Susan McMasters surprised much of the landlord-tenant fact-finding committee last week with her last-minute reservations about the proposed ordinance, which is supposed to appear before the DeKalb City Council for first reading tonight.

Last Monday, McMasters, owner of Horizon Management and a member of the fact-finding committee, expressed reservations about several provisions in the ordinance.

McMasters’ comments came as a shock to Mason Properties owner Jim Mason and Don Henderson, director of NIU’s Student Legal Assistance. Both are members of the fact-finding committee as well.

“I was not aware any member of the task force had objections to the recommendations,” Henderson said.

At Monday’s meeting, McMasters mentioned several specific instances in which she felt that the one-hour clause, a provision which requires landlords to notify tenants of all visits except for emergencies by at least one hour, could cause a problem for her business.

According to the proposed ordinance, a landlord has the right to enter an apartment “upon reasonable notice and at reasonable times.” Reasonable notice is described as one hour prior notice in advance of entry, or in the event of an emergency.

McMasters brought up several instances in which she felt that the one-hour clause would pose a problem. In one example, she said she would not be able to prove whether a tenant had a pet in his or her apartment if the person was given an hour’s notice before her visit.

Mason replied to McMasters’ concerns and said that these issues would not be a problem.

“This situation is already provided for in the ordinance,” he said. “These issues have been addressed – you need to read the ordinance.”

Henderson said that after the meeting, McMasters e-mailed committee members, aldermen and city staff accusing city attorney Margo Ely of changing several provisions when she converted the committee’s recommendations into ordinance form.

Henderson said the e-mail also indicated that McMasters had objections to provisions that prohibit confessions or judgements clauses. McMasters said the committee had not discussed adding the provision.

Confessions or judgements are legal terms in which a person who owes another money can be sued without their knowledge. The use of such wording is only legal in three states, and cannot apply to consumer transactions in Illinois.

He also said the committee didn’t specifically mention the issue, but members decided to make it clear that landlords can’t include illegal provisions in their leases.

“We felt that making it illegal to include such wording in a lease would be within the spirit of what we are trying to do,” Henderson said. “Confessions and judgements are archaic and unfair procedures. Why even play with this? Just make it illegal.”

Henderson said he hopes that this is not going to create factions within the committee, considering the committee has said publicly that they are comfortable with the ordinance compromise since it was first introduced last year by former Sixth Ward Ald. Aaron Raffel and Fifth Ward Ald. Patrick Conboy.

“I would hope that she is merely commenting on a few issues that concern her and is not ditching the whole thing,” Henderson said. “I felt that the committee had come to a consensus before we made the recommendations to the council.”