Mayor Linda Moore confirms focus group forming to come up with compromise on rental registry in Quincy

Mayor says she’s forming a focus group with landlords and renters to come up with a compromise by November

QUINCY–At Monday’s City Council meeting, advocates for Quincy for Registration, Inspection, Licensing Enactment or Q-RILE, demanded that city aldermen take action more than a year after the non-binding referendum was approved by 60% of voters in April, 2025.

“I saw living conditions that nobody should have to endure,” Richard Vogel, a supporter of Q-RILE, said. “I saw children living in habitats that will no doubt traumatize them if they survive it. And I saw city government passively allow it to happen.”

Landlords also turned out in force at Monday’s City Council meeting, arguing that there is no need for new regulations. Rather, this is an issue of enforcing existing ordinances.

“Regulating the same, limited housing stock does not create one additional home,” registry opponent Jackie Weisenburger said. “If inspections eventually remove 50 or 100 units from service. Where do these families go? We cannot remove housing without considering replacement housing.”

Alderman Ben Uzelac (D-Ward 7) notified fellow council members a few weeks ago that he would be resurrecting the issue after discussions about adequate housing and housing insecurity hit a fevered pitch in July, precipitated by the highly visible woman camped out at City Hall for more than a month, before being served a trespass order.

Uzelac said during Monday’s meeting (August 10) that he may have jumped the gun and then asked Mayor Linda Moore to explain what she has in the works.

“Staff will address it with a small focus group of landlords and tenants to get together and get to some common ground of what everybody could live with,” Moore said. “To focus solely on rental registration, then inspection and take it one step at a time, I think we can come up with something that will work for everybody.”

She set a target of November to present something and at Uzelac’s request promised monthly progress reports.

The mayor said already her adminsitration has stepped up nuisance enforcement by taking an increasing number of building owners to court. She also said the city is changing some things in its approach to inspections and nusiance abatement that that she believes will make an impact.

Uzelac proposed a registration, without the inspection or licensing component, so the city has a local or reachable contact when issues arise. Many properties in Quincy are owned by out-of-state companies and landlords, which has created a hurdle in streamlining contact.

Opponents say the contact information Uzelac is referring to can be found in existing city records.

“The information requested by the registry is available for a minimal fee,” landlord Tracy Kiefer said. “It’ll take a little work, you can have it all right there. I’m opposed to the registration of the rental units. I believe it’s just the first of more regulations.”

By the time the mayor’s turn to offer comment rolled around, most of the people who had spoken left the meeting. She insisted any notion that landlord information is at the city’s fingertips is simply incorrect.

“We do not have access to a lot of the phone number information for nuisance abatement,” Moore said. “If we were to get it through our own utilities department that could be a violation of red flag laws, because the purpose of having that information is strictly for water and sewer.”

The mayor said it’s possible the county has it, but that doesn’t mean it can share it with the city.

“Especially with these out of town LLCs, you can find one contact, so you send a letter, it comes back undeliverable,” Moore said. “So you do some digging and you find a shell corporation and another shell corporation, and another shell corporation. Now you’re six months in and you still have made no contact with anybody.

“The original idea of the landlord registration was simply to get that landlord information so if we had a problem with the property, either the tenant or the landlord, we would have that contact information to be able to let the landlord know.”

Aldermen Kelly Mays (R-Ward 3) pointed out that bad landlords could provide bogus information to the registry.

“That’s absolutely what can happen,” Moore said. “We’re still nowhere.”

The mayor’s task force on housing has already presented some possible solutions to inventory challenges, including an overhaul of zoning ordinances and allowing some single-family properties to be split up into no more than a four-plex of units.

“There are good landlords in this town. I’ve had a couple,” Anna Luparell said. “But the truth is the collective reputation of landlords in Quincy is awful because it’s allowed to be awful.”

City leaders are also under pressure to address the homeless population, which has dominated the public comment section of council meetings recently.

An ordinance aimed at banning overnight camping on public property and sleeping in cars and under bridges was tabled indefinitely last week as various entities can’t seem to argree on just how many people are unhoused in Quincy.

According to the United Way of Adams County, the number is between 125 and 150, based on a street survey just last week. This included checking in at the Salvation Army Shelter and Horizons food pantry, while also doing a grid search of streets and alleys.

However, Quincy Human Rights Commission Chair Mark Philpot believes the number is much higher and told Muddy River News he’s inclined to believe a man who recently emerged from homelessness, Tim Clark, who testified before the HRC last Thursday. Clark estimated the number is closer to 500.

“People were aghast,” Philpot said in an email to MRN. “Surely, this number was not accurate. Then, a new number was given. Ahhhh, that feels much better. Less urgent, more manageable. But the reality is that there’s no tangible means of gauging that number, unless you’re immersed in that community.

“And it is a community. A community that is skeptical of the government, even those agencies that could provide support. It doesn’t hold bankers’ hours, or travel openly on city streets. Much like in the military, its strength comes from its stealth. The ability to avoid detection, to prevent scrutiny or ridicule.

“They know the police patrol schedule better than anyone, because for them it’s not a casual observation, it’s survival.”

The full letter by HRC Chair Philpot is contained in the PDF below: