FLORI SAYS CHANGES MAKE CODE WORTHLESS

Changes proposed by Cape Girardeau city councilmen to a property maintenance code so alter the measure that it would be worthless if adopted.

That's what Ralph Flori, chairman of the board that recommended the code to the council, told about 25 citizens gathered for the Cape Girardeau Board of Appeals meeting Thursday.

That means the tenant and landlord groups that have bickered over the code for the past 1 1/2 years will have to wait a little longer for the outcome of their clash.

The board of appeals recommended the city council adopt a slightly revised draft of the national Building Officials and Code Administrators (BOCA) version of a law aimed at ensuring maintenance of buildings in the city.

But city council members last month sent the measure back to the board with recommended revisions. Flori said the first version of the code was "totally turned down" by the council.

Board member Roy Halbert said he was confused by the council's request that the board comment on the recommended changes.

"I thought we already put our recommendation out," Halbert said. "Why do we have to make another recommendation? I don't want to spend another year and a half going over this again."

Flori said he favored sending the code back to the council in its original form. "Hey, (the council) did this in a month. We took a year and a half," he said.

But Flori was unable to get a second to his motion that the board reject the proposed amendments.

"There are a couple areas here that may have some validity from the council, in my opinion," said board member Tony Sebek.

The board members finally voted to look individually at the council changes and meet again in about two weeks to hash out a recommendation.

The spokesman for a group of downtown property owners also criticized the council members' recommendations Thursday.

Charles Kupchella, provost at Southeast Missouri State University and a resident of 303 S. Spanish, said the council changes "take all the starch out of the code."

Although the press has been refused a copy of the recommendations, the documents were in the hands of several proponents of the BOCA code.

Some of the changes Kupchella cited include: restricting the code only to rental properties, prohibiting housing code complaints from anyone not directly affected by the problem, removal of the lead-based paint section of the code, and removal of the hand rails and guard rails section.

"Such drastic changes would render the code worthless," Kupchella said.

He also said a council member recommended that jail be added to the possible punishment for filing false complaints, but that jail for code violators was taken out.

"It seems this is an attempt to suppress legitimate complaints," Kupchella said.

Opponents of the code also criticized some of the council changes.

Frank Bean, a developer, landlord and former city councilman, said he was disappointed with the suggestion that the measure only apply to rental properties.

But Bean favored many of the suggested changes, while insisting that no code was needed. He said he feared even a watered-down code would open the door for further intrusion by city government in the future.

Bean said the council's recommendations send a message that the BOCA version of a property maintenance code is unacceptable.

"I feel you're a biased group here," he told the board. "You're throwing the city council's view out as, `Who are they to tell us what to do?'

"The city council is concerned about all the citizens of Cape, not just renters -- not just the downtrodden."

But Sebek said he doubted whether a code that included all the council suggestions would "stand up for five minutes" in court.

"But they're telling you something," Bean rejoined.

He said any code would lead eventually to mandatory property inspections with each change in resident, a growing city bureaucracy, and further government intrusion in private enterprise.