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Warsaw's Board of Works will intensify its focus on landlords who don't comply with Warsaw's building inspection requirements, the board decided Friday.
So many landlords are failing to keep up their rental properties that the Board of Works will devote a special session in its second meeting every month to building inspection issues.
The Warsaw Board of Works meets at 8:30 a.m. the first and third Fridays of each month in the council chambers.
City employees get phone calls complaining about substandard conditions, said Warsaw Mayor Jeff Plank, and the Board of Works forum will highlight the properties and the people the city is having trouble with.
"We are not the bad guys. They are," Plank said of the negligent landlords.
Building inspector Pam Kennedy gave city attorney Steve Snyder four cases in which condemned or unsafe buildings were cited and nothing was done by the owners.
In two cases - separate properties owned by David Mitterling and by Beverly Leady - the buildings were ordered demolished after repairs were not made as requested. The buildings have not been demolished.
Snyder recommended that the board hold public hearings on the cases before filing formal charges in Kosciusko Circuit Court.
"The issue is timeliness - we don't want people moving into condemned properties," Plank said. "The question is, how much of our time do we spend running backwards?"
Public hearings on properties owned by Mitterling, Leady, Ted Rondeau and Richard Herberling will be held at the Nov. 15 Board of Works meeting.
The board also authorized Snyder to file contempt charges against Rex Hogan, a landlord who has repeatedly ignored the city's requests for property improvements.
A hearing in April between Hogan and the board resulted in an argument and threats on both sides. Building commissioner Gene Oliver said Friday that of 112 violations, Hogan has corrected only 49.
Hogan also is a Democratic candidate for Kosciusko County council and has contended that the city's case against him is politically motivated. He told officials in April that if they take the issue to court, he would drag it out for years and not make any repairs to the property during that time.
