Adjourned Regular and Regular City Council Meetings March 5, 2019

0:01:02order this is the continuation of our

0:01:04last meeting

0:01:05may we have roll call please

0:01:07council member fidelity president mayor

0:01:10pro-tem lyman present mayor pardue

0:01:12okimoto present councilmember abelson

0:01:15president councilmember quinto president

0:01:19okay so we will be picking up basically

0:01:21from where we left off last time

0:01:24our last meeting had one hour and 40

0:01:27minutes of public comment um that we

0:01:29heard on february 19th

0:01:31therefore our public comment today will

0:01:33be list uh limited to two minutes

0:01:36for a total of 20 minutes

0:01:39if you have spoken previously we ask you

0:01:41to please let those who have not spoken

0:01:44speak at this meeting

0:01:46will you please call the speakers

0:01:49hey it's just a couple quick reminders

0:01:51members of the public are welcome to

0:01:52submit comments to the count city

0:01:54council in writing at any time there

0:01:56will also be time for general public

0:01:57comments on the regular meeting agenda

0:01:59tonight immediately following this

0:02:01adjourned meeting

0:02:02and for this item each speaker will have

0:02:04two minutes as the mayor mentioned the

0:02:06reminder there is a reminder up front

0:02:08here the green light indicates that your

0:02:09time has started orange indicates you

0:02:12have one minute remaining and red

0:02:14indicates that your time has ended in

0:02:16order to maximize the time allotted for

0:02:18public comment when you hear your name

0:02:20called please make your way to the front

0:02:21of the room and land it behind the

0:02:23speaker podium in the order that you are

0:02:24called

0:02:25the first three speakers tonight are

0:02:27lisa lau followed by vincent lau and

0:02:30eric myers

0:02:43hello

0:02:44my name is lisa lao

0:02:46i live in el cerrido almost

0:02:4950 years

0:02:50i'm a local el cerrito

0:02:54business owner

0:02:55my business is provide housing for el

0:02:59cerrido

0:03:00residents

0:03:01without my business el cerrito resident

0:03:05would not have a place to live

0:03:07i am what

0:03:08you call a small business owner

0:03:12people always say support your local

0:03:15small business

0:03:17i agree with this statement

0:03:20small business owners are the fabric of

0:03:22this community

0:03:24but i have a question

0:03:27since when is being a housing provider a

0:03:30bad thing why does this city real people

0:03:35like me in a negative light

0:03:38it seems like the city

0:03:40will only support a small business owner

0:03:43until the business is providing housing

0:03:47is not right

0:03:49what many of you do not know

0:03:52is what our business is our retirement

0:03:56many of us use our property as our

0:04:00primary income

0:04:02for some it is a supplemental income for

0:04:06our families

0:04:08how would you feel

0:04:09if a government came and placed a limit

0:04:13on your wages

0:04:16that is what else riddle is doing to us

0:04:20this law are limited our livelihood

0:04:24low light just

0:04:26cost eviction

0:04:28rent control

0:04:30rent registry

0:04:32and relocation payments

0:04:35are all costly and filled with

0:04:38unintended consequences

0:04:41look at richmond example

0:04:44example of why this regulation

0:04:48thank you for your comments

0:04:50okay thank you there is vincent lau

0:04:52followed by eric myers and leslie

0:04:55manzone

0:04:57good evening

0:05:00mayor and council

0:05:02member

0:05:03thank you for opportunity

0:05:05to address

0:05:07you this evening

0:05:10my fellow local and responsible housing

0:05:13providers are here again

0:05:15to emphasize that we are not supporting

0:05:19laws such as this just cost rent

0:05:22registry

0:05:23and tenant relocation

0:05:27etc

0:05:29usually they said triggered by rent

0:05:32increases

0:05:33for me i hardly raise any rent

0:05:36with the proposed new law of rent roll

0:05:38backward

0:05:40all the fees and inspection costs that's

0:05:43imposed on us

0:05:45we have no choice to uh

0:05:47raise a yearly rent

0:05:50two weeks ago over a hundred of us came

0:05:52before you to express our opposition

0:05:55we have all united together under this

0:05:57ongoing threat against it

0:06:00it is unfair that we continue to have to

0:06:02defend ourselves

0:06:04because we are being painted as greedy

0:06:07predatory landlord

0:06:09we are none of these things not even

0:06:11close

0:06:12we are good hardworking people who just

0:06:14want to provide housing for our

0:06:16residents we don't want any trouble with

0:06:18our tenants we are local most of us live

0:06:21in elsewhere for years we are your

0:06:24neighbor we have root in india in this

0:06:26community

0:06:27and we care for

0:06:29el cerrito 80 of el cerrito housing

0:06:32provider are people like me

0:06:34and mom and pop who does not abuse their

0:06:37tenant many

0:06:39many of us handle our own repair and are

0:06:42always responsive to our rental

0:06:44just cause eviction and proposed law it

0:06:47hurt people like me by passing this law

0:06:50you're making a statement that we need

0:06:52to be punished

0:06:53that's not right and that's not fair

0:06:55please do not pass this punitive law do

0:06:58not hurt your housing provider

0:07:01create a program thank you very much

0:07:03really quick to provide a program to

0:07:06help rental that are in need instead of

0:07:08this new law thank you you're welcome

0:07:11the next speaker is eric myers followed

0:07:13by leslie manzone and ed crowley

0:07:18okay the next speaker leslie mazzone

0:07:20followed by ed crowley and blair akeley

0:07:23achy

0:07:25good evening thank you for the

0:07:26opportunity to speak my name is leslie

0:07:29manzoni and i'm a local realtor i've

0:07:32been in business

0:07:33in the area since 1991

0:07:36and i wanted to talk about some some

0:07:38things that we've not heard from in the

0:07:40last

0:07:41three meetings and one is the current

0:07:44market and how the current rental market

0:07:47is shifted and how it's taking six to

0:07:50eight weeks to rent something now and

0:07:52how the rents are actually

0:07:54coming down and a lot of times we're

0:07:56actually offering an incentive i think

0:07:59it's important for you to understand

0:08:01that and i think it's very important to

0:08:03gather the data and a lot of the

0:08:05speakers that we've heard from are not

0:08:07actually renters in el cerrito and i'm

0:08:11not only a realtor but i own property

0:08:13here i manage property here and i

0:08:16currently have nine properties that will

0:08:18not be going on the rental market

0:08:20because my clients do not want to deal

0:08:22with rent control and i think it's

0:08:24important for you to understand that

0:08:26i also um would hope that you're paying

0:08:29attention to legislation and how that's

0:08:31actually going to be changing and buffy

0:08:34wicks actually has

0:08:36three pieces of legislation that are

0:08:38going to be coming forward in regards to

0:08:40rental registry and gathering data and

0:08:42how important that is

0:08:44we've heard about the city of richmond

0:08:47and how

0:08:48that is not actually working and how

0:08:50they're having to pull money from the

0:08:51general fund which is taking away from

0:08:54our police

0:08:55libraries fire

0:08:58etc

0:08:59we also know that a lot of the people

0:09:01from el cerrito that are from berkeley

0:09:03that were renting are coming to el

0:09:05cerrito to avoid rent control and how

0:09:08there's over 30 000

0:09:10units that are vacant in san francisco

0:09:12because the people are afraid for rent

0:09:15control

0:09:17so i urge you to really consider

0:09:19thinking about gathering the data speak

0:09:22with your local cities that they've got

0:09:24some sort of ordinances that are working

0:09:26like free fremont

0:09:29so thank you

0:09:30thank you

0:09:32the next speaker

0:09:33ed crowley followed by blair achy and

0:09:35renee garcia

0:09:37so this effort started with four

0:09:38ordinances non-binding rent review

0:09:40reporting of tenancy uh terminations

0:09:42payoffs for rehab evictions and

0:09:44mandatory offer of one year lease now

0:09:46we're seeing scope creep we're

0:09:48considering just cause evictions and a

0:09:49maximum twenty percent rent increase

0:09:51over two years that invokes a payoff

0:09:54this is a trojan horse

0:09:56you're trying to push the agenda of

0:09:58outside paid rent control advocates the

0:10:01maximum twenty percent is a is rent

0:10:03control whether you want to call it rent

0:10:05control or not it is rent control it

0:10:06makes you feel uneasy it's still rent

0:10:08control just cause evictions is fraught

0:10:10with all sorts of abuses

0:10:13what is a study session you you're a lot

0:10:14you're allowing me 20 minutes i mean two

0:10:16minutes to speak in this thing you're

0:10:18limiting the total amount of time being

0:10:19spoken you don't want to study you just

0:10:21want to like make people feel like

0:10:22they've had a say

0:10:23there's no justification shown for any

0:10:26of the proposed ordinances nobody's

0:10:28presented any evidence anywhere that

0:10:30that says that there's a problem that

0:10:32needs to be caught solved by these

0:10:33proposed ordinances if you're going to

0:10:35do anything you should pass only the

0:10:37reporting ordinance you should collect

0:10:39data then you should act on the

0:10:41collected data i'm very confident you'll

0:10:44find that there's no issues with

0:10:45evictions in el cerrito

0:10:48do not pass remedies without

0:10:49demonstrated symptoms

0:10:51this effort is descended disingenuous

0:10:55next speaker is blake achy followed by

0:10:57renee there will be no applause thank

0:10:59you and norman leforce respect everybody

0:11:02that comes up to talk so there will be

0:11:03no applause for either anyone speaking

0:11:05for or anyone speaking against thank you

0:11:10my name is blair hickey i'm involved in

0:11:12renting apartments in the city of el

0:11:14cerrito for 50 years

0:11:16as a landlord i've been taken

0:11:18to small claims court once

0:11:21from the information that's been

0:11:22provided to date i don't believe

0:11:25that the severity

0:11:27of the

0:11:28problem continued protection in the city

0:11:30of illinois has been quantified you just

0:11:33don't have the facts how many people

0:11:34have been displaced or unjustly evicted

0:11:38what have you

0:11:39right now according to your master plan

0:11:42you've got

0:11:431419 rental units

0:11:45in the process of being approved

0:11:48approved being built or completed

0:11:51and

0:11:52have you identified what is the impact

0:11:55of all this new construction on your

