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Sunday, May 24, 2015
A Letter To The Editor: SALISBURY CITY COUNCIL MEETING HELD 5/18/15
JOE - Please help in a matter concerning the City Council Meeting last night. I got up and spoke on the behalf of the home owners in the city of Salisbury. I stated in my very first sentence that I did not agree that students were the problem in over occupancy, that in the 45 years I have lived in Salisbury I can remember only one incident involving students in our neighborhood, that was one loud party one time in 45 years! I do wish someone would read the transcripts from last nite or listen to them as I HAVE ASKED FOR A RETRACTION. The words were twisted I feel deliberately, the problem is city wide, over occupancy is because of the landlords who do not monitor their properties or listen to the complaints of those neighborhoods where there rentals are. The landlords are stepping on the feet of home owners in the city, who have purchased their homes, and take care of them, and want a quality of life which includes peace and respect.
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24 comments:
The Salisbury City Council MO is to twist words to suit them - especially if what you are saying is contrary to their published doctrine!
Collectively, we elected and reelected these clowns because not enough of us voted - or voted for good people. Good people ran for election - and were outvoted by the uninformed that want things to remain in the degraded state it is in!
The main problem with this Council and administration is that they like to pass the buck. Ive been arguing with all of them for SIX MONTHS about a simple noise ordinance. Jake Day says its the responsibility of the administration to enforce it, and the admin says its up to the council. I have over 100 emails back and forth with everyone in a leadership position, and none of those emails amounts to shit. Gillis Gilkerson gets away with breaking the law ON A DAILY BASIS, and nothing is done. In fact, Palmer Gillis told me yesterday that "he cant control everything on his job sites".....seriously??? Youre a liar Palmer.
Jim Ireton is a liar
Jake Day thinks it is a game.
Laura Mitchell is too busy to respond.
None of the other 3 council members has not responded to ANY CORRESPONDENCE.
The law is so simple to follow....7am-6pm.....thats it. You cant work outside those hours according to the ordinance, but they allow it every day. SPD has responded dozens of times at the request of my neighbors and I, yet nothing is done. Gillis just keeps on trampling over our rights and the law that was written to protect those rights.
Its all about money. Its all about how fast they can get these projects finished so the city revenue can start rolling in (even tho its non-tax paying students moving in).
If the Council and Administration are allowed to continue on their current path, it wont be much longer before this city is FULLY ruined. High crime, lowered property values, businesses leaving/closing, thugs roaming the streets, polluted rivers....these are complicated problems that they will NEVER BE ABLE TO FIX, but, give them a simple thing like a noise ordinance to handle and they cant even get that right. The incompetence overflows like a swollen river.
If ANY ONE of these city "leaders" tells me Gillis Gilkerson and Terra Firma are not being PROTECTED, I will call you a filthy LIAR.
GET YOUR HEADS OUT OF YOUR ASSES AND START PROTECTING THE PEOPLE THAT VOTED YOUR SORRY ASSES IN !!
I wonder just how much campaign contribution each council person was given by the landlords and Gillis?
I know Shanie will do whatever you need done for a $50 donation to her church. She proved that when the towing ordinances were written.
Forget your rights as a tax paying citizen. They will trample all over your rights chasing that dollar.
Salisbury has gone way down the tubes with Fake, Liarton, Dunkin Donut, Morphine Mitchell, Shamu Shields, and Tomboy Stevenson.
I hope they reap what they sow. All of your days are numbered as "leaders" and you guys know it.
I watched that meeting, too. But I came away with the feeling that the council agreed that it's mostly bad landlords that drag the neighborhoods and the city down, but that students play a role in making life difficult for some neighborhoods and streets. I also came away with the thought that part of the problem is overcrowding, and that if there weren't limits on the number of people landlords could stuff in a house things would be much worse in many ways, like parking, trash on the property and up and down the street, noise, people and vehicle traffic at all hours, increased police calls, fire calls, etc. They were looking at records of houses that have had over 50 neighbor-initiated and repeat calls by police, fire and housing inspectors in a three or four year period. There was a short list provided of about 20 properties with problems like that, but they said that there were many more. Sad to say, but ALL of them were occupied by Salisbury University students, and the director of NSCC said in response to a question that there were NO properties that were major problems that weren't rented to and occupied by students, and most of those were not far from the university.
