Graphic photos point to need for motel inspections

 

In these health department photos, bedbug bites suggest the need for motel inspections.

In this health department photo, bedbug bites suggest the need for motel inspections.

The city council last week approved allowing voters to determine if the city should set fees for motel inspections.

The state currently collects such fees of about $75 to $300 but does nothing about serious violations like rodents, bug vermin, mold and more, city officials say.

The state contracts with the city health department to do inspections but has drastically cut money for the inspections, said Bert Malone, deputy city health director.

Also, city inspectors now can only report infractions to the state, which can refer cases to local prosecutors but does not do so, he said.

Also, he said, “local prosecutors have bigger things to deal with than a roach infestation – so the reality is it goes unenforced.”

The health department with police and codes officials have been able to shut down two hotels in the last year, he said, but at great effort and high cost.

Only about 10 of the 300 or so hotels and motels in the city have recurrent problems, Malone said.

They tend to be places where poor people without good credit or cash for apartment deposits rent rooms by the month, he said.

The city does not want to shut such places down but wants to prevent hazardous and unsanitary conditions in them, he said.

Independence and other cities and counties have started passing their own hotel and motel permits and fees for the same reason, Malone said.

There is a bit of a problem.

Hotel owners are not pleased that they must pay such fees to both the state and to such cities or counties, he said.

Kansas City and other cities are lobbying the state legislature for a fix that would specify that hotels and motels would only have to pay such cities and counties, he said.

City Councilman Scott Wagner said that would amount to the state giving up money collected for doing nothing – money that sometimes is not collected at all.

“We know we’ve got people who are skirting the state (fees) because they know they will do nothing (about it),” he said.

The matter will go on the April 8 ballot.

A dead rat found in a Kansas City motel, photo courtesy the Kansas City Health Department.

A dead rat found in a Kansas City motel, photo courtesy the Kansas City Health Department.

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