0:11:57proposed

0:11:58uh answer to this supposed problem

0:12:01i recommend that the principle of supply

0:12:04and demand

0:12:05will solve this problem if any thank you

0:12:08thank you okay the next speaker renee

0:12:10garcia followed by norman leforce and

0:12:12peter pan

0:12:15hi my name is renee etzel i grew up in

0:12:17el cerrito and i love living here

0:12:20i fully understand the desire to make

0:12:23housing more accessible to everyone

0:12:26first but in order to achieve this we

0:12:28first need to ensure that there is a

0:12:30sufficient supply of housing and second

0:12:33we need to make sure that the low-income

0:12:34people who need help are actually the

0:12:36people who are getting help

0:12:38i'm here tonight because i don't believe

0:12:40that the proposal put forth by the city

0:12:43actually addresses the root cause of the

0:12:45issue and i believe that enacting these

0:12:47three pieces of legislation will in fact

0:12:49make the situation worse first i'd like

0:12:53to address just cause justification just

0:12:55cause eviction

0:12:56my parents are one of the many mom and

0:12:58pop

0:12:59apartment owners in el cerrito they have

0:13:01always been two of the most hard-working

0:13:03diligent people that i've known

0:13:05they meticulously take care of and

0:13:07improve their apartments and for many

0:13:10years my mother scrubbed and painted

0:13:11these apartments herself in order to

0:13:13deliver a spotless apartment to the

0:13:14tenants

0:13:16she could not afford to pay for a

0:13:17professional cleaner or painters and

0:13:20still make the apartment mortgage

0:13:22payments my parents have always prided

0:13:24themselves on providing safe and

0:13:25peaceful and comfortable place for their

0:13:27tenants to live

0:13:29my parents would not nor would any

0:13:31landlord that they know

0:13:32evicted tenant as paying their rent on

0:13:34time and peaceably living in their

0:13:36apartment it's my understanding that the

0:13:38city has not

0:13:39does not have any statistics or evidence

0:13:41that mom-and-pop landlords in elsewhere

0:13:43are unduly evicting law-abiding citizens

0:13:47just cause legislation is unnecessary

0:13:50second i would like to address the issue

0:13:52of rent control rent control does not

0:13:54solve the issues of supply nor does it

0:13:57ensure that people who need help get the

0:13:58help rent control actually has the

0:14:00opposite effect according to the

0:14:02national bureau for economic research

0:14:05cities that enact rent control actually

0:14:07saw a significant decline in rental

0:14:09housing availability the figure in the

0:14:11study cited was a 15 percent decline it

0:14:14also creates a deterrent for builders to

0:14:16create new affordable comments

0:14:18apartments

0:14:19next they could do uh they could build

0:14:21condos for sale instead thank you the

0:14:23next speaker norman leforce followed by

0:14:25peter pan and

0:14:27yin

0:14:28may

0:14:30norman leforce i apologize i did speak

0:14:32before but i have a few points i want to

0:14:34make

0:14:36first i think you have a solution in

0:14:38search of a problem i don't understand

0:14:41what the problem is in el cerrito i

0:14:43think first let's figure out what the

0:14:44real problem is before we go with all

0:14:47kinds of elaborate rent control and

0:14:50schemes and regimes for controlling

0:14:53property and rents

0:14:56let's do that by a task force made up of

0:14:58landlords and tenants let's get a real

0:15:00human face on who tenants are and who

0:15:02the landlords are it's easy to say

0:15:04they're a landlord

0:15:05and the idea that somehow somebody's

0:15:09doing something wrong

0:15:11second any when i saw the

0:15:14the statistics up there of what the cost

0:15:16would be for a program and how much

0:15:19would be have to be passed on to my

0:15:21tenant

0:15:22the current tenant

0:15:24i mean he's already paying well below

0:15:26market rate 50 below market rate because

0:15:29he's a decent good tenant

0:15:31and he would be kick he would have to

0:15:33move he couldn't pay those rents

0:15:35that would have for the cost of a rent

0:15:37control program that was supposed to

0:15:39protect him so i think that's another

0:15:41issue you've got to look at and

0:15:42determine what is really going to be the

0:15:44impact of this and lastly you know as i

0:15:47said before

0:15:48we as mom and pop landlords we don't

0:15:51have money to hire expensive

0:15:53attorneys

0:15:54i think if you're going to have a

0:15:56program that's going to be giving free

0:15:58legal advice

0:15:59to tenants you need to give some free

0:16:01legal advice to mom and pop landlords

0:16:03because they need it too i could afford

0:16:06it so when my deadbeat tenant who was

0:16:08five months behind in rent sent me an

0:16:10email and said ha ha i've got free legal

0:16:13advice where's your attorney

0:16:15i got one of the best landlord attorneys

0:16:17in the east bay and then his next email

0:16:19was hey you just got one of the best

0:16:22landlord attorneys in the east bay

0:16:24that's not fair well

0:16:26yeah i got the guy out finally after

0:16:28losing five months rent and a whole

0:16:30bunch of other things that's what's

0:16:32really at stake here in terms of control

0:16:36next speaker is peter pan followed by

0:16:38ian may and claude zaminer well i think

0:16:41speak before but i'm i'm addressing the

0:16:44negative financial effect of this just

0:16:47cause eviction to the city finance so

0:16:49with your permission just to give me one

0:16:51minute if it's okay otherwise i'll just

0:16:54surrender

0:16:56is it okay for me to just talk about it

0:16:58for one minute

0:16:59okay 15 minutes go ahead you're okay

0:17:01you're being timed right now thank you

0:17:03city of richmond collect

0:17:06one million nine hundred and sixty eight

0:17:08thousand dollars for the rainbow

0:17:11they spend one million seven hundred and

0:17:14thirty eight thousand dollars

0:17:16there's a twenty two hundred thousand

0:17:18dollar

0:17:19negative cash flow to the city's general

0:17:22fund

0:17:23and also retails finance is not really

0:17:26very good our general fund is close to

0:17:30negative

0:17:31and we don't have any emergency reserves

0:17:34at all

0:17:35and we recently we have to change our

0:17:37city to the charter city in order to

0:17:41improve our finance situation by

0:17:43charging

0:17:44a seller can transfer taxes so

0:17:49this just cause eviction is going to

0:17:51have a negative finance on the city

0:17:54finance do we really have such a big

0:17:56problem that we really need to do all

0:17:58these things holding the lane hurting

0:18:00the city hurting anybody please

0:18:02reconsider thank you

0:18:05thank you the next big

0:18:07the next speaker is ian may followed by

0:18:09cloud zaminar and john lee

0:18:13at the mayor city council members

0:18:15i'm a housing provider and i do not

0:18:18support just cost eviction

0:18:20rent registry and tenant relocation fees

0:18:24these provisions may have good

0:18:25intentions but they have unintended

0:18:28consequences

0:18:30first

0:18:31jce is bad for the community

0:18:33because it takes away a housing

0:18:35provider's power to remove a bad tenant

0:18:39if a bad tenant stays good tenants

0:18:42suffer

0:18:44second

0:18:45rent registry schemes are being

0:18:47litigated right now in various cities

0:18:50both housing providers and tenants have

0:18:53privacy concerns over run registry

0:18:56lawsuit can be expensive for el cerrito

0:18:59we don't want lawsuits

0:19:02third

0:19:04tenant relocation fees

0:19:06is a form of rent control

0:19:08rent control steals from future tenants

0:19:11to pay current tenants

0:19:13wherever there is rent control new

0:19:15tenants pay more this is an intended

0:19:18consequence

0:19:19please reject jce rent registry and

0:19:23tenant relocation fees thank you

0:19:25thank you the next speaker is claude

0:19:27seminar followed by john lee and george

0:19:29wu

0:19:31hi my name is claude zamanian i own a

0:19:33couple properties in el cerrito and i i

0:19:35own several properties in berkeley have

0:19:37been involved

0:19:38with rent control in berkeley since

0:19:41basically since 1980

0:19:44and i want to talk about berkeley a

0:19:45little bit because this could happen to

0:19:46el cerrito

0:19:49the bottom line is

0:19:51rent control's kind of been a failed

0:19:52public policy in in berkeley

0:19:55and

0:19:56i have two examples i have i have two

0:19:59tenants in berkeley

0:20:02that i'd like to tell you about

0:20:03one lives on carlton street and he was

0:20:06having a hard time um

0:20:08being able to afford paying his rent

0:20:10even as his very low rent control rent

0:20:12it was below market value

0:20:14and he was on the section eight list

0:20:17and he finally

0:20:19got a voucher through section 8.

0:20:23and since then it's it's been quite a

0:20:25few years since then

0:20:27things have been things have been good i

0:20:29i receive market value or close to

0:20:31market value for the apartment and the

0:20:33tenant is paying about 30 of his of his

0:20:36rent or of his income and rent and so

0:20:39he's happy and i'm happy and that's and

0:20:41that's actually a good solution

0:20:43and then i i have another tenant who

0:20:45lives in another building who i rented

0:20:47to over 10 years ago

0:20:48and his rent is probably about a

0:20:50thousand dollars below what the market

0:20:51rate is

0:20:52this

0:20:53tenant

0:20:55was a foreign scholar he came as a

0:20:57visiting professor and became a

0:21:01full-time professor at the haas school

0:21:02of business he makes over 300 000 a year

0:21:06and i basically i subsidize him he makes

0:21:08substantially more money than i do

0:21:10this is a situation in which the

0:21:12tenant's not means tested and you know

0:21:14that that kind of subsidy

0:21:17really shouldn't be going to this this

0:21:19kind of tenant

0:21:20and

0:21:21the the bottom line is is that rent

0:21:23control creates all these um

0:21:26this this

0:21:27dis equilibrium in the market

0:21:29and

0:21:31these programs

0:21:32benefit mostly the bureaucracy and the

0:21:35lawyers involved

0:21:37thank you

0:21:41we have time for one

0:21:45all right this will be the last one

0:21:53i'm sorry

0:22:02sorry nobody made not enough coffee you

0:22:04know

0:22:06you're fine you can go ahead and start

0:22:07your comments okay so yeah this one i

0:22:10download from the you the elsarito

0:22:13website

0:22:14and the revenue

0:22:16opening value and in 2016-1917

0:22:21this about the revenue is about 44.8

0:22:24million

0:22:26the tax come from the popular owner is

0:22:28about 11.

