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Waukegan looks to schools to document overcrowdingCity seeks schoolkid addresses Attack on overcrowding: Waukegan School District asked to provide information ------------------------------------ By Dan Moran STAFF WRITER WAUKEGAN — Five years after settling a federal housing discrimination lawsuit, the city's battle against residential overcrowding continues — and it continues to draw scrutiny. In recent weeks, apartment owners have stepped up their opposition to a city ordinance passed earlier this year that will require annual building inspections prior to issuance of a business license. And, on Tuesday, the Waukegan School District Board of Education is scheduled to vote on a city request to share district information on the home addresses of students enrolled in the district. While the city sees it as a legal means of addressing overcrowding, complaints have been voiced about privacy issues. "The Building Department is looking for assistance in getting particular addresses and numbers of children enrolled in school from those addresses," said Ray Vukovich, Director of Governmental Services. "They see it as one more tool to use in addressing overcrowding. It's a density issue. They're not asking for names or ages." "This is not an overcrowding issue, or a documentation issue," said Mexican-American community activist Margaret Carrasco. "It is a privacy issue." For the apartment owners, privacy considerations are also cited, but there are also financial concerns. The city sees the inspections and related fees as another safeguard against substandard housing, while officials from the Lake County Apartment Owners Association are threatening legal action over what they describe as a violation of basic constitutional rights. "The Waukegan Licensing Ordinance violates, among other things, the prohibition contained in the Fourth Amendment, (which) prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures," wrote Chicago attorney Robert D. Butters in a letter to the City Council last month. While Butters added that the LCAOA wants to negotiate a compromise on the matter, he also wrote that he will recommend the filing of a federal lawsuit if the city fails to address key tenets of the ordinance. LCAOA spokesman Dennis Eash said Friday that recent talks did not go well. "There is no lawsuit yet, but I believe it's probably going to come to that," said Eash, who added that a meeting with city officials on Wednesday did not resolve the LCAOA complaints. "They're not backing down at all. I think they're bound and determined to do this, and I don't know why." Perhaps the primary concern cited by the LCAOA is that under the city ordinance, according to Butters, a property owner "has no choice but to consent to (an inspection) as a condition of renting the property." He added that ordinances supported by court decisions allow for owners to decline the inspection, requiring the municipality to obtain a search warrant. Eash, the owner of two groups of rental properties, said "we're trying to figure out as landlords if we have any right to say yes or no." He added that he's also concerned about the time involved in annual searches and the expense. "It's a 1,000 percent increase in fees on some of my buildings, and 600 percent on some others," said Eash of the $25-per-unit licensing fees called for under the ordinance. Eash added that LCAOA representatives have been told that they will be provided with a list of written procedures later this month, procedures that might address some of the procedural concerns expressed by the apartment owners. Attempts to reach Building Commissioner Charles Perkey were not successful. Regarding the city's request for student addresses from the school district, Board of Education President Robert Taylor said Friday that the matter was on the agenda for open discussion and perhaps a vote on Tuesday. He declined to offer insight on what the board has had to say on the subject, adding that the issue has only been discussed to date in closed session. Carrasco said she hopes parents from all ethnic backgrounds pay attention to the board's action. "I bet you the majority of parents out there would be against information being released to other governmental agencies without their consent," Carrasco said. "I think and I would hope that the school district's attorney would look into all the ramifications before they vote. "I am not supportive of overcrowding in any way, shape or form," Carrasco added. "But it is a privacy issue ... I hope we can work in a positive way with the parents on this." Vukovich said the city is simply responding to continued complaints from community members about substandard or overcrowded housing. He maintained that asking for information on the number of students from households does not echo the situation in the late 1990s, when Waukegan housing authorities were accused of engaging in a pattern of discrimination against Hispanic residents based on national origin criteria of the U.S. Fair Housing Act. While Waukegan officials maintained they were focusing on overcrowding conditions and denied the accusations of ethnic discrimination, they worked out a consent decree with the Justice Department in 1997 that, among other things, called for the city to accept the federal government's definition of a family. In this case, Vukovich said, the city is "staying within the law" because it's not questioning the size or makeup of families. "When you've got a two-bedroom apartment with six kids registered in school and six cars in the driveway, you start doing the math," Vukovich said. "The issue in the past was the definition of a family. The issue with the city of Waukegan has to work with is the density. The question before was, 'Are they related?' That's not the case now." Instead, Vukovich said the numbers of enrolled students will be used with sets of facts and observations used by building inspectors to determine if too many unrelated residents are living in a residence. Among the things inspectors look for are the numbers of cars on driveways, the amount of trash placed at the curb and the levels of water consumed by an account. 12/07/02 |
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