Kudos to City of Grant’s attorney on guidance to council

A new vacant property ordinance for the City of Grant was passed Monday night by its council. I am not a fan of the government getting into every part of the lives of its citizens, but I do applaud the city for being proactive in trying to eliminate blighted vacant properties in our community and freeing them up for much needed housing and economic development. There was some push back on the new ordinance, which is to be expected, and I hope the council is prudent and wise in how it enforces the ordinance. I hope they take into consideration the property owner’s situation and work with the owner in using the property more constructively, which I am sure the council will do. 

 There was one piece of the process I was concerned with as the council worked with the ordinance over the past weeks. This was the council’s consideration of hiring out the management and enforcement of the ordinance to organizations in eastern Nebraska. I think that if an ordinance like this is established by a community, it should be enforced by the community and not by an outside entity that may not be in tune to the nuances of the community. The city, however, did not contract with the outside organizations on advice from City Attorney Tawna Holmstedt. 

The entity that the city was considering contracting for enforcement of the ordinance would have required that it be hired first, along with a law firm the entity had chosen, and THEN for the ordinance to be written by the city in line with what the entity’s preferences were for the ordinance. There was also a question between the city’s attorney and the entity  with how fees would be established through the ordinance, which was not clear. During discussion with the enforcement agency, Holmstedt questioned the purpose of the entity wanting to be hired first if the city did not have an ordinance for them to enforce, and what leverage would the city have in ending the contract with the entity if the ordinance process eventually fell through. Because of these differences, Holmstedt advised the council to not enter into an agreement with the entity. It was a smart move by the city’s attorney. 

It is imperative that our local community maintains as much control over our local decisions as possible, and not let outside entities come in and dictate to us what is or is not right for our community. I commend the city’s attorney for taking this stand and the council for listening to her.