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Bowling Green council adopts changes to rental registration ordinance, keeps delinquency clause
Summary
City Council adopted Ordinance 9,255 amending Chapter 121 on rental dwelling registration. Council debated and ultimately retained subsection 121.05(3) requiring property owners to be current on taxes, fees or other monies related to the property; adoption was unanimous.
The Bowling Green City Council voted to adopt Ordinance 9,255, which amends chapter 121 of the codified ordinances governing rental dwelling registration, and decided to retain subsection 121.05(3) that conditions continuation in the self‑certification inspection program on a property owner not being delinquent on taxes, fees or other monies related to the property.
Council member Phipps moved to adopt Ordinance 9,255; the motion was seconded and the ordinance was adopted following a roll‑call vote in which all named members voted yes. The roll call recorded "Yes" from Hollenbaugh, Musgrave, O'Dorisio, Phipps, Robinette, Dennis and Harold.
Council discussion focused on a staff‑proposed cleanup to chapter 121 that would have removed subsection 121.05(3). Hunter, a city staff member who worked with enforcement of the chapter, summarized staff input: "It's kind of ambiguous as to what fees you're talking about," Hunter said, adding that identifying and verifying debts such as traffic fines or older tax records would be practically difficult to enforce and often temporally out of sync with property status. Hunter said Heather Sailor, who manages enactment of the chapter, had proposed the edits earlier and that those edits were intended to improve enforceability.
Several council members said they regarded the delinquency clause as a useful enforcement tool and moved to keep it. A motion "to leave 121.05(three) as it currently reads" passed on a roll call in which the same council members voted yes. After that, Council member Phipps moved to adopt Ordinance 9,255; the ordinance was adopted as amended.
The adopted ordinance makes multiple small edits throughout chapter 121 to clarify language and address enactment issues, according to staff. The record does not supply the full text of the amendments beyond the discussion of 121.05(3). The transcript records an appellate‑court case was mentioned in discussion of statutory interpretation but provides no citation; staff and council did not tie that case to the city’s ordinance text.
The ordinance was adopted as amended; the transcript provides no implementation date or effective date for the changes beyond the adoption vote.
