Rental Board Meeting 1/21/09

[admin]

Tonight is the second meeting of the newly formed rental board. The meeting is @7 PM in boro hall.

Code enforcement will be doing a presentation to the board in order to aid new members in gaining familiarity of that office.

Report to follow tomorrow.

[admin]

The rental board meeting went very well. It was about two hours long and a lot of ground was covered. For starters, Maureen Haley was elected chairperson and Marie Chapman was elected vice chair. A secretary has yet to be named.

This committee does consist of a good and even balance of people who will bring different perspectives to the table. This is a very good sign. There are two people from the Rug Mill, one from the senior side and one from the "other" side. There are people who are tenants, landlords, and home owners there to represent the different interests.

Code enforcement head Hank Stryker did a very good presentation explaining the process and structure of the code office. He also cited many interesting statistics. Borough Attorney Kerry Higgins and Administrator Joe Bellina were there to also help answer committee member questions.

One very interesting tid bit, the boro web site now has a list of rentals here is the link:

www.freeholdboro.org/forms/Rental%20Property%20List.pdf

There was also talk about the software the code department has to better track the progress of complaints etc. They mentioned few bugs, but overall it was a big help and aiding in efficiency.

There was also some good news too. There is the belief that many landlords are trying to become more compliant and clean up their acts. Several indicators of rentals growing have also leveled off. That included trash pick up, water use, and land lord registration.


During the meeting there was plenty of talk surrounding more education efforts, better efficiency, and getting results. There is also the second forum from home owners being planned. This is the continuation of the forum that the Human Relations Committee hosted and went very well.

The next meeting is February 18th at 7 PM. People should come out to listen and ask questions.