At the Monday night Athens City Council meeting, members discussed a change to Athens’ tenant and occupant form.
The two agreement forms take a lot of time administratively, Fahl said.
“It’s the bane of many people in the city,” Fahl said.
Replacing the forms would condense the policies into one piece of paper for each rental property, thus cutting down on paper and time used by not only occupants and landlords, but the secretary as well, according to a previous Post report.
The secretary was working overtime to shred all the documents coming in from Athens’ approximately 5,600 rental properties, Fahl said.
“This form had to be updated every 6 months or so with new tenants,” Rick Sirois, director of Code Enforcement and Community Development in Athens, said in the previous Post report. “So, this form as it currently stands, is a cumbersome and administratively demanding form which was never up to date based on tenant turnovers.”
To keep the rules relevant, City Council is also discussing putting the rules on a poster which would be hung in the homes rented in Athens, according to the previous Post report.
The poster ensures that landlords and the City of Athens know that tenants are aware of regulations such as parking or recycling.
“I guess you could consider this a safety belt for the apartment,” Sirois said in the previous Post report. “It will remove the infamous ‘I didn’t know‘ response from both parties.”
If the poster is not hung in a rental property, Sirois said, the City of Athens can refuse to issue a rental permit.
In addition, council members discussed repairs to the Engineering and Public Works gate and building. Repairs are needed following a motorist crashing into the building, council member Michele Papai, D-3rd Ward, said.
Fixing the building is “critical to operation,” Papai said.
Council members also discussed issuing a payment of $325,000 for design engineering for improvements to the water treatment plant.
An ordinance passed by Athens City Council members in September authorized construction on the project. According to the ordinance, the project, which will update the city’s aging water treatment plant, will cost $5,064,460, according to a previous Post report.
Councilman Kent Butler, D-1st Ward, said in a previous city council meeting that improvements would create a more efficient, cost-effective system in the plant.
“Because of the old electrical system in there, it takes more energy,” Butler said. “The new system would help soften that.”
