SoFar to hold forum on rental ordinance

By Thomas Nelson, tnelson@charlescitypress.com

The Charles City anti-drug group SoFar will hold an open public forum on a city ordinance the group is proposing that could change the language of residential leases in the community.

The forum will begin at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 18, at the Charles City Public Library.

The ordinance, which gained traction during the Charles City mayoral election, would require tenants to release the names, ages, places of birth, names used by the visitor in the preceding 10 years and the most recent three places of domicile of visitors that stay longer than 24 hours.

The original wording of the ordinance would have required that same information for visitors that stay longer than five hours.

The proposed ordinance also stipulates that “neither tenant nor any person in legal occupancy of the premises with tenant shall perform any act nor permit any practice which could cause damage to the reputation of the building or landlord,” and specifically prohibits the illegal use of drugs and sets up penalties for violations.

SoFar is hoping to have a public discussion about the problems that it sees and possible solutions, said Charley Thomson, a SoFar group member and an attorney and developer in Charles City.

“As we try to move things forward, it’s to discuss the issue,” Thomson said. “We think there is a drug problem in Charles City.”

SoFar wants to hear different points of view to deal with that problem, he said.

“We want to do everything we can to reduce addiction and reduce the availability of drugs,” Thomson said. “We think this is a step in the right direction.”

Some people have questioned whether the proposed ordinance goes too far.

When it was first introduced last October by Charles City mayoral candidate Matt Lovik, some people on social media responded that some provisions might be unconstitutional.

Lovik was defeated in the election by now-Mayor Dean Andrews.

“The ordinance seems truly outrageous, especially the parts at the beginning about mandatory background checks,” said Paul Gowder, professor of law at the University of Iowa in an email to the Press after he was asked to comment on the proposal.

“I’ve never heard of anything like that in the 18 years since I graduated from law school,” he said.

Gowder called the proposed ordinance a “classic example of taking a problem that requires a scalpel and trying to solve it with a hand grenade.”

“And it’s the kind of thing that would be turned into a legal weapon almost exclusively against the most vulnerable and worst-off people in the community,” he said.

Christopher Warnock, a Iowa City lawyer and founder of the Iowa Tenant project, said he doubts whether the city has the authority to enact such an ordinance.

“It’s very sweeping,” Warnock said. “Cities only have a limited ability to pass regulations.”