Special and Regular City Council Meetings February 19, 2019

0:00:40thing is with the

0:02:13can i have everyone's attention for a

0:02:15minute please

0:02:16i just want to make sure everyone knows

0:02:18that the seating capacity in the main

0:02:20hall is at its limit

0:02:22there is no standing room in this main

0:02:25hall the fire marshal is doing his job

0:02:28to make sure we have a safe meeting

0:02:30please comply with the fire marshal's

0:02:32instructions thank you

0:03:14all to order

0:03:18will the city clerk please call the roll

0:03:21council member fidelity here mayor pro

0:03:23tem lyman president mayor pardue okamoto

0:03:26president councilman councilmember

0:03:28abelson

0:03:29president councilmember quinto here

0:03:33we will now have council member lyman do

0:03:35the pledge of allegiance for a moment of

0:03:37silence

0:03:40i pledge allegiance to the flag of the

0:03:43united states

0:03:44america

0:03:45and to of

0:03:46for which it stands

0:03:48one nation under god

0:03:50indivisible with liberty and justice for

0:03:53all

0:04:01hey

0:04:03we had a session before

0:04:05this session

0:04:07and we did make uh

0:04:10two appointments we are reappointing

0:04:12michael fisher to the civil service

0:04:14commission and to the library commission

0:04:17[Music]

