Mrs. Kraker Attacks City's Code Enforcement

Mrs. Norma Kraker, Republican candidate for the City Council in the First Ward, attacked the city's code enforcement program at a meeting of Young Republicans at the North Campus Commons last night. She said that in the past the city has been reluctant to move persons from homes which did not meet building codes because of the inability to find other suitable quarters. "Hopefully, that will not be an excuse much longer, even if it is valid for a while longer," she said. "We have good ordinances and, in fact, if the old state law of 1917 had been enforced, we could have had decent housing, but it was not enforced. Now the City Council is in the process of passing a new Ann Arbor ordinance which should be better. "But I maintain that we could have been doing a far better job of code enforcement than we have ever done if we, if the city, had only had the will to enforce. It is my belief that we have not had the will," Mrs. Kraker said. "The problem has been great in the poor areas of the city but it is not much better in other multiple dwelling areas of the city. Hundreds of students live in housing where code violations exist - some minor violations but many major ones. "I cannot believe that the owners of some of these places can continue to evade the law as they do for long periods of time - 10 years or more and they are still renting uncertified dwellings. And some of these places have new certificates when the should never have had them from the facts as I myself know them," she said. Mrs. Kraker said another city ordinance which is constantly violated is the one regarding the collection, storage and disposal of trash. Speaking on other topics, Mrs. Kraker said that enactment of a city income tax is not needed this year, that the city "must have firm, fair and equal enforcement of the law at. all times and in all places," and that the proposed charter amendment which would provide pay for City Council members is undesirable.