0:22:3011.7 million so that is about 26

0:22:35is from the property home owner

0:22:38so

0:22:39that means

0:22:40if the absolute normal running depends

0:22:4325

0:22:44or more from the property man homeowner

0:22:47so

0:22:48if without the permanent tax i'm i can

0:22:51imagine you know you only receive all

0:22:53the ct input maybe only because 75

0:22:56percent

0:22:57or lower the payment for their salary

0:23:00so there's also from there there's zero

0:23:04dollar zero percent is from tenant

0:23:07so that means property owner contribute

0:23:10more

0:23:11than more to el cerrito why right now

0:23:14you need to set up the policy part

0:23:17or impermanent

0:23:19the pilots j cc and rc to punish the

0:23:23home owner although maybe you not agree

0:23:25but i say you know the a lot of we are

0:23:28the payer we are the appropriate manager

0:23:31i mean we are the homeowner and property

0:23:34manager men

0:23:36i'm sorry homeowner to pay all the tax

0:23:38should not have anyone help me to

0:23:41control

0:23:42how to running my own business every all

0:23:46the homeowners know how to

0:23:48run their own rental business because we

0:23:51all follow the city california role we

0:23:53don't need the additional law above us

0:23:56to control us

0:23:58thank you

0:24:00thank you

0:24:01all right

0:24:03so that will conclude our public comment

0:24:07that concludes our public comment

0:24:09the 20 minutes is more than over right

0:24:12yes okay

0:24:13good a good evening if public comment is

0:24:16over

0:24:18we're done

0:24:19with public comment

0:24:22can i he was the last speaker the one

0:24:24before you was the last speaker

0:24:29in my

0:24:30name you said my name did she say your

0:24:33name i i was calling ahead speakers yes

0:24:35oh i'm sorry okay i thought the last one

0:24:37i thought you said the other one was the

0:24:39last one okay go ahead

0:24:40thank you this is the last one okay okay

0:24:43good officially good evening everybody

0:24:46today i will try to use my limited

0:24:49english to tell you some facts as a new

0:24:52immigrant

0:24:53i want to buy a house to live in so i

0:24:57looked through

0:24:59and

0:25:01and

0:25:02analyzed many houses in berkeley and

0:25:05urban

0:25:06i found that prices in urban are higher

0:25:10than in berkeley among house of similar

0:25:13sizes

0:25:14but the rent in urban is obviously lower

0:25:18or obviously lower than in berkeley for

0:25:21about 10 to

0:25:2230 percent

0:25:24the big reason is there is grand control

0:25:27policy import in berkeley

0:25:29and there are many

0:25:31administration fees like registration

0:25:34business lesson

0:25:35rent house safety program et cetera to

0:25:39cover this cost let others have to

0:25:41increase the rent and the tenants have

0:25:43to pay more

0:25:45so do you think so do you still think

0:25:47that rent control is good

0:25:51protecting low-income and

0:25:53low-income people and attendance is the

0:25:55responsibility of government and all

0:25:58people don't transfer this

0:26:01responsibility only to layla's

0:26:03that is unfair

0:26:05if you want to know more important

0:26:08information

0:26:09and how to protect low-income

0:26:13people and attendance

0:26:14in china

0:26:16i

0:26:17i will be glad to share this information

0:26:21because i just come

0:26:23here to from from china thank you thank

0:26:26you

0:26:28okay that concludes our speakers for

0:26:30this evening

0:26:31we are going to move along to discussion

0:26:34and then the council will give direction

0:26:36to staff on how to proceed

0:26:39so

0:26:42i don't see anyone jumping at the

0:26:45which council member

0:26:47would like to go first council member

0:26:48abelson actually thought we were when we

0:26:50left the meeting before we were uh

0:26:52hearing

0:26:53from staff about

0:26:55what points they wanted us to think

0:26:58about

0:26:59right and we hadn't we hadn't had any

0:27:01discussion so now we're on but we were

0:27:03we hadn't heard i thought we hadn't

0:27:05heard the list maybe i'm wrong

0:27:07or

0:27:08it was like what i was expecting would

0:27:10happen

0:27:11at this point was that

0:27:14staff

0:27:15would present an item on their list and

0:27:18we would discuss those items

0:27:22am i wrong i can i can jump in here uh

0:27:24thanks council member your honor i'm

0:27:26karen pinkis city manager um

0:27:29well at that point in the meeting that

0:27:31we had stopped we were prepared to start

0:27:33discussing point by point

0:27:35um in having a couple of weeks now

0:27:38and all of you and all of us trying to

0:27:41kind of

0:27:42go through what it is that we've heard

0:27:43from

0:27:44the public and we've heard from you've

0:27:46heard from us

0:27:48it might help staff frame it a little

0:27:50better if we had a bit of a direction

0:27:53that you wanted us to go in

0:27:55we could go through

0:27:57the policies again and sort of

0:28:00go through some of the scenarios or

0:28:02options that we have prepared for you

0:28:05and you could comment on those

0:28:07or we could

0:28:08if you wanted to have a discussion at

0:28:10this point to sort of give us direction

0:28:12that then we could

0:28:13narrow down what it is you wanted to

0:28:15talk about

0:28:16that was where we

0:28:18we could that could be any direction

0:28:19that the council would like to go

0:28:22we had already heard the presentation

0:28:24and so i wanted to hear discussion from

0:28:26the council members so i i'll just go

0:28:28ahead and answer your uh request for

0:28:31that um

0:28:32and the uh question that's i think

0:28:35looming most in my mind at this point in

0:28:38time

0:28:39is um

0:28:42the question of

0:28:45does the solution fit

0:28:47the

0:28:48issue

0:28:48and where i think it doesn't necessarily

0:28:51fit the issue is when you have a person

0:28:53of relatively

0:28:55high means

0:28:58that

0:28:59is using a program that's intended to

0:29:02help people whose means are less

0:29:06and

0:29:07i was wondering if staff could address

0:29:10the issue of why

0:29:13if you

0:29:14if

0:29:15what you think of that comment maybe is

0:29:18a bit is a way to phrase it i mean why

0:29:21why are we looking at

0:29:23universal solutions

0:29:26sorry without universal

0:29:30need

0:29:32so to answer your question um i

0:29:34from what we last heard i think that we

0:29:36all agree data is much needed to

0:29:38continue to form this com conversation

0:29:41and our policy path forward

0:29:43so that we brought back the rent

0:29:45registry for that precise reason so that

0:29:47we can then actually begin to collect

0:29:49data through our business license

0:29:51registry to have a better understanding

0:29:53of property profiles tenant profiles etc

0:29:57so that

0:29:58somewhat felt uh as i remember

0:30:01to me like the um

0:30:03there was a cost associated with uh

0:30:06that right yes is right

0:30:09but it would look like we were

0:30:11projecting it on to the uh landlords to

0:30:14provide the funding for that program

0:30:17yes that would be a cost recovery yes

0:30:19and um

0:30:21that didn't feel like we were studying i

0:30:24mean normally when we study things we

0:30:25don't assess

0:30:27some

0:30:28somebody who would um

0:30:31we don't

0:30:32assess our residents for it that way

0:30:35or not residents but our um

0:30:38uh one subset of people in our community

0:30:41to pay for it we don't i mean i can't

0:30:43think of a single time

0:30:45in my memory we've done it that way yeah

0:30:48so there would be some costs associated

0:30:50with actually form forming a database to

0:30:52be able to actually enter that data and

0:30:55then report back um so the costs that we

0:30:58brought forth included the startup costs

0:31:00as well as

0:31:01the fees that we could pass on through

0:31:03the business license process if you

0:31:05chose

0:31:06to move forward with that program i

0:31:09think if the program had been presented

0:31:11that there was a cost and we needed to

0:31:13find the money and we

0:31:15[Music]

