Despite controversy and requests for delay, the State College Borough Council voted to enact a point-system property code for all rental housing at last night's meeting.

Most of the controversy revolved around a section of the new code that holds landlords responsible for the criminal behavior of their tenants.

Council member James Meyer offered an amendment to the proposed ordinance that would eliminate the section. The amendment failed, 4-2.

"To me, this is fundamentally wrong," Meyer said. "You can't give [landlords] points on things they can't fix."

Council voted 6-1 in favor of the new code, which uses a weighted-point system to identify nuisance properties and allows the borough manager to revoke rental permits when a property accumulates 10 points. Meyer cast the dissenting vote.

Based on the severity of the offenses, property owners can receive one to three points per offense. For example, a property owner can receive one point for overgrown weeds and three points for a liquor-law violation.

Also under the new code, a property owner can accumulate points if an occupant is charged with a list of criminal violations, including furnishing alcohol to minors, sexual assault, aggravated assault or drug possession.

Meyer pointed out that a property would not accumulate points for a homicide.

Council member Jeff Kern, who voted in favor of the amendment with Meyer, compared the rental properties to a borrowed car.

Owners of the car are responsible for the vehicle's maintenance and safety but not for any speeding tickets another driver would receive, Kern said.

"If we pass this now ... we're essentially making this a retroactive punishment," he said.

Under current leases, landlords have no way of fixing a problem, Meyer said.

As business owners, landlords are responsible for the way their properties are run, council member Janet Knauer said.

"These people are not lending their properties," she said.

The intent of the new code is not to "yank permits" but to identify properties with patterns of nuisance behavior, Mayor Bill Welch said.

Borough Manager Tom Fountaine said State College Borough has never revoked a permit.

After a property acquires five points, a landlord is given an opportunity to correct the problem by working with the borough manager.

Welch suggested that landlords include a clause in future leases that a criminal violation would result in an eviction.

Council member and landlord Elizabeth Goreham said she will include a "kickout clause" in any new leases.

Over the past few months, representatives from several fraternities also voiced concern over the new code's effects on these rental properties. Some fraternity representatives asked for a delay in the borough's decision.

As greek and university officials work to improve fraternity and community relations, the borough's new ordinance should not conflict with any new standards of this initiative, Welch said.

"I don't think a lengthy delay is realistic," he said.