Horizon Management president Susan McMaster resigned her position on the landlord-tenant fact-finding committee during Tuesday afternoon’s meeting at the DeKalb Municipal Building.

McMaster said she made her decision because she felt criticized for voicing the concerns of small landlords who opposed the controversial access clause provision of the landlord-tenant rights ordinance.

“I resigned from the task force today because the attacks have gotten personal,” McMaster said. “When I was asked to serve on this task force, I understood my role to be a representative of the landlord community. Horizon Management doesn’t own property, and a lot of landlords know me. They felt comfortable coming in and talking to me about their concerns.

“I took [this] role very seriously, but somewhere down the line, what happened was that the press, tenants and other people assumed all the concerns I brought up were the concerns of Horizon Management or my concerns. In many, many cases, they weren’t. It’s as if other people made the snowballs and I was the one who threw them.”

The fact-finding committee was created by former Mayor Bessie Chronopoulos last year when 5th Ward Ald. Pat Conboy and former 6th Ward Ald. Aaron Raffel co-sponsored a landlord-tenant rights bill during a City Council meeting. Several local landlords objected that they had not been consulted for the project.

The proposed ordinance was thought to have passed on its first reading at the Oct. 22 meeting, but, as it turned out, Mayor Greg Sparrow was mistaken in believing that 7th Ward Ald. Joe Sosnowski’s abstention counted as a vote with the majority.

McMaster had expressed concerns that landlords wanted explicitly defined exceptions to the one-hour access clause, which requires landlords to give at least one hour’s notice before entering a tenant’s property in non-emergency situations.

Committee member Don Henderson, director of NIU Students’ Legal Assistance, said he regretted McMaster’s decision to resign.

“I believe she was a positive contributor to the committee,” Henderson said. “She, from my point of view, operated in good faith. I believe she, equal among all others, was responsible for the work of the committee. It is ironic that the further work of the task force was done to resolve concerns raised about the one-hour notice provision led to her resignation.”

McMaster said her organization will comply with the ordinance if it is passed.

“We shouldn’t be the scapegoats or labeled ‘the landlord opposition’ to this going through,” she said. “I was in a moderate position going into this. I have maintained the same position throughout. I’m not the enemy.”

The remainder of the meeting was devoted to fine-tuning the ordinance, lease and handbook.

Copies of the ordinance are available at www.cityofdekalb.com.

City attorney Margo Ely said the last task force meeting is scheduled for 5 p.m. Tuesday, two hours before the bill will have its second reading before the DeKalb City Council.

“This is it,” said Glen Hofer, landlord and committee member. “It’s over. It will become law.”