New ordinance aims to make it easier for landlords to remove drug dealers

Metropolitan King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn has proposed an ordinance aimed at helping landlords remove drug dealers from their properties and levy fines against those who willfully ignore criminal activity at their rentals.

The proposed "Safer Neighborhoods Ordinance" has bipartisan support in the council and was crafted with the support and assistance of the King County Sheriff's Office and the Rental Housing Association of Puget Sound, Dunn said at a news conference Thursday.

Under the proposed ordinance, the Sheriff's Office would notify landlords each time deputies are called to a rental property in connection with certain kinds of serious criminal activities.

Once a landlord has received three separate offense reports about tenants suspected of committing drug or sex crimes within a six-month period, a landlord would be required to take steps to curtail the illegal activity or face financial penalties.

Dunn said "a very small percentage of property owners look the other way" when dealing with problem tenants, but most landlords never find out about the allegations of crime on their properties.

Dunn's office said the ordinance will be introduced to the full council on Monday, but is not yet scheduled for a hearing.

"It's going to create so much work for the landlords they're not going to want to keep those tenants, quite frankly," Sheriff Sue Rahr said at the news conference.

Landlords faced with more than three notices from the sheriff's office must seek assistance from law-enforcement officers, seek training or take steps toward eviction, the ordinance says.

Julie Johnson, president of the Rental Housing Association of Puget Sound, said landlords welcome the idea of the notifications, which she said will be admissible in court during eviction proceedings.

"They'll help show that there's been a pattern of problems," she said.

Dunn announced his proposal at a sheriff's storefront in Renton, where he introduced a Renton couple whom he described as the inspiration for the ordinance.

After police told Tom and Florence Pruitt that they couldn't do anything about a suspected meth lab that had been set up in a duplex across the street from them — and their pleas for help from the landlord fell on deaf ears — the couple conducted their own investigation.

Their vigilance eventually led to 37 visits from the Sheriff's Office and the eventual ouster of the meth lab's occupants.

But Dunn said it shouldn't be that hard to get a drug house out of the neighborhood.

Rahr said the ordinance shows a way that residents and police can work together to improve public safety and will cost little to nothing to implement.

Christine Clarridge: 206-464-8983 or cclarridge@seattletimes.com