0:31:17use a more generic form of finding the

0:31:19money such as um

0:31:22you know we

0:31:23we take it out of funds that we have in

0:31:25one of our existing funds or we go after

0:31:28a grant or we do some you know one of

0:31:30those kinds of approaches i wouldn't

0:31:32even be making a comment right now

0:31:35that have but saying that

0:31:38you know it's attached to the business

0:31:40license

0:31:42fee

0:31:44which i don't have a whole lot of

0:31:45confidence in as

0:31:47as being very

0:31:50representative of much of anything i i

0:31:53personally think there's a possibility

0:31:56that

0:31:56uh people who operate businesses and are

0:31:59supposed to i have a business license

0:32:01fee don't all have it

0:32:03i think there's a high probability of

0:32:04that actually so to go to look at it you

0:32:08know to attach it to thing i don't

0:32:11and i know we've had various

0:32:12difficulties with that particular thing

0:32:14so i have concerns about that being

0:32:18a an approach that actually

0:32:20will work um

0:32:22the um

0:32:24there are other things i think

0:32:26that i could see as being more um

0:32:29right on

0:32:30in terms of where the problem is that it

0:32:32would be to say if the tenant noticed

0:32:34that there was

0:32:36a problem that they were really

0:32:37concerned about and they reported it to

0:32:39us

0:32:40that i would have a lot more confidence

0:32:43that it was

0:32:45likely to be meaningful than uh just

0:32:48saying all business owners

0:32:49or all business owners of a certain

0:32:51category pay that fee

0:32:54and um i'll just leave it at that for

0:32:57now that that's kind of what my thinking

0:33:00is it's like how did

0:33:01how did we get to where we are and

0:33:04um

0:33:06i'm really concerned that we're not

0:33:09finding a solution that

0:33:12is an appropriate

0:33:15place to be

0:33:16thing to be doing

0:33:18what i'm really concerned about

0:33:21is

0:33:22really the reason i ran for the city

0:33:24council

0:33:25and the reason i ran for the city

0:33:26council is that i wanted

0:33:28to see san pablo avenue be a place

0:33:32and i have to tell you that when i said

0:33:35that i was criticized by the then

0:33:38council

0:33:40or some members of it

0:33:41they thought that was a silly thing i

0:33:44think or whatever

0:33:45that i wanted to do place making since

0:33:48then place making is almost old hat it's

0:33:51been used so much

0:33:53but the um

0:33:55at that time it wasn't and um

0:33:58we since i got on the council we've had

0:34:00the great recession things have not gone

0:34:03well

0:34:04and

0:34:06for probably most communities in the

0:34:09united states

0:34:11because of that and um

0:34:13so a lot that we

0:34:15tried to make happen hasn't happened

0:34:17we've done a pretty good job in el

0:34:18cerrito of assembling land when we still

0:34:21had the ability to do that

0:34:24and um

0:34:25under

0:34:26um

0:34:28and so now that we're out of the great

0:34:30recession

0:34:32and hopefully before the next one sets

0:34:34in

0:34:34we will be able to do some building and

0:34:37provide housing for the people that i

0:34:39hope it hoped to provide housing for

0:34:42which would be those people who can't

0:34:44live up in the hills

0:34:46who ride the bus uh like me

0:34:50uh i mean when i get out of these

0:34:51meetings i i'm the only person i see

0:34:54riding the bus

0:34:56no one in this room

0:34:57that i see leaving this meeting rides

0:34:59the bus except me

0:35:02so i think i can

0:35:05fairly represent the people on the bus

0:35:08with me right now

0:35:10and

0:35:11and say we need a place to live too and

0:35:13i and i can tell you

0:35:15that

0:35:16this is something

0:35:18that

0:35:19to make it happen we have to have

0:35:22the volume of writers to make it

0:35:26economical

0:35:28for for public transit agencies such as

0:35:30ac transit

0:35:32to put bus service out on the street at

0:35:34the hours that we ride the bus

0:35:37and um

0:35:38i just

0:35:40was out in

0:35:42central county

0:35:44for a lot of days because my

0:35:45granddaughter was sick and i had to ride

0:35:48the bus to go to the hospital

0:35:50and the central county bus first of all

0:35:53it didn't even i believe run on sunday

0:35:55at all period so i didn't didn't get to

0:35:58go then but

0:35:59the on the rest of the week

0:36:02uh a lot of the times i wanted to go it

0:36:04ran every hour and a half from the

0:36:07walnut creek bart station

0:36:10these are the people that need

0:36:12to be able to live i think first on san

0:36:16pablo avenue along here

0:36:18and um what i'm concerned about is that

0:36:21we're going to be

0:36:22turning things upside down

0:36:26and making it

0:36:27not possible

0:36:29for people to ride the bus

0:36:33and by the way riding the bus is a good

0:36:36thing for the environment so you know we

0:36:38i think we all pretty much in this room

0:36:40probably think that the environment

0:36:42needs to be protected and we can

0:36:45we can do this so i've been rambling a

0:36:47little bit from thought to thought but i

0:36:49hope that you get my general

0:36:51drift and i uh don't see the direct

0:36:54total direction we're going as

0:36:57um getting us there but i think there

0:36:59are things we could do to do it

0:37:02or some of it

0:37:04i don't know i'm sorry yes go ahead

0:37:07i agree with some of your points uh

0:37:09councilmember evelson uh one thing that

0:37:13i see eye to eye with you is on the

0:37:15registry and the cost of that and

0:37:18setting that up and

0:37:20i want to remind the council in the

0:37:22audience

0:37:23about a meeting that we had

0:37:26when i was mayor last year

0:37:29to

0:37:30from the independent auditor about cost

0:37:34and he said this year we need to make

0:37:37sure that we don't spend any money that

0:37:39we make sure that

0:37:41we uh

0:37:43spend money uh wisely and uh and what i

0:37:47see right now are costs that will uh

0:37:50that that we cannot afford right now we

0:37:52are not a city with a lot of money we're

0:37:55a bedroom community as i said and i said

0:37:58this many many times we don't have a

0:37:59casino like san pablo we don't have a

0:38:02refinery like richmond we're a small

0:38:04bedroom community elsarita we're a

0:38:07fourth the size of san leandro

0:38:09and

0:38:10less than that for the city of fremont

0:38:12and union city so you look at the

0:38:15programs that these cities that are much

0:38:17larger than ours

0:38:19and

0:38:20and you have uh these advocates coming

0:38:23out here and saying we want the things

0:38:25that fremont has or san leandro my god

0:38:28these cities are much larger than el

0:38:30cerrito we cannot afford it and if you

0:38:32listen to our financial advisory board

0:38:35and if you listen to our uh

0:38:38our staff that said keep the money in

0:38:41the bank we passed measure v we cannot

0:38:44spend this measure v so i'm sticking to

0:38:47that and know that yes this is important

0:38:50to think about but we don't have it we

0:38:52cannot afford this and and i just want

0:38:56to remind everyone

0:38:58how sensitive this is here in el cerrito

0:39:01um and we took an oath and the oath is

0:39:04to make sure that our city doesn't go

0:39:06broke

0:39:07and uh

0:39:08true the voters supported measure v and

0:39:11it's the homeowners that

0:39:14that

0:39:15voted for measure v and i want to make

0:39:17sure

0:39:18that we remember this and that we

0:39:20remember

0:39:21what the independent auditor said

0:39:24last year and he said this again at the

0:39:27beginning of january we don't have the

0:39:29money to spend

0:39:31so

0:39:33know that assembly member wix

0:39:36has

0:39:37several

0:39:39things

0:39:40720 ab 720

0:39:433 4 and 5. and these are uh things that

0:39:47they're working on sacramento uh with

0:39:50our partners and the state has a lot of

0:39:52money i believe the state should look

0:39:54into this not small cities like el

0:39:56cerrito so i urge our the audience

0:40:01let our assembly member know buffy wicks

0:40:03that you support

0:40:04this

0:40:06because this is so important i do not

0:40:08want el cerrito to have the same mistake

0:40:11that richmond did and know that they are

0:40:14borrowing 2.4 million dollars a year

0:40:16from their general fund and we don't

0:40:19have that kind of money for another

0:40:21bureaucracy and

0:40:23when i was mayor i said you know we need

0:40:25to remember this and uh and i hope the

0:40:28audience remembers this

0:40:33your applause

0:40:35mayor pro tem lyman

0:40:38yeah i guess uh the dialogue really

0:40:40needs to be up here because i'm still

0:40:41trying to understand what uh mr quinto

0:40:43and miss abelson are are trying to

0:40:46do

0:40:48we did have very extensive information

0:40:50in our housing element

0:40:52in our housing element there's a

0:40:54tremendous amount of discussion about

0:40:57what uh

0:40:58you know what our housing stock is in

0:41:01our

0:41:02housing strategy there's on page 10 it

0:41:04clearly states and this goes out to one

0:41:07of the comments that one of our

0:41:09speakers had

0:41:10right now there's 4100 rental properties

0:41:14in the city

0:41:15there's 10 000 overall so 41 percent of

0:41:18our properties are rented

0:41:21and of those 4 100

0:41:241045 or 26 percent

0:41:28are households that are spending 50

0:41:30percent or more

0:41:32of their income on housing

0:41:37they're one paycheck away

0:41:39from homelessness they're one paycheck

0:41:41away from being displaced

0:41:45so for those of you that say that we

0:41:47don't have data about what's going on in

0:41:49el cerrito we do

0:41:52so i'm trying to understand

0:41:54uh council members

0:41:56where

0:41:57why we aren't trying to do something for

0:41:59that 25 percent for those four a

0:42:02thousand households which are 2.8 people

0:42:04per household is 3 000 4 000 people that

0:42:08that we all have responsibility to

0:42:10protect and for me it's about

0:42:12displacement about limiting displacement

0:42:15and to be clear

0:42:16it's not rent control we had uh one of

0:42:19our testimony people talked about

0:42:21bureaucracy of rent control and about

0:42:23you gave two examples about the section

0:42:258 housing and the the professor who

0:42:27makes 300

0:42:29i've heard those i've heard all of that

0:42:31that is

0:42:33that's one of the downsides of rent

0:42:35control we're not talking about rent

0:42:36control and in

0:42:40council member quinto talks about the

0:42:41bureaucracy in richmond we're not

0:42:44talking about that level bureaucracy so

0:42:46i'm trying to understand what it is that

0:42:49you guys do support

0:42:51so we can work towards a legislation

0:42:53that does the best that we can do to

0:42:56protect as many as we can

0:42:58at the low lowest cost threshold

0:43:01possible so i'm trying to understand

0:43:02what it is you support

0:43:04you know we all supported uh non-binding

0:43:07arbitration and you did not uh want that

0:43:11you you specifically said you did not

0:43:13want that now you want that no that is

0:43:15not what i'm saying

0:43:17so i'm trying to understand what you are

0:43:18supporting well you know we just don't

0:43:21have the money for these extra

0:43:23extra uh things that will cost money

0:43:26like uh purchasing a registry how much

0:43:30is that gonna cost thirty thousand

0:43:31dollars it's in the staff report from

0:43:32two weeks ago yeah thirty thousand

0:43:34dollars and uh yeah we don't have thirty

0:43:37thousand dollars to spend you have we

0:43:39had a whole room full of people here

0:43:41that were saying we want to have the

0:43:43trees trimmed we want to make sure that

0:43:45we don't have these emergency fires that

0:43:49that are happening they've been waiting

0:43:51many many years for that and we we

0:43:54haven't done that yet we need to put all

0:43:56this in priority this this is the

0:43:58state's responsibility assembly member

0:44:01buffy wicks has

0:44:02us ab-723 if you look at abh723

0:44:06and 7 24 there is a measure for

0:44:10landlords to get tax breaks large tax

0:44:13breaks to keep their older units and el

0:44:16cerritos mostly a town of older units uh

0:44:20to keep uh and the owners would get uh a

0:44:23big tax break uh for keeping their

0:44:26rentals affordable

0:44:29for people that uh uh wished you have

0:44:31that so it's a choice and and if you

0:44:34please look at 87 23 and 10 24 and we

0:44:39can i would like to have that done yes i

0:44:41do but it needs to go through the state

0:44:44individual cities like el cerrita or a

0:44:46bedroom community we cannot afford to do

0:44:49these things we just don't thirty

0:44:51thousand dollars at thirty thousand

0:44:53dollars and we are short police officers

0:44:56fire people we are short staff and and

0:44:59uh we we just don't have that kind of

0:45:01money to spend

0:45:02right i think we've heard his opinion

0:45:04please hold your applause

0:45:08please

0:45:09please continue

0:45:11um

0:45:11i'm trying to i'm trying to find out if

0:45:13i mean because we we clearly have stated

0:45:16that the uh in december what was

0:45:19presented to us was only going to get us

0:45:22i think with about five percent of the

0:45:24information about what is going on our

0:45:26rents and every single speaker who spoke

0:45:29tonight and spoke two weeks ago said get

0:45:31more information before you make a

0:45:33decision so i'm trying to understand why

0:45:35thirty thousand dollars doesn't

0:45:37necessarily equate to getting more

0:45:39information

0:45:40i'm just trying to i'm just trying to

0:45:41understand

0:45:43i will i will

0:45:44austerity and uh as you remember

0:45:48the

0:45:49the independent auditor stated that

0:45:52well so did our financial direct

0:45:54director so i want to make sure that the

0:45:56city knows that we can't afford to do

0:45:59this thirty thousand dollars is thirty

0:46:01thousand dollars that we don't have

0:46:04all right i think we've heard

0:46:06so i i guess for me it is about

0:46:08displacement and that there is uh you

0:46:11know for me it's about getting data and

0:46:12that's part of the reason why i did not

0:46:14support the

0:46:15non-binding arbitration in in december

0:46:18because it wasn't going to get us the

0:46:19data that many of you good landlords

0:46:22good housing providers have asked us to

0:46:24do to get before we make any decisions

0:46:27so for me

0:46:28it is it's it's about getting data as an

0:46:31engineer i can't say that i can make a

0:46:32decision based on some legislation that

0:46:35may or may not come down so i apologize

0:46:38for for you know casting doubt on some

0:46:40future uh legislation that may come

0:46:43when we have an obligation to protect a

0:46:46thousand ten ten percent of our housing

0:46:48units are twenty twenty two percent of

0:46:50our uh ten percent of our population so

0:46:53i apologize if we disagree on that

0:46:56for me it's it is getting displaced it's

0:46:58getting data and it's about limiting

0:47:00displacement and let's be clear the

0:47:03current law costa hawkins allows you to

0:47:06raise rents between your vacancies to

0:47:09market conditions so this is not about

0:47:12rent control i'm not proposing rent

0:47:14control and i'm not trying to to take

0:47:16your ability away to raise rents

0:47:20what i am trying to do is limit our

0:47:22displacement

0:47:23and that's one of the things that we've

0:47:24got in our our uh

0:47:28our

0:47:29meanings of our of our

0:47:31bodies in our housing element it's in

0:47:34our uh it's practically in our uh

0:47:38mission statement so

0:47:41for me

0:47:43there is an opportunity now for us to

0:47:45get that data by moving forward with

0:47:48some sort of survey is what some of the

0:47:51i've heard some of you say

0:47:52attached to the business license so we

0:47:54can get the data that we're looking for

0:47:58um yes i understand you've made very

0:48:02good statements about uh just the

0:48:04unintended consequences of just cause

0:48:06eviction

0:48:07the the

0:48:08um

0:48:09the fact that you'll be more selective

0:48:11and and that you'll

0:48:13be

0:48:14uh

0:48:16new tenants coming in will go through a

0:48:18higher level of scrutiny

0:48:22they're

0:48:23not the population i'm necessarily

0:48:26targeting they're not here yet

0:48:28they're not here to be displaced

0:48:30so

0:48:31yeah

0:48:32okay

0:48:34that's an unintended consequence i'm

0:48:35willing to take on as a result of just

0:48:38cause eviction because

0:48:40really what i'm trying to do is protect

0:48:42the population that's here and once

0:48:43they're here protect them

0:48:45so if

0:48:47if you're more selective

0:48:49that's something that i that's a

0:48:50consequence you've all very clearly

0:48:52stated i understand

0:48:54it's it's a possibility i'm hoping you

0:48:56won't

0:48:58education

0:48:59again there was a speaker tonight talked

0:49:01about section 8.

