MINIMUM PROPERTY CODE HEADS TO COUNCIL

The Cape Girardeau City Council next month will have its first opportunity to consider a minimum property maintenance code.

The city's Board of Appeals Thursday recommended the 1990 Building Officials and Code Administrators (BOCA) version of the code be presented to the council.

The board made the recommendation at the end of a meeting that lasted nearly three hours as property owners objected to the code. About 35 people most of them property owners with rentals attended the meeting.

Terry Young, who said he has more than 50 rental properties in Cape Girardeau, was the most vocal opponent of the measure.

"The city's got enough to worry about with their own business, without sticking their nose in mine," Young said. "I've got $1.5 million tied up in this town, and I'm not going to sit here and let you stick your noses in my business.

"This is totally outrageous."

He said the code does nothing to protect property owners from tenants who damage rental units and refuse to pay rent and utility bills.

Young and other landlords said it's difficult to evict ill-behaved tenants, and yet the new code would enable renters who damage property to file complaints against the landlord for not meeting the requirements of the code.

"We have to go through enough headaches with renters without worrying about what the city has to say to me," he said.

Jack Proffer said he recently moved back to Cape Girardeau. He said that as a renter, he's also opposed to the code.

"I think this is very bad," Proffer said. "I've lived all over the country and every place I've seen BOCA put in, there's been higher rents and more abandoned properties." He called the penalties in the code draconian: "It's like swatting a mosquito with a sledge hammer."

But proponents of the minimum property maintenance code said it will enable the city to address complaints regarding unsafe and unsanitary conditions that some renters live under.

If the measure's adopted, the city's inspection department would respond to complaints against any property that violates provisions of the code.

Debra Willis, a renter, said there are penalties in the code for the filing of false complaints.

"I do have faith in the city that they will hold the tenants to the same stringent requirements they'll hold landlords to," Willis said.

But Ken Voepel, who has rental properties, said many of the bad tenants don't pay rent and would be unable to pay city fines.

He said he tried to file a criminal complaint against a tenant who did $1,000 worth of damage to one of his properties.

"The police department told me they couldn't do anything, because there were no witnesses; that it had to be contested as a civil case," Voepel said.

Frank Bean, a former city councilman who owns several rental properties, said few cities in Missouri have adopted the BOCA minimum property maintenance code. He questioned why Cape Girardeau needs the law.

But appeals board member Ralph Flori Jr. said, "You've got to have some level of standards."

"You've got one," replied Bean. "It's called the free market. Nobody makes you rent that apartment. If you don't like it because it's run down, then walk out."

The board of appeals has studied the proposed code for nine months, recommending amendments. Board members said Thursday they were weary of "rehashing the same things" and ready to pass the matter to the city council.

"Next month, it'll be another group with another complaint (about the measure)," said board member Tony Sebek. "We've been listening to the same questions from different people all over again. I'm getting wrung out on this thing.

"I think it's time it went to the council and they got a blast."

Other board members and Rick Murray, who supervises the city's building inspection department, said rental properties are but a small part of the code.

Ralph Maxton, an alternate board member, said he doubted whether most of the landlords' fears would materialize should the council approve the measure.

He said there are sufficient controls in the code to prevent tenants from destroying property and filing a complaint against the landlord to "get out of paying for the damage" or paying rent.

"I really believe your worst fears will not come to pass," Maxton said.