By its own action to adopt the new ordinance on Aug. 25, it appears Schiller Park did not previously have legal authority to force citizens to comply with a non-existent law or local ordinance. Multi-family building owners who dutifully complied may have a legitimate legal claim against Schiller Park.

The new ordinance, which until now the public has yet to see, requires installation of costly Reduced Pressure Zone valves on main water lines in multi-family buildings. Generally, RPZ valves are required in new construction or when there are changes to the plumbing configuration in the building.

Not in Schiller Park.

Apparently to generate needed revenue from required permits, Schiller Park officials for almost two years hoodwinked building owners to install unnecessary, costly equipment that also requires annual inspections and re-certifications. What’s more, an RPZ – as the name implies – reduces water pressure and can force replacement of pipes and plumbing in the building.

Cha-ching! More permit revenue for village coffers.

At a village board meeting in February, Mayor Anna Montana told a packed room of owners and renters that a state law requires installation of RPZs. That’s what Schiller Park housing inspectors had been telling owners during annual mandatory inspections of their buildings over the previous year.

About 75 percent of the approximately 1,500 buildings included in the multi-family inspection program installed the RPZ equipment by April 2009, according to Schiller Park village manager Kevin Barr. These people truly believed their elected officials.

Other owners, meanwhile, pressed officials to cite the specific law that provided Schiller Park legal authority to impose this expensive requirement. Costs range upward of $1,200 each depending on the size of the building, plus annual inspections starting at about $80.

Officials began back peddling to cover their tracks.

With about as much transparency as a brick wall, village officials turned to their lawyers to quickly develop an ordinance for the board to approve. They denied citizen requests, on their lawyers’ advice, to release a draft of the ordinance before it was passed.

It does not appear village officials sought public comment or conducted a careful assessment of adverse implications that the new ordinance may have on housing values and rents in Schiller Park especially during a poor economy.

Well, Schiller Park now has its ordinance. It will be interesting to see what surprises are in it; how the new ordinance was conceived and developed; how it will be communicated with affected taxpayers; and, implemented.

A request for some of this information is pending under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act.

Owners may need to wait until their next annual building inspection to find out what new requirements Schiller Park officials cook up. Then, one has to wonder if the inspector is really relaying the truth this time around.

Transparency and cover-up appear to be synonymous in Schiller Park.

What do you think?

Most of us were dumbfounded when we awoke to the Chicago Tribune newspaper headline: Illinois pollution enforcement hampered by politics. The article, based on a Tribune investigation, revealed how carcinogenic solvents and caustic acids oozed out of rusty barrels packed haphazardly into a ramshackle building just two blocks away from a Schiller Park subdivision.

A color picture of the front entrance of Anchor Metal Finishing at 9355 Bernice Ave. in Schiller Park accompanied the Sunday article.

Any apartment building owner who has been through a Schiller Park inspection would have clearly identified at least four blatant code violations in the picture. God only knows what Illinois Environmental Protection Agency inspectors found inside when they raided the joint in January 2008.

Yet, this issue has remained unsettled for more than 18 months. Where were Schiller Park inspectors? Why didn’t Village officials alert citizens when this situation was first discovered? What are Mayor Anna Montana and Schiller Park village trustees going to do to prevent this sort of this from recurring?

Rather than searching through individual apartment building units citing renters and owners with petty violations, Schiller Park inspectors should drive around the numerous industrial parks and make sure the grounds are free of toxic sludge and eyesores!

Judge Joel L. Greenblatt of the third municipal district in Rolling Meadows ruled that apartment building owners and managers cannot be forced to allow inspectors to enter individual apartments when tenants aren’t home or decline inspections for privacy reasons.

Judge Greenblatt ordered that apartment building owners can “consult with the tenants to determine two alternative dates and times reasonable to the tenant and the village to conduct the inspections” of individual apartments. If renters decline to provide alternate dates and reasonable times including weekends and evening hours, Judge Greenblatt said, then the local municipality may pursue a court order against the tenants, rather than owners.

The judge put the burden on owners to provide tenants’ availability information to local housing inspectors but he did not want to transform apartment building owners into enforcement lackeys for village housing inspectors without giving renters a voice.

Judge Greenblatt said multiple trips to inspect separate units should not result in “re-inspection” fees for owners.

The case stems from violations that the Village of Schiller Park issued to an apartment building owner for refusing housing inspectors to enter individual apartments when tenants were not home or who declined inspections for privacy reasons. Schiller Park housing inspectors found no other safety, health or maintenance violations in the common areas of the apartment building. Inspectors in Schiller Park want to enter every multi-dwelling apartment annually to ensure safety devices such as smoke and carbon monoxide detectors are in place and working.

