Landlords who own a smaller amount of rental properties, former students and former employees of the city of East Lansing have expressed their concerns with employee conduct in the department.

East Lansing city officials contend Robert Dutcher, a former code enforcement officer, never was found to have breached city policy or broken any laws during his tenure, and said he probably just was doing what he was paid to do.

Because of the nature of a city code enforcer’s job, it is often one that is misinterpreted and misconstrued, East Lansing Code Enforcement Director Howard Asch said.

Micah Segal, an MSU College of Law alumnus, moved into a rented condominium in City Center Condominiums, 220 M.A.C. Ave., in fall 2008 as he finished up his law degree.

During his time in the condo, Segal said he, his girlfriend and his roommate were visited by Dutcher several times as part of an investigation into his landlord’s properties.

Although he personally was never charged for misconduct by the city of East Lansing, Segal said the way officers, particularly Dutcher, conducted the investigation and kept track of the tenant’s movements in the home during the investigation was threatening and uncalled for.

“The whole time I was living there, I felt like I was being watched by these guys,” Segal said.
Dutcher retired from the city of East Lansing last spring.

Asch said it’s common for the department’s employees to receive complaints from disgruntled citizens about tickets, and said city officials received a small number of complaints about Dutcher during his time with the city. After looking into the complaints, Asch said he found nothing out of the ordinary.

When people call in to the code enforcement office to complain about an employee’s conduct, Asch said he takes any allegation seriously, and if a compliant is found to hold weight, city policy requires he turn the situation over to the city’s Human Resources Department.

Asch said he never has had to go that route with any of his employees, including Dutcher.

“I have never found that there was any evidence that he did anything that I would call
unprofessional or improper,” Asch said.

Clark Davis, a Lansing Community College graduate who asked to remain anonymous, said he had a different experience — one that drove him to fear the city and what it could do.

When Davis was 19 and going to school in 2003, he lived in a non-rental home he owned with his sister and two of his cousins.

Davis said Dutcher came to the home several times, harassing the residents and, in one instance, crept around the house at night shining flashlights into windows to see how many people were sleeping within.

Davis was fined more than $100,000 in tickets for over-occupancy, and though he didn’t agree with the charges, he settled the case for $3,000 in Jan. 2004.

“Being a 19-year-old kid, scared out of my mind, I just said, ‘OK,’” Davis said. “You can’t beat the city.”

Staff writer Ian Kullgren contributed to this report.