HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Hutchinson Housing Commission heard from a group of landlords regarding the proposed rental inspection program during Wednesday’s meeting. The commission continues to work on revamping the program.

The program would change from a registration format to a licensing one. The change would give the city the ability to better enforce property standards. Planning Director Ryan Hvitlok says most of the landlords want to make sure the parameters of the program are clear. “They brought up some good points about wanting to make sure that if we go down this licensing route that there’s clear policy and clear line of what happens if there is a license action where a license is suspended or revoked,” Hvitlok said.

One area that has always been a complaint from landlords is policing of property standards by the city instead of letting them self-police their properties. Hvitlok says most landlords want to go back to a complaint-based system that was removed by the City Council due to fear of retaliation from landlords against tenants. “They feel that with the city inspector driving around and if he sees issues he has the power to write those issues up,” Hvitlok said. “They feel it’s infringing on their rights. If you look at why the City Council did away with the complaint base (notification), that was the reason. They also thought it wasn’t effective because the worst of the worst were not really getting taken care of.”

Hvitlok says the matter now goes before the City Council. “We’ll go to City Council next Tuesday for their review,” Hvitlok said. “It’s not a public hearing, but I would anticipate that the council will probably solicit public comment at that point and then direct staff to put a bow on this and bring it back to them sometime in October,” Hvitlok said.

The next meeting of the Hutchinson City Council is Tuesday, Oct. 1, at 9 a.m. in the Hutchinson city offices.