So, it looks to me like it's a problem with both bad landlords and some students. And it looks, too, like most of the problem landlords are from out of town and don't give a damn about what this city is or what it becomes, or about what the neighbors think.
What do you mean by saying you ask for a retraction? A retraction of what?
Believe me, we know slum lords are the problem in Salisbury, MD and the city does absolutely nothing about it. And 7:45 AM, you are absolutely right. 7:15 AM, good people did run, and enough people did vote, but....it's all in how those votes were recorded and counted isn't it????
The problem is county wide. These slum lords pack 4 to 6 college kids ( sometimes more) in nice neighborhoods in the county. These unruly college kids, party all the time, and keep the what used to be, neighborhoods up. The sheriff does nothing, they are useless.
We have to call the state police to get any results.
We've seen sex in their front yard, deaficating in their front yard, etc. plus beer bottles in everyones yard. They have no respect.
2 years ago, 7 couples moved out of the house on our street that were crammed into a 4 bedroom 2 bath house. all college kids.
It was a real animal house.
Last year a black fraternity controled it. We had up to 34 cars on the street at one time now and then. The landlord won't address it nor will the college or sheriff.
The state police have started cracking down. Thank goodness they see the problem.
But there needs to be a 2 person limit ordinance in the county also.
What are you guys complaining for?
Damnit, we have a bike lane and Pride Night to be proud of.
The city council enacts laws and authorizes the budget and other expenditures of tax dollars.
It doesn't have the power to enforce laws or have any control of the police or any other department in the city. The administration (mayor and department heads) does that.
"I wonder just how much campaign contribution each council person was given by the landlords and Gillis? "
The information is public. Some is on the city website and the rest can be requested from the city clerk.
Shanie Shields campaign contributions were over 95% from landlords. Laura Mitchell and Jake Day also had landlord contributors.
The only currently seated and voted-in council member with zero contributions by landlords is Tim Spies.
Palmer Gillis made no campaign contributions to anyone.
The thing is that landlords do not care what you all think. Money is the bottom line. They know they can get 500.00 per bedroom from the students parents where if they rented to a family they could only get a REASONABLE rent. That is why families can not find housing. The council falls right into their pockets also.
The problem started in the 1980s when the university (then the college) stopped creating any more student housing (dorms) but steadily increased its enrollment numbers. This opened the door to landlords buying up family housing at prices families couldn't afford, then renting the homes at prices families couldn't afford. Some of these houses rent for upwards of $700 per month per student, plus utilities and deposits. No family can afford to rent a house for nearly $3000 per month.
I hope and pray that all of the houses you are currently complaining about over crowding become vacant eyesores when no one or two individuals can afford to rent them. Then you can complain until they are torn down and the tax revenue is gone and your taxes go up. Do you seriously think that any two college students can afford to rent on their own with out other roommates. Get real. Perhaps we should just get the university to just buy up the rest of the town around the area and the whining will stop. You said you only had one complaint in 45 years. Is no one listening. I know not the sniffling mayor.
And now we've got a couple of lawsuits against the city by two of Salisbury's biggest landlords (a married couple), saying that limiting the number of unrelated people that can live in a house in a designated by law, single family zoned neighborhoods is unconstitutional.
These two, by the way, own(ed) the house on Maryland Avenue where the giant party was held two springs ago that spilled out over a three block area.
One complaint in 45 years? You're lucky. My street, which is 90% college rental, has had over 45 complaints in one year.
