Fiscal Note
No appropriation is required.
Title
CHARTER ORDINANCE Creating Section 34.907(2) as a Charter Ordinance of the Madison General Ordinances to require landlords to furnish fire education to new tenants, and renumbering Section 34.907(2) to 34.907(3).
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DRAFTER'S ANALYSIS: Since 2009, the City of Madison has required fire safety education materials to be distributed to tenants following the 2007 death of Peter Talen, who was killed in a house fire. Investigators discovered that the six smoke alarms in the rented house were not functioning. The 2009 ordinance adopting these new fire safety provisions is called the Peter Talen Smoke Alarm Ordinance. See ORD-09-00041, Legistar 12575, adopted March 3, 2009. Mr. Talen’s parents attended the Common Council meeting when this safety ordinance was adopted in memory of their late son.
In December of 2013, the State created Wis. Stat. § 66.0104(2)(d)(1) to prevent a local government from enacting “an ordinance that requires a landlord to communicate to tenants any information that is not required to be communicated under federal or state law.” State and Federal law do not require that landlords distribute fire safety education materials to tenants. Therefore, Section 34.907(1)(d) would not be enforceable.
However, nothing in the State statute indicates that the information requirement is a matter of statewide concern and uniformly applicable, making it subject to the City’s power to opt out of the statute by Charter ordinance.
By this Charter ordinance, the City opts out of Wis. Stat. § 66.0104(2)(d)(1) and re-establishes the requirement that fire safety education materials be distributed by landlords to tenants.
If adopted, the Charter provisions of this ordinance shall take effect 60 days from the date of passage and publication, subject to the referendum procedures of Wis. Stat. § 66.0101(5).
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The Common Council of ...
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