The first "Quality of Life" violation ticket written in the City of Pottsville went to a landlord who failed to register tenants, according to city Administrator Thomas A. Palamar.
Officials have written three such tickets since the ticketing process began Oct. 25.
Recognizing a trend, the Pottsville Blight and Nuisance Task Force on Monday decided to develop a brochure to educate the owners of rental properties in the city on the laws and their responsibilities.
"We welcome good investment with people who own buildings and rental properties in town. It's an important part of the housing stock that we have, good, well-run rental properties," city Administrator Thomas A. Palamar said at the group's November meeting in city hall.
In an effort to give Mayor John D.W. Reiley's war on blight some teeth, the city council approved a Quality of Life law - Ordinance 820 - on Sept. 10, allowing the city to issue tickets for code violations.
To help the public understand the city's effort, Palamar authored and designed a brochure, "Fighting Blight in Pottsville." At the meeting, Palamar said he's working on one to educate landlords.
"We need a brochure for the owners of rental properties. We have a lot of compliance issues: Compliance with our rental inspection ordinance, compliance with our business privilege requirements, compliance with registering tenants. And these properties take up a lot of our time if they're not properly managed," Palamar said.
Palamar said he's hoping to have the new brochure complete by the end of the month.
Meanwhile, the task force is considering other laws to improve rental properties, including a "distance requirement."
"I've been looking at what other municipalities do and many have a distance requirement on all of their rental properties. That means if you own a building you have to have a responsible adult managing the building who lives within a certain reasonable distance from the actual piece of real estate. It's something we should consider, because if there's a problem, like a fire, it's tough for somebody to drive here from, say, Brooklyn, to help us," Palamar said.
City Police Chief Joseph H. Murton V suggested the landlords should also keep a current list of their tenants in reach.
"Maybe we can get these landlords to keep an up-to-date manifest of whose in these buildings. Pottsville Housing Authority's wonderful. They can tell us who's where and what's where at any time. We were lucky with last week's storm, but suppose we have something that's much more severe. Say one of our larger buildings that's privately-owned is affected. We need to know who's in that building. How will we account for everybody? How will we know if everybody's safe?" Murton said.
There are 16 Quality of Life violations, including: Accumulation of rubbish, garbage, junk or litter; storing of hazardous material; storing of recyclables; storage containers for waste or trash; littering, scattering rubbish or dumping; storing nuisance motor vehicles; placement or littering by private advertising matter; animal maintenance or waste/feces; insects or vermin; high weeds or grass, plant growth or standing water; snow and ice removal from sidewalks; swimming pools; compliance with Historical Architectural Review Board regulations; vending license violations; storing or serving or potentially hazardous food, and registration of tenants.
Fines for violations are $25 if paid within 15 days. After that, they become $35. If not paid within 30 days, the tickets become citations that are filed with a magisterial district judge and violators can face citations between $300 and $1,000.
Those ticketed can appeal their cases to the city administrator within 15 days, according to the ordinance.
Palamar would not reveal the names and addresses of the persons ticketed, unsure if that information could legally be released.
On Nov. 1, a Right-to-Know request was submitted by The Republican-Herald to Julie D. Rescorla, city clerk, seeking the identities of those who received Quality of Life tickets. Rescorla said she would send that information to city solicitor Thomas J. "Tim" Pellish and he will advise the city on how to respond.
On Monday, Rescorla said Pellish was still reviewing the request and anticipated the response would be given by Nov. 9.
For more information about the city's goal to fight blight, visit the city website, www.city.pottsville.pa.us.