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When Alcoa Police Department Community Policing Director Holly Hatcher put together an informational meeting for landlords in the city, she made enough copies of pertinent ordinances, optimistically she said, for 50 people.

When the 100 seats in the courtroom at the Alcoa Public Safety Building were filled Thursday night and nearly 30 more chairs had to be brought in, she was "absolutely honored and overwhelmed."

The meeting was meant to help foster a line of communication between landlords, residents, the police department and other governmental agencies, to "work on issues before they become problems," she said.

A number of community organizations, including the Hall, Oldfield, Maryville Empowerment (H.O.M.E.) Inc., and the Hall Community and Rock Gardens Community neighborhood watch programs gathered at the meeting.

One of the main points was to educate landlords of state laws -- specifically ones that tie them to the properties they rent and the actions of their renters.

"You, unfortunately, are not removed from the activities that take place on your properties," Hatcher said to the crowd.

The hope was the meeting would let landlords, and tenants, know that there are other groups and governmental departments that can help if a problem arises. That way a person is not alone "when you're trying to push a boulder uphill," Hatcher said.

"We don't want problems to start, but if there is a problem, let's fix it," she said.

'Just want the money'

Alcoa Police Chief Ken Burge addressed the gathering, saying it is important to get to problems while they are still small. "We think we can do a lot more by intervening at a lower level," he said.

Blount County General Sessions Judge David R. Duggan also talked to the group, encouraging landlords to read and become familiar with Tennessee's Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act -- which explains what rights a landlord does and does not have when it comes to a problem tenant.

Jackie Hill, who is a member of the South Hall Community Neighborhood Watch, spoke up, saying she felt it was important for landlords to do their due diligence on tenants so they know "who you are renting to in the first place."

The problem is, she said, that some landlords only care about getting the rent every month, not so much what their renters are doing to the community.

"Our concern is there are landlords who just want the money," she said.

Duggan responded, saying the sharing of information among landlords and tenants respectively can help in those situations.

And that kind of thinking was the point of the meeting, Hatcher said.

"We want to make this a community effort," she said. "We'll work together ... we're not going to hang you out to dry by yourselves.

"We're trying to get neighbors to be responsible neighbors."

After the meeting, Hill said the gathering was "an excellent first step."

"You've got to give credit to the Alcoa Police Department," she added. "Because this has been an issue for a long time."

Landowner eye-opener

Doug and Kim Hill, both of Alcoa, have about 26 rental units in the city and have been landlords for about 15 years. But even with that much experience with renting, they said they heard things Thursday they didn't know before.

"It was an excellent presentation," Doug Hill said.

The assertion during the meeting that a landlord's property can be seized -- in the worst of cases -- due to the activities of their tenants, was an eye-opener, he said. But for good landlords, it shouldn't be a problem.

"The landlord that doesn't care ... he's a victim of his own circumstances," Doug Hill said.

Hatcher said she was happy with the meeting, the turnout and the message that people got Thursday. Working together to clean up some of the landlord/tenant situations in Alcoa is very important, she said, "because your private citizens are tired; your responsible landlords are tired; we're tired of the same old issues."