0:04:18okay

0:04:20we're working on it

0:04:26can you hear me now

0:04:29a little bit better

0:04:31i can hear it echoing

0:04:34there's a lot of people out there okay

0:04:37yeah it's she's that full volume okay

0:04:39so michael fisher has been reappointed

0:04:43to the civil service commission and the

0:04:45library commission

0:04:50that's the public

0:04:52this is here

0:04:56is there still an echo yes

0:04:58there's going to be an echo because we

0:05:00have to have the sound out there yeah a

0:05:01lot of people the more we turn on

0:05:03outside the more the echo is from in

0:05:05here

0:05:06okay

0:05:10in addition

0:05:11prachi amin

0:05:12has been appointed to the streets

0:05:14oversight committee

0:05:18and that is the conclusion of my report

0:05:20out from the previous session

0:05:24now we will ask the

0:05:26council and the staff for any other

0:05:29reports and we're going to keep our

0:05:31reports uh very short today only

0:05:34necessary reports please

0:05:39yeah i'm going to take this opportunity

0:05:40with so many of you in the audience to

0:05:42announce our

0:05:44vacancies on boards and commissions we

0:05:46do have some vacancies

0:05:48for example the mosquito and vector

0:05:50control district

0:05:51civil service commission committee on

0:05:53aging

0:05:54crime prevention committee economic

0:05:56development committee environmental

0:05:57quality committee human relations

0:05:59commission park and recreation

0:06:01commission and urban forest committee

0:06:03all have vacancies thank you

0:06:07council member fidelity

0:06:09yes i was

0:06:11able to i want to applaud el cerrito

0:06:12jazz festival that happened a couple

0:06:15weeks ago it was a great event

0:06:17and happy that the environmental

0:06:19equality commission is working on a

0:06:20plastics

0:06:22ban to come to the council soon and

0:06:25we'll look forward to seeing that thank

0:06:26you

0:06:29are there any staff reports

0:06:33thank you

0:06:34at this time we'll have oral

0:06:36communications from the public

0:06:38anyone wishing to speak should complete

0:06:40a speaker card and give it to the city

0:06:42clerk

0:06:43reports are typically three minutes

0:06:45however today there will be two minutes

0:06:47per person

0:06:49comments regarding non-agenda

0:06:53and consent calendar items will be heard

0:06:55first

0:06:56comments related to other agenda items

0:06:58will be heard at the time the city

0:07:00council deliberates on the item

0:07:03when you come forward

0:07:05state your name

0:07:06city and residence for record

0:07:09i reiterate

0:07:10please state the city thank you

0:07:14we have five speakers at this time

0:07:16judith tannenbaum will be first followed

0:07:18by robert

0:07:20herbs and gary prost

0:07:23hi council i'm judith cannabaum i live

0:07:25in el cerrito and i'm just giving a

0:07:27little arts and culture commission

0:07:29report about with the poet laureate so

0:07:32our po laureate danny gabriel is being

0:07:34very active

0:07:35and um she

0:07:37has created a poem that is a community

0:07:40poem she went out and got lines from

0:07:42different people in the community

0:07:43especially when she was doing the off

0:07:44the grid stuff last fall

0:07:46and then put it together in a poem so i

0:07:49will bring him over to holly somehow and

0:07:52give you copies and then i'll have some

0:07:53copies up here if others want to see the

0:07:56poem

0:07:57she's also um

0:07:59completed an application for a

0:08:01california arts council grant that maya

0:08:03found

0:08:05that would be focused on the

0:08:09various kinds of family structures

0:08:11in el cerrito

0:08:13and she's currently doing an application

0:08:16for the academy of american poet laura

0:08:19they're having a

0:08:20a grant for a fellowship for poet

0:08:22laureates

0:08:23that danny found and that one's going to

0:08:25be focused on home

0:08:28she's currently doing workshops with the

0:08:30albany poet laureate and on april 2nd

0:08:34she's going to do a workshop at our

0:08:35library at el cerrito library and that's

0:08:37going to be they're going to be doing a

0:08:39writing workshop and then the next week

0:08:41um the library is bringing in a book

0:08:43artist so that they'll

0:08:45turn the um the so that the writing that

0:08:47people do will become they will make

0:08:49books out of it so thank you

0:08:51thank

0:08:52you next speaker is robert herbs

0:09:01mayor lyman members of the city council

0:09:02my name is actually pronounced roberts

0:09:04rubies

0:09:05i'm a 31-year resident of the city of el

0:09:08cerrito i'm also a member of the el

0:09:10cerrito urban forest committee i've come

0:09:12to speak in support of the

0:09:15agenda item 4a

0:09:17the proclamation regarding arbor week

0:09:20i'm so pleased are so many people in the

0:09:21room who have come here to support

0:09:23harper week as well i believe

0:09:28the urban forests are a very par

0:09:31important part of the quality of life

0:09:33for urban dwellers around the world no

0:09:35less so here in el cerrito

0:09:38i'm very pleased to be part of a process

0:09:41of elevating

0:09:42the attention to and the care of urban

0:09:45forests i believe that

0:09:48passing a proclamation in support of

0:09:50arbor week is totally compatible with

0:09:52that trend and that important focus on

0:09:55an important part of the quality of our

0:09:57life here in el cerrito

0:09:58thank you for your attention

0:10:00thank you

0:10:02next speaker is gary prost followed by

0:10:04paul duncan

0:10:07mayor council i'm gary prost

0:10:09i'm president of el cerrito

0:10:12tonight i'd like to ask three questions

0:10:14and request your response

0:10:17in january 2018 a group of neighbors

0:10:21put together a petition to the public

0:10:22works department urged at the urging of

0:10:25fire marshal gibson to put up no parking

0:10:28signs and paint curbs on the buckingham

0:10:31cul-de-sac

0:10:33so it would parking on one side only

0:10:36this would allow emergency vehicles

0:10:38access to the assisted care home at 8320

0:10:42buckingham

0:10:44work order was issued in april 2018

0:10:47nothing's been done so my question is

0:10:49what does it take to get el cerrito to

0:10:51act

0:10:53in november 2016 i submitted a request

0:10:55to public works

0:10:57to install

0:10:58either

0:10:59stop signs or speed bumps at the corner

0:11:02of buckingham and contra costa

0:11:04there's limited sight distance at this

0:11:06intersection i've almost been in several

0:11:08accidents

0:11:10a work order was created i followed up

0:11:12in november 2017 nothing's been done

0:11:15what does it take to get el cerrito to

0:11:17act

0:11:18in november of 2015

0:11:21city council agenda item 4 a proposal by

0:11:24diablo fire safe to prepare an el

0:11:27cerrito kensington community wildfire

0:11:30protection plan

0:11:32was completed

0:11:33during april and posted online in april

0:11:362017

0:11:38it was signed by the el cerrito city

0:11:40council kensington fire district

0:11:42contra costa board of supervisors and

0:11:45others

0:11:47the prioritized actions were fuel

0:11:49reduction

0:11:50addressing structure ignitability

0:11:53and collaborating with or educating the

0:11:55public

0:11:56other than weed whacking grass and

0:12:00and trimming a few eucalyptus in the

0:12:01hillside natural area nothing's been

0:12:04done

0:12:05what is it going to take to get el

0:12:06cerrito to act thank you

0:12:09thank you

0:12:10next speaker is paul duncan

0:12:18thank you gary hayek hey echo what

0:12:20you've said i'm paul duncan el cerrito

0:12:22resident

0:12:24i'm here representing el cerrito make el

0:12:26cerrito fire safe i'd like to first

0:12:28thank the el cerrito police department

0:12:30for starting to work on an organized

0:12:32evacuation plan for our city

0:12:35i'd also like to thank again the el

0:12:37cerrito fire department for their

0:12:39efforts to schedule the cal fire delta

0:12:41crew

0:12:43considering they only worked a few days

0:12:45sometimes out in the pouring rain

0:12:48they got a lot of brush cut and picked

0:12:50up

0:12:51ready for the fire department to burn

0:12:53when the time is right

0:12:56to the city council now i want to ask

0:12:58you have you yet made contact with state

0:13:00and county representatives

0:13:03senator

0:13:04supervisor goya for example how about

0:13:08east bay regional parks has anybody made

0:13:10individual uh outreaches to them

0:13:13what's your overall plan anyway

0:13:16i hope you've been working on it

0:13:18thank you

0:13:20the next speaker is buddy

0:13:24followed by peter campbell

0:13:34good evening uh i'm i'm buddy akasic um

0:13:38nice to see you alex

0:13:40i'm a neighbor next door hannah gardens

0:13:43and i was here

0:13:45last meeting and i'm here tonight and

0:13:48i'm kind of planning to be here

0:13:50every time i can

0:13:52and my question was

0:13:54when will

0:13:56we move towards creating a final

0:13:59place for a senior center that's not a

0:14:01couple of modulars

0:14:04that's actually a building that

0:14:06will be the final answer for the senior

0:14:08center and i was told that i needed to

0:14:11write my concerns

0:14:13and submit them in writing can i find

0:14:15out tonight

0:14:17who to submit them to at what ad email

0:14:20or snail mail

0:14:22let me know how to do it i'll do it

0:14:28we'll have someone uh come to you and

0:14:30give you the answers

0:14:31excellent

0:14:33thank you so much see you again next

0:14:35time

0:14:36thank you

0:14:37thanks speaker is peter campbell

0:14:46thank you i just wanted to address the

0:14:47sound in here is there a technician who

0:14:50can work on the sound the problem is the

0:14:52sound is too loud in the lobby and not

0:14:54loud enough in here and i think i'm not

0:14:56alone in saying that i'm having a very

0:14:57difficult time understanding what's

0:14:59being said

0:15:02so we we have tried to address that and

0:15:04so we're still trying to work with rit

0:15:07staff to address the sound it's not a

0:15:09very

0:15:10robust system and we don't often have um

0:15:13the echoing sound out there so we'll

0:15:15we'll keep trying and doing our best

0:15:17we're very sorry for the inconvenience

0:15:19okay

0:15:20it's probably against the fire

0:15:21regulations but if the doors could be

0:15:22closed that way yeah we can't close the

0:15:24doors

0:15:25we do have a number of assisted listing

0:15:27devices that may help if someone is

0:15:28having a really hard time hearing um

0:15:31with headphones that do provide

0:15:34work as an assisted listing device if

0:15:35you would like sure

0:15:41that concludes the public speakers for

0:15:42general public comment

0:15:44great

0:15:45now we will move on to the adoption of

0:15:47the consent calendar

0:15:51a proclamation of arbor week b

0:15:54reappointment to members to the design

0:15:57review board and planning commission

0:15:59c cash and investments reports for

0:16:02quarter ending in december 31st 2018

0:16:06and d final parcel map for the three

0:16:09lots

0:16:10at 966

0:16:11c view drive i have a motion

0:16:15move adoption of the consent calendar

0:16:18i will second that

0:16:20all in favor aye aye

0:16:22those opposed

0:16:24motion carries

0:16:27all right so next we are on to our

0:16:29presentations

0:16:31we have an update on the el cerrito

0:16:34library

0:16:39i know heidi is here i saw her

0:16:42somewhere

0:16:44there she is

0:16:58hi everybody hello

0:17:01i feel like i should face that way

0:17:03hi there i'm heidi goldstein and i am

0:17:06the senior community library manager

0:17:08here at el cerrito

0:17:10and greetings to the city council and

0:17:12the mayor

0:17:13city manager

0:17:15and if you all i

0:17:17i just realized that this is a wonderful

0:17:19way that i'm going to do some really

0:17:20fast library outreach

0:17:22so

0:17:24if you don't know we've gotten rid of

0:17:25all of our library fines

0:17:28no more library fines we got rid of all

0:17:30the debt all the library funds that's

0:17:32right that's right

0:17:35it's pretty awesome so the entire county

0:17:37got rid of all library fines so if you

0:17:40owed us something

0:17:41and you had some guilt come on back we

0:17:44really just want to see you we really

0:17:46don't care we just want to see you so

0:17:48come on back to the library and i'm here

0:17:51tonight to share some terrific metrics

0:17:52with you guys i'm going to be back in

0:17:54april with a hearty thorough

0:17:57annual report but tonight i'm just going

0:17:58to talk a little bit about about el

0:18:00cerrito

0:18:02i also want to request that the council

0:18:04consider

0:18:05for 2020 that the city sanctioned

0:18:09national library week

0:18:11during the second week in april

0:18:17and we can figure out what that means

0:18:18later

0:18:20we don't have to figure it out now

0:18:22but uh

0:18:24and then i wanted to say thank you again

0:18:27to the council for giving us our extra

0:18:29hours it's really made such a tremendous

0:18:31difference

0:18:32and so uh for example

0:18:34in the period of time between july 2016

0:18:38and june 2017

0:18:40before we had our hours increase we were

0:18:42open

0:18:431820 hours and 109 000 people uh visited

0:18:48us

0:18:49and with a clear improvement the next

0:18:50year we were open 2015 hours and 124 000

0:18:55people visited us

0:18:57which is terrific

0:18:59um within 2018 we had 12 in the month of

0:19:03january alone we had 12 306 materials

0:19:07checked out and then in 2019 we had 16

0:19:12117 materials checked out

0:19:15and uh basically our programs have

0:19:18doubled in size between the last quarter

0:19:21due to our awesome hours we now have

0:19:24full-time staff on the regular

0:19:26and they're really great at planning

0:19:28programs i have a terrific team

0:19:31so if none of you have been to the

0:19:32library lately come by

0:19:35we don't have debts i don't know if you

0:19:36heard that

0:19:37got rid of all fines

0:19:39um and so we have terrific programs

0:19:41tonight we're having a drumming program

0:19:43in the library for a little while and so

0:19:46our numbers have gone from uh doubled

0:19:49and our last quarter program numbers

0:19:51were

0:19:524547 attendees for four months which is

0:19:56pretty great

0:19:58and um our circulation

0:20:00between 2018 and 2017 went from 150 000

0:20:05to 170 000 items for the year

0:20:09and we've registered um uh

0:20:12last year we registered 32 new patrons

0:20:14and this year alone in january sorry

0:20:17january 2018 we registered 32 patrons

0:20:20january 2019 we registered 59 new

0:20:23patrons

0:20:25and january 2018 we renewed 96 patrons

0:20:28and january of 2019 we renewed 142

0:20:31patrons

0:20:33so basically all of our numbers are just

0:20:35going up and improving and we're getting

0:20:37people coming back who haven't been

0:20:38there in years partially because of the

0:20:41fines partially because we're open

0:20:42wednesdays and sundays we still get

0:20:45people coming in who are saying oh my

0:20:46god you guys are open on sundays this is

0:20:48great i love it and so we really

0:20:50appreciate it

0:20:52and that's what i have to say thank you

0:20:54very much

0:20:55thank you

0:21:00council have any questions

0:21:03nope are there any speakers on this item

0:21:05we do have one speaker on this item al

0:21:07miller

0:21:14good evening mayor good evening

0:21:17council members uh my name is al miller

0:21:19i live at [address removed] here in el cerrito

0:21:23as president of the el cerrito library

0:21:26foundation and the local books for the

0:21:29homebound volunteer

0:21:32i spend a lot of time in the library

0:21:35and as

0:21:38happy as i am with the information that

0:21:40you just heard heidi present to you

0:21:43going spending that time in the library

0:21:46i can't help but think

0:21:48you know we have 60 or so kids in story

0:21:51time

0:21:52and it's wonderful the energy level is

0:21:55up they sing they dance they do all

0:21:57sorts of things they should do when

0:21:58they're learning

0:22:00about the value of books

0:22:02but when that happens

0:22:04there's not much else going on in the

0:22:07library

0:22:09after school one that fills up with kids

0:22:11coming in either

0:22:13just to spend a time until their parents

0:22:15come home from work and pick them up on

0:22:17the way home from work or to do their

0:22:18study homework i can't help but think if

0:22:22we had a modern library with

0:22:25study rooms

0:22:27more computers etc how much more

0:22:30services the staff that we have in our

0:22:32library could provide

0:22:34there's other examples on and on

0:22:36especially

0:22:37a nice quiet reading room for the

0:22:40people that are accustomed to going to

0:22:42the library to read the paper or read

0:22:45their books

0:22:47how better we could be serving the

0:22:49community if we had a modern library to

0:22:52do it in so i think i would like to

0:22:56thank you for the decision and the

0:22:58commitment you made to extend the hours

0:23:01that has made a tremendous increase in

0:23:04the service that our library is able to

0:23:06provide and we're very fortunate in that

0:23:09but

0:23:10the prize is still in front of us

0:23:13and i don't want you to lose sight of

0:23:15that because we too can have a modern

0:23:17library that will much better serve our

0:23:20community thank you thank you

0:23:24council member fidelity yeah i just want

0:23:26to concur with that and

0:23:28we need a new library in el cerrito it's

0:23:30the beginning of the process it's a long

0:23:32way to go but we have to begin

0:23:34thinking about a venue selecting a venue

0:23:37working

0:23:38articulating the needs and i just want

0:23:40to comment on the gentleman that spoke

0:23:42about the senior center we can

0:23:44possibly work together with the

0:23:46community rooms that will be in the

0:23:47library to have a senior center attached

0:23:50to a library let's think about it

0:23:53let's think about it talk about it move

0:23:55on this and think about places where

0:23:56this can go thank you

0:24:00all right

0:24:02we have no public hearings tonight so we

0:24:05will move on to our policy matters

0:24:09credit protection study

0:24:11the el cerrito 2017 affordable housing

0:24:14strategy pillar b

0:24:16reduced the risk of displacement

0:24:19and help stabilize at-risk populations

0:24:23may have the staff report please

0:24:26while melanie and isa are bringing their

0:24:29own chairs to their own presentation um

0:24:32i would like to just sort of start out

0:24:34myself

0:24:35i'm karen pinkish your city manager

0:24:38i'd like to start off by acknowledging

0:24:40and thanking isa and melanie isa shorey

0:24:43and melanie mintz from the community

0:24:44development department they'll be

0:24:45providing all of you with tonight's

0:24:47presentation

0:24:49they and a lot of other staff have

0:24:51worked incredibly hard to provide you

0:24:53with the best research and information

0:24:55at our disposal

0:24:56to help you the city council craft a

0:24:58policy that works best for our community

0:25:01we recognize that this is a sometimes

0:25:03complicated often emotional issue

0:25:06we recognize that despite very strong

0:25:08opinions on all sides of this issue that

0:25:10there isn't necessarily a clear answer

0:25:12before you that one size does not fit

0:25:15all what works for one city might not

0:25:17work for ours

0:25:19we also recognize that whatever we do

0:25:21will take time and resources to

0:25:23accomplish

0:25:24but what we also know is that our intent

0:25:26is to help you craft a policy that works

0:25:28best for everyone in el cerrito we want

0:25:31to implement a program based on

0:25:32data-driven decisions to the very best

0:25:35of our ability and we want to do it in a

0:25:36way that continues our strategic plan

0:25:39goal of delivering exemplary services to

0:25:42the community while staying true to our

0:25:44values so i want to thank everyone in

0:25:46advance

0:25:47for being thoughtful for keeping the

0:25:48entire community in mind and i do

0:25:50appreciate all the time and effort that

0:25:52has put into this by council members our

0:25:55staff and the public who's been

0:25:58very proactive and very engaged in this

0:26:00issue so with that i'll turn it over to

0:26:02aisa to begin the presentation

0:26:05thank you good evening mayor council

0:26:08members of the public my name is isa

0:26:10shuri i'm the affordable housing analyst

0:26:12for the city and i really appreciate you

0:26:15all coming out tonight to take part in

0:26:17this very important discussion

0:26:19i just want to give everyone a quick

0:26:21overview of tonight's agenda we do have

0:26:23a lot of information

0:26:25to get through

0:26:26but we will be

0:26:29asking for direction and

0:26:31going through that process so

0:26:33just a quick overview of tonight's

0:26:34agenda

0:26:35obviously the purpose of why we are here

0:26:38today

0:26:39give you some little background on how

0:26:42the progress that we've made today and

0:26:44also to

0:26:46bring forth a study session to discuss

0:26:49the new tenant protection tools

0:26:51that you asked us all to bring back at

0:26:53our december 18th council meeting

0:26:56we will be covering the just cause for

0:26:58eviction rent registry tenant relocation

0:27:01triggered by rent increases

0:27:03we'll then circle back to the previously

0:27:06introduced policies

0:27:08and discuss how those policies and

0:27:10programs can all be considered as a

0:27:12package and open up for next steps and

0:27:15discussion so

0:27:17before we move on i just want to echo

0:27:20what karen said um this housing ish

0:27:22issue is definitely one that's

0:27:24challenging to tackle um but we are

0:27:28encouraged of having this conversation

0:27:30with everyone here today

0:27:31so the purpose of today's study session

0:27:34is to inform and discuss tenant

0:27:35protection policies requested by council

0:27:38and a provide staff direction for

0:27:40program development so this is a study

0:27:42session there will be no formal action

0:27:45taken today

0:27:47in terms of timeline um with ever since

0:27:50the dissolution of the redevelopment

0:27:51agencies in 2012

0:27:53the city has taken various proactive

0:27:56measures um the first step that we

0:27:58actually did is we adopted you all

0:28:00adopted the affordable housing strategy

0:28:02in 2017.

