Maumee continues ATTACKS on Housing Providers
City of Maumee Proposed Rental OrdinanceThe city of Maumee is attempting to slam through a terrible rental registration and inspection law. This law, if it passes, will negatively affect every investor in Northwest Ohio. We are asking people to show up at council and use this as a guide and for talking points when you address city council. Maumee City Council TODAY Monday 5:45pm, without any town hall public input.
Ground Rules:1. Stay polite, civil, and calm: If people get up to speak and start screaming or get rude, we lose. We need to represent ourselves as the voice of calm reason. The facts are on our side.2. No personal attacks: It is easy to want to personally attack city council, city administrator or the mayor. Again, we need to be the voice of reason. Don’t make any personal attacks, name calling etc. Calm, civil, polite.
Come to the Maumee City Council meeting on Monday, February 20th, 5:45p and agree to comment. Below are the talking points we want people to comment on when they go up for their 3 minutes.
Talking Points:1. Lawsuit Risk: A similar ordinance as this was passed in Jackson Michigan. It is currently involved in a federal lawsuit for multiple Constitutional violations and City Council members in Jackson, according to the plaintiff, can be held liable for passing it. We need to drive this point home to Maumee City Council and get the message across that if they support this ordinance a lawsuit will likely be triggered here. The city will have to waste taxpayer money fighting this lawsuit.2. No Study or Data Backing Up Proposal: The city did no studies and has no official data to back up why they need this ordinance. If they have this study, why haven’t they shared it with the community? It is irresponsible for a city to pass legislation like this with no studies, community input, or data.3. No Similar Law in any City in Northwest Ohio: No city in the area has any law even close to what Maumee is proposing. Why? Does Maumee have a problem so much worse than Toledo, Sylvania, Perrysburg, etc. that they need a law like this that nobody else has?4. PR Disaster: Property owners are prepared to fight this in the publicly and in court. Is the city prepared to have this negative press associated with it?5. No public Committee: The mayor promised at the meeting on January 17th that he would set up a committee, gather all the stakeholders. Why hasn’t this been done? There is no public committee. The only thing that has been done is the city administrator met with a few people. This is not what was promised.
Action Steps:1. Show Up on Monday, February 20th at 5:45 at City of Maumee Council Meeting and sign up for comments.2. Comment in your allotted time and politely, but firmly make one of the points above in your own words.
We need to send a strong aggressive message to Maumee City Council that this ordinance is being rushed through, will have a dire negative effect, and will create a terrible impact on the community, tenants, City Council members that support it, and property owners. The lawsuit that is sure to follow will waste Maumee taxpayer money to fight it.