Recommendations: COE Property Dockets Data

As with all municipal data, it can work much better for the City of Evanston if any data is available for better quality decision-making.

The BENEFITS of the current data provided:

• It exists online!
• It can be accessed by date of the Property Standards hearing.
• In the most recent iteration of the Property Docket format, we get some helpful information such as:
  • Ticket #! (Helpful for tracking different incidents)
  • The COE Staff who issued the ticket
  • The date of the occurrence
  • The Respondent’s name and physical mailing address (** See Note)
  • The code and text of violations are now on separate tickets (and therefore, easier to analyze)
  • The location of the occurrence is on the ticket
  • The amount of the fine is noted.
  • The name of the Hearing Officer presiding is attached to the docket, as well as the date and time of the hearing.

WHAT IS MISSING from this data to make it more meaningful/useful to municipal government decision-making?

• Follow through by posting the outcomes of hearings. This is important for residents and renters are they are trying to determine if property violations have actually been addressed. Posting the information about the hearing doesn’t indicate that any problems are actually being solved.
• Indicate whether the RESPONDENT is in residence or is a LANDLORD with accountability to their renters and the rental community. This will help to spot problem landlords early on so that quality of life issues (and the associated problems with livability in the community) don’t continue.
• This data needs to be in a MORE ACCESSIBLE FORMAT such as .csv or .xls so that data can be more easily analyzed. A PDF of a scan doesn’t even allow for the clean extraction of data from a PDF opening software product. (If there are concerns about scraping data from Property Dockets, consider a portal that allows for access to specific addresses or landlords/management companies to better serve homebuyers, community members, and renters. Allow Ward Alderman to view aggregated data that shows patterns of problems across wards and the City.)
• Separate policing data from property data if they are unrelated. Reporting on “Cell Phone Use While Driving” or “Seat Belt Use” on data sources regarding property standards creates problems with cleaning up the data and analysis.

WHAT COULD THIS DATA BE USED FOR that could improve the quality of life in the City of Evanston?

• To identify landlords who are uninterested or unable to properly serve the needs of residents with safe and clean housing, particularly those who consistently repeat violations.
• To fine-tune property standards policies in the City of Evanston to discourage predatory and negligent landlords from purchasing and maintaining inadequate housing units.
• To identify homeowners (such as seniors or the disabled) who need assistance with property maintenance and property safety issues.
• To identify patterns in violations that drive changes in policies, enforcement, and communication with or services to residents.
• To identify gaps in city staffing related to property violation response, permit enforcement, and renter support. Having policies is only as effective as having the right number of staff to implement and enforce them. And having property standards policies that don’t improve safety and equity can waste staff time.

**NOTE: The City of Evanston, like many municipalities, often does not have clear information about decision-makers for specific properties and where they reside based on the following:

1. Accurate information when Transfers of Ownership occur can be missing from Evanston My Place and even the Cook County Treasurer‘s website. It is not unheard of for a new property owner to leave the old owner’s information on the Cook County Treasurer’s website and on MyPlace. Finding the owner if they do not reside at that address and where they actually live can be complicated.
2. Landlords and property owners may use PO Boxes or addresses of Post Office Box sponsors to hide their contact information.
3. Landlords (and some property owners) may use LLC’s to purchase a property (some use more than one) so that it is difficult to see patterns in poor property management by the same person or group. More work is required to look up the owners of LLC’s and property management companies, which can prevent accountability.

For a summary of all blog posts regarding Property Violations, click here.