RENT STABILIZATION BOARD Regular Meeting Minutes (Approved)

Transcription

1 Rent Stabilization Board RENT STABILIZATION BOARD Regular Meeting Minutes (Approved) Maudelle Shirek Building 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way 7:00 p.m. Council Chambers, Second Floor Broadcast Live on KPFB 89.3 and BTV Cable Channel 33 Live Webcasting at 1. Roll call Chair Townley called the meeting to order at 7:40 p.m.* Aimee Mueller called roll. Commissioners present: Chang, Dodsworth (left 9:39), Harr (left 9:38), Hunt, Laverde, Selawsky, Shelton (left 9:24), Soto-Vigil, Townley Commissioners absent: None Staff present: Brown, Kelekian, Mueller *The meeting start was delayed to allow Berkeley Community Media and the City s I.T. Department to troubleshoot a connectivity issue in Chambers that was interfering with broadcasting and captioning. Prior to the Roll Call, the Chair announced that the meeting would not have real-time captioning or be broadcast on BTV Cable Channel 33 due to technical difficulties. He noted that the meeting should still be available via live webcast and that a fully-captioned broadcast would be aired on BTV as soon as possible. 2. Approval of Agenda M/S/C (Selawsky/Laverde) APPROVE AGENDA WITH THE FOLLOWING CHANGES: WITHDRAW ITEM 4.a., MOVE ITEM 7.a.(8) TO CONSENT, AND HOLD OVER WAIVER NO TO NEXT MEETING. Voice vote. Motion carried unanimously. 3. Public Forum Marcia Levenson spoke in support of Item 4.d. 4. CONSENT ITEMS a. Approval of the May 11 th Special Meeting minutes Not in packet b. Memorandum Agreement: Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1021 Community Services and Part-Time Recreation Leaders Association 2125 Milvia Street, Berkeley, California TEL: (510) (981-RENT) TDD: (510) FAX: (510) rent@cityofberkeley.info

2 Page 2 c. Memorandum Agreement: Public Employees Union Local One d. Approval of Resolution requesting that Council allocate $250,000 for antidisplacement services (Budget & Personnel Committee) e. Proclamation honoring Tia Ingram, Berkeley Housing Authority Executive Director, for her many years of dedicated service to the City of Berkeley M/S/C (Selawsky/Laverde) MOVE CONSENT ITEMS 4.b., 4.c., 4.d., 4.e. AND ITEM 7.a.(8). ADDED TO CONSENT BY AN EARLIER VOTE ON APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA. Voice vote. Motion carried unanimously. 5. SPECIAL PRESENTATION by Brian Augusta & Associates, Rent Board Legislative Advocates, on housing-related legislation a. State Legislative Report During and after his presentation, Mr. Augusta took questions from the Board on the State Legislative Report and other housing-related legislation. 6. APPEAL Case No. T-5526 (1520 Woolsey Street, Unit 5) APPEAL WITHDRAWN BY APPELLANT THE BOARD DID NOT CONSIDER THIS MATTER AS THERE WERE NO FURTHER ISSUES OF LAW OR FACT TO DECIDE. 7. ACTION ITEMS a. From Board Members, Executive Director and Committees (1) Recommendation to adopt Resolution approving the Line-item Budget, Staffing Model and Maximum Expenditure Level for Fiscal Year (FY) (Budget & Personnel Committee and Executive Director) M/S/C (Soto-Vigil/Laverde) ADOPT RESOLUTION AS WRITTEN. Roll (2) Recommendation to adopt Resolution authorizing the Executive Director to execute a contract with QuickCaption, Inc. for closed captioning services of televised Board meetings in an amount not to exceed $10,000 for the fiscal year (Budget & Personnel Committee and Executive Director) M/S/C (Soto-Vigil/Shelton) ADOPT RESOLUTION AS WRITTEN. Roll call vote. YES: Chang, Dodsworth, Harr, Hunt, Laverde, Selawsky, Shelton, Soto- Vigil, Townley; NO: None; ABSTAIN: None; ABSENT: None. Motion carried

