary decides to vote against it!!!!! He needs to hear what the people in his district want. Please contact his office at 314-615-0159 and tell him to Stand with the People and vote NO on Substitute bill #3 for Bill 204.

We had a new speaker during our public forum last night. The ACLU! Mustafa Abdullah was concerned about how this bill would affect minorities and the poor. He also learned about how it would target groups of people with no appeal process. He told me they normally deal with State issues, but this one is one that they could come at from so many different angles, he is going to have to study it to determine the best path to take.

I still need to evaluate Substitute #3 to determine what changes have been made. This is the 5th version of this law that O'Mara has presented in the past two years. None of the versions removed the terrible regulations the landlord license bill imposes. I don't anticipate any significant changes.

Read all about it in the local papers.