Journal-News.com

A plan by Lebanon City Council to improve rental properties has been halted by the city's money woes.

City council agreed Tuesday, March 3, to put a temporary hold on a proposed rental property inspection program. Although the plan itself was relatively inexpensive — estimated by city staff to cost $44,000 annually to implement — concerns about a deficit in the city's general fund forced council to put the plan on hold.

The general fund pays for police, courts, general government administration and would also have been used to pay for the inspection program. The general fund is projected to be in deficit by 2012, if not sooner, according to city manager Pat Clements.

"It's definitely a worthwhile program," Clements said. "But it's an additional cost to the general fund and right now it's not financially supportable to do it properly."

The city's property inspector cannot enter a property unless he is invited in by tenants or a landlord. Mayor Amy Brewer said she felt many tenants are bullied by their landlords into keeping quiet about problems.

For the city to implement the program, officials would have inspect all of its approximately 3,280 rental properties, even though several council members said they believed the overwhelming majority of apartments and rental homes are kept in good condition.

To be able to inspect all of those properties on a bi-annual basis, the city would have had to hire outside contractors, which is where the bulk of the $44,000 cost would have come in, they said.

"It's frustrating to be back to square one," said Vice Mayor Ben Cole. "The bad guys are going to get away with it."

"We absolutely have to deal with the city's financial issues," Brewer said. "This is just an artery of our bigger problem.