Springfield, IL (CAPITOL CITY NOW) – Property owners in Springfield that are chronic offenders of city codes may now have to register with the city.

At Tuesday night’s Springfield City Council Committee of the Whole, an ordinance was moved to final approval that increases fines for bad actors, lists out specific housing violations the city can use to prosecute repeat offenders, and target all buildings with in a site, for example, the Old Towne Apartments, rather than each building on a property separately.

Alderman Roy Williams doesn’t think the ordinance goes far enough. He pointed out that, at least in his ward, a new tenant is living in a property as soon as the previous tenant moves out and there hasn’t even been time for any sort of clean up. Williams says he wants to see an “inspection in inspection out approach” so that properties are brought up to code before a new tenant moves in.

Ward 6 Alderwoman Jennifer Notariano expressed concerns that Springfield does not have enough inspectors to do the job, saying the City has far more police officers than it does property inspectors. Ward 10 Alderman Ralph Hanauer says it’s always the landlord’s fault; that sometimes tenants who leave are the problem, but he does agree the city needs to look at where the repeat offenders are.

Corporation Counsel Greg Moredock said the City has had success on the criminal side prosecuting bad property owners, and said one of the goals with this ordinance is to make the process easier to understand from an inspection level and the city enforcement side. He said the goal is also to list out violations, list out the procedure to prosecute, and creating the registry.