0:49:03i think we should be providing greater

0:49:05levels of education to both landlords

0:49:08housing providers and renters so that we

0:49:12are all smarter about this

0:49:14you've asked for us to

0:49:17form a task force the hrc has asked us

0:49:20to form a task force to get more

0:49:21information

0:49:22talk about more bureaucracy i really

0:49:24don't understand how we can uh

0:49:28support a task force but i can

0:49:30understand how we can continue to get

0:49:32more information about this uh the

0:49:35complaint about two minute limits is one

0:49:37that i can understand

0:49:39uh and and so potentially we have to

0:49:41find ways to get more dialogue on this

0:49:44matter so that we are all smarter about

0:49:46it and we can make good decisions

0:49:51one of the things that i want to

0:49:52introduce tonight that i haven't

0:49:54introduced before

0:49:55is a time limit we don't have to put

0:49:57these ordinances in place forever

0:50:00so we could put just a cause and

0:50:02eviction in place for six months a year

0:50:05so that the intent would be

0:50:07that

0:50:07while we're collecting the data

0:50:10we don't have

0:50:11unintended consequences of dis of no

0:50:14fault displacement

0:50:19hey please hold your comments

0:50:30with respect to uh legal fees i actually

0:50:34do uh want to echo some of the public

0:50:36comment we had tonight and it's i think

0:50:39reflective of a comment i've made

0:50:41previously

0:50:43legal services should be equally

0:50:45dispensed

0:50:46there's nothing that says that it should

0:50:48be just for one side or the other

0:50:51if there are people that don't have the

0:50:53resources to get legal aid they should

0:50:56get legal aid

0:50:57but maybe we can't afford that resource

0:50:59for either side

0:51:02so i i definitely understand that

0:51:04so

0:51:05for me

0:51:07you look at the

0:51:09the regional casa report that's coming

0:51:11out you look at as mr quinto says you

0:51:14look at some of the other statewide

0:51:17actions that are coming up

0:51:20but when

0:51:21we have residents now

0:51:23that come to us that came to us long

0:51:26before you started coming to these

0:51:27meetings thank you for coming to these

0:51:29meetings we need the information you've

0:51:31given us

0:51:32but we've had residents coming to us for

0:51:34over two years talking about the fact

0:51:37that they have had to move out

0:51:40i was knocking on doors

0:51:42three years ago

0:51:44and

0:51:45ran into many many people

0:51:47probably possibly in some of the units

0:51:49you own telling me that they would love

0:51:51to vote for me but they were leaving

0:51:53because the rent had been increased

0:51:55so

0:51:56whether you believe it or not

0:51:58we have had displacement as a result of

0:52:01rent increase

0:52:02just because they're not here tonight

0:52:04and just because you haven't seen them

0:52:05in the three or four meetings that

0:52:07you've been to doesn't mean it's not

0:52:09occurring

0:52:10so whether whether you believe there's a

0:52:12problem or not

0:52:14i i'm sorry that you're not out in the

0:52:17same places that being where i am or

0:52:20being here

0:52:21you are good landlords your tenants

0:52:24aren't leaving

0:52:26that doesn't mean that there aren't a

0:52:27handful of bad landlords out there that

0:52:30are that we are potentially having to

0:52:32deal with

0:52:34so

0:52:34for me doing nothing is not an option

0:52:37it really isn't

0:52:39there

0:52:41okay um i would like to hear from

0:52:43councilmember fedele first

0:52:46thank you um

0:52:49first of all i wanted to say that we've

0:52:51heard that elsewhere is not a city with

0:52:53a casino and a refinery thank god

0:52:56thank god we don't have those things

0:52:58we're unique we have our own destiny

0:53:01our own set of examples that we should

0:53:03have here and we should put forward

0:53:08i know this is a time to give feedback

0:53:10back to the staff and i have a statement

0:53:12in a second that i want to

0:53:14actually go through and and read but i

0:53:16did have some questions first

0:53:19about the registry if i could ask staff

0:53:21about this i'd like to know exactly if

0:53:24there's a litany

0:53:25bullet points of those facts that we

0:53:27might get back from a registry

0:53:31what are the facts that we will in fact

0:53:34attain

0:53:37so yes in our last presentation

0:53:40there were some of the data points

0:53:42possible data points um which would

0:53:44include um obviously the owner

0:53:46information which we have

0:53:49access to through our business license

0:53:50records we do realize that there are

0:53:53many

0:53:54um folks missing from that list

0:53:57so we would be looking to gather owner

0:53:59information specifically property

0:54:01information number of units unit square

0:54:04footage

0:54:05number of bedrooms number of bathrooms

0:54:08current rent previous rent percent of

0:54:10rent increase date of move out date of

0:54:13move-in so we can establish tenancy

0:54:15history

0:54:16whether units are vacant or occupied so

0:54:19those are some of the things move out

0:54:21meaning evictions if someone's moved out

0:54:23when that person moved out so in essence

0:54:26how long one's been there and when the

0:54:27unit last turned over what the rent was

0:54:31so we will see rent increases evictions

0:54:35those types of key things that we've

0:54:37been talking about for the last two

0:54:39years yeah and we can obviously bring

0:54:41back more comprehensive lists and if you

0:54:44have things to add to that that you wish

0:54:45to see um report it back to you we can

0:54:48definitely

0:54:50work with you further on that but yes

0:54:51that was in the last slide

0:54:53last presentation

0:54:55go ahead um yeah i had a question what

0:54:58if somebody's taken property

0:55:00off the rental market

0:55:03how would you know about that um we

0:55:05wouldn't be notified upon business

0:55:07license renewal if they're no longer

0:55:09renting if they're no longer renting at

0:55:12all

0:55:12they would let us know i know people and

0:55:15this is nothing recent but um

0:55:17who took their property

0:55:19for one reason or another took their

0:55:21property off the rental market

0:55:23in other words it's not available for

0:55:25rent so we we could include that

0:55:26question what we would do is we would

0:55:28pull our list of active businesses to

0:55:30avoid the

0:55:32um uh

0:55:36reporting to the the business license

0:55:38part of it

0:55:39okay so we could i mean there's a series

0:55:41of workshops and things that we'll also

0:55:44be looking to do to solicit feedback

0:55:47or if you know someone in that instance

0:55:49you can let me know but

0:55:50what we would do is we would use our

0:55:52current since we're getting ready to go

0:55:54through the renewal process i'm

0:55:56wondering more if you would know

0:55:58historically if they had ever if it had

0:56:00ever been if a property had ever been

0:56:03rental status in the past yeah we can

0:56:07what we can do is we can work with our

0:56:08finance department to go back in time

0:56:11let's say a year or two 12 to 24 months

0:56:14or even 36 months depending on how far

0:56:16back you want to go to actually gather

0:56:19that data five years is that beyond i'll

0:56:22have to i'll have to get back to you on

0:56:24the five year window but i do know that

0:56:27at least in the last two to three years

0:56:29we would be able to do that okay

0:56:33i have one question also

0:56:35did you mention

0:56:37would there be any retroactive or

0:56:40looking backwards in terms of what the

0:56:42rents were

0:56:44yeah yeah so how far would that go back

0:56:47um it all depends we would suggest

0:56:49between two two to three years to be

0:56:51able to actually

0:56:53really understand historically

0:56:56great thank you continue mr fedele oh i

0:56:59i just want to i did list some

0:57:02words down here i may look down on the

0:57:04page a little bit but um i i just do

0:57:06want to thank everybody for coming back

0:57:08again this week it was a large

0:57:10the largest crowd we've ever had in the

0:57:12city hall

0:57:13two weeks ago

0:57:15and with and with just cause so to speak

0:57:18i think because of the issues involved

0:57:21el cerrito has taken on efforts to build

0:57:23more housing and respond to tenant

0:57:25concerns in the context of real upheaval

0:57:28in the bay area

0:57:29where news on the housing shortage and

0:57:31high brands have received national

0:57:33attention

0:57:34so we are not blindly acting here for no

0:57:37cause

0:57:38but we're addressing issues impacting

0:57:40our residents in a time of great growth

0:57:42and change and sometimes displacement

0:57:45um

0:57:47you all know this but i just need we

0:57:48just i need to say this a week in and

0:57:50week out there are headlines and long

0:57:52articles on the front pages about

0:57:54housing shortages and high rents

0:57:57as we speak tonight as many of us have

0:57:59talked about there are regional and

0:58:00state efforts moving forward in

0:58:01sacramento that deal with addressing

0:58:04both

0:58:05housing increases

0:58:07and protecting tenant rights

0:58:10and last month our at the state of the

0:58:11state ceremony governor

0:58:13newsom said the pressures on

0:58:15vulnerability of renters didn't go away

0:58:17after the last election we need new

0:58:20rules to stabilize neighborhoods and

0:58:22prevent evictions without putting small

0:58:25landlords out of business and that's my

0:58:27goal tonight too it should be el

0:58:29cerrito's goal

0:58:30from previous workshops and council

0:58:32meetings there seems to be general

0:58:34agreement

0:58:35among our interested parties here that

0:58:37more facts are needed

0:58:39and to best determine the paths forward

0:58:41for rent increases displacement and

0:58:43evictions

0:58:45i personally believe our goal for tenant

0:58:47protection should be is

0:58:48to establish a flexible a set of

0:58:51flexible programs now based on the facts

0:58:53that we do know

0:58:55and make any needed changes based on the

0:58:57facts that we may collect with this

0:58:58registry

0:59:00so i'm relaying to staff now that i'm

0:59:02for this registry

0:59:04proposal in ways that you said you could

0:59:07implement it in a cost effective way as

0:59:09councilman quinto has talked about

0:59:12but

0:59:13i want to get into what i to put my cars

0:59:15on the table and all the various

0:59:17proposals

0:59:18tell you what i'm for in in a second

0:59:20here but i also want to say that there

0:59:22are facts there are facts

0:59:25before we begin our fact exploration

0:59:28the facts are that housing and high rank

0:59:30there is a crisis in the bay area

0:59:32the fact is that one quarter of those

0:59:34renting in el cerrito pay more than 30

0:59:36percent for their housing that's not a

0:59:38good thing

