Danville Council: Landlord Registration Update Tabled; Resolution Against Reopening of Prison Shooting Range Passes Easily

The Danville City Council has tabled a proposal to update its Rental Registration for landlords.  Many landlords spoke at Tuesday night’s meeting; with a main message being, why weren’t we invited to be involved in this?  Jake Molenkamp basically told the Council, “Hey, call us.”  We spoke to him afterwards.

AUDIO: We’re pro-tenant as well.  I mean if we don’t have happy tenants, we don’t have good business.  So, I don’t see it as two opposing sides; but we weren’t consulted at all.  And that was my point.

Alderman Rick Strebing, who remembered when the registration system started 30 years ago, agreed.

AUDIO: When they started talking about all these changes and everything again, and then they brought some changes to us; and I said “where’s the landlord association.”  And they were not invited; they were not asked.

(First Picture) Jerry Hawker was one of many landlords who spoke during the “public comment” period.  (Third Picture) Vice-Mayor Tricia Teague shares her concerns about the proposed Rental Registration update ordinance.

The main reason for the tabling was an issue brought up by Vice-Mayor Tricia Teague.  She believes that any complaint coming from the city to the landlord, even if it is not about a tenant complaint, should include notification of the tenant as well.

AUDIO: Tenants want to be notified if there’s something that they can fix themselves; I think the good ones do.  And I think the good landlords want their tenants to be notified, and be able to work things out with them directly, and not have to answer all the questions themselves.  So, to me, it’s the fair and equitable thing to do.

Mayor Rickey Williams, Jr did not agree with the tabling.  He says a major reason for all this was to have an ordinance with more teeth for the benefit of both Danville’s renters and landlords ; and that time is being wasted.

AUDIO: The longer we prolong this, the less protection that our citizens have, the less protection that our landlords have.  And so, we need to put this in place as soon as possible.

The item will come before Public Works again April 22nd, and before the full council again May 6th.

Meanwhile, a resolution to the state of Illinois telling it to not reopen the shooting range at the Danville Correctional Center passed with no resistance.  But one person not happy with that was union representative Austin Johnson from AFSCME Council 31.  He says the way prison staff has been trained all these years, at a different site in Robinson, is both costly and dangerous.

AUDIO: Sending them two hours away takes officers away from the department itself.  So, it can make the prison unsafe.  It wouldn’t be unsafe to have it.  We aren’t firing in the direction of any businesses.  I don’t feel it’ll be loud to any business.  You know there’s 327 employees that work out at Danville (Correctional Center), and they’re part of the community too.  They should have a voice.

Mayor Williams says the resolution will now be shared with the Illinois Department of Corrections and the state courts.

Finally, debate continues on efforts to find a new Human Resources Administrator to replace the dismissed Sandra Finch.  Former Alderman Brenda Brown still believes the position is being weakened; while Mayor Williams says the description has simply been consolidated.

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AUDIO: (BRENDA BROWN) Responsibility on that job has been minimized.  To what the mayor is saying is that there isn’t any but there is.  And a, I think that that will be revealed in time. (MAYOR WILLIAMS) Requirements haven’t changed.  It’s just that there are a ton of them that used to be listed out individually.

Mayor Williams says he still hopes to have a candidate for Human Relations Administrator proposed to the new Danville City Council sometime in May.