Bauman Fighting Bureaucracy On Restoring Vacant Homes

Houses on W. Windlake Ave. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Alderman Robert Bauman‘s attempts to bolster a successful housing preservation initiative have been beset by an almost comical amount of red tape and bureaucracy.

In October, Bauman attempted to divert $150,000 of the $3.3 million that Mayor Cavalier Johnson allocated for demolishing vacant homes to the Housing Infrastructure Preservation Fund (HIPF).

The fund is used to provide forgivable loans to buyers of city-owned homes in need of substantial renovation. Created in 2009, roughly $3 million has been invested in approximately 50 homes, yielding approximately $6 million in assessed property value.

“I think close scrutiny of this list will indicate that this has been pretty successful in avoiding demolition of properties and restoring them to active use and putting them back on the tax rolls, in some cases at very high assessed values,” said Bauman last week.

But the amendment by Bauman was rejected and ultimately withdrawn because of concerns from council members about slowing down the demolition of blighted properties. Bauman, an attorney by trade, threw in the towel in pursuit of another strategy: drawing $300,000 from a capital account for the city’s stalled deconstruction program.

According to the City Attorney’s Office, reallocating the deconstruction money violates state law because it involves transferring appropriated money from one department to another.

“I was induced to withdraw that amendment to follow this course and then told this course won’t work. That’s no way to play a council member, guys,” said Bauman, expressing exasperation during a special Dec. 10 Public Works Committee meeting.

City Comptroller Bill Christianson proffered a two-step workaround: freeze $300,000 from the $840,000 remaining in the deconstruction program and approve $300,000 in contingent borrowing for the HIPF. The net effect would be budget neutral and achieve Bauman’s goal.

Except: “We haven’t had the chance to fully vet this idea,” said Christianson as a disclaimer.

In fact, more red tape could hold up the idea. Assistant city attorney Thomas Miller said a 1980 legal opinion from the city’s bond counsel could derail the effort, but he needed to do more research.

Meanwhile a 1959 legal opinion — with several follow-ups over the years — is what blocks Bauman’s direct deconstruction transfer. “This is a longstanding conclusion,” Miller said and added that knowingly violating the law exposes city officials to financial liability.

Budget director Nik Kovac, a former alderman and supporter of HIPF, said the city continues to work on a solution. “I think it was all in good faith,” said budget director Nik Kovac. “I am an unabashed preservationist.”

But he said his boss, the mayor, isn’t ready to respond to the idea.

Bauman and the City Clerk‘s office also played their own role in the bureaucracy. Bauman’s latest proposal was created on Nov. 8 following the budget meeting, but wasn’t filled out for the City Attorney until Dec. 5. “That’s on us,” said Bauman. “The fact that it never got to you guys, that’s our fault. Because this has been ready to go, in my head, since mid-November.”

New files with the bifurcated strategy are to be introduced following the council’s next meeting on Tuesday.

“That will put us into January and I guess we’ll revisit the matter then,” said Bauman.

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