0:59:40our city must be concerned about rent

0:59:42increases if we are to protect the

0:59:44important ethnic and economic diversity

0:59:46that we have here in the city

0:59:48uh el cerrito it's a fact that we're

0:59:51only one of 24 cities meeting our state

0:59:53housing goals we are building we are

0:59:55dealing with that

0:59:57it's a fact that our city's budget is

0:59:58barely balanced

1:00:00and any new programs will take

1:00:02additional staff and funding

1:00:04it's a fact that small non-corporate

1:00:06landlords are critical as housing

1:00:08providers in this city and protecting

1:00:10their investments must be a goal that we

1:00:12also have

1:00:14and it's also true that in the city in

1:00:16in

1:00:17in

1:00:19in the bay area as we seek to address

1:00:21these issues so too should el saurido

1:00:23move to establish a system

1:00:25to deal with tenant concerns that fits

1:00:27our unique community

1:00:29and i just wanted to say that sadly i

1:00:32think it's also true to my mind in the

1:00:34recent weeks that we've been talking

1:00:35about this

1:00:38housing and its affordability

1:00:42it impacts us all

1:00:44but i'm hoping we can remember that we

1:00:46need to get beyond this us versus them

1:00:48mentality and the lines that have been

1:00:49drawn

1:00:50uh here recently this is not el cerrito

1:00:54when i moved back to el cerrito from

1:00:55sacramento about 27 years ago it was to

1:00:59accept a job as a collaborative with a

1:01:01collaborative planning firm in san

1:01:02francisco

1:01:03where we brought together various

1:01:05interests and parties to work through

1:01:07issues that seemed intractable

1:01:10and i only say this because

1:01:11collaboration takes time

1:01:14and usually no one gets all that they

1:01:15want

1:01:16the preferences and direction i give to

1:01:18staff tonight

1:01:20will be considered it will be reviewed

1:01:22it'll be reshaped it'll be brought back

1:01:24for a vote

1:01:26may be amended and probably will change

1:01:28and evolve

1:01:29as we build our database going forward

1:01:32so these are my suggestions

1:01:35and my cards on the table about where i

1:01:37think we should go

1:01:38i know they're going to change i know

1:01:40things will change but it's

1:01:42me putting my

1:01:43suggestions

1:01:45into the hat

1:01:46in that vein i believe

1:01:48that we should be in favor of a city

1:01:50working group to bring various forces

1:01:52together as as outlined in the human

1:01:54relations

1:01:56uh resolution

1:01:57let's work together let's be together

1:01:59let's talk together let's be there i

1:02:02know it's a staff issue

1:02:04but let's let's let's consider that

1:02:07i mention my support for rent registry

1:02:11i'm for the minimum lease term if that

1:02:13works

1:02:14works out

1:02:15i would support just cause eviction but

1:02:17only for large multi-family units

1:02:20leaving out our mom-and-pop landlords

1:02:23and possibly

1:02:24as councilman lyman said

1:02:27a time limit there's a group limit

1:02:30let's only do the very high end until we

1:02:32know the facts before we move forward

1:02:35i am hopeful in the future that we can

1:02:36give legal support for both tenants i

1:02:38asked that question at the last council

1:02:40hearing but until then

1:02:43i don't think we can afford it as

1:02:44councilman quinto said

1:02:46i favor tenant relocation for demolition

1:02:50and that extra month for those with

1:02:51special circumstances but i'm not

1:02:53supportive of testing a legal case for

1:02:55our city on this the rent increase by 20

1:02:57percent

1:02:59over two years

1:03:01so let me make one point be very clear

1:03:03before i

1:03:04finish and i thank you for your patience

1:03:06some have said that we shouldn't have

1:03:08just caused eviction without rent

1:03:09control

1:03:11right now i believe we should

1:03:13and have it applied to our just our

1:03:15largest units

1:03:16as growth comes to el cerrito

1:03:19let's leave out the mom-and-pop

1:03:20landlords i believe our registry can

1:03:23become a good safeguard actually

1:03:26for rising rents as we look at the facts

1:03:28that are coming in and the information

1:03:30that we gather on increases on evictions

1:03:34that might lead this council to change

1:03:36ordinances or to move toward rent

1:03:38control

1:03:39so if there are landlords who think

1:03:41rents should go up dramatically where

1:03:43just cause exist they should think again

1:03:45i think in el cerrito

1:03:47finally to staff i just want to say

1:03:49whatever comes back to us in the next

1:03:50couple months or so i'm hoping it

1:03:52doesn't come back as one big huge

1:03:54package that we have one vote on i'd

1:03:56love it to be a variety of things so we

1:03:58can

1:03:59shape this for el cerrito and be

1:04:01specific about this because we are part

1:04:03of the bay area we have our unique needs

1:04:05we need to protect our landlords and our

1:04:08tenants

1:04:09thank you those are my

1:04:10comments we have another comment

1:04:12counseling yes thank you mayor

1:04:14one thing i would like to express is

1:04:17that

1:04:18when we had uh folks from mtc and abag

1:04:22speak at the mayor's conference in

1:04:24richmond in january they did speak about

1:04:28making sure that residents are educated

1:04:32about section 8 and the use of section

1:04:348. you say that 30 percent of our

1:04:38residents here

1:04:40are having problems making um

1:04:43paying a

1:04:44large portion of what they make on rent

1:04:47so this would help it would help

1:04:49so i encourage

1:04:51the small landlords to look at section 8

1:04:54housing because you know that you will

1:04:56get a check regularly and

1:05:00and i know

1:05:01many of your senior and uh

1:05:04and people that are having problems

1:05:06paying the rent would appreciate it so

1:05:08uh that was one of the main things that

1:05:10uh they encouraged the mayors and contra

1:05:13costa and council members is to make

1:05:15sure that our residents know about uh

1:05:18the things about

1:05:20section eight yes if i may um during the

1:05:24affordable housing strategy it was

1:05:26encouraged that we do workshops on that

1:05:28because the program has probably changed

1:05:29over years there's perceptions and maybe

1:05:31misperceptions about it so i said as

1:05:33we've been in this process we haven't

1:05:35been able to move forward on that

1:05:36process but it's one of the many

1:05:37workshops for both tenants and landlords

1:05:40that we would like to

1:05:42bring folks to let them know how that

1:05:43program works

1:05:44thank you so i'm hoping that we can have

1:05:47these workshops

1:05:49to let residents know about

1:05:52and and to encourage our landlords to

1:05:54use section 8 housing so i agree uh with

1:05:57council member lyman on that one thing

1:05:59that i also agree with

1:06:01is

1:06:02not this complicated rent registry that

1:06:06that costs more than thirty thousand

1:06:07dollars a year i'm hoping that there

1:06:09will be a less expensive way a simple

1:06:12way of collecting data

1:06:15instead of

1:06:17purchasing

1:06:18expensive software to to get all this

1:06:21information so

1:06:23i know some of the landlords here spoke

1:06:25about well what if we just mark down

1:06:28when we're turning in our paperwork

1:06:30the type of housing that uh uh that was

1:06:34uh uh

1:06:35that opened up this year and and we can

1:06:37tell you who was there and who left and

1:06:40how and uh so that that's a less

1:06:42expensive way than than

1:06:45purchasing a 30 000 plus software that

1:06:49we cannot afford so

1:06:51if there's a way we can look at uh

1:06:54less expensive ways i would uh possibly

1:06:57support that but not thirty thousand

1:06:58dollars

1:07:00thank you so yeah well we

1:07:02can continue to explore that

1:07:05i can get you a ream of college rule

1:07:08paper

1:07:10um i do you may or if i may ask council

1:07:12member fidelity i wanted to

1:07:14uh follow up on uh the tenant relocation

1:07:18i wasn't sure which tenant relocation

1:07:20i'm now looking at page 71 of 75 from

1:07:23last month where we had

1:07:25a

1:07:25list of or two weeks ago where we had a

1:07:28list of various packages for

1:07:29consideration were you talking about

1:07:31tenant relocation for demolition or

1:07:33tenant relocation for rent increase and

1:07:35if you were talking about tenant

1:07:36relocation for rent increase was it for

1:07:39you know four units five and up what

1:07:42type of multi-family housing were you

1:07:43were you discussing

1:07:48demolition is what i was concerned with

1:07:50and not the amendment that was accepted

1:07:53previously that would deal with rent

1:07:54increases

1:07:58okay uh thank you for that clarification

1:08:02all right

1:08:03thank you for all of your comments um

1:08:06and the discussion here here's some more

1:08:08questions yeah

1:08:10the demolition

1:08:12uh comment that was just made i makes me

1:08:15wonder

1:08:17my understanding of the of the the of

1:08:19units getting uh

1:08:22demolished

1:08:24in terms of the construction that's

1:08:26going on on san pablo avenue itself just

1:08:28the avenue

1:08:30um

1:08:32how many are there

1:08:33we don't have any actually the

1:08:35demolition ordinance

1:08:37was a policy as a result of the eldorado

1:08:40property

1:08:42where the rvs were

1:08:43and it was also one of the

1:08:46strategies identified in our affordable

1:08:48housing strategy as a result of the

1:08:51displacement of the rv so it's just one

1:08:53property that you know of

1:08:55we don't expect it

1:08:57we don't expect it to apply to many but

1:08:59we wanted to put a policy in place to

1:09:01prevent issues and to recognize if there

1:09:04was major investment occurring to either

1:09:06remodel or demolish that actually wasn't

1:09:09my question my question was because i'm

1:09:12hearing up here i'm hearing us make

1:09:14comments where we say the demolished

1:09:16units as though it were significant and

1:09:19i didn't think it was and and you

1:09:21verified that what i thought was true

1:09:23was in fact

1:09:25so looking for

1:09:26there aren't any being demolished there

1:09:29are no residents most of san pablo

1:09:30avenue is commercial but this was

1:09:32looking city-wide if there were

1:09:34older

1:09:36floorplexes for example that somebody

1:09:37was looking to put something new and

1:09:39about san pablo avenue so so that isn't

1:09:43uh a problem

1:09:45uh as far as we can tell on san pablo

1:09:47avenue because

1:09:49really what we're

1:09:51of all the projects that i know it the

1:09:52format seems to be there was an

1:09:55a

1:09:56a relatively big box sort of

1:09:59uh

1:10:00area that is no longer in business for

1:10:02whatever reason and it's been sitting

1:10:04idle for a long time

1:10:06and somebody bought it now and they're

1:10:08going to build apartments that's kind of