0:28:04that strategy basically contained four

0:28:06policy pillars

0:28:07for the city to produce protect and

0:28:10preserve affordable housing

0:28:12as an outcome of the affordable housing

0:28:15strategy and housing analyst position

0:28:16was created so i've been with you

0:28:19for the last 14 months or so now

0:28:22last year you all adopted

0:28:25the inclusionary zoning ordinance which

0:28:26was the goal of pillar a which was to

0:28:28leverage market rate development

0:28:31through creating affordable housing

0:28:32units in addition

0:28:34in the spring and summer we did outreach

0:28:38to other cities as well as stakeholders

0:28:40to to actually discuss various tenant

0:28:43protection tools

0:28:44as karen mentioned there's

0:28:47many variations of tenant protection

0:28:48tools

0:28:49for your consideration

0:28:51we brought those forth in august

0:28:53for a study session

0:28:55after that study session we received

0:28:57direction to draft ordinances we held a

0:29:00public meeting to discuss those draft

0:29:02ordinances and we returned on december

0:29:0418th with four draft ordinances that

0:29:07i'll go into greater detail later

0:29:10you

0:29:11did approve three of those and there

0:29:13were some amendments

0:29:14and we talked about those on january

0:29:1615th and so now we're back to talk about

0:29:18how those amendments in conjunction with

0:29:21all of the additional housing policies

0:29:23that you considered

0:29:25could conceivably work out

0:29:28you all probably got a copy of this

0:29:30postcard in the mail we did a city wide

0:29:32mailing to all residents as well as our

0:29:35business license holders for our rental

0:29:37housing units so that's just a copy of

0:29:39it

0:29:40before i go too deep into the tenant

0:29:42protection tools specifically i just

0:29:44want to remind everyone of the housing

0:29:46policies that the city currently has

0:29:48which includes the san pablo avenue

0:29:50specific plan that was adopted in 2014

0:29:54it promotes and encourages actually a

0:29:56variety of new housing units at very

0:29:59income levels as well as commercial

0:30:01development and in our priority

0:30:03development area

0:30:04so given our transit oriented landscape

0:30:07with two bart stations we are looking at

0:30:09our priority development areas to help

0:30:12up with the supply side of housing

0:30:13production

0:30:15that's been successful thus far

0:30:18in addition our planning

0:30:20requirement is the housing element it's

0:30:23required by the state

0:30:25it's basically our work plan as to how

0:30:27the city is actually going to address

0:30:29our housing needs gives us goals and

0:30:31objectives and things to keep us on

0:30:33track

0:30:34over this time period um

0:30:362015-2023 i talked about the strategy

0:30:38that was adopted in 2017 and then you

0:30:42all also adopted the inclusionary zoning

0:30:44ordinance which requires market rate

0:30:47developers of new projects to set aside

0:30:4910 percent of their rental units to

0:30:51low-income households

0:30:53or 12 percent of their home ownership

0:30:55units to moderate income households so

0:30:57those are some of the things in addition

0:31:00to those policies we have some older

0:31:02policies that have been around a little

0:31:04longer such as the residential rental

0:31:06inspection program the goal of the

0:31:08residential rental inspection program is

0:31:10to assure that rental housing units are

0:31:12compliant with health and safety codes

0:31:14so this is for all rental properties in

0:31:16el cerrito including single family homes

0:31:19and there is a business license

0:31:21requirement

0:31:22that is tied to the rental inspection

0:31:24program in addition we have the condo

0:31:26conversion ordinance that was

0:31:27established back in 2008 to date this

0:31:30ordinance has not been exercised

0:31:33but it does apply regulations to the

0:31:35conversion of existing multi-family

0:31:37rental housing units

0:31:39to condos there are some relocation

0:31:41benefits built into the condo conversion

0:31:44ordinance as well the city is also

0:31:48seeking grant funding to inventory and

0:31:50study soft story

0:31:52residential buildings in el cerrito so

0:31:54we submitted a fema grant application

0:31:56for that last fall

0:31:58and we're really looking and hopeful

0:32:00that we're able to at least get an

0:32:02engineer kick off this inventory um so

0:32:04that we can actually work with the goals

0:32:07in our hazard mitigation plan which is

0:32:10obviously reduce the risk of human human

0:32:12life given where we live in the

0:32:14proximity to earthquakes

0:32:16preserve our housing stock and of course

0:32:18our vital infrastructure

0:32:22also our soft stories what we

0:32:24traditionally refer to as our naturally

0:32:26occurring affordable housing our older

0:32:28housing stock

0:32:30is generally classified as a common term

0:32:32that is used in the housing world

0:32:36as i mentioned to you we have the

0:32:37housing element that was adopted

0:32:40in may of 2015 one

0:32:43specific goal of the housing element

0:32:45is to actually participate in regional

0:32:48housing needs and displacement policies

0:32:50and programs so we actually tackle that

0:32:52by the afford through the adoption of

0:32:54the affordable housing strategy which

0:32:57lays out specific specific objectives

0:32:59and goals and policies

0:33:01that the city can consider

0:33:03in addition we

0:33:04also brought forth a demolition

0:33:06ordinance in december as well

0:33:09to address some of the

0:33:11displacement that could possibly occur

0:33:15in addition to that displacement we were

0:33:17also

0:33:19the housing element also calls eviction

0:33:22for good cause ordinance

0:33:24when we convened our

0:33:26affordable housing strategy we had a

0:33:28technical

0:33:30advisory group of affordable housing

0:33:32experts and

0:33:33they saw that this was in there and they

0:33:35knew that this was a goal

0:33:37but generally just cause is paired with

0:33:39some sort of rent trigger so by us

0:33:42coming forward today as a result of

0:33:44pillar b we're bringing forth um tenant

0:33:46protections as a package instead of just

0:33:49a standalone just cause ordinance so

0:33:52in terms of the supply side we're

0:33:54keeping up on with our goals in the

0:33:57housing element in that regard so the

0:33:59affordable housing strategy just to give

0:34:01you a snapshot it identifies the tools

0:34:04to protect preserve and produce

0:34:06affordable housing it lays out our

0:34:08specific goals and objectives and

0:34:10considerations over a five-year period

0:34:13and within those goals and objectives

0:34:15they are broken down by timelines

0:34:17so inclusionary zoning as well as tenant

0:34:20protections

0:34:22were those on the immediate short term

0:34:24timeline so we're here

0:34:26back to you today to discuss pillar b

0:34:29specifically which is explore and

0:34:31implement possible options to reduce

0:34:33displacement so we again tackled pillar

0:34:37a

0:34:38some of the strategies contained in

0:34:40pillar b has high priority

0:34:42implementation actions including

0:34:45strategy four which is implement

0:34:47policies to preserve low-cost housing

0:34:49stock

0:34:50so again we brought forth that

0:34:52demolition ordinance for your

0:34:53consideration

0:34:55strategy six is explore tenant

0:34:57protection policies so continue to study

0:34:59potential tenant protection options and

0:35:02evaluate the successes of existing

0:35:04programs in pure cities so we we

0:35:07actually participated and did outreach

0:35:09and spoke with other cities um and again

0:35:12as we just mentioned really

0:35:14understanding

0:35:15the landscape of our community and our

0:35:17needs and of our residents so some of

0:35:20the actions to date in terms of

0:35:22affordable housing

0:35:25that you have all been a part of is

0:35:27i think of affordable housing being

0:35:30created through a triangular approach

0:35:33through public private and non-profit so

0:35:36for example an example of a 100

0:35:38affordable housing development is our

0:35:41new development next door hannah gardens

0:35:42it's 62 affordable senior units

0:35:45there was funding it's one of the old

0:35:47redevelopment projects so we had funding

0:35:49in that project and we were able to work

0:35:51with eden housing to construct those

0:35:53affordable housing units

0:35:54then we also have our

0:35:56contributions through the market rate

0:35:58side which is the inclusionary zoning

0:36:00ordinance

0:36:01that requires market rate developers to

0:36:04provide units at below market rate

0:36:06either on site or through a low fee

0:36:09contribution to the affordable housing

0:36:11trust fund

0:36:13and in addition

0:36:14there's state density bonus programs

0:36:17which basically encourage the state's

0:36:19encouraging production of affordable

0:36:21housing so there's concessions and

0:36:23waivers that

0:36:24could be accessed through the state

0:36:26density program through for a developer

0:36:28and pending things of course are the

0:36:30tenant protection tools that we're here

0:36:32to discuss with you today

0:36:37we're also

0:36:38hoping to

0:36:40you know at some point in terms of

0:36:42resources and housing trust funds

0:36:44partner with the county effort and

0:36:47determine if there's how we can get an

0:36:48affordable housing bond in contra costa

0:36:50county to also help build up our housing

0:36:53trust fund that's very important

0:36:56now affordable housing programs are

0:36:58generally income based um so what's

0:37:00affordable to one person might not be

0:37:02affordable to the next person even

0:37:04though they both might qualify for

0:37:06affordable housing so generally on the

0:37:08low end of the spectrum an extremely low

0:37:11income person is someone earning about

0:37:1324 000 a year

0:37:15and on the higher spectrum of a moderate

0:37:17income

0:37:18and we often use the term ami area

0:37:20median income a moderate income single

0:37:23person for example would be earning

0:37:24about 87 000 a year so that just kind of

0:37:27gives you a sense of from the low to the

0:37:30high of what affordable housing looks

0:37:32like to different households at

0:37:33different income levels

0:37:36in terms of our background

0:37:39we're a city of about twenty four

0:37:40thousand

0:37:42under four square miles the county

0:37:44median income for a family of four in

0:37:47contra costa county is a hundred and

0:37:49four thousand

0:37:50what that means is that half of our

0:37:53residents in the county make more than

0:37:55that and half of our residents in the

0:37:56county make less than that so that is

0:37:58the mean the media

0:38:00how the area meeting income is

0:38:01determined um currently um based on our

0:38:04housing element about fifty percent of

0:38:07the households in el cerrito are above

0:38:09moderate income and fifty percent are um

0:38:12about below that

0:38:14and then county-wide um it's a little

0:38:17lower

0:38:19in terms of our occupancy we are 61

0:38:23owners 40 39 renters um

0:38:27statewide in terms of california you're

0:38:30looking at about 55 percent of

0:38:32californians own and about 45 percent

0:38:35rent

0:38:36so just to give you a little comparison

0:38:39the background and age of housing units

0:38:41just gives you a little perspective on

0:38:43the supply side as you can see here

0:38:48we lacked housing production for many

0:38:50years like many places

0:38:52and 65 percent of our housing stock

0:38:55was built before 1960 and about 35

0:38:58percent was

0:38:59built between 1960 and 2010

0:39:02however through the san pablo avenue

0:39:04specific plan

0:39:05there's close to 1700 units in the

0:39:08pipeline

0:39:09we actually had a project just break

0:39:12ground at guitar center that's going to

0:39:14be 32 units and the mayfair project

0:39:17located near del norte is in for

0:39:19building permits they're slated to break

0:39:22ground

0:39:23through modular construction on 156

0:39:26market rate units and we also have about

0:39:28a hundred affordable housing units in

0:39:30our pipeline as well

0:39:34so common housing types um

0:39:36for the purpose of our discussion it's

0:39:38really important to understand these

0:39:40common housing categories

0:39:43they're categorized by building they're

0:39:45not cataract categorized by owner

0:39:48so when you think about these categories

0:39:51think about the actual building in

0:39:53itself

0:39:54there's buildings property types that

0:39:56are subject to the cost of hawkins

0:39:59housing act and i'll go into that

0:40:01shortly but in essence

0:40:03what state law says is that for rent

0:40:06stabilization rent control programs you

0:40:08cannot include single-family homes

0:40:10condos town homes or multi-family units

0:40:13built after 1995. so that's the cut-off

0:40:16point for the existing state law

0:40:19then there's what's called small

0:40:20multi-family properties these are again

0:40:23properties that were built before 1995

0:40:26and they're usually two three and four

0:40:28unit buildings and then you have what's

0:40:30called larger multi-family which are

0:40:32generally buildings with five units or

0:40:34more

0:40:37i don't know what happened to that slide

0:40:39um

0:40:40so in terms of um an el cerrito our this

0:40:45slide is and i can probably bring up the

0:40:47old version i made some updates this

0:40:49slide is intended

0:40:51to illustrate that 73 percent of our

0:40:53housing stock is actually single family

0:40:56and 27 percent of our housing stock is

0:40:59multi-family

0:41:02in terms of multi-family

0:41:04buildings by type

0:41:0644

0:41:07of our

0:41:09housing stock is duplexes so that's two

0:41:12unit buildings

0:41:14five percent is three unit buildings 33

0:41:17percent is four unit buildings and

0:41:20eighteen percent is five buildings or

0:41:22greater

0:41:25so uh yeah as i mentioned 27 percent of

0:41:28our housing stock that's about 2700

0:41:30multi-family units

0:41:32there's some common housing types and

0:41:35common exceptions

0:41:37for programs that

0:41:39apply to tenant protection tools

0:41:40generally it would exclude single-family

0:41:42residences even if they're rented

0:41:45condos and town homes and multi-family

0:41:47properties built after 1995

0:41:50also any room rentals accessory dwelling

0:41:53units bed and breakfasts

0:41:55tendencies that are a condition of

0:41:57employment by a landlord

0:41:59or units whose rents are regulated or

0:42:01controlled by any government agencies so

0:42:03these are just some common exceptions

0:42:06they can vary depending on what type of

0:42:08program you layer with but this is just

0:42:10kind of the high level we'll get into

0:42:12the specifics as we go through each

0:42:14ordinance in terms of business licenses

0:42:17there's currently close to 900 active

0:42:19business licenses there's one license

0:42:22required per building so it's not per

0:42:24owner it's per building

0:42:26and there's about 2 600 units registered

0:42:30so as i mentioned

0:42:32there's about 2 700 multi-family housing

0:42:34units we have about 2100 registered with

0:42:37our city business license

0:42:40that may be because some units are

0:42:42occupied by owners

0:42:44we will need to do

0:42:46some further data and research as we

0:42:48build out our tenant protection programs

0:42:50to unify our business license process

0:42:53along with that so that the data can

0:42:55then be communicated obviously the

0:42:58finance department is doing one thing

0:43:00and the housing is another but we are

0:43:02creating those interdepartmental

0:43:04relationships through

0:43:06these additional programs and then we

0:43:08have about 533 units that are

0:43:11single-family condo type

0:43:14in terms of what's out there currently

0:43:16for state law

0:43:18as i mentioned there's the costa hawkins

0:43:20rental housing act also there was a

0:43:22ballot in prop 10 in november to make

0:43:26some changes to that what what it

0:43:28basically does is it limits local

0:43:30jurisdiction's ability

0:43:32to impose rent stabilization ordinances

0:43:35on single family condos or multi-family

0:43:38properties built after 1995 and it also

0:43:41allows vacancy decontrol so what that

0:43:43means is once the unit is vacant the

0:43:46landlord is then free to set the rent at

0:43:49whatever the market might bear at that

0:43:51time with vacancy d control

0:43:53in terms of terminations of tenancy

0:43:56current state law

0:43:57requires a 60-day notice for tenants who

0:44:00have been in place for over a year and a

0:44:0230-day notice for tenants who have been

0:44:04in place for less than a year

0:44:07in terms of rent increases

0:44:10there is a 30-day notice required if

0:44:12your rent increase is less than 10 and a

0:44:1560-day notice for rent increase is

0:44:17greater than 10 percent

0:44:19there is also

0:44:21state law for retaliatory eviction that

0:44:23it's illegal for a landlord to retaliate

0:44:25against a tenant for lawfully

0:44:28uh and peacefully exercising his or her

0:44:30rights and then there's the state ellis

0:44:32act um there

0:44:33is obviously like i mentioned state law

0:44:36around eviction and harassment and

0:44:38discrimination there's also fair housing

0:44:41laws as well so

0:44:42i just wanted to give you an overview on

0:44:45the state laws before we actually jump

0:44:47into the just cause for eviction and our

0:44:50tenant protection toolbox

0:44:52so what just caused for evictions just

0:44:54to give you an overview

0:44:56it would be a local ordinance that would

0:44:58restrict the reasons for which landlords

0:45:00can evict

0:45:02tenants must be provided a specific

0:45:04cause

0:45:05and it typically includes added

0:45:07harassment protections so as i mentioned

0:45:11it would put everything into a local

0:45:13ordinance in addition to the state law

0:45:15so if a local ordinance is adopted

0:45:17everything would be in one place

0:45:20it's generally applied to two or three

0:45:22units but it can actually apply to all

0:45:25rental properties including single

0:45:26family so as i mentioned

0:45:29you know we have a significant portion

0:45:32of our

0:45:33multi-family units our two to four unit

0:45:35buildings and we do of course have

0:45:37larger multi-family units as well so

0:45:39things to consider as we make our way

0:45:41through this

0:45:42in terms of program administration

0:45:45city staff would be tasked with program

0:45:47administration alongside a third party

0:45:50program administrator

0:45:52landlords tenants and there's generally

0:45:55legal aid

0:45:56that's paired with just cause it's not

0:45:58required but it does provide some

0:46:01resources for legal representation by

0:46:04having legal aid just cause for eviction

0:46:07does not apply to rent increases however

0:46:09it is common that it's paired with some

0:46:11other

0:46:12program that looks at rent increases

0:46:15participation would be mandatory so by

0:46:18adopting a local ordinance everyone

0:46:20would be participated to required that

0:46:22is of course for properties that are

0:46:24subject to the ordinance

0:46:26in addition um there would be a noticing

0:46:29process that the landlord would be requi

0:46:31required to give both prospective and ex

0:46:34existing tenants and enforcement um can

0:46:37be complaint based or mandatory and we

0:46:39can talk about that a little later on

0:46:42and then it is civilly enforced so there

0:46:44are civil remedies if there are any um

0:46:47violations of the ordinance

0:46:50that would go through the civil remedy

0:46:51process and we

0:46:53of course would be looking to you to

0:46:56determine

0:46:58what

0:46:59what sort of complaint based versus

0:47:01mandatory participation requirements

0:47:03would be in place

0:47:05under state law the reasons to evict

0:47:07include failure to pay rent breach of

0:47:10lease

0:47:11nuisance or criminal activity and

0:47:13withdrawal of rental units from the

0:47:16housing market so

0:47:18under state law currently the nota there

0:47:20is a notice of termination of tenancy

0:47:23required it's either 30 60 or 90 days

0:47:26again if you've been a tenant for less

0:47:28than a year it's a 30-day notice if

0:47:30you've been a tenant for greater than a

0:47:32year it's a 60-day notice and if you

0:47:34have any sort of you know housing

0:47:37subsidy or something of that sort it

0:47:38could be a 90-day notice requirement

0:47:42upon the notice of termination of

0:47:44tenancy if the tenant is still in place

0:47:48the landlord would then provide a notice

0:47:50to quit

0:47:51and if the unit is not vacant

0:47:53in compliance with the notice to quit

0:47:55then a landlord would then begin the

0:47:57unlawful detainer process

0:48:00so as i mentioned

0:48:01a few slides back there are state laws

0:48:03around anti-harassment and

0:48:06they're also

0:48:08discrimination for protected classes

0:48:11there's a big list of

0:48:13obviously fair housing rules as well

0:48:15that all housing providers must adhere

0:48:17to

0:48:18so what would adjust costs for eviction

0:48:21ordinance look like in terms of process

0:48:23and noticing

0:48:24what a local ordinance would require

0:48:27well we already require that all rental

0:48:29units have a business license with the

0:48:31city

0:48:32and that they're registered and that

0:48:34they're subject to inspection

0:48:36we do realize that there may be some

0:48:38people missing from that list and staff

0:48:40will work with resources to

0:48:43further investigate that but again this

0:48:45is the basic requirement as is with the

0:48:48just cause ordinance

0:48:50the landlords would then be required to

0:48:52provide tenants with a notice of tenant

0:48:55rights

0:48:56it would be provided at different points

0:48:58of time obviously when once the

0:49:00ordinance is adopted

0:49:02the notice would have to be issued

0:49:04within a certain number of days

0:49:06upon signing a new lease agreement when

0:49:08renewing a lease agreement or even when

0:49:11if a

0:49:12tenancy is being terminated you would

0:49:14then so these are the circumstances for

0:49:16which the notice of tenants rights would

0:49:18be provided

0:49:19that would be prepared by the city

0:49:21so we would provide that form and we

0:49:23would provide it translated

0:49:26so that it would be used

0:49:28with those notifications the third step

0:49:30is that if a tenancy is is terminated

0:49:33the landlord must then provide a notice

0:49:36that contains

0:49:38that lists the reason and i'll go into

0:49:40those in just a moment

0:49:42if for some reason there's any disputes

0:49:45in this matter with the just cause

0:49:47ordinance it would be pursued through

0:49:49civil action

0:49:51we would encourage you to actually fund

0:49:54some legal aid so that the tenants have

0:49:57some equity representation and would be

0:49:59able to go

0:50:01get seek legal advice because as we all

0:50:03know you know legal advice can be costly

0:50:06and to do it on your own is a big

0:50:08undertaking as well i mean there's a lot

0:50:10of savvy people but sometimes you want

0:50:13the experts to guide you in the right

0:50:15path

0:50:16so in terms of just cause for evictions

0:50:19for cause and no fault reasons so

0:50:22in order to terminate

0:50:24tenancy um these are typically the four

0:50:27cause reasons that would be contained in

0:50:29a just cause um so it's normally about a

0:50:32dozen or so and i mentioned um the state

0:50:34law for you previously but it's

0:50:36basically if you think of the four cause

0:50:39these are kind of generally triggered by

0:50:41the tenants so if you fail to pay rent

0:50:44if you breach your rental agreement if

0:50:46there's illegal activities

0:50:48failure to allow landlord access to your

0:50:50unit

0:50:52some ordinances include rejected written

0:50:54lease extensions

0:50:56violations of occupancy restrictions and

0:51:00some cities such as union city have

0:51:01included returning from deployment

0:51:04if the owner is moving back to their

0:51:06unit

0:51:08some of these are easy to prove and some

0:51:10of these can get difficult to prove

0:51:13from you know just hearing from all

0:51:15parties on this topic so

0:51:19however a landlord under adjust costs

0:51:21for eviction would also be able

0:51:24to

0:51:26terminate tenancy if they're going to

0:51:28remove the units from the rental market

0:51:30through the ellis act if they're going

0:51:31to move back into the property and do an

0:51:33owner move in if there's a major rehab

0:51:36or demolition

0:51:38again if we move forward the demolition

0:51:40ordinance that would have relocation

0:51:42benefits built into that

0:51:44condo conversion so we have a condo

0:51:46conversion ordinance on the book as well

0:51:49and then the third one the fourth one is

0:51:51health and safety orders so basically

0:51:53code violations

0:51:55if the property

0:51:57is not up to par

0:52:01so what a local ordinance would do is it

0:52:03would also enhance the harassment

0:52:05protections

0:52:07generally a just cause ordinance

0:52:08includes harassment protections such as

0:52:12not interrupting or failing to provide

0:52:14housing service

0:52:16abusing rights of access to the property

0:52:19threatening a tenant refusing to accept

0:52:22rent payment violations to tenants right

0:52:25privacy and

0:52:26other acts that disturb the tenant so

0:52:28this would this is generally paired with

0:52:30the just cause ordinance

0:52:33as i mentioned early on these are the

0:52:35common categories that you can think of

0:52:37housing types so for just cause

0:52:40ordinance it could apply

0:52:42to all three types of these housing

0:52:44categories

0:52:47however there are generally some

0:52:49exceptions which includes like if you

0:52:51think of room rentals that would be

0:52:53accepted if you think of accessory

0:52:55dwelling units

0:52:57so think of these as

0:52:59types of situations where owner lives on

0:53:02property and they're in close proximity

0:53:04of the tenant so that's how i like to

0:53:06think of those categories

0:53:08obviously bed and breakfasts

0:53:11extended care facilities

0:53:13some of the other things conditions of

0:53:15employment

0:53:16and units controlled by another

0:53:17government agency would generally be

0:53:20excluded from the just cause ordinance

0:53:24much like every situation and every

0:53:26decision there's pros and cons to each

0:53:29what we hear from

0:53:31the tenant side

0:53:33for the pros is that there's local

0:53:35regulations

0:53:36for which tenancy may be terminated

0:53:39there's transparent reasons for

0:53:40termination and stability for tenancy

0:53:43for tenants what we hear on the property

0:53:46owner's side is that just cause can be

0:53:49costly it can increase their cost of

0:53:52doing business through lengthy

0:53:53proceedings

0:53:55so for example if a tenant doesn't want

0:53:57to leave or

0:53:59courts are backed up or it ends up in

0:54:01mediation and they end up settling

0:54:04there's often times where sometimes rent

0:54:06isn't paid or the property might be

0:54:08damaged

0:54:09and what we also hear is that it'll add

0:54:12to pre-screening on the front end so

0:54:13basically

0:54:15just really going through a fine-tooth

0:54:17comb with

0:54:18when they're thinking of that and we

0:54:20also hear that it could also withdraw

0:54:22units from the rental market

0:54:25in terms of program costs to administer

0:54:27adjust costs for eviction ordinance it

0:54:30would require some added staff time i am

0:54:32your i am your housing

0:54:34staff so

0:54:36um if you are looking to adopt local

0:54:38ordinances we would obviously need some

0:54:40administrative support

0:54:42to assist with this we would also be

0:54:44looking to you all and to decide if we

0:54:46want to fund legal aid

0:54:48in addition provide some tenant and

0:54:49landlord counseling because there's some

0:54:51cases that might not need to go to the

0:54:53legal route they just might need someone

0:54:56to talk to them and talk through things

0:54:58we would obviously need to create

0:55:00program materials and there would be

0:55:02some startup costs we would do some

0:55:04workshops and outreach and websites and

0:55:07work with our city attorney of course to

0:55:08draft the ordinance and work through

0:55:10things as

0:55:12if if the ordinance is rolled out

0:55:14and then there's just some ongoing costs

0:55:16with staff time attorney time technology

0:55:20service providers and just program

0:55:22supplies

0:55:23we also imagine you know more inquiries

0:55:26we might be seeing more people coming to

0:55:28the front desk so really just making

0:55:30sure that

0:55:31every member

0:55:32of our staff who's going to

0:55:34make contact with the public is educated

0:55:37on these programs and that they're able

0:55:39to assist

0:55:41some scenarios for just cause

0:55:44include for example if a landlord wanted

0:55:47to reoccupy the rental unit that would

0:55:50be allowed under just cause it would be

0:55:52a no fault

0:55:53another one is for example if a tenant

0:55:55asked the landlord to make a repair and

0:55:58as a result

0:55:59of that ask

0:56:01the landlord terminate tenancy that's

0:56:03not allowed under it doesn't constitute

0:56:05a just cause it's also not allowed under

0:56:08state law currently either to retaliate

0:56:11for exercising your rights as i

0:56:13mentioned

0:56:14another example

0:56:16is if a tenant violated the guest policy

0:56:18of the lease agreement by having an

0:56:20occupant reside in the property who's

0:56:22not named on a lease

0:56:23that would be allowed under just cause

0:56:25assuming that there's proof to go along

0:56:27with that

0:56:29another situation would be a landlord's

0:56:31accusing a tenant of operating a

0:56:33business out of their rental unit well

0:56:35that could be an unknown it is a

0:56:37possible just cause but there must be

0:56:40proof provided by the landlord so these

0:56:42are just kind of some common scenarios

0:56:44that

0:56:45we could see

0:56:47and that are asked many of us ask well

0:56:49what does this mean and how does it

0:56:50actually work and how would it affect me

0:56:54some approaches that other cities have

0:56:56used

0:56:57with just cause ordinances emeryville

0:56:59adopted theirs late 2016 and it went

0:57:02into effect in 2017.

