City Council meeting draws a crowd

On July 14, 2025, the New London City Council met in regular session with all council members present. The agenda and consent agenda were approved as presented. Several spoke in open forum expressing their reasons against the proposed rental code. The reasons included:

· The code is discriminatory because the landlords who have family members as tenants would not have to be inspected.

· The expense will ultimately be passed on to the renters that are already paying high rent.

· There is a petition that contains 224 signatures of known New London citizens out of a total of 426 signatures against the adoption of the rental code. It was pointed out that some of these could also be New London citizens depending on the location of their phone when they signed the petition electronically.

· It was suggested that the city should start with nuisance properties that already have codes that can be used.

· Others in attendance complained about issues that weren’t part of the rental code discussion.

This open forum also included Mayor Miller addressing some of the specific concerns. He has hoped that citizens would see that this provided safety for renters and gave them a tool to address deficiencies in their rental property. He understands that money is tight, but the inspection fee amounted to around $5 per month. He also thought the council had been more than transparent as this topic had been on every agenda when it was discussed. There had also been a landlord meeting so they could get their questions answered, and the council had three readings that gave everyone a chance to be heard.

All five of the council members were given an opportunity to express their reasons for their vote on the third reading of ordinance #83. Members Sines and Helmerson voted “yes” while Berner, Campbell, and Benz voted “no.” The ordinance’s third reading went down to defeat with the main reason being the depth of opposition from both landlords and tenants.

Council member Scott Campbell said, “The intention of the rental code is for safety and preventing bad things happening to tenants. However members of the public who have attended the last few council meetings have made quite clear their opposition to the code. This shows the local government pushing policies on its people that they don’t want, so I will not be voting for the third reading of the rental code.”

The council took the following actions:

· Approved the third reading of ordinance #81 to adopt by reference the 2021 International Building, Residential, and Property maintenance Codes, and to adopt the State of Iowa Electrical, Plumbing, and Mechanical Codes and other related provisions.

· Approved pay estimate #3 with Hickey Contracting Company for the Pine Street Subdivision Third Addition in the amount of $84,243.65.

· After discussing the purchase of a new uni-loader and wanting to get more information, no motion was made to approve purchasing a T66 T4 Bobcat Compact Track Loader from Bobcat for $101,418.75. It will be discussed at the next regular meeting.

· Approved resolution #483 dealing with notification of publication of competitive bidding concerning the Pine Street Subdivision and Joshua and Kelsey Bradley

· Approved resolution #464-temporary closing of a public way.

The Council discussed selling the commercial lot at 606 S. Pine St. to Blaire Barton and Scott Severson for a carwash. They noted the offer of $20,000, which was $5,000 less than the other commercial lot of similar size recently sold. The Council would like to check a few things before committing to the offer.

The Council discussed the failing retaining wall at 507 S. Walnut Street. The council discussed various fixes and who is responsible for the cost. The council would like to consult with French Reneker Engineering to get their input on what would be the proper way to fix the issue before they take any action.

The meeting adjourned at 7 p.m. The next regular meeting of the New London City Council is August 18, 2025 at 6 p.m. at the New London city hall.