We need Federal, county and city government to accomplish what we, as citizens, cannot do on our own. Most politicians and government employees are impressive, dedicated, and hard working individuals. We can’t make it in life without them.
The flip side is government is not always right and any government entity can include politicians and government employees who use poor judgment or are guilty of abuse of power. Some who are associated with government are focused on supporting their own personal hidden agenda that is in no way beneficial to the citizens they have pledged to serve.
Even worse, I have observed that a few politicians and government employees suffer from psychological issues. I am not talking about an obviously crazy person standing naked in the middle of an intersection screaming at the top of their lungs. I am referring to high-functioning employees with subtle, but serious psychological issues. They make a good public impression until you get a chance to see what they are really like when their flaws and defects are exposed.
Most citizens are outside looking in at government. Some citizens are inside government, looking out. I have experienced both views at the Federal, county, and city level dating back over the past 49 years.
As I contemplate City of Lakewood’s new rental inspection program, I am reminded of two specific government employees who, by consensus, are judged to be defective human beings. The two of them are examples of the kind of employees / agents we would not want working in or managing a rental inspection program.
One low-level employee is lazy in addition to being a liar, a thief, and a con. Based on his historical job description, he might easily be the kind of employee who would become a rental inspector.
Should that happen, we would have a defective human being forcing his way into rental properties as dictated by Lakewood City Council in conjunction with their new “do-gooder” rental inspection program.
Thankfully, this particular individual’s employment relationship was severed because integrity issues came to light. He made a graceful exit in lieu of being fired.
The second employee is a high-level employee who is still employed. He is an empire builder. He has a history of bad behavior including extremely poor judgment, multiple traffic offenses, abuse of power, purposefully violating laws and assaulting a police officer. He is smooth operator and does an excellent job covering his mental defects and poor behavior. He is a government scandal waiting to happen.
The specific identity of the employees and government entity(s) is not germane to the point I am trying to make.
The people Lakewood City Council pushes through a renter’s front door may be honest, fair, and hard working. They might prove to be delightful and helpful. I get that.
Conversely, what I am saying is when the City of Lakewood gives legal power to city employees or agents for the city to invade private citizen homes, it is possible the invaders will be defective, power-hungry human beings with no common sense. These invaders can be sexual deviants or common thieves.
I am not predicting it is definitely going to happen, but I am suggesting defective human beings have soured government service in the past and it will happen again. I know because I have witnessed these very dynamics inside government.
Our city has set up their program so that renters and property owners, who have not committed a crime, will have no readily available alternative but to let city chosen strangers into their homes even though the City of Lakewood lacks probable cause for any wrongdoing on the part of the owner or renter.
While the City would not knowingly employ evil doers, the City of Lakewood cannot guarantee to the victims of this invasion process that the invaders are not evil.
The City of Lakewood has announced plans for two informational meetings where they will explain what they are going to do to the citizens of Lakewood. Click on the link that follows for meeting details. RESIDENTIAL RENTAL INSPECTION PROGRAM.
I urge all Lakewood citizens, including citizens with no connection to the rental industry, property managers, renters, and rental property owners to attend one of the scheduled informational meetings.
If we look beyond the attractive wrapping paper and bow on the City of Lakewood’s information package, I think we are going to find a lump of coal inside.
We all need to better understand how our city council thinks and votes when it comes to our personal freedom and Constitutional Rights. Knowing this before our next Lakewood City Council election might well help guide our vote.
Understand, you may be the next citizen who gets punished for the sins of a few because that is how six out of seven current Lakewood City Council members solve problems.
I disagree.
My recommendation: Do not attend the meetings the city has set to explain the Rental Inspection Program (RIP).
Make the city do the job they should have done in the first place – inform, educate, ‘robustly’ communicate to and with the citizens they are elected to serve about the intricacies of the already existing Landlord-Tenant Act.
No attendance at meetings is necessary for the city to responsibly do its job.
The city has spent one-quarter-of-a-million dollars on a software program to support the RIP. And yet the city council rejected, summarily-dismissed, out-of-hand, an opportunity they considered – briefly – to provide a service to the residents by which to act upon perceived-or-real landlord-tenant disputes. The reason? The city council judged it too costly (links available).
The greatest travesty – by far – in this whole escapade of the Rental Inspection Program is written in stone – literally – a stone’s throw from the administration office inside the grounds of the just completed Puyallup Fair.
There, probably unbeknownst to many, is an inscription – in stone – by then Washington State Governor John Spellman who wrote, August 21, 1983:
“This monument is dedicated to the memory of the 7,390 men, women and children who were imprisoned on these grounds from April to September 1942. May it forever stand as a reminder that the protections provided by our constitution are only as effective as the will of our citizens and our government to uphold them.”
Setting aside the constitutional protections against warrantless searches of private property which rentals are, by government – and government-approved inspectors – is the chief evil this current city council has perpetuated upon the masses under the guise of safety.
The solution is simple:
1. Do not attend the meetings;
2. Do not vote for the incumbents;
3. Once a councilmember is elected who understands the travesty of what is happening here with the Rental Inspection Program, they can inquire of the Municipal Research Services Center (which will only answer questions from elected representatives, not from the public, and none – zero – of our current city council would do that even though they were asked to give due diligence to their representative duty) as to whether the RIP is subject to referendum; then
4. If it is, the initiative is put before the people (it’s long-since been drafted) and we vote to dismantle this onerous, intrusive, overbearing, overreaching bureaucracy and return sanity, commonsense and constitutional protections to the rightful place they belong.
It is my understanding that the first attempt by Seattle and others to institute a rental inspection program (RIP) was shot down by the State Supreme Court on the grounds that using government employees hired as inspectors violated the Constitutions 4th Amendment prohibition of unwarranted searches by government. To get around that ruling cities now are requiring landlords to hire inspectors approved by local governments to do what hitherto had been their unconstitutional dirty work. Seems to me that these government approved inspectors are acting as approved agents of the government and only a technicality away from being hired by the government. Just imagine if government wanted to abridge any other constitutionally guaranteed right by forcing someone else not directly employed by government to do so. Clamp down on free speech? Force an organization to hire a private goon. Eliminated the right to bear arms? Force an organization to hire a private gestapo to break into people’s homes and confiscate them……actually they are doing this by coopting physicians in becoming government informants of private patient information as a way of getting at weapons. The list is endless. This is a strategy used by Islamic terrorist supporting states. It’s called surrogate warfare which gives the instigator plausible denial when things turn messy. Bad rental inspectors? Bribery? Long term rental problems that don’t get fixed while waiting to “win” the RIP lottery once every 5 years? Not the responsibility of Lakewood’s government! Their hands………..like that of Pontius Pilate……….are clean. Only they’re not.