0:57:05they don't have any ordinance specific

0:57:07to rent increases but they do have the

0:57:09eviction and harassment protections

0:57:11they're budgeted about 65 000 a year and

0:57:14they have two housing staff members

0:57:17they are able to

0:57:19[Music]

0:57:20this there's actually no fee for their

0:57:22program because they're funding it

0:57:24through local and county housing bonds

0:57:27so they have some added resources um to

0:57:29be able to cover that costs in house

0:57:32union city they adopted theirs in 2017.

0:57:35their program just cost program is

0:57:37actually paired with the rent review

0:57:39program

0:57:40their estimated budget is about a

0:57:42hundred thousand a year they do use cost

0:57:44recovery to pay for the program and they

0:57:47are able

0:57:48to use their county housing bond for

0:57:50legal aid

0:57:51in richmond

0:57:53they have their fair rent program with

0:57:55just cause and their cost recovery as

0:57:57well well at their fee ranges depending

0:58:00on

0:58:01what type of unit you have so it's

0:58:03anywhere from 50 to 200 and they have

0:58:06about eight full-time staff

0:58:08same in berkeley

0:58:10their fee is about 250 dollars a unit

0:58:13and

0:58:14that is cost recovery and they also have

0:58:16some local and county housing bond

0:58:18measures as well

0:58:21so some of the things that we will be

0:58:23looking to you for your consideration

0:58:25later um and i actually brought a

0:58:28handout that i'll be giving later on to

0:58:30kind of recap and go through these are

0:58:32which types of units would be subject to

0:58:35just cause would we regulate the notice

0:58:37of termination

0:58:39would we collect the termination of

0:58:41tenancy data and would we fund actually

0:58:43fund be able to fund the legal aid part

0:58:45of it to ensure that our tenants get the

0:58:47representation

0:58:49that they need should they

0:58:51need to exercise the just cause

0:58:53so i'm going to actually move on to rent

0:58:56registry

0:58:57you asked for us to bring this back in

0:58:59december and we thought it was very

0:59:02innovative

0:59:03because it's generally paired with

0:59:06some sort of rent threshold or rent

0:59:08increase program

0:59:09but we did we did think that it would be

0:59:12actually a good mechanism to actually

0:59:14collect rents in el cerrito so we would

0:59:16then be able to track and monitor rents

0:59:18as well as rent increases this could

0:59:21apply to all units or it could apply to

0:59:23multi-family units

0:59:25city staff would be administering that

0:59:27program alongside the finance department

0:59:30and we would also be utilizing our

0:59:33finance business license database to

0:59:35actually build out a rent registry

0:59:37system so it would complement the

0:59:39business license process and then of

0:59:41course landlords would be required to

0:59:43participate as well um so we would then

0:59:46notice business license holders annually

0:59:48of their renewals

0:59:50to renew their business license as well

0:59:52as to register their rents with the city

0:59:54simultaneously so it would be a joint

0:59:57marketing and outreach campaign while we

1:00:00while everyone's kind of that time of

1:00:02year to do their business they would

1:00:03then report their

1:00:05rents to the city

1:00:07it would also likely include some

1:00:09coordinating with our

1:00:11code enforcement compliance division as

1:00:14well as our city attorney just again

1:00:16depending on the response rate

1:00:20in a nutshell

1:00:21the rent registry would allow us to

1:00:23collect rents

1:00:24it would be online and we would then be

1:00:27able to come back with you and give you

1:00:29that data and show you

1:00:32with for example our business licenses

1:00:34are renewing in june we'd be able to

1:00:36likely come back at the end of the year

1:00:38and say hey this is the first six months

1:00:40of the rent registry and this is what it

1:00:43looks like and we can include

1:00:44terminations with that as well so if

1:00:46tenants are terminated um we would have

1:00:48that data so in terms of what we the

1:00:50data that we would collect obviously

1:00:53we're collecting the owner information

1:00:54so that's this isn't something new that

1:00:56we're collecting um we're also

1:00:58collecting the property information but

1:01:00we would actually want greater details

1:01:02such as the square footage of each units

1:01:04the number of bedrooms the number of

1:01:05bathrooms so that we can then begin to

1:01:08kind of form

1:01:09profiles for these properties we would

1:01:12also be looking at rent history what was

1:01:14the previous rent what was the current

1:01:16rent and the system could obviously

1:01:18calculate that change as well

1:01:20we'd be looking at the dates of rent

1:01:22increases

1:01:24if people moved out and if people moved

1:01:25in and if units were vacant so again all

1:01:28things that would inform us

1:01:31about what's happening out there with

1:01:32rents

1:01:33in el cerrito

1:01:35in terms of housing unit types this

1:01:37could apply to all housing units all

1:01:40rental units in the city

1:01:42so again just for your consideration are

1:01:44those three categories

1:01:46some of the general exceptions as i

1:01:48mentioned a room rental and adu hotels

1:01:50motels units where rents are controlled

1:01:53by another government agency those would

1:01:55be some exceptions

1:01:58and in a nutshell when the properties

1:02:00are registered annually what would

1:02:02happen then is that city staff would

1:02:04review each registry

1:02:07to confirm compliance with the ordinance

1:02:10so the process

1:02:12thought it might be good to just kind of

1:02:13illustrate what it how it would all play

1:02:15out and what it would look like

1:02:17as i mentioned

1:02:19when business licenses are being renewed

1:02:22that's generally triggered the noticing

1:02:24process in june

1:02:25we would work with finance we'd give

1:02:27them a notification

1:02:29saying hey property owner you need to

1:02:31register your units in accordance with

1:02:33the ordinance

1:02:35we would give them a deadline

1:02:37the deadline would come and then

1:02:40i would review alongside with some admin

1:02:42support

1:02:43we would review each submission so for

1:02:45all of our rental units registered in

1:02:47the city which there's about 2 600 and

1:02:50we would review the first determination

1:02:52so when we make our first go around once

1:02:54we got the results back so if people

1:02:56were missing or if information was

1:02:58incomplete we would review that and then

1:03:01i ideally if you did it online we would

1:03:03go in to your account and we'd send you

1:03:06a notification saying hey thanks for

1:03:08registering it looks like additional

1:03:10data is needed or hey you didn't

1:03:12register

1:03:13here's your new deadline so

1:03:15once that

1:03:16is all said and done we would get our

1:03:18responses and we would then review again

1:03:21so we would do that up until third

1:03:23notice

1:03:24so by the time we get to third notice we

1:03:26should have really weeded down

1:03:29people who might just need to do it on

1:03:31paper or people who just are like i

1:03:34haven't had time and now we're like no

1:03:35you need to sit down and make time

1:03:37so we would issue that third

1:03:39determination and

1:03:41assuming we have a high response rate

1:03:44there would be not that many cases to

1:03:46refer to code enforcement but if there

1:03:48were no responses we would need to work

1:03:50with code enforcement to initiate the

1:03:53administrative citation process and then

1:03:55our last resort would be to send

1:03:57outstanding cases to our city attorneys

1:03:59so we would work um obviously on a

1:04:02compliance driven to get that data done

1:04:05and we imagine that

1:04:07most people will want to report that

1:04:09anyway to have an understanding

1:04:11and to also

1:04:13know that we're trying to understand

1:04:15what your rents are and how much you're

1:04:16increasing them every year and how much

1:04:18vacancies you have and those sorts of

1:04:20things

1:04:22obviously a new program will come with

1:04:24some added administration

1:04:26as i mentioned we would need

1:04:29some administrative support to actually

1:04:31go through the files and we realized

1:04:34that not everyone's technology savvy so

1:04:37we might be inputting um forms that we

1:04:40get by mail in so if for some reason

1:04:43someone's not reporting the rent

1:04:44registry online we would actually be

1:04:46able to provide them with the paper form

1:04:48to obtain that information so we

1:04:50wouldn't need admin support and we would

1:04:53likely need some compliance support as

1:04:55well

1:04:56so depending on how the first go around

1:04:59goes we can then evaluate the resources

1:05:01to determine

1:05:03what is our budget what we think it's

1:05:05going to be or is staff tracking its

1:05:07time to what we thought it would be

1:05:10and then of course we would be

1:05:12needing some funds to actually create

1:05:14the database that we could recover that

1:05:16in cost later

1:05:17but there will be just some upfront time

1:05:19that we'll need to spend but as i

1:05:21mentioned

1:05:22we are working with our vendor who

1:05:25has provided the business license

1:05:26software so we imagine that it will be

1:05:30a streamlined process since we're not

1:05:32designing something brand new that

1:05:34people haven't worked with before

1:05:37some of the pros and cons

1:05:39to rent registry

1:05:41obviously we would be able to track

1:05:44things locally we would then be able to

1:05:46report back

1:05:47not just to the council but to the

1:05:49public

1:05:50and we can use this data to further

1:05:52shape our housing policies

1:05:54some of the cons that

1:05:56are often associated with the rent

1:05:58registry is that it's generally tied to

1:06:00like a rent control program

1:06:03but as i mentioned early on we are

1:06:05looking at this to be an innovative

1:06:08approach by gathering the data we would

1:06:11be able to

1:06:13some of the cons is that we would need

1:06:14some

1:06:15admin staff to help out with that

1:06:17and there would be some added i.t and

1:06:19administrative costs that we could

1:06:21recover through fees

1:06:24annually with through the rent registry

1:06:26so some of

1:06:27other cities in the bay area who have

1:06:29undertaken similar types of registries

1:06:32as the county of marin they adopted a

1:06:37mediation program and they recently

1:06:38adopted a just cause for eviction

1:06:40ordinance and part of their just cause

1:06:42for eviction includes a rent registry

1:06:45obviously los angeles and richmond are

1:06:48you know have different programs but

1:06:50they have

1:06:51a rent registry as well so we will be

1:06:53looking to you all

1:06:55to understand what types of units we

1:06:57could include in a rent registry some of

1:07:00the data points which are pretty

1:07:02straightforward

1:07:03do we proceed mandatory or voluntary and

1:07:06of course i'm looking at the cost

1:07:08recovery aspect of it and

1:07:10the per unit fee

1:07:13so i am going to move on to the tenant

1:07:16relocation assistance um

1:07:18as you recall we brought forth on

1:07:21december 18th

1:07:22a tenant relocation assistance trigger

1:07:25by demolition

1:07:26and now we are

1:07:28looking at with amendments um to

1:07:31actually expand that for rent increases

1:07:33greater than 20 over a 24-month period

1:07:36that results in displacement and that

1:07:38would be targeted to tenants earning

1:07:40less than 120 percent of median income

1:07:44generally

1:07:46this sort of program

1:07:47applies to multi-family properties built

1:07:49before 1995 so excluding

1:07:53single-family

1:07:54town homes condos and multi-family units

1:07:57built after 1995.

1:07:59we would be

1:08:00administering that in-house but we would

1:08:02also be looking for a third party

1:08:04program administrator

1:08:06to work on the income determinations

1:08:09and we would also be participating in

1:08:11this program with landlords and tenants

1:08:14there is a rent threshold so

1:08:16if if the rent increase is greater than

1:08:1820 over two years and it results in a

1:08:21displacement it could potentially

1:08:23trigger relocation assistance

1:08:25landlords would be required to provide

1:08:27tenants with the notice of relocation

1:08:29benefits

1:08:31so any time that they give a rent

1:08:32increase

1:08:34that would be included

1:08:37on a forum approved by the city of

1:08:38course um and in terms of enforcement we

1:08:41would do some of that in-house but um

1:08:44majority of it would be civilly

1:08:46and it's medium to high cost

1:08:49existing state law requires and i'm just

1:08:52going to cover this again if a rent

1:08:53increase is less than 10 percent

1:08:56it's a 30-day notice if it's greater

1:08:58than 10 percent it's a 60-day notice

1:09:01there are some exceptions where

1:09:03generally generally rent increases can't

1:09:05be

1:09:06raised during a lease term unless

1:09:07there's language in the lease that

1:09:09permits that

1:09:11so those are just kind of some of the

1:09:13exceptions

1:09:14in terms of eligibility for the tenant

1:09:17relocation benefits

1:09:19as i mentioned the household would have

1:09:21to be under 120 percent of median income

1:09:24if they are going to be displaced as a

1:09:26result of the rent increase they could

1:09:28be eligible for up to three months of

1:09:30hud's fair market rent i'll go over

1:09:32those numbers in just a minute it's

1:09:34actually based on the bedroom size of

1:09:35the unit and this would be per household

1:09:38this would not be per person

1:09:40there would also be special circumstance

1:09:43households would

1:09:44potentially be eligible for an

1:09:46additional two months of rent so up to

1:09:48five months um those are you know minor

1:09:51children um individuals who might be

1:09:53disabled so there are some special

1:09:55circumstances for which a household

1:09:57would need further assistance so for a

1:10:00single person

1:10:02if you're making less than 87 700 a year

1:10:05you could potentially be eligible for a

1:10:07family of four it's about 125 000 these

1:10:11figures are published annually by hud so

1:10:13they do change every year

1:10:17in terms of the fair market rent that's

1:10:19set by hud currently it's seventeen

1:10:21hundred dollars for one bedroom and

1:10:23twenty one hundred for a two bedroom so

1:10:25again depending on eligibility it would

1:10:27be between three to five times this

1:10:30amount based on the bedroom size and it

1:10:32would be per household not pretend it

1:10:35so just to give you a sample of what

1:10:37tenant relocation benefits would look

1:10:40like

1:10:41if a household of one

1:10:43was paying a rental rate of fifteen

1:10:44hundred dollars and they got a 375

1:10:47dollar rent increase that would be a 25

1:10:49rent increase

1:10:51bringing the new rent to 1875.