3 Page 3 unanimously. (3) Recommendation to adopt Resolution authorizing the Executive Director to execute a contract with Brian Augusta and Associates for legislative advocacy in an amount not to exceed $46,000 for the fiscal year (Budget & Personnel Committee and Executive Director) M/S/C (Soto-Vigil/Shelton) ADOPT RESOLUTION AS WRITTEN. Roll (4) Recommendation to adopt Resolution authorizing the Executive Director to execute a contract with Eviction Defense Center in an amount not to exceed $132,000 for the fiscal year (Budget & Personnel Committee and Executive Director) M/S/C (Soto-Vigil/Shelton) ADOPT RESOLUTION AS WRITTEN. Roll (5) Recommendation to adopt Resolution authorizing the Executive Director to execute a contract with East Bay Community Law Center in an amount not to exceed $140,000 for the fiscal year (Budget & Personnel Committee and Executive Director) M/S/C (Soto-Vigil/Shelton) ADOPT RESOLUTION AS WRITTEN. Roll (6) Recommendation for Outreach about Multi-Family Energy Efficiency Incentives and Rebates (Resilience & Sustainability Committee) M/S/C (Selawsky/Hunt) REFER THIS ITEM TO THE OUTREACH COMMITTEE. Roll call vote. YES: Chang, Dodsworth, Harr, Hunt, Laverde, Selawsky, Shelton, Soto-Vigil, Townley; NO: None; ABSTAIN: None; ABSENT: None. Motion carried unanimously. (7) Discussion and possible action related to Comparison Data of California Cities with Rent Control similar to the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board (Commissioners Hunt and Soto-Vigil) M/S/C (Selawsky/Laverde) DIRECT STAFF TO PROVIDE THE BOARD WITH UPDATED DATA FROM OTHER CALIFORNIA CITIES WITH RENT CONTROL SIMILAR TO BERKELEY S, IN NARRATIVE FORM, AT THE OCTOBER 2016 BOARD MEETING. Roll call vote. YES: Chang, Dodsworth, Harr, Hunt, Laverde, Selawsky, Shelton, Soto-Vigil, Townley; NO: None; ABSTAIN: None; ABSENT: None. Motion carried unanimously. Commissioner Soto-Vigil suggested that it would also be helpful to see the number

4 Page 4 of property owners and units in each jurisdiction, as well as rent increases in each of the last 5-, 10-, 15-, and 20-year periods in chart format. (8) Proposal to approve staff recommendations on the following requests for waiver of late registration penalties (Executive Director) Ministerial Waivers Waiver No. Property Address Ashby Avenue Stuart Street McGee Avenue th Street Martin Luther King, Jr. Way Neilson Street The Executive Director withdrew Waiver THIS ITEM WAS MOVED TO CONSENT AND VOTED ON AS PART OF ITEM 4. (See Item 4. above for vote.) 8. INFORMATION AND ANNOUNCEMENTS Please Note: The Board may move Information Items to the Action Calendar. a. Reports from Board Members/Staff All items below were mentioned and/or briefly discussed. Underlined items have additional information and/or action(s) noted. (1) May 13, 2015 Policy Analysis Report from the City and County of San Francisco Board of Supervisors Budget and Legislative Analyst regarding the impact of shortterm rentals on housing (Vice-Chair Harr) M/S/C (Selawsky/Harr) MOVE ITEM 8.a.(1) TO ACTION. Roll call vote. Motion carried unanimously. M/S/C (Selawsky/Harr) SUBMIT THIS REPORT TO COUNCIL FOR INCLUSION IN THEIR JUNE 28 TH AGENDA PACKET AS A SUPPLEMENTAL COMMUNICATION. Roll call vote. Motion carried unanimously. (2) June 12, 2016 memorandum regarding Possible Regulation Regarding Caregivers and Rent Controlled Units (Commissioner Hunt) M/S/C (Selawsky/Laverde) MOVE ITEM 8.a.(1) TO ACTION. Roll call vote. Motion carried unanimously. M/S/C (Selawsky/Harr) FORWARD THIS ITEM TO THE IRA / AGA / REGISTRATION COMMITTEE. Roll call vote. Motion carried unanimously.

5 Page 5 (3) June 14, 2016 City Council Action Calendar item titled Suggested Amendments to the Rent Ordinance Berkeley Municipal Code Chapter (Executive Director) (4) Update on Council s action on Short-Term Rentals (Executive Director) (5) Launch of Online Payments service for Berkeley property owners (Executive Director) (6) June 6, 2016 press release: City of Berkeley Rent Stabilization Program Receives UC Berkeley Chancellor s Award for Public Service (Executive Director) (7) May 2016 Registration mailing to Berkeley property owners for the annual registration fee due on July 1, 2016 (Executive Director) (8) May 31, 2016 letter to Council from Chair Townley requesting the Council formally support California Assembly Bill 2502 (Mullin & Chiu) (Chair Townley) (9) Flyer for the Rent Board s Landlord in Berkeley 101 seminar on May 18, 2016 (Executive Director) (10) Flyer for the Rent Board s Occupancy and Tenancy Turnover Workshop on May 21, 2016 (Executive Director) (11) Flyer for the Rent Board s Workshop for Long-Term Rent-Controlled Tenants on June 14, 2016 (Executive Director) (12) Announcement of June 29, 2016 Information Meeting about the Center Street Garage Reconstruction Project (Executive Director) (13) May 11, 2016 SF.Curbed.com article by Adam Brinklow titled, Berkeley, El Cerrito Are Bay s Fastest Rent Markets (Vice-Chair Harr) (14) June 4, 2016 NYTimes.com article by D.W. Gibson titled, How to Force Out Rent- Controlled Tenants (Chair Townley) b. Updates and Announcements regarding Committee/Board Meetings (1) Budget and Personnel Committee Chair Selawsky said that the Committee s items had already been discussed earlier in the meeting. a. April 21 st minutes b. May 2 nd minutes c. May 3 rd minutes d. May 24 th minutes

