Reading City Council approves 2 blight-flighting positions for property maintenance division

May 15—Two newly created positions in Reading's property maintenance division will target blight in the city.

City Council at its regular meeting Monday voted 5-2 to amend the city's position ordinance to add the new roles.

Council President Donna Reed and Councilwoman Melissa Ventura voted against the change due to the lack of detailed job descriptions, requested by Ventura last week, and information on budget impact.

The plan is to move two of the division's staff with experience in blighted property compliance into the new positions, Jamal Abodalo, director of community development, said last week at council's committee of the whole meeting.

The blight/transfer officer will be paid $67,434 per year and the blight/transfer inspector $52,618.

The duties of the blight officer would include researching and inspecting the properties on the list and tracking any property sales or transfers, Abodalo said.

The blight inspector would have similar duties with a focus on monitoring the progress of blighted properties sold for rehabilitation and getting them back into the tax revenue stream, he said.

As initially proposed, the amendment would have eliminated the current property maintenance supervisor position at $61,197 and one property maintenance inspector at $50,538 to transfer those employees into the new blight positions.

Council voted in favor of amending the proposal to retain those jobs on a motion by Councilman Jaime Baez Jr.

"I just think that this is the right move in starting to fix the blighted property situation that we have," Baez said. "Understandably, eliminating positions would not be, I think, right for the city."

Ventura asked how adding the two new positions might impact the budget.

"It's a very reasonable question," said Jamar Kelly, city finance director and deputy managing director. "I have to research it and get back to you to give you an accurate answer."

Some funds may need to be transferred to that line item to pay the salaries, Kelly said.

"Would you say that the funding is available?" Baez asked.

"Yes is the short answer," Kelly responded.

Since the positions are new, Councilman O. Christopher Miller said, they will likely evolve as the team determines the needs and priorities.

The jobs are the first in a planned property maintenance division unit that would specifically target blighted properties.

"The reason why we are creating a special unit is simply because we would like to take an assertive and more aggressive approach towards blighted properties within the city," Abodalo said last week.