1:10:53um given that this household is a

1:10:56household of one earning 75 000 a year

1:10:59and if they were going to be displaced

1:11:01as a result they couldn't afford the new

1:11:02rent of 1875 then they could potentially

1:11:05be eligible for about fifty one hundred

1:11:07dollars in tenant relocation assistance

1:11:10um that would the three months

1:11:11calculation is generally considering

1:11:14first month last month's deposit so

1:11:16that's the baseline of where the three

1:11:18months comes from

1:11:20in the same scenario if someone was

1:11:22making a hundred thousand um then they

1:11:24would not be eligible for tenant

1:11:26relocation benefits so just to kind of

1:11:28give you a sense of the means testing

1:11:31and how it would work based on income

1:11:35in terms of program costs

1:11:38all of these programs are probably going

1:11:40to take about a quarter of new

1:11:42administrative assistant support um so

1:11:45we would be looking um

1:11:47for

1:11:48ideally one person if you choose all

1:11:50these programs or if we splice it out it

1:11:53could be different

1:11:55so we would be looking for that

1:11:56obviously there's some counseling that

1:11:58gets involved so again

1:12:00if it were to go if the tenant if the

1:12:02landlord didn't pay the tenant the

1:12:04tenant's remedy would be through the

1:12:05civil legal process so we would be

1:12:08encouraging you all to

1:12:10consider legal aid for some of these

1:12:12cases

1:12:14and in addition obviously you know

1:12:16there's a whole marketing and outreach

1:12:18component

1:12:20and we can pair these with other things

1:12:22there would be added technology and

1:12:24supplies and

1:12:26service providers to go as well so some

1:12:29of the pros of tenant relocation is that

1:12:31alleviates the burden with moving

1:12:34there's a rent increase threshold and

1:12:36that there's added benefits for special

1:12:38circumstance households um in terms of

1:12:41some of the cons

1:12:43some of the consequences might be

1:12:46um

1:12:47additional pre-screening to make sure

1:12:49that

1:12:50you're renting to someone that might be

1:12:52over 120 percent

1:12:54and it also may result in some people

1:12:57just getting out of the rental business

1:13:00altogether

1:13:02in terms of property types as i

1:13:04mentioned it would apply to units that

1:13:06were constructed before 1995

1:13:09excluding single-family condos townhomes

1:13:14and the noticing process

1:13:16so currently um

1:13:18the process if we were to adopt a tenant

1:13:20relocation ordinance um the landlord

1:13:23would be required to provide the tenants

1:13:25with the notice of relocation assistance

1:13:27and a form prepared by the city

1:13:29step two would be

1:13:31the tenant would then once they got

1:13:33their rent increase and the notice

1:13:35they would then if they said hey i can't

1:13:37afford this rent increase

1:13:39they would then contact the city slash

1:13:41program administrator

1:13:43to file a claim and supply the required

1:13:45documents

1:13:47at that point the third step in the

1:13:48process would be a notice of

1:13:50determination so what would happen is

1:13:53there has to be an income calculation

1:13:55done to determine eligibility so

1:13:57depending on if they're eligible or not

1:14:00would take you to step four

1:14:02assuming you're eligible

1:14:04the landlord would then make half of the

1:14:06relocation payments within a specified

1:14:09number of days of once eligibility is

1:14:11determined and then

1:14:13within the remainder would be due upon

1:14:15move out um so there's

1:14:17some concern that if people have are

1:14:20falling behind on rent and things of

1:14:22that sort an ordinance could also

1:14:24potentially deduct any money owed from

1:14:27that relocation benefit as well

1:14:30and in terms of disputes civil remedies

1:14:33would be pursued so again we would

1:14:35encourage

1:14:36some sort of just legal aid provider to

1:14:39usher

1:14:40our tenants through through the process

1:14:43so for your consideration

1:14:45we just want to confirm the threshold

1:14:47with you that was discussed at our

1:14:48december 18th meeting

1:14:50as well as means testing and

1:14:52confirm the types of units

1:14:54in neighboring cities in the bay area

1:14:56san leandro has a similar ordinance that

1:14:59was adopted in 2017

1:15:01they include rent increases as well as

1:15:04no fault evictions

1:15:06mellow park is considering something of

1:15:09the sort they haven't quite come to a

1:15:11decision but they are studying this

1:15:13policy as well as a recommendation from

1:15:16their housing committee and

1:15:19santa cruz also um recently adopted a

1:15:22similar ordinance

1:15:26so

1:15:27now that we've gotten through

1:15:28those particulars we want to

1:15:31bring you back to what we discussed on

1:15:33december 18th

1:15:34and for of course members of the

1:15:36audience as well

1:15:38staff presented four tenant protection

1:15:40ordinances on december 18th which

1:15:43included the rent review program the

1:15:45rent review program was not approved

1:15:47it's a program that requires landlords

1:15:49and tenants to participate in

1:15:51conciliation and mediation for rent

1:15:53increases that exceed 5 percent we also

1:15:56brought forth a minimum lease term it

1:15:58provides minimum lease terms for

1:16:01prospective and current tenants

1:16:03it's required by the landlord but the

1:16:04tenant would not be required to accept

1:16:07we also brought forth a termination of

1:16:09tenancy so that we can then begin to

1:16:12collect data to understand how often

1:16:15tenancies and el cerrito are being

1:16:16terminated

1:16:18and we brought forth the tenant

1:16:19relocation ordinance which would include

1:16:22relocation benefits if a property was

1:16:25being demolished

1:16:26or repurposed

1:16:28and that did include the special

1:16:30circumstance households as well and so

1:16:34what we did is in consideration with the

1:16:36tenant protection policies that i just

1:16:38went over

1:16:40the minimum lease term is obviously one

1:16:43program that could still be on the table

1:16:45as well as the relocation trigger by

1:16:48demolition relocation trigger by rent

1:16:50increases

1:16:51but now that we've brought forth a

1:16:53rental registry if you adopt a rental

1:16:55registry we could actually get rid of

1:16:57the termination of tenancy because the

1:16:59rental registry would be able to

1:17:01gather that same data

1:17:04if you adopt a just cause for evictions

1:17:07you can also get rid of the termination

1:17:08of tenancy as well

1:17:10we also anticipate as i mentioned each

1:17:13program has about .25

1:17:16of added administrative staff support so

1:17:19with the combination of all these

1:17:21programs we would be looking

1:17:23for one full-time staff member

1:17:26and we would also be looking for some

1:17:28general fund approvals

1:17:30to help with legal aid and increase city

1:17:33attorney time

1:17:34upfront costs would include the database

1:17:37and service providers so a lot of those

1:17:39could be recovered through cost recovery

1:17:41as well

1:17:42and we're just having a ballpark

1:17:44estimate of a combination of all these

1:17:46programs between about an 80 and a

1:17:48hundred dollar fee per year

1:17:52uh this actually was added um which is

1:17:55maybe why the table got messed up in

1:17:57this slide but this is an added slide

1:17:59for estimated program costs

1:18:02so what we would be looking at as i

1:18:04mentioned in terms of startup costs

1:18:07close to 35 000

1:18:09for all of the programs

1:18:11annual costs that would be

1:18:13about 260 000

1:18:15of which 100 percent of that would be

1:18:18cost recovery um so it would range about

1:18:2140 dollars per program per unit

1:18:25to be able to recover those fees

1:18:27the only thing that's not eligible for

1:18:29cost recovery would be legal aid with

1:18:32the legal aid it would actually be

1:18:33combined for just cause and tenant

1:18:35relocation and our calculation for legal

1:18:38aid is an estimate assuming

1:18:40about 150 renters

1:18:43access about two hours of legal aid time

1:18:45per year and then also assuming um that

1:18:48some of those cases may move on to

1:18:50advanced stages

1:18:54in terms of packaging these ordinances

1:18:57obviously packaging them would allow

1:19:00a more streamlined outreach and

1:19:04understanding and processing

1:19:06obviously these are some of the tools on

1:19:09the table we can keep refining them

1:19:12if we adopt one ordinance and we feel

1:19:15like it's not being effective we can

1:19:17come back to you and we can always make

1:19:19changes as

1:19:20see fit as karen mentioned there's not a

1:19:22precise one size fit all

1:19:25but in terms of what was presented on

1:19:27the 18th and what is being considered

1:19:29tonight

1:19:30i came up with a couple of pairing

1:19:32options for you to just think about one

1:19:36of them is the rent review program

1:19:38paired with just cause you as option one

1:19:41option two would also allow you a rent

1:19:43review program pair with just cause and

1:19:45minimum lease terms so again the minimum

1:19:48lease term would lock in a tenant at a

1:19:51set period for at least 12 months at the

1:19:53at a set rate

1:19:56in terms of the minimum lease term

1:19:58program that was presented you could

1:20:00pair that with also tenant relocation

1:20:03and just cause or you could opt to just

1:20:06remove the minimum lease term

1:20:08we presented the termination of tenancy

1:20:11um so as i mentioned if you do decide to

1:20:14move forward with the just cause we

1:20:16could eliminate that

1:20:18and as far as the rent registry we can

1:20:21we can do that as a standalone as the

1:20:23first option or we can actually pair the

1:20:27tenant relocation

1:20:28and business license renewal if if for

1:20:32some reason we wanted it to be more of a

1:20:34voluntary method of collecting data but

1:20:36we think that we would get the strongest

1:20:38data

1:20:39by um actually making it a requirement

1:20:42and as i mentioned we can do it as a

1:20:44standalone

1:20:46also the tenant relocation trigger by

1:20:48demolition that could be adopted as a

1:20:50standalone and for tenant relocation

1:20:52trigger by rent increases um you could

1:20:55look at that at pairing that possibly

1:20:57with the just cause so um

1:21:00yeah staff thinks that the registry was

1:21:03definitely an innovative tool to keep

1:21:06building on this conversation

1:21:10in terms of existing rental program fees

1:21:13so our currently our residential rental

1:21:15inspection program

1:21:17it's half of one person's job so half of

1:21:20their job is code enforcement and half

1:21:22of their job is rental inspections and

1:21:24rental inspections are to occur every

1:21:26two years they're 241 dollars for single

1:21:30family units and 211 dollars for the

1:21:32first multi-family unit and 120 for each

1:21:36additional multi-family

1:21:38there's a business license fee of 75

1:21:40dollars a year to roll 24 to renew and

1:21:43then there's a business license tax

1:21:45which is 111 per unit so

1:21:49um on this slide i just kind of prepared

1:21:51a sample calculation of a two unit

1:21:53building with our current fees would be

1:21:55about 577 dollars and with our proposed

1:21:58fees it would be

1:22:00about 695.

1:22:05so what i would like to do at this point

1:22:08is

1:22:09open it up to you all for clarifying

1:22:11questions because it was a lot of

1:22:13information

1:22:14um and then once we wrap up with

1:22:16clarifying questions we can then open it

1:22:18up for public comment

1:22:20and then after public comment we can

1:22:22return back and continue deliberations

1:22:25and discussing

1:22:26all right thank you thank you for your

1:22:28presentation

1:22:30i'll start with uh council questions

1:22:32councilmember quinto hi

1:22:35thank you for your thorough update i

1:22:37very much appreciate that and i know our

1:22:39residents do as well here um

1:22:42my question to you regarding uh

1:22:45the cost of all this

1:22:47you see

1:22:49can you hear me now

1:22:51okay

1:22:53okay do that okay

1:22:56okay my question is

1:22:58regarding the cost of all of this and

1:23:01you said for just cause

1:23:04it would be

1:23:050.25 of a full-time employee is that

1:23:08correct yes okay

1:23:10and uh for rent registry

1:23:12then

1:23:13um what is the cost

1:23:16of uh

1:23:17of uh doing that with uh the

1:23:21software and all that

1:23:23so let me go back to that slide um

1:23:27so for the rent registry uh we would be

1:23:30looking at annual costs of about a

1:23:32hundred thousand a year

1:23:35and we could do

1:23:36we could then do a cost recovery

1:23:39there would be some startup costs of

1:23:41about thirteen thousand to actually

1:23:42build out the software

1:23:45so we could recover that through costs

1:23:47as well and then

1:23:48for the just cause for eviction it'd be

1:23:51close to about 80 82 000 a year

1:23:55and that

1:23:56is cost recovery but of course um you

1:23:59can also consider and we would encourage

1:24:02funding some sort of legal aid i'm just

1:24:04because they're busy and we want to be

1:24:06able to have a relationship with an

1:24:09organization to send people their way

1:24:11and you also mentioned that there would

1:24:13be more costs for attorney fees

1:24:17for yeah we would be adding um new

1:24:19programs so we would be i'm using

1:24:22taking up more

1:24:24legal review and legal time

1:24:27okay good cost recovery okay all right

1:24:30job yep so the only things that we would

1:24:33not be able to recover costs on is just

1:24:35providing legal aid

1:24:38okay very good thank you

1:24:40but obviously yeah there would be some

1:24:42staff needs to assist me

1:24:46and with the number of rental units we

1:24:49have there

1:24:52with the other duties that that you have

1:24:55so you believe that we need one

1:24:57additional full-time employee

1:25:00uh for

1:25:02um

1:25:02to have this uh rolling for el cerrito

1:25:05yeah to be successful um we would

1:25:08require one staff member and then

1:25:11we can evaluate how things are going but

1:25:13yeah at minimum to be able to respond

1:25:16and

1:25:17report data and make sure that we're

1:25:20also

1:25:21cross-connecting with our finance and

1:25:23rental inspection and really kind of

1:25:25taking these different sets separate

1:25:27systems and putting them all together so

1:25:29we can then be able to report back

1:25:31easier okay thank you

1:25:35councilmember abelson

1:25:36um

1:25:37i i think i have a

1:25:40i know i asked staff about this already

1:25:42today but i just want to go over the

1:25:44terms because as it's stated in uh that

1:25:48kind of document after document it isn't

1:25:51to me clear and i just want to verify

1:25:52that we're all on the same page about

1:25:54this

1:25:55for single family houses built before

1:26:001995

1:26:04could i ask the city attorney to explain

1:26:06whether or not they're covered

1:26:12the answer varies to some degree by the

1:26:16type of program that we're talking about

1:26:18so

1:26:20um just want to clarify that um

1:26:24as i used to pointed out

1:26:27under the provisions of costa hawkins

1:26:29rent control which is not one of the

1:26:31options that's being presented to the

1:26:32council

1:26:33cannot apply to single-family residences

1:26:37of any

1:26:38uh no matter when they were built no

1:26:40matter when they were built the 1995

1:26:42date applies to multi-family housing

1:26:45many of the programs that that we're

1:26:47discussing like the rent registry and

1:26:49just cause eviction

1:26:51costa hawkins does not apply to

1:26:54those types of programs at all so it's

1:26:56really up to the city council the city

1:26:58council could apply just cause eviction

1:27:00or the rent registry to single family

1:27:02houses and to multi-family housing

1:27:04regardless of the date that it was built

1:27:08the rent-based trigger for relocation

1:27:11assistance is um ambiguous

1:27:15so as i've advised the council before

1:27:18there is an argument that because that

1:27:20is in effect a control on the rent that

1:27:24a landlord may charge

1:27:25and that therefore um it is basically a

1:27:28form of rent control and could therefore

1:27:31only be applied to

1:27:33the types of housing that costa hawkins

1:27:35allows rent control to apply to so that

1:27:37would basically be multi-family built

1:27:39after

1:27:401995. is that

1:27:43clear so far

1:27:46i'm sorry before 1995. yes

1:27:48so

1:27:49but i want to emphasize that this is not

1:27:52an issue that's not a question that's

1:27:53been litigated um santa cruz um as asa

1:27:56mentioned recently adopted a program

1:27:59that requires the payment of relocation

1:28:01assistance

1:28:03when rent increases exceed specified

1:28:06amounts and it results in displacement

1:28:08of the tenant and they did not limit

1:28:10their program to conform to costa

1:28:13hawkins so it applies to housing that

1:28:16that would be exempt from rent control

1:28:19so i just so

1:28:20i as i've advised the council in the

1:28:22past

1:28:23my experience as a city attorney is that

1:28:25the city council has not um typically

1:28:28been desirous of being at the forefront

1:28:30of um issues that could result in

1:28:32litigation but i also want to emphasize

1:28:35that that this is not a settled area and

1:28:37so

1:28:38it's so it is also

1:28:41an area where the council could make a

1:28:43different choice it's just one that

1:28:44could expose the city to litigation at

1:28:46risk okay and then the other category

1:28:50that i just would like

1:28:52clarified right now

1:28:54is

1:28:54the room rental

1:28:56none of these programs as currently

1:28:59contemplated or as previously proposed

1:29:02would apply to room rental of rooms

1:29:05okay and then i have

1:29:08yeah where a landlord lives on site for

1:29:10the landlord okay and then the other uh

1:29:13question this is unrelated to what i was

1:29:15just asking about um is um i i see that

1:29:20there's a um

1:29:22um accommodation i'll call it for

1:29:26a

1:29:27person who like a child i think if there

1:29:29was a child

1:29:31in the unit if there was a um

1:29:34older person in the unit i think we said

1:29:36over 62.

