Blight violators may face jail
Change in Warren law targets repeat offenders 

Slumlords and owners of other eyesore properties in Warren could soon face more than a fine for repeated violations.

They might end up behind bars.

City officials are considering changing two local laws to make fourth offenses a misdemeanor punishable by up to 90 days in jail.

The prospect of incarceration, they say, could be the leverage the city needs to catch the attention of delinquent property owners who fail to meet building codes.

Officials have dubbed it the "four strikes and you're out" ordinance.

"If you violate the ordinance three times, you should know better, especially if you paid the fine," said Warren City Councilman Mark Liss, who proposed the tougher measure.

Liss, who works as an assistant municipal attorney for the city of Royal Oak, has handled such prosecutions for that community. Some landlords don't put up much fight to repeated fines and consider it a cost of doing business.

"You can't get their attention unless you threaten them with jail," he said.

One out of a dozen with four strikes was sentenced by a judge to incarceration, Liss aid.

Warren officials said they plan to use discretion in asking judges to throw the book at repeat offenders.

"It would not be used every day," City Attorney David Richards said.

Council members recently voted unanimously to approve the first "reading" of changes to the city's property maintenance code and Warren's rental ordinance. A second reading has not been scheduled.

Presently, even habitual violators are slapped with a civil infraction carrying a fine between $100 and $1,000. The new law, if enacted, would make a fourth violation a misdemeanor that could result in the 90-day sentence and a fine of up to $500.

At least one council member hopes property inspectors and attorneys would apply the tougher penalty carefully.

"I'm afraid it could snowball, and if your dog went to the bathroom on the neighbor's yard, you could go to jail," Councilman Scott Stevens said.

Violations are applied to individuals, not to the location of the offense. Richards acknowledged that could prove to be difficult, if property - such as rental housing - is owned by one owner or investors, but managed by someone else.

Pointing out that Warren several years ago had decriminalized blight - allowing a misdemeanor complaint for even a single violation - Richards added, "We're not proposing anything that's terribly radical."

Last week, city inspectors, police and code enforcement officers conducted Warren's fourth sweep targeting neighborhood blight, focusing on the area between Eight Mile and Nine Mile roads, from Schoenherr east to the city's border with Eastpointe.

Mayor James Fouts has called the heightened effort a "systematic approach to ridding our neighborhoods of blight."

To view the online article, please click here.

About Safeguard
Safeguard Properties is the largest privately held field services company in the country. Located in Cleveland, Ohio and founded in 1990 by Robert Klein, Safeguard has grown from a regional preservation company with a few employees and a handful of contractors performing services in the Midwest, to a national company with over 500 employees. Safeguard is supported by a nationwide network of subcontractors able to perform any requested superintendence, preservation, and maintenance functions, as well as numerous ancillary services in the U.S., the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico.