City Manager Gibbons and Fire Chief Keen presented options Nov. 3 for expanding fire inspections of rental housing in Garden City, focusing on multifamily buildings and life‑safety systems not captured in the three‑year single‑family rental inspection program.

"A 100 and, in 5 years of checking, rentals, we discovered 1,844 missing bedroom smoke alarms," City Manager Gibbons told the council, adding that about "90.6 percent of those have been corrected." Gibbons said the single‑family rental inspection currently includes a life‑safety scope and occurs every three years, but that multifamily buildings pose different risks.

Fire Chief Keen said peer communities commonly include multifamily buildings in a dedicated fire inspection program and noted items unique to multifamily properties such as alarm certification, sprinkler maintenance and unobstructed egress. "I didn't find any fire departments that do fire inspections on single family homes, specifically just as a fire inspector. But what we did find is a lot of them do it for multifamily," Chief Keen said, describing situations where blocked doors or nonfunctional stairway access were discovered only through an inspection.

Councilmembers asked about fees and inspection frequency. Chief Keen said commercial inspection fees are typically tiered by square footage with a $75 minimum in some local practice; peer cities often use a flat fee plus a per‑unit charge that varied in examples he cited from roughly $45 to $125 per unit. Chief Keen and staff said ordinance changes would be required to implement a standalone multifamily fire inspection program.

Council did not adopt an ordinance. Members requested that staff provide draft ordinance language, a fee schedule or fee‑model options, and estimates of anticipated annual inspections and associated revenues or costs for council consideration.