SCHENECTADY Landlords offered free help to trim city code problems BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter Reach Gazette reporter Michael Lamendola at 395-3114 or lamend@dailygazette.com.
The city is working with a property management company to offer free training, evaluations and consulting to landlords who want to improve their rental units. The pilot program, called Guidance Responsible Owners Want, or GROW, aims to help owners become better property managers and to help the city reduce the incidence of problem landlords violating housing codes. Sunrise Management & Consulting of Latham will start the program in January. There is no cost to the city. “Education is the silver bullet to success,” said Jesse Holland, president of Sunrise Management. “We will teach the best practices of property management and help them run their properties efficiently and effectively.” Mayor Brian U. Stratton said the pilot program will help stabilize neighborhoods, enforce codes and make the city more livable. “It will add to the efforts under way in the city, which began with our code enforcement effort and with our training all code enforcement officers to do their jobs,” he said. Stratton said Sunrise approached the city to offer the pilot program. He said the city at this time does not expect to contract with Sunrise once the program concludes in a year. ..............>>>>...............>>>>.............................................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01000&AppName=1
Quest for copy of Schenectady city code proves elusive
By CATHY WOODRUFF THE ADVOCATE First published in print: Thursday, November 12, 2009
Arthur Eiss is a relative newcomer to Schenectady, but he says he's looking forward to making the Electric City his home for a while and wants to be a good citizen of his new community. That's why, after he learned his barking dog was violating city ordinances and he was perturbed by rowdy neighbors outside the Fifth Avenue house he bought last year, he decided to get himself up-to-speed on city laws. "I thought I'd like to educate myself," he said.
He's been amazed by how difficult that has turned out to be. Eiss dropped by City Hall a couple of weeks ago and asked for a copy of the city code, a two-part document that includes the City Charter and the administrative code, a full set of local ordinances governing everything from building inspections to waste disposal.
Because it's voluminous -- the paper version fills two thick, black, 3-ring binders, says Corporation Counsel L. John Van Norden -- Eiss asked for it in electronic format, probably a disk.
At the standard copying fee of 25 cents per page, the full paper version would have been costly, not to mention cumbersome. And since he wanted a comprehensive copy for review and general reference, Eiss said he didn't want to ask only for individual sections that he knew would be of interest.
"I'd like to know about the codes I don't know about and the codes I don't even know that I don't know about," he explained when we talked at his home on Wednesday.
At the request of staffers at City Hall, Eiss filled out a form, which he later learned was a formal request for records access under New York's Freedom of Information Law. A week later, he received a response saying his request was denied.
The reason: "Materials requested are protected by copyright and release of materials is through exclusive license only."
That was a new one on me. I've filed my share of FOIL requests over the years and had a few of them denied, at least initially. The idea that public records, especially records documenting local laws, could be copyrighted and, thus, unavailable to a city resident just seemed unbelievable.
There must have been some mistake, right?
No, Van Norden told me, that's the city's position -- though he stressed that it's a temporary situation.
Schenectady's code hasn't been reviewed, updated and "recodified" in more than 20 years, and the format leaves a lot to be desired in user-friendliness, Van Norden said.
That's why the city has contracted with a national company called General Code for about $20,000 to create a comprehensive, searchable electronic version of the code that eventually will be posted on the Web and available to all.
City employees have access to the current electronic version through General Code, but "that is strictly proprietary and copyrighted," Van Norden said. "They own the electronic code and we use it under an electronic licensing agreement."
Even if a copy of the code were provided to Eiss, he said, it would quickly be outdated. "I have council members asking me for new and interesting legislation all the time," he noted.
Well, it WAS online - now every link is broken. Perhaps it's an easy fix that PatZ can address easily The requested URL /CityCode/Co264/Co264.htm was not found on this server.
Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered
When something gets "slashdotted" - the traffic and attention to the issue become WIDELY discussed usually. It's not uncommon for a web server (in this case, the TimesUnion) to actually slow to a crawl
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
Next....how can this info (local codes) be considered copy written materials? Is the Constitution and the Bill of Rights considered copy written materials too?
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Wait.....I think Moody's is in the process of raising our rating......SHOW ME THE $$ TRAIL.....from the county to the state to the feds........
You want to see the money trail? It goes from our pockets, into the the government system, and re-distributed to where they deem fit. The government decides who and what is deserving of our money. IMO
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Well, it WAS online - now every link is broken. Perhaps it's an easy fix that PatZ can address easily The requested URL /CityCode/Co264/Co264.htm was not found on this server.
Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered
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