"SPD has responded dozens of times at the request of my neighbors and I, yet nothing is done."
sounds like a bunch of old people sitting around looking out their windows with nothing better to do than call the cops for kids walking on their grass or people working 30 mins past the cut off time. big friggin deal. working construction its hard to get a full 40 hour week in, lots of variables. you work when you can. it would taken a lot longer to finish a project if people had to stick to old people hours.
so 10% of the street has wasted that much of the cops time over some noise? then people turn around and bitch about spending money in police departments on frivolous things, like unnecessary calls for noise. oh no i cant hear my jeopardy because the kids 3 houses down are letting some steam off after studying 3 days straight for exams!!! how dare they have fun!!
College students are spoiled nowadays. They live in these nice condos now with walk in closets and private baths. Put them in a tiny dorm with a roommate and live like students used to. Also, on campus without a car.
"so 10% of the street has wasted that much of the cops time over some noise?"
Noise (reported by people on this street and 2 adjacent streets and two opposing streets), illegal parking (in front yards, in front of fire hydrants, in front of driveways, across sidewalks), trespassing, public urination (male and female), littering (including broken bottles on sidewalks, others' yards and in gutters, party cups up and down the street, week upon week of uncollected newspapers), failure to maintain property (mowing, etc.), vandalism, leaving trash bins on the street for days at a time, etc.). The list goes on and it's all about being good neighbors and long-time residents who see the whole neighborhood turning to crap, the crime go up and the property values go down because of those bad neighbors and because of those landlords who don't keep tabs on their properties.
If I had a business like this, I'd be sure to visit or at least do a drive-by a minimum of once a week. Just a quick view of a property can tell a lot about what goes on there. But if you live in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey or nearer to D.C., you're probably not going to do that, and only if you have a property manager worth his salt will it ever happen.
You folks that do not live within ear shot of student housing developments/neighborhoods have no idea what you are talking about. Nobody has a problem with the students if they are respectful of other peoples rights and property, but, there are those that werent raised to be that way, so you have animals constantly tearing shit up, stealing things, driving like jerks through the neighborhoods, parking their cars on your lawn, trash left behind, vomit & feces, and the list goes on and on. So dont preach to us about "old people hours" and "kids letting off steam after studying for three whole days." Thats the biggest crock of crap Ive ever heard.
12:22 PM
Thank you, commenter.
And to the majority of college students, who are conscientious, well-behaved and evidently not raised by wolves, we don't include you in our complaints. On the contrary, thanks for being responsible neighbors.
In the 90's, the house I was renting while in college sold for $53000.
The rent was $750/mo. The mortgage on that house had to be no more than $300/mo.
Making 2.5x cash flow and getting others to buy property for you seemed like a great deal, so I looked into it. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough resources to buy a house. It requires a lot of capital to do it right. But once you've got the system rolling, it's pretty darn easy to pick up another property.
Last year, I saw an ad trying to rent it for $1800/mo. It now pays for itself every 3 years.
For those who are proposing we turn these houses back into owner-occupied properties, consider this - how are people supposed to save up enough to buy a house, when they're stuck in this horrible cartel-driven rental market? It's taken me 15 years to get to that point. And I gladly purchased outside of Wicomico County, where the community is better run, crime rates are lower, and the real estate market has held up a lot better than around here.
I don't really consider being a landlord a missed opportunity, though. I value my reputation too much to be a slumlord and treat people like many rental places do.
Slumlords and the Gillis clan control Salisbury. Shields, Mitchell and Day -- and possibly Mr. Heath -- are their puppets.
Ireton spent his first term crucifying Cohen and Campbell instead of enforcing the law or letting them get their jobs done on strengthening these law (not that he'd spend time enforcing them.)
He also spent time teaming up with the landlord couple who are suing about over-occupancy, too, running that stupid attorney petition around instead of doing his job.
Now an election's coming and he's trying to act like he cares. He'll blame everyone but himself.
Pretty easy to see why the town's in the toilet.
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