City of Milwaukee - Increasing Reinspection Fees:

The purpose of inspections is to protect the health and safety of the public. It seems that the inspectors are also given the job of deciding what is esthetically proper. An increasing fee is charged for each reinspection where the inspector decides there was non compliance. The city of Milwaukee calls this fee an "incentive".

Anyone who receives this "incentive" would say it looks more like a penalty, and the word penalty would be a more accurate term. It is just an exercise in semantics (the meanings of words).

Incentives can be classified into two groups, a) rewards, and b) penalties. To help understand this concept we can refer to the "the carrot and the stick".

THE CARROT AND THE STICK: Picture a donkey pulling a cart. The driver holds two sticks. The tip of one stick extends out in front of the donkey where a carrot is hanging on a string just beyond the reach of the donkey. The donkey wants the carrot and walks toward it. The other stick is to hit the donkey if the donkey does not move forward. The donkey has two incentives to move forward, a) to get the reward of the carrot, and b) to avoid the pain of getting hit.

The concept of "incentives" being either rewards or penalties should be obvious to any English speaking person with any common sense, and if they really have a hard time with accepting that concept they can look the word up in a dictionary.

INCENTIVE: something inciting to action or effort, as the fear of punishment or the expectation of reward. (College Edition of the American Heritage Dictionary).

Why such a fuss about the meaning of the word "incentive"? Because a court decision on the issue of increasing reinspection fees accepts the city's use of this word to give its OK to the city of Milwaukee's policy of assessing increasing reinspection fees.

So what is wrong with putting a little pressure on the bad landlords who don't want to comply with the city inspectors' orders? Because the inspectors have become more aggressive with orders that go beyond the purpose of protecting the health and safety of the community.

So, does this aggressiveness not improve our fair city? No, it does the opposite. Aggressive inspectors often force the reallocation of precious resources to wasteful purposes. This results in higher rents and a reduction in the housing stock. It also promotes corruption in various forms, as payoffs in cash or other favors.

***

The purpose of this blog is to collect information about landlord experiences with city inspectors and city policies with the intention of helping our city fathers pass legislation that is beneficial to our city. If you cannot put your comments on this blog, send them to "City Ways, 2634 West Vliet St, Milwaukee WI 53205.