Students renting housing off-campus can expect to have new rights as tenants if the city council approves several new ordinances recommended by the landlord-tenant fact-finding committee.

A new draft of the ordinance is expected to be heard before the council by the end of this month or the beginning of October, said city manager Jim Connors.

A special workshop meeting of the council was held June 18 to hear the recommendations that the committee wished to submit.

“The council appeared to react favorably to the recommendations we made,” said Don Henderson, director of Students’ Legal Assistance. Henderson is a member of the fact-finding

committee and was a contributor to the initial draft of the agreement.

The recommendations that the committee had agreed upon were then turned over to the city’s legal department to be written into an ordinance form that would be later voted on before being written into law.

That long-awaited vote is now in sight.

“The motivation here is to get this back up and running,” said Jim Mason, owner of Mason Properties and a member of the fact-finding committee.

The initial draft of the proposed landlord-tenant agreement was created by the Northern Illinois Students’ Legal Assistance last December with the assistance of NIU law students. It

was intended to be circulated by city aldermen to open dialogue on the issue.

A backlash of opposition from local landlords, who felt their opinions had not been represented when the initial draft was made, forced it to be scrapped.

Former mayor Bessie Chronopolous then formed the fact-finding committee in order to find out what action, if any, was necessary to relieve tensions between landlords and tenants. The committee consisted of local landlords, tenants, NIU representatives and several other interested parties.

One of the major issues discussed at the June council meeting was the idea of creating an ombudsman who would serve as a mediator between landlords and tenants regarding disputes. The problem was finding an ombudsman with legal training willing to offer their assistance for little or no pay. Payment for an ombudsman would come from a fee paid by landlords to register their properties with the city, which will be required if the council passes the ordinances.

“Bill Brady, of Gallagher and Brady Attorneys in Sycamore, along with several other attorneys, have come forward and agreed to offer their services as ombudspersons,” Mason said.