After four hours of testimony and statistics at Thursday’s Landlord-Tenant Committee meeting, panel members debated the worthiness of their efforts and decided there was much more to learn.

Committee member and DeKalb landlord Glen Hofer said the 10-member fact-finding board exists only because of a proposed ordinance to upgrade local landlord-tenant procedures and that — by the data he received from panel member Don Henderson of Student’s Legal Assistance — only about 2 percent of students are dissatisfied with their housing situations.

“I submit that the system we have is sufficient,” Hofer said.

But committee member Guadalupe Luna, an associate NIU law professor, pointed out that a large number of people haven’t voiced their concerns.

The proposal, made last fall by aldermen Patrick Conboy and Aaron Raffel, calls for several changes to local landlord laws, one of which would guarantee tenants a walk-through of their rental property with a landlord at the start and end of a lease. Another controversial addition would allow tenants to make their own property repairs and deduct from rent if a landlord didn’t respond quickly to requests.

Panel member Dick Willey of American National Bank believed the committee’s hands were tied.

“What it looked like to me is that this ordinance was trying to make bad guys out of the landlords,” Willey said. “I don’t know how much more we can meet or what we can do here.”

DeKalb Mayor Bessie Chronopoulos disagreed.

“A lot of good points have been brought up here,” she said.

Early in the evening, DeKalb fire officials joined the meeting to discuss the inspection process for rooming houses, such as fraternity and sorority houses.

“We’ve experienced everything in rooming houses,” said assistant chief Dennis Votaw, a fire prevention specialist. He recalled one time walking into a house and seeing a motorcycle in the living room.

Committee member Susan McMaster, owner of Horizon Management, said fraternity and sorority houses are in violation of zoning codes.

“You can’t just put a rooming house with 12 rooms on half an acre of land,” she said.

DeKalb Police Chief Bill Feithen outlined some of the department’s policies on apartment security, in which people throwing loud parties often receive warnings instead of being ticketed or arrested.

“When the ordinance was instituted, officers were concerned that they would be arresting everyone and their brother, so we instituted a policy of issuing warnings,” Feithen said.

Committee member and Mason Properties owner Jim Mason — who provides his own security on his properties — said the police department needs to update landlords about what services the police provide and what they need to take care of themselves.

The next meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. April 5 at the DeKalb Municipal Building, 200 S. 4th St.