Group may rethink rental ordinance aimed at drug users

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com 

A meeting designed to address issues of illegal drug use in Charles City started with sometimes harsh disagreements, but ended with a more friendly accord and a general sense of accomplishment.

So Far, a Charles City group dedicated to working to reduce drug abuse and provide resources to persons who are addicted, held a public forum last week to talk about a city ordinance it was proposing to discourage illegal drug use in rental housing in town.

The ordinance has caused discussion and sometimes criticism on social media and other venues since it was introduced last fall, mostly because of provisions that would allow a landlord to bring a drug-sniffing dog into an apartment and a requirement that tenants notify landlords of any guests staying more than five hours.

Charlie Thomson, a Charles City attorney, developer, businessman and one of the founders of So Far, led the discussion and said most of the provisions of the suggested ordinance were already Iowa law or were based on rental laws already in place in other communities.

After almost an hour and a half of spirited discussion, however, he said he wasn’t sure the group was going to pursue the rental ordinance.

“Maybe the ordinance is barking up the wrong tree,” he said. “Maybe we need more effort to educate landlords on using the tools that already exist to spot and eliminate risks.”

He also said, “It’s interesting that to me this ordinance has gotten 95 percent of the publicity that our group has gotten, but it’s maybe 5 percent of our effort.”

The largest part of the effort in its first year by So Far — which stands for Sober For a Reason — has  been trying to bring a treatment center into Charles City and to provide resources locally for people seeking treatment or just coming out of treatment “and really struggling with the first year or two after getting sober,” Thomson said.

He had started the meeting by saying he was a member of the So Far group because “recovery is my life,” and he was coming up on 20 years of sobriety.

Many people don’t understand the severity of the drug abuse and drug addiction problems, especially with methamphetamine in the Midwest, he said.

“It’s a respecter of no race or class. It’s hit everybody.”

He said the rental ordinance was one part of an approach of finding many things that would deter illegal drug use or drug dealing, then implementing as many of those things as possible.

“We decided to try and come up with every idea that we could to try to make recovery easier and to try to diminish the demand for illicit drugs, diminish the supply — put every antagonist, every roadblock we can into the process of illegal drug use and addiction in Charles City. Some of them will work, some of them won’t,” Thomson said.

Dave Holschlag, a Charles City businessman and president of So Far, said he was a member of the group because addiction had affected his family.

“There’s not one thing or even a series of things we can do to stop the drug problem 100 percent. It’s not going to happen,” he said. “But there lots of small things we can do to make it more comfortable (for drug users and drug dealers) to be somewhere else and not in Charles City.”

Thomson said, “This ordinance is one of the things we came up with. We want to play on the paranoia that drug users have — make it annoying to be here.

“We’re not married to this proposal. We want constructive criticism. If you don’t think this is the answer, please offer what you think will work,” he said.

About a dozen people attended the forum, in addition to four representatives of So Far including Thomson.

Several of the people attending raised concerns about landlords entering renter’s apartments specifically to look for drugs.

Thomson pointed out that it’s already Iowa law that a landlord can enter an apartment to inspect with 24 hours notice.

It would seem reasonable for a landlord to enter an apartment to check for gas such as carbon monoxide or methane and to use the appropriate tools to do that, he said, suggesting that illegal drug use also poses a risk to the landlord’s building and other tenants and using a drug dog to sniff out illegal drugs would be similar.

But some of the people in the audience thought that was just going too far.

A couple of people said the only source of a trained drug dog would likely be a police department, and they questioned if the landlord would be doing the job of the police or acting on the police’s behalf.

“This requires the landlord to be a DEA agent,” one man said, referring to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration

Todd Prichard, a Charles City attorney and the state representative for the district that includes Charles City, said, “If you go too far the landlord becomes an agent of the state” and then there are questions raised about probable cause and the need for warrants before a search is done.

Some of the participants said the ordinance singles out renters. “Do you think anyone who owns a house does drugs?” one asked.

Other people focused on the notification requirement for anyone staying at the apartment more than five hours.

“So my daughter can’t have a slumber party without listing the names of everyone who’s spending the night?” one woman asked.

Another woman said she felt like she was being discriminated against because her son requires in-home day care and if she needs to bring in a substitute care provider at the last minute she would have to register that person with her landlord.

Thomson said the five-hour requirement and a $500 fine for tenants who don’t comply were “just placeholders” to get the discussion going.

“Make it five days and $5” if that makes more sense, he said.

In the end, though, he said the discussion had caused him to reconsider the ordinance.

“I’m not sure that we’re going to pursue it after tonight’s meeting,” he said. “I was just trying to figure out what the consensus was. The consensus, I think, is that people hate the idea of these disclosures.

“People like the idea of having a group like ours work with landlords to try to find a way to at least offer a hand of assistance if somebody wants it.”

Some people suggested the city’s nuisance ordinance could be used to crack down on people who repeatedly have police involvement because of drugs, and several people made the point that city and county law enforcement need to be part of the discussion.

Several people thanked the members of So Far for having the meeting and providing the forum to discuss the issue.

Thomson said So Far meets at 4:30 p.m. Thursday’s at Dave’s Restaurant and anyone interested is invited to attend.