Inspection Report

On January 21 of this year, I sent a Freedom of Information Act request asking for the report for the inspection done on the home of Tamara Arend, 1128 Dakin Street, Lansing in April or May 2018 prior to the approval of her CDBG Housing Rehabilitation program grant and loan. I said I believed the inspection was done by Dennis Graham and was a complete inspection of all 3 floors.

That inspection report was needed for a possible lawsuit to get some relief for Ms. Arend, who I wrote about in the October 5, 2020 story Botched roof replacement ruins Lansing home. My FOIA request was denied on February 12:

On February 13, I appealed to city council president Peter Spadafore:

 

Ms. Arend clearly remembers that Dennis Graham came to the home before the roof replacement was started, did a thorough inspection and told her the home was in good condition. Further, your own housing program application form, which Ms. Arend signed April 3, 2018, requires an inspection. At the top of page 9, it says "A complete inspection of your home will need to be done in order to determine what work needs to be completed to bring your home up to current code."

On February 15, I discovered more evidence that the inspection had been done. I sent another email to Peter Spadafore:

 

	Attached is a letter from Donald Kulhanek to Tamara Arend dated December 19, 2019 in which he says "You applied to participate in our housing rehabilitation program on April 25, 2018. At the time of your application, you complained that your roof was leaking. Dennis Graham from our staff inspected the house and agreed that the roof needed to be replaced."  The inspection was done. Are they saying that no report was written? Or that they lost it? Wouldn't HUD have required it?	Peter Spadafore
He responded March 1 denying my appeal, saying the record requested does not exist. He offered no explanation of why no report exists when the Kulhanek letter indicated that an inspection was, in fact, done.

The above was adapted from my February 26, 2021 story Lansing fumbles FOIA requests.