It will be interesting to see what actions the Village of Schiller Park takes going forward if renters refuse to offer alternate dates for inspections and decline access to their apartments, especially where there are no complaints or any evidence of safety or health hazards in the common areas of the apartment buildings.

Will Schiller Park police break down doors to enter apartments?

Will the Village haul renters to court at taxpayers’ expense?

Will it force renters to take time off from work and incur legal expense to properly defend themselves in court to maintain their constitutional right to privacy?

What do you think are the right things for the Village, owners, and renters to do?

What is your voice on this issue?

Never mind that almost every other person currently working is deeply concerned about their job security in this messy economic environment.

If you are renter in Schiller Park, you are expected to stay home from work and risk losing your job so that a housing inspector can come through your apartment for a mandatory, annual apartment inspection.

It does not appear to matter to Schiller Park officials that many good renters want privacy or they prefer to be present when someone enters their apartment. Village officials want to enter every apartment in Schiller Park every year to be fair to everyone affected. That’s right: Punish the masses and trample all over citizens’ rights to privacy just to get to the few scofflaws.

Last night, during another packed Village board meeting, officials declined to make or consider making policy changes on the administration of the housing inspection program. They cowardly hid behind a legal shield contending they cannot make public policy changes because there is pending litigation.

Mayor Anna Montana and Village Manager Kevin Barr seem to believe that they are doing good deeds for apartment owners and renters by insisting on mandatory annual inspections and hauling people to court, at taxpayers expense, if they deny access.

Nonsense.

The Village of Schiller Park should simply follow the ordinance they previously passed. The ordinance, (Section 98.07 (B) (2)), states that if anyone denies access to the apartment, the village “may” petition a court for a warrant to enter individual apartments. Getting a court order first is different than issuing violations.

The current practice of inspectors bullying their way inside also adds strain in the relationships between apartment owners and renters. Essentially, the village is forcing owners to waive their renters’ rights to privacy in the apartments they lease, and forcing people to defend themselves against access violations. Some renters vowed to move away from Schiller Park to retain their right to privacy.

This is an election year for Mayor Montana, trustees Richard W. Desecki, Lawrence Fritz and Angelo S. Passialis along with Village Clerk Claudia L. Irsuto. If they are unwilling to listen to the voice of their constituents, it is time for change in Schiller Park.

I invite each of them to submit a guess post to outline their respective positions on this issue. Send your post to admin@illegalapartmentinspections.org.

Renters and their supporters can send a strong message to the current administration to stop treating renters as second-rate citizens. The deadline for voter registration is March 10. Citizens can register at the Village Hall, the Cook County Clerks’ Office downtown Chicago or any of the suburban locations, or they can mail an application that is available online. Local elections will be held April 7.

Perhaps new blood in Schiller Park will restore the town’s motto: Small town feel with a world at its touch.

Several long-time apartment renters told a standing-room-only Village Board meeting that they will move away from Schiller Park if Village housing officials continue insisting on mandatory, annual apartment inspections without cause or court orders. They say the involuntary inspections are an invasion of their privacy and discriminatory.

Renters and owners demanded immediate changes how Schiller Park administers its multi-dwelling apartment inspection program. These people may be holding the ultimate trump cards as the April 7, 2009 local elections draw near for the Village mayor and three trustees. Their challengers are promising immediate changes and relief from overly aggressive apartment inspection program.

A citizen or investor exodus from Schiller Park does not bode well for the Chicago west suburban community whose 2008 cost of living index is 14 percent higher than national average and its July 2007 population of 11, 497 is down 3.3 percent and dwindling since the 2000 U.S. Census, according to CityData.com.

Clearly, Village officials’ focus should be on economic growth and expansion versus amassing petty maintenance violations and collecting fines and re-inspection fees. In 2008, Schiller Park collected more than $35,000 in fines and court fees, according to data obtained from Schiller Park under the Freedom of Information Act.

Renters and owner asked the Village Board to take a serious, hard look at the current practices and immediately implement changes that will restore pride in the community. They offered four action items:

• Immediately order a halt to involuntary apartment inspections without warrants. If renters and owners deny access to their apartments, housing officials should follow the existing ordinance and seek a court order if an inspection is necessary.
• Stop hauling owners or property managers to court and force them to defend themselves against violations for refusing warrantless access to apartments when no one is home or when renters request privacy.
• Focus on creating a community environment that restores pride and that will attract and retain good investors in Schiller Park. A renter suggested development of an education program designed to encourage renters and owners to report unsafe or unhealthy situations for enforcement, rather than costly mandatory inspections of all apartments.
• Honor grandfather provisions and roll back requirements for owners to comply with ever-changing building codes until property changes hands or when there are related repairs or upgrades. These costly capital expenses are passed along to renters in the form of rent increases at a time when people are struggling to make ends meet.

