Salem council reduces outstanding zoning fees for landlord who purchased nuisance property

SALEM -- City council voted to reduce outstanding zoning fees for a city property in its Aug. 4 meeting.

Mayor Cyndi Baronzzi Dickey told council that a landlord with multiple properties within the city had purchased a property whose prior owners had not kept the property to code, accruing approximately $3,600 in fees prior to the purchase unbeknownst to the new owner.

She explained that while the new owner had contracted a title company to do a search of the property's deed prior to the purchase, that the fees had not been delivered to the county auditor's office yet and the title company had not taken the additional step to contact the city directly and that there appeared to be no liens on the property as a result.

Dickey said that since then, the property had been placed in foreclosure, and he had asked if the city would consider sending a letter to the county requesting some amount of those pre-existing fees to be removed from that balance. She also said he had already attempted to seek restitution from the title company unsuccessfully.

"I'm not suggesting a total, wiping them out, because there were some services, like the mowing and things that are in that, and we need to compensate for that. But a lot of them were escalated fee for violations when they were second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth inspections. These were not his violations. He has brought the property up to code, and it's doing very well," Dickey said. "He has no violations or noncompliance in any of his other properties and he's just asking, if would we consider giving him a break so that these aren't past due and he doesn't get foreclosed. There was a $665.41 payment, which was on grass cutting fees, so he [currently] has $2,934.59 still owed."

City Council Evan Newman asked if there was any legal precedent for reducing fees in a similar situation. City Law Director Brooke Zellers said that he was unaware of any similar instances. However, he said that he felt given the uniqueness of the situation and the fact that the owner had no way of knowing about the fees despite doing typical due diligence, offering some level of forgiveness would not set a dangerous precedent.

Zellers also stressed that even if council did vote to approve a letter requesting a reduction, it would still only be a request which the county is not obliged to agree to.

Councilwoman Jayne Bricker suggested that if a payment on the balance had already been made for the costs of cutting grass on the property and the remaining balance was the result of fees, that 20% would be enough to cover any of the city's costs for personnel or materials associated with the property.

Council ultimately voted five to two to send a letter to the county requesting the fees be reduced to 20% of the remaining balance or approximately $586.91, with dissenting votes from Councilmen Jim Harrington and Mike Weir.

Harrington said that while he is sympathetic to the property owner's situation, that since the issue was the result of a failure of the title company that the financial consequences of that failure should lay with them rather than the onus being on the city to reduce the fees.

Other matters approved include an ordinance approving appropriations and transfers and another ordinance approving reductions in appropriations.

The agenda initially included three pieces of legislation concerning special energy improvements in cooperation with the Columbiana County Energy Special Improvement District. However, they were tabled until the council's next meeting.

City Councilwoman Sara Baer explained that the city had not received the current appendices for the special improvement district, and that the legislation would be introduced once they were received.

During his report, Safety Service Director Joe Cappuzzello said that the street department was conducting concrete work for the fire department to replace the approach to the fire house. Cappuzzello said that the work was expected to continue for four to six weeks.

Council will meet next at 7 p.m. on Sept. 1.