Property Maintenance: Can Newark afford it?

The Property Maintenance machinery no sooner got done congratulating itself for doing a great job for the past several months in administering the new Property Maintenance Code than it begins trying to "tweak" it in ways that would cost citizens more money and give government more power.

Here we go again.

Most controversial, it seems from the Advocate report, is the proposal to require landlords to install carbon monoxide detectors in all rental properties. The fire department would be given authority to inspect these devices.

That point was mentioned in an Advocate report on the Service Committee meeting previous to the one held Monday. Tom Wolfe at that time told committee members "the detectors would ... be inspected by the fire department like fire extinguishers."

In subsequent mentions by the Advocate of Wolfe's plan to require landlords to install these detectors, nothing has been said about these inspections, though it would be a key element in the machinery.

These detectors cost about $50 plus installation; in total at least $75 per unit. Pete Gibney has the right words for this idea which he mentioned during the most recent Service Committee meeting: "unfunded mandate." Well, maybe "unfunded mandate for more government interference in private business matters" would be a bit more to the point.

If "property maintenance" is going to be the mechanism for requiring landlords to install such safety equipment, what will be next? How about the requirement for landlords to install sprinkler systems in each rental unit? Wouldn't that make it safer still? How about annual furnace inspections by some city worker? How about the requirement for each rental unit to have a security system installed and inspected by the police department?

Whatever the city may come up with, it should be advised that the more batteries required, the better. Tenants who are fortunate enough to have smoke detectors in their rental units frequently rob them of their batteries to power up more critical equipment - like toys. The more batteries these folks have at their disposal, the more enriched become their lives. Hooray for more detectors.

And here's the thing about fire department inspections - are they going to do this for nothing? Or for a fee? The fire department doesn't have enough employees to fight fires now, if you listen to their union tell about it. So if they get some firemen out there inspecting rentals, how are they going to manage? Well, inspection fees would allow them to hire more government workers. Though it hasn't yet been said, that's how they'd have to do it.

So what was an "unfunded mandate for more government interference in private business matters" now becomes a new trough from which government can feed and become more bloated. Not only that, whatever expense might be incurred by landlords for this new "tweak" will eventually be passed on to renters.

Doug Marmie (R-6) got it right when he said, according to the Advocate: "All we're doing is making it more expensive for people to live in Newark." And he nailed it.