Schiller Park Mayor Anna Montana tried to defend the Village’s mandatory apartment inspections as six trustees sat expressionless and silent.

It made me wonder what was going through their mind as they faced one of the largest crowds at a Village Board meeting in the past year or more.

The next Village Board meeting is at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 24 at the Schiller Park Village Hall, 9526 W. Irving Park Rd. If no changes are made, the next opportunity for changes is the local elections on April 7, 2009.

Schiller Park renters and owners can register to vote for the upcoming local elections before March 10 at the Schiller Park Village Hall or through mail. Register, vote and be heard!

The meeting will be held at the Schiller Park Village Hall at 9526 W. Irving Park Rd., in Schiller Park. Attend the meeting and bring your family, friends and neighbors. If one person loses their constitutional right to privacy, everyone loses them.

Check out the News Release distributed this morning through Business Wire.

Schiller Park housing officials are pressing on apartment building owners to essentially waive renters’ rights to privacy by forcing them to open apartments doors, with or without the renter’s presence. Denying access to housing inspectors could lead to violations, fines and fees.

Schiller Park is forcing apartment owners to be their lackeys for illegal entry into individual apartments in the village. By doing so, the village averts the need, cost and legal obligation to get court orders to inspect apartments.

Mandatory annual inspections put owners in a catch-22 situation. If owners open doors for inspectors, they essentially are waiving renters’ constitutional right to privacy by agreeing to warrantless inspections. If owners deny access, they risk violations and costly legal defenses.

What’s more, by letting inspectors in apartments when tenants are not home, owners expose themselves to potential disputes or other legal risks.

Renters have the right to allow or deny inspections of their “homes” without court orders. Schiller Park should abide by its own ordinance that permits the village to obtain a court order before issuing citations and hauling people to court for denying inspections without good cause and warrants.

When it comes to privacy rights, it shouldn’t matter whether a person lives in a multi-dwelling apartment building or condominium, single-family home or three-flat apartment building. Privacy rights are privacy rights for all. The U.S. Constitution does not stop at Schiller Park boundaries.

Besides, most intelligent persons know to alert their landlord or property management firm to report problems with safety devices in their apartments. If owners and management firms are non-responsive to these and other safety and health issues, they should be reported to the housing department for action and enforcement.

The ultimate punishment for a negligent owner is vacancy.

The value of privacy is precious.

There are no second-rate citizens in Schiller Park.

Once inside, however, inspectors search for other obscure maintenance problems and can issue violations that can lead to fines and fees for re-inspections. In recent apartment inspections in Schiller Park, inspectors cited tenants for basic maintenance issues, such a soap scum on shower tiles or dirty cooking stoves. One tenant was told he could not use a futon as a sleeping bed in the living room.

The United States of America is sending our young men and women into harm’s way to fight for “Democracy.” Yet, everyday, the Village of Schiller Park blatantly violates apartment renters’ basic constitutional right to privacy. The Village of Schiller Park is not above the U. S. Constitution. The right to privacy does not stop at Village of Schiller Park boundaries.

Schiller Park and many other local cities and towns throughout the Chicagoland area are trampling over apartment renters’ right to privacy by bullying their way inside individual apartment units contending they have the right under local ordinance to do so. If renters or owners balk, inspectors threaten them with citations, arrests, fines and court fees. In 2008, Schiller Park collected more than $35,000 in inspection fees and fines.

Schiller Park’s multi-dwelling inspections ordinance (Section 98.07 (B) (2)) is clear. If an owner and/or occupant deny access, the Village Manager may seek a warrant to inspect the apartment. No court order, no access – unless renters and owners request or voluntarily agree to inspections.

Schiller Park is not conducting similar inspections of single-family homes. They are illegally discriminating against renters and regarding them as second-rate citizens. I think this is because many renters are not registered voters in their current districts and elected officials think that renters can’t hurt their re-election bids. They are an easy source of revenue for Village coffers.

Local elections in Schiller Park will be held April 7, 2009. The mayor and three trustees are up for re-election. Apartment renters can register to vote before March 10 at the Village Hall, 9526 W. Irving Park Rd., Schiller Park, IL 60176. Register, vote and be heard!

Village officials do not want to go to the time and expense to get court order or warrants to inspect apartments. Instead, they issue citations and force owners and/or renters to incur legal expenses to defend themselves against unfair violations.

I think this practice is a blatant violation of renters’ right to privacy. It also exposes owners and the village itself to other legal risks. What do you think? Post your comments below.