1:10:10the typical model now right

1:10:13not

1:10:14it's not a matter of um

1:10:16a bunch of people getting displaced

1:10:19i just wanted to verify that

1:10:22okay

1:10:24and my concern was when i first came on

1:10:26we had no policy for demolition and

1:10:28that's been an issue that has continued

1:10:30throughout so thank you

1:10:32mayor if i may follow in the example of

1:10:35mr fideli i'd love to

1:10:38identify some uh points of

1:10:41of agreement and points of clarity that

1:10:43i would love to seek as we go forward

1:10:46um like mr fideli i support a rent

1:10:48registry

1:10:51i

1:10:52do think and if i heard this correctly

1:10:57just cause eviction for

1:10:58uh larger units i i would support that

1:11:03uh for me um

1:11:05you know

1:11:06it might we might differ on whether

1:11:08cutoff is for me it might be four units

1:11:11up or

1:11:125 units up the

1:11:14the

1:11:15beauty of that is that

1:11:17the

1:11:19a very large number of our rental units

1:11:22and therefore a larger

1:11:25population

1:11:27is is protected

1:11:30i shouldn't say larger that's not the

1:11:31right that's not the right comparison

1:11:34for the least number of property

1:11:37properties buildings if i remember i'm

1:11:40looking back if i remember correctly for

1:11:42something like 200

1:11:44of our

1:11:4633 000

1:11:48properties

1:11:50i'll try and find my notes

1:11:52um

1:11:55for yes i think it's for something like

1:11:56200 of our 3 000 properties we can get a

1:12:00thousand of our 4 000 units covered

1:12:03with with a cut off and i can't remember

1:12:05if the cutoff is at 5 or four

1:12:08um but there but we could

1:12:11for that type of

1:12:13uh

1:12:15unit designation we can get very good

1:12:17coverage

1:12:18of our population for just cause

1:12:20eviction um

1:12:22i i too have do support the minimum

1:12:24lease term although it the staff has

1:12:28informed me that it has um

1:12:30limited functionality

1:12:32i do

1:12:33will continue to support the proposal of

1:12:36a tenant relocation

1:12:39including

1:12:40rent increases

1:12:42and i'm more than willing to say that

1:12:45that those rent increases again that

1:12:47would only apply

1:12:49because it's rain increase it would only

1:12:50apply to pre-1995 and i'm more than

1:12:53willing to say that to limit that again

1:12:55to

1:12:56a similar population of four plus or

1:12:59five plus units

1:13:01and then finally on the rent increase as

1:13:03councilmember abelson has

1:13:05pointed out and there have been some

1:13:07comments tonight we potentially could

1:13:09put a cap on the amount of the

1:13:13payment

1:13:14that would be

1:13:16owed to the uh to the displaced tenant

1:13:20um

1:13:21so i i would be willing to do that and i

1:13:24think we've covered

1:13:28i think i've covered all the different

1:13:30ordinances that wasn't actually at all

1:13:32what i said no building on the fact that

1:13:34you're worried about uh landowner owners

1:13:37not property owners not having the

1:13:39resources to pay to evict somebody i'm

1:13:42willing to cap so that it's not a great

1:13:45burden on that property owner to evict

1:13:48somebody

1:13:49i was referring to the cost of of doing

1:13:52the um

1:13:54study

1:13:55to doing the study correct to figure out

1:13:59what in fact is happening correct i

1:14:01understand i'm talking i'm talking about

1:14:03the uh tenant relocation

1:14:06and and the fact that it's multiple

1:14:08months of of

1:14:09rent that are owed to somebody when

1:14:11somebody relocate relocates them whether

1:14:13it's for demolition

1:14:15or repair there are several categories

1:14:17in there

1:14:19and you you your comment both in

1:14:21december and two weeks ago was how does

1:14:23somebody how does somebody have enough

1:14:25money to do that and i'm more than

1:14:27willing to cap that so that's my

1:14:29reference to your prior comments okay

1:14:32not tonight

1:14:33okay um okay hold on everybody i just

1:14:36i want to be able to get a word in edwiz

1:14:39before we

1:14:40before we keep going into um some of the

1:14:42more details of where we might be

1:14:44directing the staff i'd like to say my

1:14:46little piece here um

1:14:49so

1:14:51for me when i look at this i look at it

1:14:54very much in what it says word for word

1:14:56pillar b reduce the risk of displacement

1:14:58and help stabilize at-risk populations

1:15:03i haven't heard a lot

1:15:05from our mom-and-pop landlords about how

1:15:08we do this

1:15:12i don't think

1:15:13i do believe that el cerrito is a very

1:15:16unique place

1:15:18it is a fantastic place but i do not

1:15:20think that we are unique

1:15:23and that our rents are not skyrocketing

1:15:25like the rest of the bay area like the

1:15:27rest of california and really the rest

1:15:29of the country

1:15:30the entire state of oregon has put in

1:15:34place protections

1:15:36for their renters

1:15:40i believe that we do need to protect the

1:15:42most vulnerable amongst us

1:15:44and

1:15:46i apologize if that steps on your toes a

1:15:48bit

1:15:49i understand nobody wants to be told

1:15:52what to do

1:15:54my five-year-old my nine-year-old they

1:15:55don't like being told what to do

1:15:57i don't like being told what to do

1:15:59either

1:16:01but when you do have a business

1:16:02sometimes your businesses are regulated

1:16:06and i do believe we will need to do some

1:16:10sort of regulation in order to help our

1:16:12most vulnerable

1:16:13now what i

1:16:15haven't heard though and what i like the

1:16:19suggestion of the human relations

1:16:20commission is to actually have you come

1:16:22to the table

1:16:24and talk to renters

1:16:26and get together and see where you can

1:16:29come to common ground because right now

1:16:31what i'm not sure about

1:16:33is i've heard what you're not for i

1:16:35understand that we don't want you don't

1:16:37want just cause i understand that you

1:16:39don't want rent control but i don't

1:16:41understand

1:16:43what you think is acceptable in terms of

1:16:45rent increases

1:16:47or what you think is acceptable in terms

1:16:50of a reason to

1:16:53to have someone

1:16:55taken out of their house

1:16:57now if i were a renter

1:17:00i would be extremely concerned about

1:17:03being displaced for no reason basically

1:17:05my landlord kicking me out without any

1:17:07sort of reason just they want to have me

1:17:09go out so that they can raise the rent

1:17:12if i were a renter i would be concerned

1:17:14about

1:17:15someone coming in and saying you know

1:17:17what your rent goes up a thousand

1:17:18dollars this month

1:17:21i would like to see protections around

1:17:23those things

1:17:25but as a landlord i can see why you

1:17:27would be very very concerned about

1:17:31having a renter that you could not

1:17:34get out if you needed to get them out

1:17:38i i see your concern about some of the

1:17:41things that we are trying to put in

1:17:42place here

1:17:44for example the tenant relocation that

1:17:47might be a cost burden to you

1:17:49so

1:17:51i don't know if there's an ability of

1:17:55common ground to be met if they're for

1:17:58the good landlords out there that have

1:18:00said

1:18:01i haven't even raised my rent so

1:18:04if you're okay

1:18:06with some sort of regulation around

1:18:09anti-gouging

1:18:11because that's what we're really trying

1:18:13to do here we don't want to tell you

1:18:15what to do but we do want to stop people

1:18:17from gouging and we do want to stop

1:18:19people from being tossed out of their

1:18:21house for no reason

1:18:24so

1:18:24my suggestion would be to form a task

1:18:27force of both renters and landlords

1:18:31have you help us come up with a policy

1:18:34that is el cerrito specific

1:18:37i don't know which one of these policies

1:18:39that we're talking about up here that is

1:18:41most distasteful to the landlords here

1:18:43in el cerrito

1:18:45like i said if you are not a gouging

1:18:49landlord then maybe some sort of

1:18:52reasonable rent cap would be okay with

1:18:55you and maybe we could get rid of some

1:18:57of the just cause things and the

1:18:59displacement other displacement things

1:19:02i don't know what it is that you want

1:19:06i mean i understand that somebody's

1:19:08gonna want absolutely nothing and i

1:19:10can't answer questions from the

1:19:12from the gallery unfortunately but i'm

1:19:14just i'm just saying that for me this is

1:19:17where i'm finding the struggle in making

1:19:20uh the polit policy decisions up here

1:19:24but i do believe that we would need to

1:19:25protect our our renters in the meantime

1:19:30i do believe that a rent freeze is

1:19:33unreasonable we would not want to

1:19:34absolutely freeze rents

1:19:36but would there be an acceptable

1:19:39temporary cap on rent increases they

1:19:43i'm just throwing it out there and not

1:19:45trying to break any brown act but like

1:19:46seven percent could you just raise only

1:19:49seven percent over the next six to 12

1:19:51months

1:19:52while we're trying to figure this out

1:19:53and then the cap goes away

1:19:55so

1:19:57that would be

1:19:58something that i would suggest that we

1:20:00do now

1:20:01i know

1:20:02to maybe some of the council members and

1:20:04some of the staff that's more

1:20:06bureaucracy in terms of

1:20:09of having

1:20:11people come together but i think that if

1:20:14you really want to make a specific el

1:20:15cerrito solution

1:20:17that is the best solution

1:20:23if that is not a possibility

1:20:25amongst my colleagues here tonight

1:20:28then

1:20:30i feel that i will be forced to

1:20:32go along with the proposals that have

1:20:34already been made

1:20:36so that is what i am throwing out there

1:20:38in terms of my suggestions to see if

1:20:40there's any

1:20:42anybody that would agree

1:20:44to do what i suggest

1:20:49mayor i just want to make sure that

1:20:52folks here know

1:20:54what council member greg lyman mentioned

1:20:56is that five plus units we have

1:21:00some mom-and-pop landlords it's mostly

1:21:03mom-and-pop landlords at five plus units

1:21:06so

1:21:08greg lyman are you sure you want that

1:21:10for

1:21:12because these are mom and pop landlords

1:21:15that own

1:21:16five plus units

1:21:19so um the answer is yes because in in

1:21:22the example that mr leforce gave us

1:21:25where he had effectively one or two

1:21:27renters that he needed to uh deal with

1:21:31that was a significant part of his

1:21:32revenue from his uh his units so dupe

1:21:36whether it's a single family home duplex

1:21:38triplex then you're talking about one

1:21:41one unit being a significant part of

1:21:43that when you start getting to quads 25

1:21:45percent or five and up then the dealing

1:21:48with that one

1:21:50unit that that's potentially below

1:21:52market

1:21:53that potentially they they have to deal

1:21:55with it's a smaller percentage of their

