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paying a lot more.... coIlectively to landlords, who know they are there. I think that is what's wrong. I think when landlords who are irresponsible and allow the property to deteriorate.... bear a great degree of responsibility. We are all aware of many responsible landlords who make great effort to keep their property up and limit the number of people on the properly, IawfuIly.... And for those landlords there is no message being sent out here tonight that they are not welcome in our community. The message tonight should this motion pass, is that we ought not to let property get into this condition, we have a public responsibility when it does, and this is not a reward for unlawful tenants or recalcitrant landlords. It should be a message that we wiIl take care of our public responsibility, that the Redevelopment Agency has been set up for this very purpose, and we are acting in the highest and best interest of the people who live in that community. I think we have an obligation to proceed." Councilman Ruskin said "there are solutions available to us that we have used before and can use again so that govemment, while I think we need to demolish the buildings and find a solution, we can also tum over these buildings to non-profit organizations that are skiIIed and experienced in running them well so that we can stay out of the business of becoming landlords ourselves. I think limited government does not necessarily mean that we take an inflexible or ideoIogicaIly inflexible approach to a problem. Limited government can mean that sometimes we take an action that theoretically we would rather not take in order to solve a problem. We do it as effectively and as quickly as we can and we get out as soon as we are able to get out, and let the non-profit or private sector take over." Councilman Leipzig said "Once again my mother was not on the Council in the 1950s. I am sure Councilman Claire was not referring to her. I don't think the private sector failed down there. I think one of the residents said the City failed to maintain its responsibilities in the area of code enforcement. If you want to compare the private sector to failing in the housing market to the government's record in the housing market, I'Il be happy to have that debate any day. There is no question that the federal and state governments have failed when it comes to government housing. I did not mean to indicate that the health and safety of the citizens of Redwood City or any citizen should be put up for sale. I am sure that is not what the Mayor intended to respond. I am not convinced that we shouldn't tear the buildings down. But do we have to be in the business of rebuilding. Can't we find a responsible builder? Maybe the builders of these properties in the fifties did fail, Councilman Claire, I don't know. I doubt it. But there's got to be some responsible builder out there that would put in a fine project that we would be proud of. We haven't looked at that. That's my point. I'm not inflexible in my approach, Councilman Ruskin, when it comes to my philosophy on limited government I'm very flexible. Let's look at some alternatives. We haven't looked at alternatives other than the City's Redevelopment Agency getting involved." Mayor Hartnett said "I respectfuIly disagree, because we haven't decided if we acquire the property and demolish, what's going to be built, how it's going to be built and as we have demonstrated in other projects, we don't build them ourselves. We REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING MINUTE BOOK NO. 54 SEPTEMBER 16, 1996 MINUTES paqe No. 491 PAGE 26