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Rental Inspections Begin AgainVision News - March 21, 2003 A lack of information from the City of Waukegan's Administration to the Hispanic community might be the origin of disagreements in the past weeks, opined three religious leaders who met with the Mayor to discuss the subject of rental property inspections. Mayor of Waukegan, Richard Hyde, met with the religious representatives on Monday, March 10th to explain why the rental property inspection program that checks for safety, cleanliness, overcrowding and other things could result in administrative infractions. With few others in attendance, three well-known Hispanic leaders attended the meeting at the public library. They were Father Mike Bohen, representative of the Catholic Church, Pastor Bilovar Rodriguez of the Pentecostal Church and Celestino Guzman of the Apostolic Assembly. Tony Figueroa also attended. Father Mike said that he was not in agreement with the actions the City has taken under the direction of Richard Hyde. Primarily because the police invade homes (with a court order) where the renter has denied access to the inspectors. "Where is the video?" Father asked, referring to the Spanish video which the City said they were going to distribute to the Hispanic community to explain t he benefits of the inspections. Pastor Celestino Guzman of the Apostolic Assembly Church asked the Mayor the same question and was told that the video was on its way. "If it's for the benefit of the renters, who should be worried? The inspectors will be doing them a favor. He who owes nothing fears nothing," said Celestino Guzman at the end of the meeting. In the end they were clear in saying that the use of force should be avoided in order to carry out the inspections. "The best way is to educate our people, since because of our culture we are always on the defensive. There has been very little information. The reason for the inspections has not been well explained," ended Guzman. Pastor Bolivar Rodriguez said that rental property inspections were necessary. "Since it has not been done in been many years. As a church I am going to communicate this with my assistants," said the Pastor. In some recent media coverage, it was reported that the municipality of West Chicago, Illinois, could be the object of a lawsuit by a Hispanic family whose home was broken into by the police for the inspection. The victims accuse the City of persecuting them solely for being Hispanic. The local administration of Mayor Richard Hyde has declared that these types of situations will not happen here since there are other examples of cities where rental property inspections for safety, cleanliness and number of inhabitants have been a success. With regard to overcrowding in one home, Mayor Richard Hyde said at the meeting that this type of over-population causes repercussions on the economy of the city and he sited as an example the lack of teachers in some schools who were hired because of population increases. |
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