St. Louis County Could Force Eviction of Tenants Under New Bill

[Max Householder]

I was wondering if anyone on here had heard about this controversial new bill that is going to be voted on for St. Louis County? The first couple of paragraphs of this article cover the broad strokes before offering more detail.

http://www.riverfronttimes.com/newsblog/2015/09/28/st-louis-county-could-force-eviction-of-tenants-with-misdemeanors-under-new-plan

"Mark your calendars, landlords and tenants of unincorporated St. Louis County: Tomorrow at 6 p.m., the county council may take a final vote on a controversial statute that would add new "residential rental license" laws to the books. 

The free license would require an annual application from the landlords of residential rental properties in unincorporated St. Louis County. The application would include things like the name, street address and telephone number of the landlord and the address of each rental property. All basic enough.

However, buried in the guts of the bill are several paragraphs describing how those licenses can be suspended or revoked. According to a copy of the bill, the licensing law would allow the county to force landlords to evict any tenant convicted in the past year of felony, misdemeanor or ordinance violations on a variety of crimes, from drug dealing to alcohol consumption to gambling.

Landlords who don't evict tenants after 30 days would risk a $1,000 fine, one year jail and the loss their rental licenses on all of their properties."

Doesn't this seem outrageous? For one, there is enough government oversight of landlords anyhow without adding a "free license" which appears to be little more than a backdoor way for the county to exert pressure on landlords to evict tenants that they don't like. If neighbors or local officials gripe and complain enough, this new bill would give the county leverage to lean on landlords by threatening their entire rental portfolio over one tenant. Anyone with more than a handful of rentals would likely go along with an eviction rather than risk losing their "free license" on all their other properties. I also doubt the county is going to foot the bill for the cost of the eviction. 

Does this seem like a giant overreach by the county gov. to anyone else or am I reading it wrong? I know there are a ton of St. Louis investors on the forums here and wanted to make them aware of it just in case. Thanks