Rental Housing

For all the complaints about rental housing in the city, it appears that very few people want to actually put in the work to redo rental regulation. If no renters want to get involved, they can expect to either see things stay the same or change in favor of the landlords who do want to get involved. After all, it is the landlords whose "ox will get gored" should any changes get put into play as they would be the ones most likely to be affected negatively, so it is only reasonable to expect them to to take action to mitigate what they would perceive as harmful outcomes. Press release from the city:

Alert Sent On: 01/16/2025 04:45:18 PM CST

 At the February 13, 2024, City Council meeting, the Carbondale City Council held a public hearing concerning changes to how the City would regulate rental housing. This included changes to regulate the relationship between landlords and tenants and a new rental housing licensing program. Following this meeting, the City Council voted on March 26, 2024, to establish a working committee to discuss and draft a new rental housing ordinance. 

Multiple attempts were made to fill this committee, but the City only received a few letters of interest in being placed on the committee. After the final attempt to get landlords and tenants and other community members involved in the committee, it was determined to move forward with a Staff-developed rewrite of Title 4, Chapter 4 to address the concerns of the City Council as it relates to rental housing and landlord-tenant relationships. 

At this time to respect the time and efforts of those who have applied, the City Attorney’s office will be reaching out to the individuals whose applications were received throughout this process. A calendar invite will be sent to coordinate dates that these individuals can meet to discuss this ordinance. Following that, two open sessions will be held that the public may attend. All dates and times TBD.  

If you previously applied and do not receive an invite to the stakeholders meeting by 5 PM January 22, please forward the original email you sent with your application you to cityattorney@carondaleil.gov 

If you wish to receive e-mail updates on the dates and times of the meetings related to the changes to landlord and tenant ordinances, please contact the City Attorney’s office at cityattorney@carbondaleil.gov.  

For further info contact the City Attorney’s Office at 618-457-3215.  

Verbal Altercation at City Council

A "verbal situation" took place after last night's city council meeting between a  couple of council members and some members of the public. Since a major topic of conversation at the meeting was more regulations regarding the relationship between renters and landlords, a good guess would be one or the other annoyed by the proposed regulation

City council Agenda

 Here is the agenda for tonight's Liquor Control Commission and City council  meetings. From the LCC agenda, it looks as if Qin Guan Buffet is setting up a delivery only kitchen with alcohol delivery available . Most of the Council business is  approval of warrants, although there is one separate item discussing "An Ordinance Amending Title Four, Chapter Four of the Carbondale Revised Code as it Relates to Housing and Landlord and Tenant Rights and Obligations"

Parks Master Plan

 In case you want to have some input as to the direction the Carbondale Park District takes over the next several years, here is your opportunity. The Master Plan guides the decisions the Park District makes over the next few years. The city has a similar Master Plan as well and I know of residents that, when the city has made a decision that runs counter to the Master Plan, they have called attention to it and cause the city to reverse the decision.

The consultants for the Park District and the City will be giving a public presentation on Carbondale's Parks and Recreation Master Plan Tuesday, January 21st, 5:30 p.m. at CCHS 1301 E. Walnut St. The public is invited. Please try to attend. 

Streets

 for whatever reason, streets running east and west in Carbondale tend to get cleared more quickly than do streets running north and south. Most of the east and west bound streets in town were pretty clear and easy to drive down by noon today while most of the North and South streets remained unplowed as of late in the day. Of course the tendency of residents to park their cars on the street, even during snow emergencies, makes it much harder to plow around them. 

Meet and Greet 2

 Stopped in for the last half hour of the Meet and Greet with the city manager candidates. There were still about half a dozen people talking with the candidates. I got to ask questions of current Interim city manager Stan Reno and former city manager of Hastings NB, Shawn Metcalfe:

Stan Reno--I was primarily interested in why he wanted the job, given that his entire career until the last 6 months has been in law enforcement. He said that he had planned to end his career in law enforcement but found that, as he  performed the city manager duties, he found he enjoyed it and felt he did a good job. He estimated that, since the city would probably not engage in as widespread a search for his replacement as chief of police, the city could fill the position in about 3 months. Asked about what he would do about the perception, not the actuality, of Carbondale's high crime rate (the crime rate is no higher than any other town of Carbondale's size), he said transparency would be the number one way he would combat the perception and that encouraging events like the Off The Rails concerts, which have had no disruptions, would aid in that. He feels his work with the police department, working relationship with council and his in-depth knowledge of Carbondale would make him an effective manager. However, the past six months is the sum total of his experience as a city manager.

Shawn Metcalfe-- has experience as a city manager, having worked as one in Hastings, a town about the same size as Carbondale. However, his contract there was not renewed so he is looking for a position in a similar sized community. His expertise is in finance and human resources, which would be beneficial to the city. to get a feel for the city,  he read back through past city budgets and city council agendas and watched about 14 hours of recorded city council meetings, but has no "on the ground" familiarity with Carbondale. Strengths of Carbondale, he feels are SIUC, hospitals and medical development and the town's access to the Shawnee National Forest. I also asked him about dealing with the perception of Carbondale as having a high crime rate and he thought more events getting the police out into the community such as the "national Night Out" would help combat it. He also expressed interest in revisiting the city's position on Uber and AirB&B operations.

I did not get the opportunity speak with Thomas Thomas

Council will interview all three candidates in closed session tomorrow night and make a decision in the near future.

Meet and Greet

 The meet and greet with the candidates for the city manager position is still taking place from 5 to 7 p.m. tonight. I find it interesting the city has not published the names yet. I have not seen any media source listing them. All I have heard is that there are three and one of them is a local resident.