RACINE - Brian Dechant, a city building inspector, was driving down Owen Avenue more than a month ago when he noticed a house with garbage scattered on the lawn and a refrigerator on the back porch.

According to current city ordinances, however, he could only examine the outside of the rented building. The only way city inspectors can enter residential buildings is if they receive a complaint, he said.

That could change. A new ordinance could make it mandatory for rental properties to be internally inspected every three years, said 11th District Alderman Greg Helding. The idea is similar to an internal inspection program the city had until around 20 years ago.

Helding feels that regular internal inspections are needed. "I want to find a way to see if the rental stock we have in town is safe and up to code," he said.

Helding has raised the ordinance idea at city meetings and is working on it with city staff. Details of how it would work are still under consideration, Helding said.

He used the Owen Avenue duplex as an example of why internal inspections are important.

"If the outside is in that condition, I wonder what the inside is like," Helding questioned.

Two and a half weeks after Dechant wrote the ticket at 1437 Owen Ave., police conducted a drug raid there, along with four other houses. The police then issued a complaint to the Racine Health Department which found multiple interior living violations.

The electricity had been shut off and living conditions were "filthy," according to a health report.

The health department also found missing smoke detectors, damaged window screens and damaged floors, according to the health report.

Currently the health department can internally inspect properties if there is a complaint, said Marcia Fernholz, the city's director of environmental health. But sometimes they don't get phone calls until the residents are being evicted, Fernholz said.

Her department used to do internal inspections every time a tenant moved out, but that practice ended before Frenholz joined the health department 18 years ago, she said.

The newly proposed ordinance could not prevent all internal living condition problems, but it would at least get the city into the residences to check out conditions without first receiving a complaint.

"We don't want them deteriorating and we want to keep them safe," said Chief City Building Inspector Rick Heller. He is working with Helding on the new ordinance and supports it, he said.

"We've really spent a lot of time and care doing the exterior, and this is just the natural migration to clean up the neighborhoods."

There are around 11,000 rental units in the city of Racine, according to estimated numbers from the 2000 census, said Heller. But the city doesn't formally keep track of any rental data, he said.

In order to check apartments and collect data, the building department would need to hire someone, Heller said. By charging a nominal fee to property owners, the city would not have to pay any of the cost, he said.

The building inspector would look for "life safety things" like safe furnace hookups, proper handrails, working plumbing and operational smoke detectors, Heller said.

Also mandatory inspections could eliminate tenants' fears of getting evicted if they file a complaint against their landlord, Heller said.

Alan Ferber, a Somers town supervisor, owns the 1437 Owen Ave. duplex and encourages the new proposal that would create mandatory rental property inspections.

"I would welcome that so they can see how my properties are," Ferber said. He was at the properties four days before the raid. At that time the electricity was still on and the last time he checked the smoke detectors and screens were intact, he said.

"The tenants have some responsibility," Ferber said. "The electricity and gas is in their name and not mine."

Since the police raid he has contracted with a management company to take care of maintenance, rent payments and finding tenants, he said.