INC NEWS - DRAFT Sept Minutes

[pat carstensen]

Inter-Neighborhood Council
www.DurhamINC.org
Minutes of Meeting of September 27, 2005

REPRESENTATIVES PRESENT
Fred Mowry	Westglen
Helen Bell	CC Spaulding School Com. Watch
Gayle Taylor	CC Spaulding School Com. Watch
Paul Cornsweet	Morehead Hills NA
Ken Gasch	Colonial Village
David Harris	Old Farm
Jay Reinstein	City of Durham, Solid Waste Management
Sarah Free	Lassiter Street NA
Richard Mullinax	Old North Durham
John Tallmadge	TTA
Betty Greene	Old West Durham
Kelly Jarrett	Old West Durham
Bill Anderson	Duke Park
Michael Shiflett	Northgate Park NA
Cheryl Shiflett	Northgate Park NA
Myers Sugg	Tuscaloosa Lakewood
Lugenia Mason	River Forest Asso
Julie Seagroves	Colonial Village NA
Anne Guyton	ColonialVillage
Pat Carstensen	Cross County
Randy Pickle	Forest Hills

Introductions – President Bill Anderson opened the meeting.  Members 
introduced themselves.  Thanks to Anne Guyton for providing agendas.

Property Management Registry – Kelly Jarrett of OWD talked about her work 
with property managers to improve rental housing. There are lots of nuances 
and complications so it is important to work together instead of pointing 
fingers.  The GIS system indicates the owner, but it can take 2-3 weeks of 
attempts to contact an owner to find out the property manager to get a 
solution to problems with the property.  OWD, PAC 2, and others have passed 
a resolution to establish a registry of property managers (see attachment 
A).  It was suggested to look at what other municipalities are doing and 
talk to the realtors.  We will vote on the resolution in October.

TTA – John Tallmadge spoke on the services TTA offers now (regional buses 
including new express routes, van pools, matching for carpools, emergency 
rides home) to save $$ on gas.  UNC and NCSU are subsidizing transit, and 
the State of NC is looking at it.  www.gotriangle.org is a single site to 
get information for all the public transit in the Triangle.  On the regional 
rail project, they are working on ridership predictions to finish their 
application for federal funding.  If funding comes through, they would start 
construction next year and have service in 2008.

Bonds / Oversight Committee – On one hand, the committee could be an added 
complication in already messy contracting process.  On the other hand, it 
would be nice to have body that would warn us that we were headed toward 
quicksand instead of just throwing ropes as we go down for the third time.  
If we want to make a difference, a letter has to go to Patrick this week.  
Pat will draft something and send it to the list serve for comment.

Other Items
1. August minutes were accepted.
2. The Appearance Commission has an Appearance Survey.  Take it at 
http://www.websurveyor.net/wsb.dll/7483/appearance2005.htm
3. Parking in yards -- Patrick Baker walked 25-30 blocks looking at problems 
so we hope to have some answers at the next meeting.
4. Yard waste – The committee had a very productive meeting.  They are doing 
some research on what other cities are doing.
5. Getting empty garbage carts off street – We did some brainstorming on 
what would be more effective education in changing user behavior.
6. Hero awards are September 28.
7. INC elections – Elected David Harris as President Elect and moved Mike 
Woodard to President, Bill Anderson to Past President.  Also thanks to 
Cheryl for her service.

The meeting was adjourned.

Attachment A:
Resolution on Public Information on Rental Properties

Whereas
The GIS maps available to the public via the City of Durham website make it 
easy for citizens to identify property owners. However, nearly half the 
properties in Durham overall are rental properties, and many of these 
properties are managed by property management companies. When there are 
problems with these properties or the tenants in them, such as possible code 
violations, lack of lawn or structure maintenance, noise violations, or 
criminal activity, there is no easy way for citizens to identify and inform 
the property managers of these problems. These kinds of problems have a 
negative impact on neighborhoods, discouraging residents from investing 
financially and emotionally in their neighborhoods and encouraging 
negligence and criminal activity.

And whereas
The InterNeighborhood Council (INC) of Durham believes that the city of 
Durham should do everything in its power to encourage citizens to actively 
address the problems that contribute to neighborhood blight and criminal 
activity.

Therefore, INC resolves that the City of Durham to require that all property 
managers who manage three (3) or more rental properties in the City of 
Durham provide a complete listing of their rental properties to be posted on 
a city-sponsored website that will be open to the public and searchable by 
street address, and to require that these listings be updated every six 
months.