After an absence of about five years, Chetopa once again has minimum housing standards.
In a March 19 regular meeting the Chetopa City Council approved an ordinance to provide a minimum housing code.
The council voted 6-0 in favor the ordinance, but Mayor Terry Robison refused to sign it, bringing discussion on how the council should proceed. According to minutes from the meeting that were recently made available, Council Member Betsy Koontz read from the governing body handbook that an ordinance could become effective without the mayor’s signature.
Robison said on Wednesday that as a member of the city council in 2014 he voted with the majority to remove minimum housing standards from the city code.
“It wasn’t a good code, and it wasn’t enforceable,” Robison said.
Robison agrees with the rest of the council that minimum housing standards are needed for the city, but not the code the council approved. As mayor he had three options, either sign the ordinance, veto it or let it pass without a signature. He knew there was no point to veto an ordinance that was passed on a 6-0 vote, so to voice his opposition he declined to sign it.
The ordinance has since taken effect after its publication in the Labette Avenue, the city’s official newspaper.
(Read more: Parsons Sun)