1:29:38right and or if they were disabled those

1:29:42were the three categories i think

1:29:43but what if the landlord's

1:29:46one of those things obviously that would

1:29:47not be a child but um

1:29:50at least you never know you never know

1:29:52right

1:29:53uh then it would seem what if i mean

1:29:56what if the um

1:29:59the uh landlord is

1:30:01uh you know is over a certain age or if

1:30:04they're disabled

1:30:07and

1:30:09in particular with the disability thing

1:30:11what if the the person living there

1:30:15has some sort of an accommodation a

1:30:17two-way i'll call it a two-way

1:30:18accommodation for the moment that

1:30:21they live there but they have to take

1:30:22care of the person

1:30:24and then let's say the person's need for

1:30:27accommodation changes

1:30:29which happens

1:30:32you know so the circumstances changed

1:30:34are there any

1:30:35well i i guess i i i'd unpack that

1:30:38question a little bit because i think

1:30:39it's actually combining two different

1:30:41scenarios okay um but that's the life it

1:30:44is life but the second scenario where um

1:30:47basically um

1:30:49uh an individual who owns the property

1:30:52has a live-in

1:30:54care provider typically

1:30:56that's that is the equivalent of a room

1:30:58rental where the owner is living on site

1:31:00none again none of the programs that

1:31:02have been proposed that the council's

1:31:03considered before or that have been

1:31:05discussed tonight is

1:31:07is staff proposing that those that any

1:31:09of these regulations apply to situations

1:31:11where what's what's occurring is the

1:31:13rental of a room where the landlord's

1:31:15living on site so the situation where an

1:31:17individual with a disability is has a

1:31:21live-in care provider would would

1:31:23none of this would apply in that

1:31:24scenario

1:31:25um i'll ask a millionaire isa to correct

1:31:28me if i'm wrong but as the council

1:31:30previously considered

1:31:32the relocation assistance program

1:31:36there would not be any exception for the

1:31:38circumstances of the landlord the

1:31:41special circumstances were only ones

1:31:43where that considered the conditions of

1:31:45the tenant

1:31:47the council could

1:31:48this is this is the opportunity for

1:31:50council to direct staff we're concerned

1:31:52about situations in which

1:31:55the landlord is also an individual with

1:31:57a disability who may be living on on

1:31:59federal disability payments we'd like to

1:32:02you to come back to us with a change to

1:32:04that ordinance that has not yet been

1:32:07adopted

1:32:08that would um mitigate the relocation

1:32:11assistance for um situations in which a

1:32:13landlord is in those circumstances this

1:32:15is the opportunity to direct

1:32:17the staff along those lines as it is

1:32:20right now that's not part of the program

1:32:21that was presented the um thing that

1:32:24occurs to me

1:32:26just given a little bit i know in the

1:32:28way of statistics is about the data

1:32:32is that if a person is

1:32:34disabled they are almost

1:32:36pretty close to universally

1:32:39low income

1:32:41so if they happen to

1:32:43have a house let's say or

1:32:46a you know a unit that they are the

1:32:49quote owner of

1:32:52then

1:32:53they'll never be able to

1:32:56make the payments that are required by

1:32:58this

1:32:59because they will never have the money

1:33:00to do that with

1:33:03um

1:33:04and that's related in the example i'm

1:33:06thinking of because i hear about it at a

1:33:08lot of meetings i go to not in

1:33:09relationship to housing but in

1:33:12relationship to

1:33:14ability to pay for anything

1:33:17and

1:33:19so i'm concerned that we created such an

1:33:22impossible situation right and i think i

1:33:25i don't i don't want to

1:33:27interrupt your flow but i just want to

1:33:28make the uh and again this is not a

1:33:30legal issue but just now that i'm deeply

1:33:32enmeshed in these issues having worked

1:33:34with the staff um you know if you're

1:33:36talking about um the owner of a 10 unit

1:33:39apartment building

1:33:41and the owner is an individual with a

1:33:42disability i think some might assume

1:33:45that through

1:33:47you know years of collecting rents that

1:33:49that the owner may well have been able

1:33:51to

1:33:52um

1:33:53earn enough profit on those rents to

1:33:55have set aside sufficient funds to pay

1:33:57for

1:33:58um the the relocation assistance even if

1:34:02they are even if they are themselves um

1:34:05you know potentially

1:34:07um

1:34:08qualifying as low income that the rents

1:34:10themselves should have generated a

1:34:11sufficient profit to pay for that and

1:34:13i'm not i'm not i don't want to

1:34:15buy as low income because the uh rents

1:34:17would have

1:34:18taken care of that really fast but if

1:34:20they're counted as business income

1:34:21rather than individual income what if

1:34:23they're counted as business income

1:34:25rather than individual income

1:34:30the

1:34:31i was thinking more like a and as which

1:34:33is the example i gave you it uh is a

1:34:36single family house but but again if

1:34:38we're talking about an individual who's

1:34:41who's renting a room then none of the

1:34:43regulations that have been discussed so

1:34:44far would apply to them no no i'm

1:34:47oh if if the person is running room in

1:34:49the right exactly so i

1:34:51does that mean in this conversation

1:34:53unless somebody else brings it up that i

1:34:55would just assume that

1:34:57they don't have to worry about getting a

1:34:59bill for five thousand dollars yes for

1:35:01example because you'll never be able to

1:35:03pay it yes

1:35:04i wouldn't be able to pay it i know that

1:35:06i i think that you can assume that

1:35:08unless unless somebody directs unless a

1:35:10majority of the council directs

1:35:11otherwise i think that's a safe

1:35:12assumption okay thank you

1:35:18council member fidelity

1:35:22how much time how many questions here

1:35:24huh

1:35:25difficult

1:35:26set of examples and but it's a

1:35:29critical i'd like to ask in three

1:35:31different sections each section that you

1:35:32have two or three

1:35:34questions because they're all they all

1:35:36blend together

1:35:37um first on just cause

1:35:40can you tell me the difference between a

1:35:42just cause and the eviction for good

1:35:44cause

1:35:45concept

1:35:47so the just the difference that we would

1:35:50be doing if we move toward just cause as

1:35:52opposed to the state law

1:35:55so the the current state law has four

1:35:58reasons for which tenancy can be

1:36:00terminated

1:36:02and that is the

1:36:04um that's on

1:36:07under existing state law

1:36:09failure to pay rent breach of lease

1:36:11nuisance or criminal activity and

1:36:12withdrawal of rental units from housing

1:36:14market so that's four reasons and just

1:36:17cause

1:36:18is generally about

1:36:20yeah 10 to 12.

1:36:22okay um

1:36:25i heard from some landlords that there's

1:36:28an issue with

1:36:30when

1:36:31they're interviewing to

1:36:34fill a vacancy they don't know if the

1:36:36person that's coming in might have been

1:36:38evicted previously

1:36:40because they're not required to put that

1:36:42on a form

1:36:43is that

1:36:44true or is that an issue a problem

1:36:48so there's a new law

1:36:50that protects some of this information

1:36:52and i'm not as versed on that are you

1:36:55can't be shared familiar with that sky

1:36:58i think you can just assume that um we

1:37:00will do that one

1:37:02the rent registry will conform to

1:37:04whatever state law is at the time and

1:37:06two that we are very mindful of the fact

1:37:08that

1:37:09many property owners consider

1:37:12their rents to be

1:37:15information that provides them with a

1:37:17competitive advantage in the marketplace

1:37:19and would not want that disclosed in a

1:37:21way that could harm them in

1:37:24competit as a business operator but at

1:37:26this and additionally that tenants have

1:37:28an interest in their own privacy so we

1:37:30and have

1:37:32at the staff level had multiple

1:37:33discussions about constructing the rent

1:37:35registry in a way that would um address

1:37:38all of those concerns but that would

1:37:40nevertheless result in the collection of

1:37:41information that would be useful to

1:37:43staff in the council in formulating

1:37:45policy

1:37:46thank you

1:37:47um

1:37:48can i address that question i'm sorry no

1:37:52not not this juncture i don't think um

1:37:55so

1:37:56staff has said that um the concept of um

1:38:02living

1:38:03the actual landlord living in an area or

1:38:06having an adu in the area wouldn't be a

1:38:09good example of where we could

1:38:11put just cause can you explain that

1:38:14reasoning yeah so generally what's the

1:38:16difference yeah our adu requires um the

1:38:20property owner currently to live on site

1:38:22um so generally when you think of maybe

1:38:25a duplex where for example

1:38:28the owner occupies one

1:38:30and rents one out or in an adu it's

1:38:33generally like in a shared community so

1:38:35you're in close proximity whereas if you

1:38:38have a duplex that's just rented out

1:38:40completely and the owner's not on site

1:38:42it's a little different in terms of

1:38:43living together it's more of a shared

1:38:45living experience

1:38:47and so so you're recommending that that

1:38:49could cause a lot of conflicts with us

1:38:51even the city getting involved in the

1:38:53middle of that situation yeah we want to

1:38:54encourage the production of adus as well

1:38:57um and you know that form could not

1:38:59develop adus if they don't want to get

1:39:01into that

1:39:02it would be an added layer yeah of

1:39:04restrictions um you mentioned emeryville

1:39:07and um

1:39:09you did say that just cause is usually

1:39:11paired with wind control but they don't

1:39:13have it

1:39:14can you give any more exam anymore

1:39:17uh

1:39:18discussion about emeryville's

1:39:20experience yeah they outer rent control

1:39:23component with the uh just cause yeah so

1:39:27they actually

1:39:29have a newer housing stock too as well

1:39:32so their landscapes a little different

1:39:34in that regard

1:39:36however union city has it paired with

1:39:38the rent review program so there is a

1:39:40process for which rent increases it is

1:39:43tied to a rent increase program and that

1:39:45that process will then go through

1:39:47mediation and if it would be on a

1:39:48complaint base um but it is paired with

1:39:51just costs

1:39:53in emoryville and union city but i'm

1:39:55talking about emeryville is there any

1:39:56other

1:39:58did it work does it work fine did you

1:39:59get good reviews back

1:40:01okay so in emeryville um there's a lot

1:40:04of units that are subject to costa

1:40:06hawkins meaning that they were built

1:40:08after 1995. um so in general they've

1:40:11applied their just cause to

1:40:14their single all of their housing stock

1:40:16because

1:40:17that's pretty much where they can they

1:40:19can do

1:40:21okay um on the rent registry

1:40:24um questions i mean i i think it's

1:40:26pretty important i think this whole

1:40:28effort is kind of leading toward

1:40:30having more data and i've heard that

1:40:31from both sides everyone here that one

1:40:34slide concerned me though the many steps

1:40:36you had to go through kind of changed my

1:40:38mind about is that worth it

1:40:40um

1:40:42to the landlords and to anyone that

1:40:43might be involved in giving information

1:40:46and i've heard that people really by law

1:40:49aren't don't aren't required to give you

1:40:51the all the information

1:40:53can you explain what information they

1:40:55wouldn't have you want to chime in on

1:40:57that

1:41:01um i mean i

1:41:02isn't that going to be an effort for us

1:41:04to and is that why you have so many

1:41:06layers

1:41:07third time you're asking people for

1:41:09information well we could automate that

1:41:11through the system in terms of letters

1:41:14and noticing so we can system generate

1:41:16that process and you know first notice

1:41:18second notice so still might not get the

1:41:21real picture based on the fact that

1:41:23people don't have to give that

1:41:24information well

1:41:26my personal view is that as a function

1:41:28of the city's police power that the city

1:41:30council can require the provision of

1:41:32that information

1:41:34how we do it is another question

1:41:36and whether or not

1:41:38the level

1:41:39if there is significant non-compliance

1:41:41whether or not the level of effort and

1:41:44cost associated with doing obtaining

1:41:46compliance through code enforcement is

1:41:48worth it

1:41:49but i think ultimately it's really a

1:41:51police power question and the city

1:41:52council has the ability to require that

1:41:54information just like it has the ability

1:41:56to require property owners to submit to

1:41:58a

1:41:59residential rental inspection program i

1:42:01don't think that there's really any

1:42:02legal difference between those two i'd

1:42:04also say that

1:42:05in terms of that chart it does look like

1:42:07a lot of steps but it's not really that

1:42:09different from the code enforcement

1:42:10process that the staff already engages

1:42:12in there's already it it's multiple

1:42:15steps because it's iterative instead of

1:42:17like each individual step you could

1:42:18imagine a circle a little bit in the

1:42:20middle that eventually pops back out

1:42:22because it's basically a series of

1:42:24note that there's a non-compliance

1:42:26notify the owner give them a date to

1:42:28comply note that they haven't complied

1:42:30by the date give them another notice it

1:42:32so many of those steps are basically

1:42:34similar to the existing code enforcement

1:42:36process so while it looks like a lot

1:42:38it's not any different from what the

1:42:39city staff does already for situations

1:42:41in which there's non-compliance with

1:42:42city codes okay thank you if i can just

1:42:45add to that also when isa was first

1:42:47researching that it's often done in

1:42:48conjunction

1:42:50as i used to mention many times during

1:42:51our presentation it would be

1:42:53somewhat innovative and novel to really

1:42:56develop that robust data set

1:42:59as kind of the foundation of your

1:43:00housing program and when she was talking

1:43:02to other cities often those were

1:43:04either new cities like marin

1:43:06county

1:43:07or

1:43:09berkeley and other places so i think as

1:43:10the city attorney just said partly we

1:43:12wanted to

1:43:15articulate and demonstrate it's not

1:43:17quite as simple as it sounds and yet as

1:43:19the city attorney just said

1:43:22it's also not that cumbersome also you

1:43:24know this is required as you've heard

1:43:26tonight lots of ongoing conversation and

1:43:28since uh preparation of that slide and

1:43:31in conversations with the city of

1:43:32attorney we've tried to think of ways

1:43:34that we can make it even more efficient

1:43:36by really integrating it into the

1:43:37business license process

1:43:39[Music]

1:43:40positive response is back i appreciate

1:43:42that um

1:43:44on the

1:43:45last question on the rent registry we're

1:43:48trying to get the largest universe of

1:43:49facts here in el cerrito why do you guys

1:43:52want to recommend against including adus

1:43:54on in that section

1:43:57i noted that during the presentation i

1:43:59think that we could easily

1:44:01include that like you said this is just

1:44:03a data set and information since we're

1:44:05trying to promote them and find

1:44:06information business licenses are

1:44:08required so it would be pretty easy to

1:44:10pair that so thank you for catching that

1:44:12on

1:44:13tenant relocation i'm i think like

1:44:17council member

1:44:19and i'm concerned maybe

1:44:21about

1:44:22some of the cost of relocation for the

1:44:25smaller folks

1:44:27i just wanted to know if on the

1:44:3020 percent over 24 months

1:44:33is there another example and

1:44:35that we can point to that of a city that

1:44:37does that

1:44:39for relocation because that is that a

1:44:41new it's a new

1:44:44and i get the demolition but the rate

1:44:46increase for 24 months over the

1:44:48ordinance that santa cruz just adopted

1:44:50has a similar program and actually their

1:44:52number their percentages for rent

1:44:54increases are lower than that they've

1:44:56just adopted that there's no other kind

1:44:58of record about how that impacts people

1:45:00um it's just the one that i'm most

1:45:02familiar with just because it's new um

1:45:04so i wouldn't say that it doesn't exist

1:45:05but it's the one that's freshest in mind

1:45:08and finally on um legal aid which i

1:45:11think is is great i think it'd be great

1:45:13for everybody are you gonna

1:45:15right i mean if

1:45:16landlords come in and need advice

1:45:18will they be able to get some of that

1:45:21for legal aid um well our intent was um

1:45:25to provide it to tenants right

1:45:27um

1:45:28but we can look into that well i'm just

1:45:30i'm just wondering i mean

1:45:32nothing's cheap and that's an expensive

1:45:34cost either way

1:45:36and um would we be up for

1:45:38finding a uh contractor for doing that

1:45:42right i mean we would have to make an

1:45:44arrangement or is it all going to be

1:45:46with skies

1:45:48oh no our city attorney would not yeah

1:45:50represent a tenant or a landlord yeah we

1:45:53would be looking at um

1:45:55a non-profit legal aid service provider

1:45:57to partner with us what was your

1:45:59estimate on cost for these again um it

1:46:01was between 25 and 30 000 a year and

1:46:04that was um

1:46:06what's just some assumptions

1:46:08let me

1:46:10um

1:46:11it was 50 000 a year with some

1:46:12assumptions um that about 150 renters

1:46:17would access two hours per year annually

1:46:19at about a hundred dollars an hour it's

1:46:21about the rate um and then that 20 of

1:46:24those renters might proceed and meet

1:46:26more lengthy time

1:46:28so we budgeted at that if they were to

1:46:30need 10 hours for example 20 households

1:46:32that would be another 20 000.

