By Megan Kelley
Staff Writer
OXFORD – The Oxford Village Council has officially rejected the proposed residential inspection ordinance after the second reading failed to garner enough approval in a 3-2 split vote.
Trustees Maureen Helmuth and Allison Kemp voted in the affirmative, while Trustees Jacob Nicosia, Lori Bourgeau and council President Kelsey Cooke all voted no on the motion to approve the proposed ordinance.
During its meeting last month, the council approved the first reading of the ordinance by a 3-2 vote with Nicosia joining Kemp and Helmuth.
In past meetings, Bourgeau and Cooke have been vocal about their thoughts on the ordinance, stating that they felt it was over-reaching and could potentially be costly to the village should disgruntled tenants begin contacting the village with complaints and triggering unnecessary inspections.
On the other side, Helmuth and Kemp have consistently stated that they felt this was a bare minimum standard to hold landlords to that would help insure the health, safety and welfare of renters in the village.
Nicosia has been on the fence with the ordinance but ultimately cast a ‘no’ vote, stating that his main issues with the ordinance is where the money would come from, and his worry that it would, ultimately, financially impact renters.
“The cost of the money for the inspection has to come from somewhere. So, the question then becomes; is it going to be tax revenue paying for that versus an individual business owner? An individual business owner is going to pass that cost onto the renter,” Nicosia said. “Ultimately, we, at a bare minimum, are driving the cost of rent (up). Which, I think, is also exactly the opposite of what we want to do.”
Nicosia did agree that the health and safety of residents was important but questioned whether an ordinance or law is necessary in order to maintain that in the community.