2010-0916 Regular City Commission Meeting

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Summary Minutes: Regular City Commission Meeting September 16,2010 City of Sunny Isles Beach, Florida 7B. An Ordinance of the City Commission of the City of Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, Amending Chapter 253 of the Code of Ordinances to Include Registration of Foreclosed Properties; Providing for Severability; Providing for Inclusion in the Code; Providing for Repealer; Providing for an Effective Date. Action: City Clerk Hines read the title, and Assistant City Manager/Services Vera reported that this will establish a program identifying and registering those vacant units that are being foreclosed. This ordinance will set the responsibility ofthe entity foreclosing the unit owner to apply with the City and pay a yearly fee. The purpose of this ordinance is to ensure a data base of owners of foreclosed properties for maintenance purposes. Public Speakers: None Mayor Edelcup asked how the City will know when there is a foreclosure, and Assistant City Manager Vera said that they have been submitting the applications for foreclosures to us. Mayor Edelcup said then it is up to the individuals, and policing this will be difficult, and Mr. Vera said normally we get the title companies or the banks that send us the applications because they have been following the vacant lots, and all we are doing is including the foreclosures. City Attorney Ottinot said also on foreclosed properties, when the lender forecloses, the City Attorney's Office gets a copy of the lease, and a copy of the foreclosed lawsuit, of which we alert Code Enforcement. The purpose is to deal with vacant foreclosure properties and this ordinance is to ensure that those properties are well kept and maintained, and that staff have a data base that if the property is not well maintained or we receive complaints from residents, we can find out who is the lender, who is responsible for the property, and as the Mayor indicated, sometimes a tenant or an owner will continue to live there, and so there will be no registration requirement for that. Commissioner Scholl said he doesn't understand how we are going to figure this out unless we go to commercially available data bases because the lenders are not going to know, and if these foreclosure attorneys don't check our ordinances, they don't notify the City, and so he believes we need a pro-active mechanism that every time there is a lease appendence filed we determine whether or not a property is vacant or not, or we don't do it at all. Because of the way it is written, we are not going to have the data as it is voluntary, and we will not be able to accomplish our goal. To determine if a property is vacant or not is basically a site visit. Commissioner Brezin asked if the foreclosed property is sold who would be responsible for the maintenance, and City Attorney Ottinot said at the time of sale of any property the lender would generally clean up all these issues at the title company, and so outstanding lien issues will be corrected at the time of sale. Commissioner Goodman said in a condominium, the condominium board would know if there is a foreclosure because they are not paying maintenance, and so they hire a lawyer. City Attorney Ottinot said they will create a process and fine tune it. Mayor Edelcup said that they don't want to pass an ordinance if there is no way to enforce it. Commissioner Scholl said to clean it up and to table it until the next Commission meeting. Commissioner Scholl moved and Commissioner Brezin seconded a motion to continue it to the October 14,2010 Commission meeting. The motion was approved by a voice vote of 5-0 in favor. 3