RICHMOND HEIGHTS, Ohio -- City Council took action Tuesday (June 27) that it hopes will help apartment residents who are up to date with their rental payments, but whose landlords have, for any reason, refused to accept those payments and are threatening eviction.
The “pay to stay” ordinance seeks to combat instances in which tenants who have made complaints to landlords or city officials about living conditions are evicted.
Council discussed the issue at length two weeks earlier after hearing eviction concerns from apartment residents who have spoken out against the living conditions their landlords have provided.
At the same time, the ordinance does not limit “the ability of a landlord to initiate an eviction action for reasons other than solely for a non-payment of rent.”
Ward 2 Councilman Frank Lentine, whose barbershop is located within the city’s largest apartment complex, the 735-unit 444 Park Apartments at 444 Richmond Park Drive, said Tuesday that he had spoken that day with that complex’s management and learned that there are 11 evictions scheduled for this week.
Lentine, however, added: “By the same token, we have to understand that some of these tenants have not made any gestures to stay in good standings with their apartment landlord. Some of them are so far behind in rent since the COVID episode and experience, and we’re well past that, hopefully.
“Some of the tenants, for whatever reason, have not paid rent and have not made any official reasoning why they can’t pay their rent.”
Repeating what he said at the June 13 council meeting, Lentine added: “They need to go and put their (rent) money in escrow (when there are problems related to living conditions). I say that over and over again.
“I can’t do it as a councilperson; none of us can do it. The residents have to go to Lyndhurst (Municipal) Court; they’ll walk them through it. They have to put that money in escrow.”
By banding together and putting their money into escrow at the court, the rent money will not go toward the apartment complex’s owners until conditions are all brought up to city code.
Again, many residents fear that taking such action will put them in bad standing with their landlord.
“As (Ward 4) Councilman (Mark) Alexander said at the last council meeting,”Lentine said, “we’re not going to get the landlords’ attention until we get them in the pocketbook.
“I understand I have a lot of senior citizens that are at 444 Park (which is located within Lentine’s council ward), and they’re afraid. All they have is their suite, their apartment, and they don’t want to take that step. They feel they’re going to be retaliated (against) and be booted out.”
Lentine said he hopes passage of the pay to stay ordinance will help those tenants who have been keeping up with their payments.
“One of the reasons they’re probably not paying their rent is the conditions of the apartment,” Mayor Kim Thomas said in answer to Lentine.
There have been many reports over the past several months of elevators not in working order at 444 Park, as well as other complaints about unclean or unsafe conditions.
Law Director Todd Hunt said he had spoken earlier Tuesday with City Prosecutor Michael Cicero.
“Several citations are being served (to 444 Park management), particularly with the garbage situation,” Hunt said. “Unfortunately, the garbage chutes had fire code violations -- major fire code (violations). There are fires out there.
“So those had to be shut down until they can fix them, and they don’t seem to be moving very quickly to fix them, so we have now citations out there.”
Those citations, at $5,000 each for non-compliance for nine chutes, total $45,000.
According to Cicero, Hunt said, the 444 Park management company has been cited. The next step will be to cite the property’s owners.
The pay to stay ordinance will go into effect in 30 days.
“It gives residents a little bit more of an assurance that we’re fighting for them, and we want to make sure that they’re protected,” Thomas said of the ordinance, which passed by a 6-0 vote (Ward 1 Councilwoman Erron Bell was not present).
“It’s just another way to advocate for our residents.”
Thomas noted that 35 percent of the city’s 5,000 households are apartment units.
”To have that (percentage) and not to do what’s right -- we just need to make sure they’re protected,” she said.
Building commissioner position
With the resignation early this month of former building commissioner Jim Urankar, the city needed to quickly fill that important role, as the nearly $300 million Belle Oaks Marketplace development moves forward at the former Richmond Town Square mall site, the Flexjet construction project nears completion on Curtiss-Wright Parkway and the city’s apartments continue to need inspection.
On Tuesday, council approved the hiring of William Gallagher, of CT Consultants, to serve as building commissioner until Thomas hires someone to permanently fill the role.
Gallagher will serve as building commissioner and will largely use the services of the city’s inspectors.
Farewell to Brian Gleisser
Meanwhile, Economic Development Director Brian Gleisser attended his final council meeting, as he is about to retire. At Thomas’ request, he stayed on an additional month longer than planned to help with various projects.
Gleisser, of Shaker Heights, has worked in development for 40 years, including a stint with the City of Cleveland.
Although he doesn’t practice law, he has a law degree and earned a master’s degree in city and regional planning from Harvard University. He was hired five years ago by former mayor David Roche.
“My first day was June 4, 2018, and a week later, David Frank (CEO of California-based DealPoint Merrill) walked in with the Belle Oaks project,” Gleisser said.
“It has been, in terms of a capstone to my career, working on the Belle Oaks project,” Gleisser said. ”This is, I always tell people, one of the largest projects in Northeast Ohio, and it’s in Richmond Heights. It’s a really great project.
“It will have its bumps; every development project does. But it is on the launch pad, it is fueled and ready to go, and you will love this project once it starts coming out of the ground.”
Council President Bobby Jordan allowed all council members and directors to say farewell and give best wishes to Gleisser. Nearly all described him as a steady and calming leader as the mammoth Belle Oaks project has proceeded.
Ward 4 Councilman Mark Alexander said that when Gleisser went from a part-time director to a full-time director, it was “really the thing that this city needed at that time, because he had the ability to walk through the Belle Oaks thing and take some of the scariness out of it.”
“In other words,” Alexander said, “not all of us agreed with what was being done with Belle Oaks, but Brian had that knack that he could sit down and explain it and take the scariness out of it and make people comfortable with what’s going on.
“Because I don’t know if everybody realizes just how big a deal Belle Oaks is for this city. It changes the dynamics of everything.
“It puts us back on the map. It’s not just Belle Oaks, it’s everything around us. All the city leaders, I’m sure you could talk for the mayor, they all want to know how it’s (Belle Oaks) going because they understand how that whole thing goes.”
Thomas said that when she took office in January 2022, her biggest fear was that she was going to lose Gleisser’s services. She said she appreciated him staying on since that time, including the extra month.
“You have been my rock when it came to economic development,” Thomas said. “I just want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
There were several rounds of applause for Gleisser as the testimonies were given, as well as a standing ovation.
After the meeting, Thomas, again considering the work that needs to be done at Belle Oaks, said three candidates are being considered for the economic development opening and that she believes she will choose that person next week.
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