6 Page 6 e. June 1 st agenda f. June 1 st minutes g. June 10 th agenda (2) Outreach The Committee s next meeting is this Friday the 24 th. a. June 24 th agenda (3) IRA, AGA and Registration Chair Townley said the Committee will be examining the rules related to Consent items in order to provide a recommendation on a standard procedure for the Board s Consent items. Vice-Chair Harr said there are a number of items she wants to refer to this Committee, including the exemption for transient occupants and the related regulation that needs to be updated. (4) Eviction/Section 8/Foreclosure Committee Chair Hunt said the Committee s last meeting was a good one and that they primarily discussed the many items on their Work Plan. She also mentioned that staff would be compiling some data for the Committee to review in September or October. Vice-Chair Harr asked that the Ellis report and the Foreclosure report given to the Committee be put in the next Board packet. a. June 1 st agenda (5) Resilience and Sustainability Committee Chair Townley said that, in addition to the item discussed earlier tonight, the Committee has been working on green leases i.e., residential leases that encourage sustainable practices related to rental housing. a. May 17 th agenda b. May 17 th minutes c. June 9 th agenda (6) Habitability Committee Chair Laverde said that the Committee developed their scope of work for the year. They ll be focusing on several issues, including hoarding issues, the rules and laws related to elevators in residential buildings, as well as the new law about mold and the City s inspection process. a. April 19 th minutes b. May 10 th agenda Meeting cancelled c. June 7 th agenda

7 Page 7 (7) 4 x 4 City Council/RSB Housing Committee Chair Townley said that much of the Committee s work is still in process. Another meeting has been scheduled for September. a. March 10 th minutes (8) Ad Hoc Committee on the Effects of Costa-Hawkins This Committee had their first meeting about a week ago and Commissioner Laverde was elected as Chair. Committee Chair Laverde said the Committee will be looking at six issues, including the administrative costs of Costa-Hawkins, habitability improvements, the number evictions, how Costa-Hawkins has affected landlords (new and old, small and large) and the changing demographics of our city. The Committee plans to invite other rent control jurisdictions in California to a public hearing this fall, as well as stakeholders like the NAACP, the Berkeley Property Owners Association, Tenants Together, and others. a. June 16 th agenda (9) Ad Hoc Committee on Paperless Agendas It was agreed that Commissioners who have had or are still having issues with their City-issued ipad should send an to Aimee Mueller and/or Committee Chair Soto-Vigil. This list will be compiled by staff and will identify the types of issues encountered thus far, if/how they can be remedied and by whom (i.e., users, Rent Board staff, I.T. staff) so the Committee and/or Board has a reference point for future discussion and possible action. (10) Ad Hoc Committee on Short-Term Rentals (11) Future Special Meetings Commissioner Laverde mentioned the proposed public hearing on the effects of Costa-Hawkins planned for the fall, but said it was too early to be more specific about dates, etc. c. Discussion of items for possible placement on future agenda Commissioner Hunt asked that there be a discussion about the proposed contents of the Annual Report to be published at the end of this year so that commissioners have a chance to say what they d like to see included in the report. It was agreed that Chair Townley and the Executive Director would speak about this and review what the Budget & Personnel Committee had already discussed in relation to the Annual Report. 9. ADJOURNMENT M/S/C (Hunt/Chang) ADJOURN TONIGHT S MEETING IN HONOR AND MEMORY OF, AND RESPECT FOR, THE VICTIMS OF THE TRAGEDY IN ORLANDO, FLORIDA, THEIR FAMILIES, AND THE MANY INDIVIDUALS AND FAMILIES WHO WERE IMPACTED BY THIS EVENT, INCLUDING THE ENTIRE L.G.B.T.Q. COMMUNITY. Roll call vote. YES: Chang, Hunt, Laverde, Selawsky, Soto-Vigil, Townley; NO: None; ABSTAIN: None; ABSENT (left meeting early): Dodsworth, Harr, Shelton. Carried: