City Council Member Michael Cathcart is fighting for working families and cost-burdened constituents by pushing back against a proposed City Council ordinance relating to Landlord/Tenant laws in Spokane. Today, Councilmember Cathcart circulated a reasonable alternative to the proposed ordinance to the City Council and Mayor’s office for consideration.
“The Council’s proposal as written is burdensome, intrusive and places unfair requirements on landlords – especially small landlords. This will ultimately further impact tenants in across our community. With so much volatility in rental prices and market availability, there are certain to be unintended consequences of implementing policies like these,” says Cathcart. “The goal of this substitute language is to seek a middle ground by offering a more reasonable approach that modifies the most troublesome aspects of the proposed ordinance.”
Council Member Cathcart’s proposed amendment forms positive, sound policy decisions by meeting the following key objectives
Incentivizes the adoption of universal background checks.
Protects the 4th amendment rights of tenants and landlords.
Reduces the cost burden on tenants.
Enhances proactive Code Enforcement to meet the needs of all Spokane Citizens.
Balances supports for small landlords and tenants while ensuring a transparent process for both moving forward.
Council Member Cathcart is actively seeking input from the community and welcomes any feedback on this proposal now through next week’s Council action. Council consideration of the amendment language will occur a week from today. For the public’s awareness – First Reading of the current ordinance will take place this evening during the City Council’s 6:00PM Legislative Meeting. Public testimony on the proposed amendment and the Council’s original ordinance will be accepted by Council during tonight’s meeting. Testimony sign-up is available from 5PM-6PM online and inside the Chase Gallery at City Hall.
Original source can be found here.
