It’s a fine line between ensuring public safety and infringing on private property rights. In Cheyenne, Wyoming, the City Council had proposed amending the property-inspection ordinance to allow certain city officials to inspect private homes by authority of a judge’s administrative warrant. The Cheyenne Board of REALTORS® had concerns: the draft’s vague language and undefined terms could have enabled untoward inspections and led to other serious consequences. With help from the REALTOR® Party’s Land Use Initiative program, they convinced the Council to make adjustments.
CEO Lisa Tabke explains that the proposal would have authorized the city’s Chief Fire Official (or a designee) and Chief Building Official to conduct inspections with an administrative warrant for ‘public safety,’ whether or not the property was occupied. “The city cited a very few instances when a building inspector couldn’t locate an owner – after a fire, for example,” she says. “They thought improving access for inspection would help solve these situations, and were expecting the public to trust that the authority this granted would never be over-stepped or exploited.”
One member of the City Council, a good friend to the REALTORS®, convened several meetings and working groups to discuss the proposed amendment. The REALTORS® were not the only ones who were skeptical; there was considerable public push-back. “No one wanted someone knocking on their door and demanding an inspection,” says Tabke. The city’s initial response – ‘We would never do that!’ – was hardly reassuring, and the REALTORS® knew they had to make sure that protections were built into the ordinance: it would have to be modified specifically to apply to abandoned properties; the process of contacting the owner needed to be spelled out clearly; and terms like ‘reasonable’ and ‘abandoned’ must be strictly defined.
To support their position, the REALTORS® called on Robinson & Cole, LLC, the law firm retained by the REALTOR® Party to provide analysis of zoning legislation issues through the Land Use Initiative program. “It was pretty short notice, but they were absolutely on top of it!” reports Tabke. “We couldn’t have asked for a better partner. With just a few emails and a telephone call, they provided us with the talking points we needed for our president to make our case at the next working group.” All parties were satisfied with the resulting revisions, she says, which included clear definition of language, and acceptable reasons for warrants spelled out.
Tabke can’t overstate the value of the Land Use Initiative program, especially for small boards. “We’re a staff of just two, without an in-house GAD, and the LUI enables us to equip our president with the legal expertise he needs to advocate for our members and communities. We could never come up with or pay for this on our own!”
To learn more about how the Cheyenne Board of REALTORS® is using REALTOR Party resources to protect private property rights, contact CEO Lisa Tabke at cbr@cheyennerealtors.com or 307.634.0363.
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