Franklin Reserve Neighborhood Association

On behalf of the Franklin Reserve Neighborhood Association (FRNA), I would like to give you more information about an ordinance recently mentioned in the Sacramento Bee that we proposed to the City of Elk Grove. The ordinance would better enable neighborhood associations and citizens to contact residential property owners about the condition of their properties. As proposed by FRNA to the City of Elk Grove, the ordinance would accomplish the following:

Require owners of residential rental property in Elk Grove and the property management companies managing their Elk Grove residential rental properties to register with the City Clerk. The resulting residential rental property registry would include the names and addresses of the owners and their property management companies and would be searchable online only by the address of the property.
Require mortgage lending institutions to register with the City Clerk all residential properties in Elk Grove upon which they have foreclosed within ten (10) days of foreclosure and to post on each property the name of the mortgage lending institution, a contact person for the mortgage lending institution to whom problems with the property should be reported, and the address, telephone number and e-mail address for the contact person.
Require the City to make publicly assessable county assessor property ownership records for residential parcels and units within the City, to be accessible only at the City Clerk's Office or on the City's internet website, searchable online by physical address of the property only.

The proposed ordinance was born of the frustration of FRNA members in trying to reach residential property owners about their properties and, in some cases, their tenants. I personally have had to resort to asking real estate agents and others to find publicly availably but not easily accessible property ownership records for problem properties and tenants in the FRNA area. At this point, the City Attorney is working with the Elk Grove Police Department and the Community Enhancement Department to revise our proposed ordinance into discrete ordinances. However, we do not know whether the City Attorney's draft ordinance will encompass all that our proposed ordinance does. The City Attorney is tentatively scheduled to present the City's version of our proposed ordinance to the City Council sometime in June. We are advising you because we do not know how much time we will have to analyze and, if acceptable, garner support for the proposed ordinance. The Sacramento Rental Housing Association has already approached FRNA with some of its concerns about the proposed ordinance.

As soon as we have the City Attorney's proposed ordinance, we will let you know. Assuming the City Attorney's proposed ordinance is satisfactory to the FRNA membership, we hope to work with other Elk Grove neighborhood associations and community leaders to ensure its passage by the City Council.