Yorko vs. Bernero

FRIDAY, April 10 — Fourth Ward Councilmember Jessica Yorko has accused the Bernero administration of keeping housing inspection data from the public in order to “cover up” issues with staffing at the Code Compliance office.

“You may have also heard of the administration's attempts to cover up this issue by disabling the public viewing option for property violations in the online ‘property information lookup’ database (BS&A),” Yorko, who represents the 4^th Ward, wrote In an email to neighborhood activists and community members yesterday.

“They have since issued a statement saying they will reactivate the public viewing option, after they work out some undefined ‘technical and legal issues,” her letter continues.

For brief time this year, visitors to the city’s property information database were able to review very specific information regarding inspections of rental properties. One such inspection report of a local subsidized senior housing facility — Porter Senior Apartments, 505 Townsend St. in downtown Lansing — found numerous instances of code violations that could lead to fires. The May 2014 inspection report also noted significant issues related to the hot water and heat systems in the building.

That level of detail on inspection findings is no longer available through the city’s BS&A database.

“As part of Mayor Bernero’s Lansing 3.0 agenda, which includes a strong commitment to transparency, we are looking at expanding the property inspection information that is available online,” mayoral spokesman Randy Hannan said in an email today in response to why such detailed information is not readily available.

“This will definitely help improve public access to this information so people can do their homework on specific properties they may be considering to rent or that they already rent. We are working through the technical and legal issues related to providing expanded access to this information, but it will take some time to make it happen.”

Hannan said some files may contain information that would be legally exempt from disclosure under the state’s Freedom of Information Act, such as a property owner’s cell phone number.

City Pulse provided Hannan with a copy of the BS&A inspection information on the Porter building and asked what information was of concern from a legal or privacy perspective. He did not respond with any specifics. He noted the inspection reports were under review by the Office of the City Attorney for which items may be exempt under the state’s FOIA law.

“When the OCA review of this data is complete, we will work with the outside vendor of the online database to implement the technical changes that are required to make appropriate data fields available to the public through the online portal,” Hannan said.