1:46:34are we talking all the way to a court

1:46:36courtroom situation

1:46:38i think we were again this was pretty uh

1:46:40hypothetical it was hard to get

1:46:42information um i said you know in san

1:46:44francisco they give grant so she kind of

1:46:46based it a bit on those programs but one

1:46:48of the things i want to add is a lot of

1:46:50um during uh the presentation you saw a

1:46:52lot of these were civilly enforced um

1:46:55currently we get a lot of inquiries

1:46:57about uh tenant from tenants about

1:47:00situations and we're often in the

1:47:01position of saying you need to seek

1:47:03legal aid so i think as we were looking

1:47:05at that globally

1:47:06we were trying to kind of

1:47:08whether it was these programs or others

1:47:10recognizing it's a place currently that

1:47:11staff does hit a wall and being able to

1:47:13provide assistance to people who who

1:47:15need it thank you thank you for all the

1:47:17work and thank you for reaching out it's

1:47:19really important i just wanted to add

1:47:21one more point about legal aid

1:47:23most of the other cities and counties

1:47:25that we have looked at have access to

1:47:28bond

1:47:29ballot measure money to do that

1:47:32if this council were to do that we would

1:47:34have no choice and we would not be able

1:47:35to recover costs for that so that would

1:47:37be a general fund outlaw outlay above

1:47:40and beyond what we're proposing here so

1:47:43that does give us pause as far as

1:47:45resources just for your information and

1:47:46um on top of that in addition to the

1:47:48bond a lot of uh

1:47:50larger cities of 50 000 or more also get

1:47:52community development block grants so

1:47:54just as a reminder a small city

1:47:56like el cerrito doesn't have access to

1:47:59build on that access to funds so it is a

1:48:01general fund experience out there that

1:48:03we can see the city not that the city

1:48:05not that a city of our size can access

1:48:07so larger cities can access that

1:48:10thank you

1:48:12mayor potem

1:48:14yeah um some of my questions have

1:48:16already been covered so i'll

1:48:18net it down to some of the ones that i'm

1:48:19interested in

1:48:21the budget estimates include the concept

1:48:23of means testing you've got on slide 59

1:48:26that you want us to discuss means

1:48:27testing but i just does the current

1:48:29budget estimates include the the

1:48:32burdensome means testing that's

1:48:34anticipated in the relocation yes

1:48:36ordinance

1:48:37um

1:48:38the

1:48:40my understanding is the cost recovery

1:48:42you have again on that budget slot you

1:48:44have roughly forty dollars per ordinance

1:48:46to do cost recovery

1:48:48that's a fee and can be adjusted if

1:48:51costs go up or down correct so after um

1:48:54the programs or programs have been in

1:48:57effect um we can then reevaluate actual

1:49:01allocation of resources once we begin to

1:49:04experience a live

1:49:06live activity

1:49:08i know

1:49:09thank you i know that the adu does

1:49:12require one of the two units to be

1:49:15owner occupied

1:49:17if there's other small you know it's a

1:49:19duplex for example where the housing

1:49:21provider is occupying that is there

1:49:24have you thought about what means we

1:49:26would use to verify a

1:49:29unit within a small rental complexes is

1:49:33owner is owner occupied or housing

1:49:35provider occupied yeah and so there's

1:49:38a series of ways that you can verify

1:49:41occupancy it would be standard as we

1:49:44would verify for example if we had

1:49:46inclusionary below market rate units we

1:49:48would verify occupancy annually so there

1:49:51is a set documents that you can request

1:49:53for to ensure that an owner is truly an

1:49:56owner occupied of that unit so it could

1:49:59be utility bills proof of payments car

1:50:01insurance

1:50:02there could be a series of documents to

1:50:05prove that an owner occupies their unit

1:50:08great thank you

1:50:31oh you're done okay

1:50:33um

1:50:35thank you for your

1:50:36presentation first question is

1:50:42you said we have

1:50:432700 multi-family units

1:50:46of those units how many were built

1:50:48before 1995

1:50:51ninety at least ninety percent of those

1:50:56multi-family

1:50:59multi-family rentals right yep okay

1:51:05my second question is

1:51:07if we were to implement a just cause

1:51:11ordinance

1:51:13one of the things

1:51:15that would still allow a landlord to

1:51:17evict someone

1:51:19would be failure to pay rent

1:51:24correct failure to pay rent

1:51:26so what would stop a landlord from

1:51:30raising the rent say 500 a thousand

1:51:32dollars at one time

1:51:34with with the adjust cause ordinance as

1:51:36a standalone correct yeah so you yeah

1:51:39you could that's why it's often paired

1:51:41with another program

1:51:43um because there is obviously the

1:51:45economic displacement where you can

1:51:47price someone out if you just have the

1:51:49just causes a standalone ordinance right

1:51:52so under our pillar b

1:51:55of

1:51:56protecting

1:51:58tenants tenant protections

1:52:02reducing displacement stabilizing

1:52:04at-risk populations

1:52:07even if we go forward with a just cause

1:52:09we are still leaving people at risk

1:52:13yeah so on the table

1:52:15of pairing that's why

1:52:17i showed some suggested pairing

1:52:20although the rent review was not

1:52:21approved that was one and as well as the

1:52:23tenant relocation trigger by rent

1:52:25increases

1:52:26okay so rent registry

1:52:34a lot of places that have rent registry

1:52:36also have

1:52:37a rent control aspect to them

1:52:41was there any cost projections on what

1:52:44putting a rent control policy along with

1:52:48the rent registry would cost

1:52:50currently you're saying it would be 80

1:52:51to 100 per year

1:52:54but if you were to in go that next step

1:52:57and actually do some protections

1:53:00what would that cost

1:53:01um so we haven't actually explored a

1:53:04rent control

1:53:05because that is generally done by way of

1:53:08a ballot measure so we haven't

1:53:10quite investigated that to that extent

1:53:13okay

1:53:14would it be possible for the council to

1:53:16do it stand alone

1:53:17without a ballot measure

1:53:22legally yes um it's just typically not

1:53:24done i just i'd add to um

1:53:28isis

1:53:29i isis uh comment that that thus far the

1:53:33city council's direction um has not been

1:53:36to consider rent control so i mean

1:53:38that's that the reason that that that

1:53:40staff has not for example developed some

1:53:43recommendations or priced it is that

1:53:45that thus far the council hasn't said

1:53:47told directed the staff to do that

1:53:49okay

1:53:51thank you

1:53:52um

1:53:53let's see

1:53:56what about in los angeles the rent

1:53:58registry there

1:54:00was that paired with uh rent control yes

1:54:04and i noticed there was a big price

1:54:05difference between los angeles

1:54:08and richmond

1:54:10did you have any

1:54:11details around that

1:54:14yeah so richmond

1:54:16it's anywhere from 50 to 100 and 207

1:54:20los angeles is a county as well so they

1:54:23are

1:54:24have added resources whereas richmond

1:54:28their fee varies depending on what

1:54:31ordinances your units are subject to so

1:54:33they could be units

1:54:35for example single family units that

1:54:37just might be subject to the just cause

1:54:40for eviction

1:54:41so it ranges depending on what category

1:54:43your unit falls under

1:54:45and for

1:54:47los angeles obviously

1:54:49they're a population of four million um

1:54:52they've

1:54:53yeah

1:54:54okay so they are scale

1:54:56and do they have like other grants that

1:54:58like uh you were talking about possibly

1:55:01okay so i i think these get to economies

1:55:04of scale as well and a lot of other

1:55:07funding sources

1:55:09okay there's large bond measures there's

1:55:12and then the cdbg money that flows to

1:55:13larger cities is quite significant

1:55:16okay but in richmond where they don't

1:55:18have additional bond monies because

1:55:20we're in the same county

1:55:22the maximum price that they're charging

1:55:24right now is 207 dollars

1:55:27but they are at some but they are not

1:55:29quite making um their budget is that

1:55:32what i'm aware of

1:55:35so yeah they also have a general they

1:55:37have cost recovery for their program

1:55:39costs and then they are

1:55:41using some of their general subsidy as

1:55:43well as they do get cdbg grants as well

1:55:46so they are able to make grants as a

1:55:48result of funding through that mechanism

1:55:51what is cdbg community development

1:55:54bought grants it's federal funding

1:55:57because of the size of their

1:55:59okay

1:56:01right

1:56:03okay

1:56:04um

1:56:05[Music]

1:56:08all right and these costs that we're

1:56:10proposing per year so when you're

1:56:12looking at richmond with their full

1:56:13program that that includes rent control

1:56:16for two hundred and seven dollars

1:56:18versus our eighty to a hundred dollars

1:56:20for the rent registry and just cause

1:56:22um that is per year correct per year per

1:56:25unit okay so if that would if that cost

1:56:28was passed on to

1:56:30the renter which i'm assuming it would

1:56:32be

1:56:34that would probably be about ten dollars

1:56:36with our current program or in richmond

1:56:39about twenty dollars

1:56:41per month for the tenant

1:56:44if you divide it yeah over 12 months

1:56:47okay

1:56:48thank you very much

1:56:50we can now move on to public comment

1:56:54okay we have 41 speakers on this item

1:56:56tonight the first three speakers are

1:56:59john ly followed by natalia carney and

1:57:02robin mitchell

1:57:09make sure you guys spread so in that

1:57:11order

1:57:13yes in that order the first speaker is

1:57:14john mai

1:57:22hi evening everybody

1:57:24and thank you

1:57:26for the live presentation for the

1:57:28tenor protection studies section

1:57:31and it's a nice presentation i know the

1:57:34staff will spend a lot of time effort or

1:57:36money

1:57:38thank you but first my first question is

1:57:40do you have the home owner protection

1:57:42study program too

1:57:44yes or no

1:57:46because if you don't have it's not fair

1:57:48to the tent

1:57:50the home owner because you the tenant

1:57:53need the protection homeowner need the

1:57:55protection tool

1:57:57so we

1:57:58and also

1:58:00and also

1:58:02we i live in i have lived in south

1:58:04australia for 20 years

1:58:06my property i use my salary

1:58:09to buy it

1:58:11also little city

1:58:13government anyone did not pay me any

1:58:16money support me any money to

1:58:19get my property but now why you need to

1:58:23or anyone set up the rule to control my

1:58:26small business

1:58:27if like that you know so for example a

1:58:30lot of the gas station in el cerrito

1:58:33so if you want to control the small

1:58:34business when the

1:58:36gas line prices increase a lot should

1:58:39you set up the load no you cannot can

1:58:41you go to control all the air i mean the

1:58:44gasoline stations no you cannot increase

1:58:46the price

1:58:49thank you

1:58:51next speaker is natalia carney followed

1:58:53by robin mitchell

1:58:58i couldn't hear you what do you say the

1:59:00next speaker is natalia carney

1:59:05good evening everyone

1:59:07i'm natalia carney from el cerrito

1:59:09um

1:59:10i have so many things to say that i'm

1:59:12going to have to hurry up the first

1:59:14thing that i want to say is i want to

1:59:15thank this panel you always ask really

1:59:17great questions by the way

1:59:19um

1:59:20the the one thing that i like to to

1:59:22discuss today is the

1:59:24dark side of this if i may um right now

1:59:27we talked about a good cost eviction and

1:59:30the four reasons for it the first one is

1:59:33lack of payment i'd like to remind you

1:59:36that on average it takes about three to

1:59:38five months to get a tenant out of a

1:59:40property during an eviction five

1:59:42thousand dollars plus whatever you're

1:59:44paying for your mortgage it's a lot of

1:59:46money on the landlord

1:59:47the

1:59:48part of the bridge of the lease part

1:59:51that can be

1:59:52worked in many different ways for

1:59:54instance

1:59:55there are many leases that say no pets

1:59:57and now you bring a little dog

1:59:59you go to your doctor you get a

2:00:01permission that that part already gone

2:00:04okay

2:00:05nuance or criminal activity i love that

2:00:07part because i've been a victim of that

2:00:10the one thing about criminal activity is

2:00:11that nobody who likes to go and complain

2:00:13about your tenant to the police

2:00:15especially not your neighbors

2:00:18and then the owner-moving eviction

2:00:21it works

2:00:23you have to pay

2:00:24your tenant in order for you to use your

2:00:26own property is that a joke

2:00:28well i leave it up to you um

2:00:30[Music]

2:00:32so

2:00:32when we talk about the part of the

2:00:35eviction

2:00:36if it's supposed to be

2:00:38released by the applicant um

2:00:41most cases of eviction today they get

2:00:44settled which means that they're hidden

2:00:46so if if the lender and the tenant reach

2:00:49an agreement you will never hear of that

2:00:51case

2:00:53so in the case that they don't get

2:00:55settled what happens is that it takes

2:00:57about six months for that eviction to

2:01:00appear in your applicant's credit report

2:01:03so if you're lucky you will find out

2:01:05about that

2:01:06but it is not guaranteed the other thing

2:01:09that is not disclosed many times is

2:01:11thank you for your comments

2:01:14am i done yes okay

2:01:16i had a lot more to say

2:01:19the next speaker is robin mitchell

2:01:21followed by sherry dropner

2:01:30my name is robin mitchell i live in el

2:01:32cerrito and i would like to reiterate

2:01:34that i think you should seriously study

2:01:36the resolution from the human relations

2:01:38committee commission

2:01:41because there were some important points

2:01:43made in that resolution

2:01:46so in addition to the tenant protections

2:01:47you're already considering i think it is

2:01:49important to act on at least two of the

2:01:51suggestions in that resolution

2:01:53it was number three said immediately

2:01:55establish a permanent citizen board or

2:01:57commission equally represented by

2:01:59citizen renters

2:02:01landlords and homeowners to advise the

2:02:04city council on matters of housing which

2:02:06seems very sensible to me

2:02:08and the fourth thing in that resolution

2:02:10was immediately establish a citizen-led

2:02:13task force

2:02:14separate from the above described border

2:02:16commission specifically to the specific

2:02:18to the topic of tenant protections to be

2:02:20in existence the full duration of the

2:02:22time period in which the city council

2:02:24and staff is researching developing and

2:02:26implementing the affordable housing

2:02:27strategy to work alongside the city of

2:02:30el cerrito to provide direct and

2:02:32consistent access points for citizen

2:02:34input and advisory on matters of tenants

2:02:36rights and protections

2:02:38and the other thing i wanted to just

2:02:39point out i sent you a link to the

2:02:42attendance together toolkit document

2:02:44last night and you probably didn't have

2:02:45a chance to read it but some important

2:02:47points that they made there

2:02:49is that most cities in california with

2:02:51rent control or the kinds of things that

2:02:53you're considering

2:02:54pay through don't pay through the

2:02:56general fund the costs are paid through

2:02:59fees from landlords and tenant

2:03:01pass-throughs which aisa already talked

2:03:03about

2:03:04landlords must be able to to receive a

2:03:07fair return on their investment

2:03:09this means that some kind of annual

2:03:11increase in rent is likely required good

2:03:14landlords are unaffected by the

2:03:16restrictions because they already

2:03:17refrain from huge rent increases and

2:03:20arbitrary evictions

2:03:22all landlords should follow basic

2:03:24practices like reasonable rent increases

2:03:26and only evicting for good reasons these

2:03:29principles should apply to landlords

2:03:30large and small

2:03:32many people who rent will likely be

2:03:34renters one sec and they should be

2:03:37supported in wanting stability in where

2:03:39they live we value long-term tenure for

2:03:41homeowners we should do the same for

2:03:43renters

2:03:45thank you

2:03:46the next speaker is sherry dropner

2:03:47followed by walter

2:03:50miniham

2:03:57good evening my name is sherry grobner

2:03:59i'm a resident in el cerrito

2:04:01and i'm happy to see so many responsible

2:04:05housing providers this evening

2:04:07i think that this meeting really isn't

2:04:09about the how the responsible housing

2:04:12providers i think this meeting is really

2:04:14for those who are not responsible

2:04:17and when i walked in this evening

2:04:19someone said to me i thought this is

2:04:20supposed to be a meeting for tenants

2:04:23and a meeting about 10 protections and i

2:04:26really do want to echo what i heard the

2:04:28mayor say

2:04:30without looking at some kind of a

2:04:33rent cap or a program that really deals

2:04:36with the rental increases

2:04:38having just caused by itself

2:04:40it's good to have just cause but

2:04:44really the elephant in the room i think

2:04:46is the increasing rents that the people

2:04:50are facing so i do want to reiterate

2:04:54that the human relations commission that

2:04:56robin mitchell spoke to

2:04:58was a very thoughtful um their

2:05:01resolution was very thoughtful

2:05:03i think they made a point of a temporary

2:05:06cap on

2:05:07rental hikes so that we can consider

2:05:09this and bring together

2:05:12the responsible housing providers in the

2:05:14community and the responsible tenants in

2:05:17the community to really look at this um

2:05:19staff has laid the groundwork for quite

2:05:22a bit of information that we have it's

2:05:24um

2:05:25there's a there's a lot of information

2:05:27and resources out there to look at i

2:05:30don't think we have to be scared there's

2:05:31a

2:05:32paper going around

2:05:35talking about rent control and using

2:05:37richmond as like the model and that's

2:05:40not who we are and there's a lot of um

2:05:43actually

2:05:44misinformation in this paper so that's

2:05:46all i'd like to say thank you

2:05:48thank you

2:05:49the next speaker is walter miha followed

2:05:52by akio yokoyi

2:06:10hi um

2:06:12my name is

2:06:16and can i just call one more time is

2:06:18walter mija

2:06:20is still here

2:06:22and um i owned apartment and that is

2:06:26i live in there too so always i try to

2:06:30think about the tenants how they feel

2:06:32comfortable and nice and safe so that is

2:06:35the purpose i was doing

2:06:37but um when i

2:06:40uh these kind of things if it passed

2:06:42and other red tapes and i don't think i

2:06:46can afford to do it anymore so that is

2:06:49my feeling

2:06:51thank you

2:06:52the next speaker is

2:06:54bella papa

2:06:56pugashetti followed by andrew

2:06:58lojo

2:07:07bella papa pugashetti

2:07:11okay

2:07:13is andrew lojo

2:07:19good evening council members um

2:07:22[Music]

