Council gets feedback on rental inspections

After years of work to revamp the city’s rental inspection ordinance, inspections are trucking along. However, some concerns have been brought to the Creston City Council.

Landlord Jason Cook shared his inspection experience with the council Tuesday during public forum. His main concern was the difference in what the city’s rental checklist required and what the inspectors wanted.

“One of the big problems I had, I spent a lot of money on handrails I didn’t need to spend, because the new building code you adopted is two or more stairs, the OSHA requirement is four or more and that’s what he goes by,” Cook said. “We put GFIs on things we didn’t need to, things I don’t actually want them on, like sump pumps, things that he did not look for.”

At the previous council meeting, council member Jen Worisek brought up similar concerns. She said she accompanied Cook on his rental inspections to get a feel for what was happening.

“The thing he talked about was how much money he spent putting in railings, when maybe he didn’t necessarily have to,” Worisek said. “That was just one thing I observed. the dude said four or more steps, but the checklist says different.”

Regarding the stairs, the checklist adopted by the council in January 2024 does not use specific language. The list requires “all stairs are in sound condition and good repair. All stairs must have handrails and balusters or similar features that prevents a fall hazard from open-sided stairs.”

Creston currently employs Iowa Inspections, owned by Jason VanAusdall, to do rental inspections in town. The council has made it clear in previous meetings a different inspector can be chosen at any time if the city wasn’t happy with the results. However, city administrator Mike Taylor asked the council to give VanAusdall a little more time.

“I told him that we would want a follow-up meeting here in a couple months. We’re just getting started,” Taylor said. “If we need to add something as minor as, if we have to say how many steps and show it on the checklist, I can easily add that. I think that would be considered a minor change, I don’t think it would be big to just add it. There’s still a lot of things that need to be changed anyway.”

Another concern brought up by Cook was regarding written information on how his property did in the inspection.

“He said that both my properties were graded as excellent,” Cook said. “I guess my permits are good until public works sends me a notice that it isn’t, because I have nothing to go by. I didn’t get a receipt. He does need [the checklist] for giving the landlords what they need to fix.”

Worisek confirmed the inspector did not use a physical checklist in the inspection, which can cause problems for both the landlords and the city. Taylor said Iowa Inspections had been recording information on Google Calendars rather than physical lists.

“That’s not acceptable. They told us there would be a drive and that the reports would be uploaded and that they would be put into a spreadsheet so that our staff could follow up,” council member Kiki Scarberry said. “If he’s not using a sheet of paper and they are not signing off on it, then they are not holding up their end of the deal.”

Scarberry and Taylor both said they would talk to VanAusdall about the issues. No formal action was taken.