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Council delays changes to rental‑registration code after staff say full text missing from packet
Summary
The council discussed proposed amendments to Pullman’s rental‑registration code—chiefly a change to eliminate annual re‑registration—but deferred action after staff noted the packet did not include the full code text for review.
Police Chief Aaron Brashears told the City Council on Aug. 12 that Pullman’s rental‑registration code currently requires property owners to register rental units annually and supply identifying contact information so police can notify owners about qualifying public‑safety incidents under state law.
Brashears said his staff has processed about 1,200 registrations and that initial registration takes roughly 15 minutes of staff time. He recommended changing the code to require a one‑time registration unless ownership or contact information changes, to reduce administrative burden on both the police department and property owners. Brashears also proposed that corporate property owners not be required to provide personal identifying information such as a date of birth, while individual owners would continue to provide identifying details.
Council members asked for practical clarifications about implementation. Councilmember Weller asked how staff would learn about ownership changes; Brashears said staff would typically discover ownership changes only when responding to incidents or through public records searches and that proactive county‑level tracking is not feasible within current staff resources. Councilmember Parks asked whether automated annual reminder messages could be sent; Brashears said staff planned outreach and considered automated reminders once the ordinance, if adopted, is in place. The police records system (Spillman) currently holds the registrations and can be accessed by regional dispatch for emergencies, he added.
After discussion, the mayor and council were told the draft in the meeting packet contained only markups and did not include the full codified language, some of which was not intended for change. Councilmember De Lehi moved to table the item so staff can provide a full, corrected ordinance text; the motion was made after the chief’s presentation and the council agreed to bring the item back with complete language for a future meeting.
