City of Baltimore
As you know, 2/10/05 marked SPI's first conference call with the city of Baltimore.  Call participants on our side included Steve Meyer, Melysa Ford, and Jay Klein, as well as you and me.  We spoke with three representatives from Baltimore: Jerry Dorich (Director of Construction and Demolition Department/(410) 396-3516/Jerome.Dorich@habc.org); Eric Letsinger (Deputy Commissioner of Code Enforcement/(443) 984-1806/Eric.Letsinger@baltimorecity.gov); and Mike Braverman (Director-Code Enforcement Legal Section-City of Baltimore/(410) 396-4140/Michael.Braverman@baltimorecity.gov). 
 
We discussed SPI's function of ensuring that our clients' assets are protected from vandalism, the elements, and other damages, by maintaining the properties in a secure condition.  Baltimore asked if SPI would provide a list of all of Safeguard's clients' properties within the city of Baltimore, which we explained that we would be prohibited from doing (per various agreements concerning confidientiality of information).  We proposed as an alternative that Baltimore could provide a list of problem properties, which list SPI could cross-reference with the SPI system.  This would allow us to notify our clients of any properties found both on that list and in our system, to assure that our clients are aware of and can take steps to correct problem conditions.  I will be working with the city on developing this list and communicating with clients about any affected properties. 

We invited the Baltimore city staff to attend the MBA Conference in Orlando (February 20th through 23rd, 2005) and to participate in the SPI-sponsored Code Enforcement/Servicers Meet & Greet, and as you know, they did decide to attend as our guests.  We also invited the Baltimore call participants and any other interested Baltimore city staff to visit SPI's office in Cleveland.

City of Detroit
On 2/11/05, we conducted a conference call with the city of Detroit, in follow-up to our call with that city in December 2004.  We invited the Detroit officials to attend the MBA Conference in Orlando (2/20 -2/23), both for the default/preservation (M&M) session on Monday morning and to participate in the Code Enforcement/Servicers Meet & Greet opportunity.  We pointed out that Detroit's participation would allow the city to discuss with SPI clients and other servicers some of their concerns and issues associated with vacant properties.  As you know, Chief of Demolition/Building Inspections Abdul-Musawwir Aquil and Chief of Code Enforcement Mike Taylor did attend the conference to represent Detroit code enforcement, and I will provide you with a summary of and follow-up from our meetings with them in the next couple of days.

Detroit had previously inquired about Safeguard's willingness to provide some boarding services to the city on a good-will basis.  We were advised that Chief of Demolition/Building Inspections Abdul-Musawwir Aquil will be putting together a proposal/program within the next 4 to 5 weeks to be submitted to the mayor for approval. 

We asked for some information about Detroit's most significant concerns at the present time, and Aquil advised that one major concern is the amount of money the city is spending on resecuring boarded properties.  He explained that Detroit typically secures by nail-boarding with 5/8" plywood.  We noted that bolt-boarding tends to be considerably more effective than nail-boarding at deterring unauthorized entry.  In follow-up to that portion of the conversation, we sent them an email with links to Attachment 4, Page 22 and other information about our boarding specs, which I think they will find very useful and informative.
 
There was also some discussion of Detroit's new Blight Court Program.  Deputy Director of Buildings Sheila Johnson helped write the program with Mike Taylor and Steve Legget, and she explained that the purpose of the program was to move away from charging property owners with criminal infractions for code violations.  Instead, Detroit has adopted a program whereby code violations are treated as civil matters: properties that are cited for non-compliance will have city liens attached, and the city will recover the lien amount upon the sale of the cited property.  Sheila confirmed that the Blight Court's attention will be directed toward violations affecting the exterior of the property, i.e. appearance and safety issues.  

Other Projects

We are continuing to work up a monthly interior inspection list.  Vacant Property Manager Paul Visokaj sends my staff a spreadsheet showing interior inspection exception results, and with the information on that spreadsheet, we create a separate sheet for each client with the inspection results for their properties.  We have been working with R&D Manager Kathy Cogan and IT Director Phil Neumann to develop a process for sending these interior inspection spreadheets to each client on a monthly basis.

Dearborn
Please note that Renault Arseneau from Dearborn has become an invaluable asset, making himself available to offer assistance and advice when Keith Woodcock and John Cascardo are unavailable.

Cleveland Ohio
Judge Pianka of Cleveland Housing Court, Judge Pianka's staff, and Damien Borkowski (Manager of City of Cleveland's Ordinances division), are all also keeping in close contact with our high risk staff.  Damien was unfortunately unable to attend the MBA conference in Orlando, but he remains interested in working with SPI to resolve issues.
 
Chicago
Our relationships in Chicago also remain strong.  We have spoken with Kurt Berger on a number of occasions about problem properties in Chicago, and Kurt continues to provide invaluable information to help SPI resolve issues and problems for our clients.
 

Thanks,

J. Schwegel
High Risk Specialist