2:07:24i'm andrew loho i live in kensington and

2:07:26i own a single family rental on pomona

2:07:30um affordable housing benefits everyone

2:07:32in the community we all agree

2:07:34the decision you all face

2:07:36is what should the city do to make that

2:07:38a reality for everyone

2:07:40i'm using the term rent control for all

2:07:42of this i understand the differences

2:07:44but rent control in these measures

2:07:46you're talking about are not the

2:07:48solution to bring affordable housing to

2:07:50the community

2:07:51in 2005 my wife and i invested every

2:07:54penny of our savings and every ounce of

2:07:55our credit to purchase and rebuild my

2:07:57grandparents house that was badly

2:07:59damaged by a loma prader earthquake took

2:08:01almost two years and thousands of hours

2:08:03of personal time to make that happen not

2:08:06to

2:08:06mention back injury to my to me um we

2:08:10made that investment

2:08:12in the house in el cerrito as a

2:08:14long-term retirement income plan we

2:08:16don't have we did this in el cerrito

2:08:18because rent control had no rank el

2:08:20cerrito had no rent control

2:08:22well i would be very interested in

2:08:24exploring possibilities of address of

2:08:26adding a small secondary unit to the

2:08:27property given the right incentives

2:08:30which is a great way to

2:08:32add affordable units to the community i

2:08:34will not do so if el cerrito imposes

2:08:36these further restrictions

2:08:38i am unwilling to allow a new city

2:08:40bureaucracy to take away my rights to

2:08:42remove a tenant i don't like or make me

2:08:45have to prove gross negligence on their

2:08:47part to do that or to tell me i cannot

2:08:49raise a rent when i feel it proper to do

2:08:51so

2:08:52i am not alone

2:08:54numerous professional studies have

2:08:55proven again and again that rent control

2:08:57is not a good way to provide affordable

2:08:59housing because so many people feel like

2:09:01i do about losing their rights to manage

2:09:03their property

2:09:04stanford has the most recent

2:09:06study on this i think from 2017

2:09:09if rent control continues to come to el

2:09:11cerrito i will be forced to either sell

2:09:13the property taking my profits and

2:09:15invest in another community or another

2:09:17avenue without rent control

2:09:19or to raise my rent and play other games

2:09:21around these room rules to make sure

2:09:23that i don't get caught behind the

2:09:25market

2:09:26when it is time for a tenant to move out

2:09:30speaking of that i've only had three

2:09:32families in this house and the two that

2:09:35were before left voluntarily

2:09:38we're good landlords we charge a fair

2:09:40affordable rent

2:09:41i believe my rent is about a thousand a

2:09:44month

2:09:45below market right now

2:09:47and if this measure comes in i'm going

2:09:48to be forced to look at raising that if

2:09:50i don't just sell it

2:09:55i really like my current tenants i know

2:09:56they couldn't afford that

2:09:59i encourage the city to

2:10:01really consider other ways to

2:10:03incentivize all of us to add more more

2:10:05units rather than this thank you

2:10:07the next speaker is phillip zimmerman

2:10:09followed by carmella

2:10:12carmajin

2:10:15good evening i'm i'm going to try to

2:10:16back off from this because i think you

2:10:18can probably hear my rather loud voice

2:10:22thank you for your service i really

2:10:24appreciate honest and thoughtful

2:10:26intelligent service we get from our

2:10:27local communities

2:10:29i own a rental house

2:10:31on buckingham and i live just across the

2:10:32street el cerrito practically down the

2:10:35street

2:10:36i'm going to cut my prepared remarks of

2:10:38only one page in half

2:10:42the new yorker magazine reported on page

2:10:4427 in the current issue

2:10:46that the kushner companies are being

2:10:48investigated for one of new york city

2:10:50what one new york city council member

2:10:53described as the weaponization of

2:10:55construction now again this is not

2:10:58demolition necessarily it's not

2:11:01necessarily even getting a permit it

2:11:03occurs to me

2:11:04step one build a buy a building full of

2:11:07rent stabilized tenants who are pla

2:11:09paying below market rates step two bag

2:11:13and drill until they leave

2:11:16well it's terrible that sort of thing

2:11:18the article goes on to talk about

2:11:20landlords who turned down the heat to

2:11:23the 40s in the middle of the night do

2:11:25the tenants complain oh yes

2:11:28i ask you does the city of el cerrito

2:11:30freely appreciate the enforcement

2:11:32nightmare it's getting into by

2:11:34considering turning our citizens against

2:11:37one another

2:11:38instead of

2:11:40by interfering in the free pricing of

2:11:42rentals i doubt it

2:11:44for example whether you like it or not

2:11:46el cerrito has competitors as this man

2:11:49who just spoke before me said if you

2:11:51make it too too difficult for him to do

2:11:53business he's going to go do business

2:11:55someplace else

2:11:58if you give my business of renting my

2:12:00one single family house too much

2:12:01aggravation i'm willing to put it

2:12:05that i'm willing to put up with my house

2:12:07will go on the market and i'll do my

2:12:08business elsewhere and someone who can

2:12:11manage down payment of about two hundred

2:12:13thousand dollars will buy it it will

2:12:16disappear from the rental stock and the

2:12:18new owners will file for a homeowner's

2:12:20exemption

2:12:21thank you for your comments

2:12:24well good luck with it

2:12:26the next speaker is

2:12:28carmela carmajin followed by kc

2:12:34hi my name is carmella caramagno and um

2:12:37i oppose the just cause uh proposal as

2:12:41it applies to single-family residents i

2:12:42think you can see from the series of

2:12:44speakers you've had here i own two homes

2:12:46in el cerrito which i held on to through

2:12:49the downturn in which i turned from

2:12:51repossessions to beautiful homes that

2:12:55anybody would be proud to own

2:12:57and

2:12:58i'm not going to stay here if the city

2:13:00adopts the just cause eviction one of my

2:13:02houses is empty i don't know where i

2:13:04reside because if i have to i'll move

2:13:06into it rather than

2:13:08risk a lawsuit anybody who is naive

2:13:11enough to think that a just cause

2:13:13ordinance isn't going to foment

2:13:14litigation and like mr zimmerman said

2:13:17create animosity between your residents

2:13:20is just be naive all you have to do is

2:13:22look to your neighbor berkeley and why

2:13:25would anybody look at us we're older

2:13:27this is many of us most of us do not

2:13:29have any retirement pensions we have our

2:13:32one asset we have our single family home

2:13:34we're facing retirement without a

2:13:36pension without subsidies

2:13:38and why would we risk

2:13:41when a tenant doesn't move in they don't

2:13:42give you a bond so if you if you try to

2:13:45get them out and you engage in two years

2:13:47of litigation you end up losing your

2:13:49home your only asset your retirement at

2:13:52i'm plus 60 and i'm looking around the

2:13:54room and i'm seeing that most of the

2:13:56single family homeowners here are in the

2:13:58same boat and that's why what you're

2:14:01going to do is you're going to deprive

2:14:02this city of its flourishing

2:14:05single-family housing market homes will

2:14:07go off the market they will be sold mr

2:14:10zimmerman and ms and i will sell our

2:14:12units rather than face the potential

2:14:15disastrous consequences of losing our

2:14:17home because we get involved in some

2:14:19litigation with somebody who decides

2:14:21that we don't have a cause and destroys

2:14:25the properties in the interim

2:14:27and there's no bond that's going to

2:14:28cover the damages that happen when

2:14:31people end up in litigation and tenants

2:14:33are angry because they're in litigation

2:14:35with their landlord

2:14:36thank you

2:14:38thank you

2:14:39next speaker is kc

2:14:45ladies and gentlemen if i could please

2:14:46request that you not applaud or boo

2:14:49any speakers so that everyone feels

2:14:51comfortable to speak and we can continue

2:14:53the process efficiently thank you

2:14:57good evening

2:14:58my name is casey and next year will be

2:15:00my 15th year 1-5

2:15:03as an el cerrito resident

2:15:05i just came from the afro-latinx

2:15:07community drumming event at the library

2:15:09organized for black history month

2:15:11i shop at the plaza

2:15:13and until she retired a couple years ago

2:15:15the lady who did my taxes was walking

2:15:16distance from my place

2:15:19i just hosted a successful dinner party

2:15:21in my home friday where my banana

2:15:23pudding was rated muy delicioso

2:15:27until last year i was laid off four

2:15:29years straight as online retail

2:15:31companies either went out of business or

2:15:32overestimated their budget

2:15:35i had to start over each time suffering

2:15:37financial setbacks as my wages continued

2:15:39to decrease while my rent steadily

2:15:41increased

2:15:42each day i go to my mailbox and take a

2:15:44breath

2:15:47wondering if this will be the day i get

2:15:48a 60-day notice of a rent surge that

2:15:50undoubtedly my salary will not sustain

2:15:53rick and up any amount of dollars at any

2:15:55time a year but who gets the exact

2:15:57salary bump at the same time

2:15:59do you know what that feels like

2:16:01walking to your mailbox terrified to

2:16:03open your own mail

2:16:07those of you who ran on a platform of

2:16:08rent control is the reason i voted for

2:16:10you in 2016 and here we are three years

2:16:12later nothing

2:16:15one of you blatantly said last meeting

2:16:16el cerrito will not participate in rent

2:16:18control which with all due respect how

2:16:20dare you ignore the cries of the people

2:16:22you claim to serve

2:16:24while you stall going round and round

2:16:26about needing more data which to me

2:16:28sounds like a smoke screen to continue

2:16:29doing nothing

2:16:31the people who are deeply impacted by

2:16:32rent hikes that far surpass their wages

2:16:35are all saying the same thing

2:16:37moratorium rent control just cause

2:16:40eviction

2:16:41moratorium rent control just cause

2:16:43eviction

2:16:44moratorium rent control just cause

2:16:47eviction

2:16:49it is time for city council to make a

2:16:50decision that will reveal the soul of el

2:16:52cerrito

2:16:54and when will that finally take place

2:16:56before or after i

2:16:59get displaced

2:17:01thank you

2:17:03the next speaker is norman leforce

2:17:05followed by elizabeth thornson

2:17:15good evening mayor council members uh

2:17:17norman laforce i'm your 36th year

2:17:20resident here

2:17:21and you know i've been past mayor and

2:17:23said on the city council

2:17:26you have a very tough decision to make

2:17:28on this whole issue this is not an easy

2:17:30issue

2:17:31i'm a lawyer i've taught

2:17:33land use property law

2:17:35so we all know that what we're dealing

2:17:36with is the bundle of property sticks

2:17:39in which stick goes in which which

2:17:41category

2:17:43i would say this because i only have a

2:17:45few minutes or a little bit of time and

2:17:47this is a very complex issue

2:17:51just cause already exists in the civil

2:17:52code

2:17:54and virtually every provision that would

2:17:55be in a just cause ordinance is really

2:17:58covered by the by the california civil

2:18:00code already

2:18:01what it what a just cause ordinance does

2:18:03for a city

2:18:05is you create

2:18:06free legal advice

2:18:08and legal help and legal representation

2:18:11for the tenant

2:18:12now that's great when you're you know

2:18:14when you're fighting donald trump

2:18:16or mr shornstein but a lot of the people

2:18:19here i would surmise are like me

2:18:21we own just a couple rental units where

2:18:24mom and pop

2:18:25we don't have the money to spend ten to

2:18:27fifteen twenty thousand dollars on legal

2:18:30fees and i went through that with a

2:18:31tenant who was five months back in rent

2:18:34and it ended up

2:18:35everything including the legal fees

2:18:37costing me about fifteen to twenty

2:18:39thousand dollars to get rid of a

2:18:41deadbeat tenant so when you think about

2:18:43this you gotta think about who's gonna

2:18:45whose rights are really gonna be

2:18:47affected by all of this and how you can

2:18:49balance the interests

2:18:51of

2:18:52mom and pop landlords versus tenants

2:18:55that's a really hard issue to deal with

2:18:56but you're going to have to deal with it

2:18:58because you end up with people saying

2:19:00like me maybe it's better just to sell

2:19:02the property take the rental units off

2:19:03the property

2:19:05and there they go no more rental units

2:19:09thank you

2:19:10next speaker is elizabeth thornson

2:19:15followed by robert howe

2:19:21elizabeth thornson

2:19:30hi i'm elizabeth thorsness as you know

2:19:33it's just my

2:19:34monthly plea

2:19:36that you get data

2:19:38that

2:19:39you find out how many evictions do we

2:19:41have in el cerrito

2:19:44i'm not sure how you could access it

2:19:46from the courts but i know

2:19:49legal aid has some of that information

2:19:52and i found that

2:19:53for example in 2016 el cerrito had 13

2:19:58and

2:19:59san pablo which is larger had 50

2:20:02something 54.

2:20:04pinot had 12

2:20:06canals smaller

2:20:08so there is information there that you

2:20:10could get and then it would tell you if

2:20:12it's worth it to get into what could be

2:20:15costly

2:20:16uh endeavors like the just cause maybe

2:20:18we need something lesser than that

2:20:22um

2:20:22and

2:20:24the same with um

2:20:28i'm losing it forgetting what oh

2:20:31of um

2:20:33finding out you know the rent

2:20:34registration that we talked about and

2:20:36i've supported you on that because it

2:20:38gets you data but i really took a good

2:20:41look at it and i think that you'd be

2:20:44better off we would be better off

2:20:46if you simply did a survey like it's a

2:20:50totally respectable tool and it could be

2:20:52tied to your um

2:20:55your licensing so it's really the same

2:20:58stamp

2:20:59and and would be required and the data

2:21:02then is just really it doesn't you don't

2:21:04have to monitor the rents how much

2:21:06increase from here to there and make it

2:21:08that compliment just what is the rent

2:21:09for how many bedrooms or you know that

2:21:11kind of thing every year like clockwork

2:21:13you'll be able to see what you need to

2:21:15see and you'll know about evictions and

2:21:17you'll know what the average rent really

2:21:19is in el cerrito and uh so again that's

2:21:23just my plea to really get data so we

2:21:25can do right by everybody take care of

2:21:28our tenants

2:21:29and take care of the tired old landlords

2:21:32somebody was mentioning how old we all

2:21:34are in here so anyway thank you thank

2:21:36you for your work thank you

2:21:38the next speaker is robert howe followed

2:21:40by brent anderson

2:21:46hello my name is robert howe i've lived

2:21:48in elsewhere on my whole life

2:21:50i'm a business owner here for 46 years

2:21:54and i would like to retire here my

2:21:56father built the apartments that i now

2:21:58own

2:21:59for his retirement he doesn't have a fat

2:22:02pension from a city a county or a state

2:22:05to live on he lives off of his earnings

2:22:08that he did his whole life and his

2:22:10apartment income

2:22:12as a homeowner here in el cerrito

2:22:15i feel that

2:22:17from what i heard tonight you want to

2:22:18implement full-blown rent control

2:22:21and if that's true i'm 150 percent

2:22:24against it

2:22:25most rent control cities have higher

2:22:27rents than i am charging right now

2:22:30as the other another person talked i

2:22:33have rental units that are 500 to a

2:22:35thousand dollars below

2:22:38market rate

2:22:40and if i'm to

2:22:42have rent control and fees put upon me

2:22:46as a small owner because most of the

2:22:48people in el cerrito i feel are mom and

2:22:50pop owners

2:22:52they cannot absorb large fees and

2:22:55expenses

2:22:56and in every city that does have rent

2:22:59control

2:23:01there are a lot of issues and and tenant

2:23:03complaints in the 50 years that my

2:23:06family and myself

2:23:08have owned units and supplied housing

2:23:11for this city we have never once had a

2:23:14tenant complain

2:23:16we've never had to do litigation

2:23:18we've never had an attorney that we'd

2:23:20have to do everything so i feel

2:23:23that

2:23:24i don't need the city to tell me

2:23:28or my brother who owns one apartment

2:23:30with me needs to tell me

2:23:33what the amount that i charge and how

2:23:36much i can charge for rent

2:23:39and how much i can charge for rental

2:23:41increases

2:23:42the supply and demand of this county and

2:23:45the bay area

2:23:47thank you is it

2:23:50so okay thank you

2:23:53the next speaker is brent anderson

2:23:55followed by darren santee senior

2:24:02my name is brent anderson i bought a

2:24:04repo house a little while back i put 60

2:24:07000 into it a lot of blood sweat and

2:24:09tears

2:24:10it's a very good product we cleaned a

2:24:12lot of dry rot out

2:24:14rodents

2:24:15mice all that stuff and drug

2:24:17paraphernalia

2:24:18i guess i'm part of the problem i'm part

2:24:20of gentrification i'm making the

2:24:21community better i clean up the empty

2:24:23lot next to my property as well i clean

2:24:24up shopping carts in my neighborhood

2:24:26but i'm being penalized for all that it

2:24:28sounds like that's what i feel like when

2:24:29i hear all this i feel like you're gonna

2:24:31you know drop the hammer on me

2:24:34there are tens of thousands of units

2:24:35coming online in the bay area that will

2:24:37stabilize rent so what's going to happen

2:24:39if you control or you control my

2:24:41business and don't let me raise rent

2:24:43and now the market drops because we're

2:24:45in a boom right now but there will be a

2:24:46bust so when the market drops and i

2:24:48can't charge as much rent

2:24:50and by the way i'm below market rent

2:24:52what are you going to do are you going

2:24:54to supplement me are you going to

2:24:55supplement my losses because you

2:24:58provide uh you stop me from making gains

2:25:01i mean i'll say the bill if that's what

2:25:03we're going to do if we're going to play

2:25:05hardball i'll play hardball too

2:25:08thank you