1:21:56revenue and and therefore they still

1:21:58have revenue to deal with their ongoing

1:22:01business uh uses so so i would say

1:22:04it it does equate to

1:22:07um instead of uh

1:22:09you know the larger number of of

1:22:12housing i think it's 1200 uh housing

1:22:15buildings

1:22:17it does drop down to something much more

1:22:19reasonable as uh 200 so it's

1:22:22a much less burden on

1:22:24our housing provider uh community

1:22:27because it's certainly not a very large

1:22:29it's not all of them uh so

1:22:31that was

1:22:33uh five plus is oh sorry it's only 107

1:22:37units so the answer is we're dealing

1:22:40with only 107 units

1:22:42of

1:22:43compliance it's actually 107 buildings

1:22:46and

1:22:481153 units and also just to clarify it

1:22:51would be five or more units in one

1:22:53building not

1:22:55throughout the city not if you own four

1:22:57here and three there

1:22:58thank you

1:23:04is anyone else interested in having a

1:23:06task force

1:23:08i um probably am the only one who hasn't

1:23:10spoken on that topic so far

1:23:12um

1:23:13it's the

1:23:15problem speaking early

1:23:18the

1:23:19i find it interesting but i would i

1:23:22would have some things that i would want

1:23:24uh

1:23:25and one of them was that i assumed that

1:23:28there would be two groups there would be

1:23:30uh renters

1:23:32and there would be apartment or a

1:23:34building owners i'll call it because

1:23:36that would include

1:23:37perhaps single family and um that they

1:23:40all have to live in el cerrito

1:23:43oh yes

1:23:45as opposed to

1:23:47doing business here or

1:23:49any other configuration one might come

1:23:52up with it it needs to be

1:23:54strictly elsewhere it needs to be a

1:23:56strictly l-cereal conversation

1:24:00made up of el cerrito people and that

1:24:03they they represent

1:24:05a range of um

1:24:08attributes with so for example different

1:24:10um

1:24:14i don't know if this would be exactly

1:24:15like would be but let's say different

1:24:17levels of income

1:24:19for uh tenants and different numbers of

1:24:22units for apartment owners

1:24:25those would be a couple of thoughts

1:24:27offhand but

1:24:28i'm not i wouldn't be stuck on that but

1:24:31something like that so that there would

1:24:33be a um

1:24:34and that there'd be more than one group

1:24:36because sometimes when you have these

1:24:37group things i've observed that there

1:24:40will be a strong personality in the

1:24:42group

1:24:43and it'll just completely sway the group

1:24:45one way or the other and

1:24:48uh with a potentially undesirable

1:24:51outcome so if there were a multitude of

1:24:53these

1:24:54um

1:24:55little focus groups i don't know if

1:24:58that's the word i want to use but um

1:25:02study groups

1:25:03um that it would uh give us an idea

1:25:08of what different ideas were on

1:25:11the

1:25:12on the topic the idea of putting a cap

1:25:16on doing something to one side

1:25:21kind of bothers me a lot i guess

1:25:24i'm worried so i'm worried about a thing

1:25:26that no one else here seems to be

1:25:27addressing which is will we get san

1:25:30pablo avenue built

1:25:32and um

1:25:34we haven't met our

1:25:36housing goal for everything we've met it

1:25:38for affordable

1:25:39housing right that's the last i heard

1:25:42so a temporary rent cap would only be

1:25:45applicable to

1:25:47units that are under cos costa hawkins

1:25:50right and anything new that comes into

1:25:53the but i'm not a different type sort of

1:25:55yeah but anything new that would come

1:25:56onto the avenue would not be subject to

1:25:58it um i'm but that's not what i'm

1:26:01talking about now actually i just went

1:26:03on to another topic in between

1:26:05okay so uh but but the um

1:26:10the um

1:26:11question i have is can we get sample

1:26:14avenue built and

1:26:16uh have we met our

1:26:19housing goal we've only met our housing

1:26:21goal

1:26:22for affordable housing in my car we're

1:26:25on track to meet both our market rate

1:26:27and affordable housing there's actually

1:26:29six um and moderate less than moderate

1:26:32we're actually there's actually 61 units

1:26:34under construction currently and another

1:26:37so it's

1:26:38156 units getting ready um to begin

1:26:41construction at mayfair um so we are on

1:26:44track and for everything now okay

1:26:46because what worries me is whether or

1:26:48not that except for our moderate income

1:26:50units which we are hopeful that we will

1:26:52meet through our inclusionary zoning

1:26:54ordinance

1:26:55um okay

1:26:56the thank you um

1:26:58so the thing that concerns me is whether

1:27:00or not we will

1:27:02get it built because when i look out

1:27:04there

1:27:05although i'm

1:27:06excited beyond belief that people are

1:27:09starting to pull permits

1:27:11i i'm not excited beyond belief about

1:27:15what's actually been built

1:27:17and

1:27:18so i'm very worried about it

1:27:20and

1:27:21that's what will provide a place for

1:27:23people to live

1:27:25we can do anything we want with the rent

1:27:27it doesn't build units

1:27:29we've got to have developers come in and

1:27:32construct those things for us

1:27:35and

1:27:36that that is what i'm

1:27:38really concerned about and i hear people

1:27:41tell me they can't find a place to live

1:27:44i have um

1:27:46you know lots of kids and

1:27:49they tell me all their stories about

1:27:51finding housing you know when you don't

1:27:53have any money they're experts at that

1:27:55you might say

1:27:56and um

1:27:58it's it's rampant all over the place

1:28:00there's no place to live so it isn't

1:28:02just

1:28:03the the price

1:28:05it's also

1:28:06the units aren't out there we've got to

1:28:08get those units built so i don't want to

1:28:10um

1:28:11wreck our ability

1:28:13right now i think we're very well

1:28:15positioned to be

1:28:17the place

1:28:19of choice to build

1:28:21because of the specific plan and all of

1:28:23the work that our staff did on that

1:28:26specific plan the council did a lot of

1:28:28work on it the community did a lot of

1:28:30work on it

1:28:31and um i would hate to throw it away by

1:28:35putting in some criteria

1:28:37that causes developers to get skittish

1:28:40and um

1:28:42say oh maybe

1:28:44i won't even mention the name of the

1:28:46town

1:28:47okay so are you are you okay with with

1:28:50the proposal that i just made yes yes

1:28:52you are yes with uh with a group a task

1:28:55force that also includes

1:28:58uh

1:28:59temporary protections for renters

1:29:02while the task force is the temporary

1:29:04protections for renters

1:29:06putting that on it

1:29:08concerns me because then now we've

1:29:10already it's like maybe we've already

1:29:12done what

1:29:14what

1:29:15maybe it's then too late to do it

1:29:18then it's not open and flexible

1:29:20well it would it would end one way or

1:29:22another at the at the conclusion and

1:29:25then we would move on to something that

1:29:26the council would actually right but

1:29:27what happened to the landlord who didn't

1:29:29get to raise the rent no they would get

1:29:31to raise it it would just be raised we

1:29:33would we would

1:29:34i don't know how you would usually

1:29:36pick

1:29:42when i was a renter and my kids being

1:29:44renters everybody gets a one-year lease

1:29:48and so

1:29:49you said seven months i don't know if

1:29:50that was just an example but let's say

1:29:52that it was what you meant for as the

1:29:54final number um then

1:29:57somebody's in a unit

1:30:00and they can't raise the rent after

1:30:03seven months in terms of the agreement

1:30:05between the landlord and the tenant as

1:30:07far as i can figure out

1:30:09um maybe maybe that's not right but

1:30:12usually you sign a lease and it says

1:30:14it's this much per month for for

1:30:17a year well if they were in a lease

1:30:20agreement where it couldn't be changed

1:30:22that wouldn't change anything so i'm i

1:30:24guess i'm speaking specifically on a

1:30:26month-to-month basis

1:30:28to just to make sure that you know they

1:30:30don't

1:30:31increase the rent by

1:30:33a thousand two thousand dollars a month

1:30:36um

1:30:36[Music]

1:30:38that that's the part that bothers me is

1:30:40okay so you you're you would not want to

1:30:42do that okay but the other part of it is

1:30:44okay okay

1:30:46um mayor i wanted to ask a question to

1:30:48staff and the city manager regarding a

1:30:51task force

1:30:52and we are bare bones we continue to be

1:30:55a bare-bones staff we are adding more

1:30:57people um do we have the manpower to

1:31:01create a task force which means more

1:31:04over time and

1:31:06more evenings and i just want to make

1:31:09sure sure can we afford this that's a

1:31:11trick question

1:31:13um

1:31:14at the end of the day

1:31:16the staff will implement the policy that

1:31:18the city council creates

1:31:19having said that i will admit that

1:31:22staffing a task force would be

1:31:24administrative

1:31:25work um it would require isis time it

1:31:29would require

1:31:30you know whatever all of that is for the

1:31:32council it would require selecting the

1:31:34task force interviewing the task force

1:31:36this would certainly prolong

1:31:39the

1:31:40discussion that we're having

1:31:42perhaps the council might consider

1:31:45a task force in addition

1:31:47to some decisions being made

1:31:50with moving forward um

1:31:52we would be open to any sort of a

1:31:54dialogue we would be open to some sort

1:31:56of community understanding i mean i'm

1:31:58looking at melanie and isa thinking of

1:32:01these things you know i don't want to

1:32:03squelch any of that and there could be a

1:32:05lot of value in bringing landlords and

1:32:09tenants to the table and having those

1:32:11discussions my concern is is prolonging

1:32:14this process even longer and further

1:32:17and i think that what we as staff would

1:32:19love to hear from the council is in

1:32:21perhaps we could consider a task force

1:32:24in addition to any decisions being made

1:32:26this evening and then continue to

1:32:28monitor the progress

1:32:30i'm looking at

1:32:31you as far as as staff if you have

1:32:34thoughts on that

1:32:36um in our quick dialogue on it right now

1:32:39um

1:32:40i think we need to be careful just based

1:32:42on experiences with last task force and

1:32:43what the expectations of the council and

1:32:45the community are but i think that we're

1:32:49in agreement that dialogue is needed and

1:32:51we've seen even when we did do the

1:32:52public workshop that we did have

1:32:53representatives from both tenant and

1:32:56landlord and that dialogue is important

1:32:59so i think if it was something like a

1:33:01monthly meeting where we were

1:33:03over a period of time let's say the year

1:33:06while we were all learning continuing to

1:33:07learn as the state

1:33:09legislation occurs and we were really

1:33:10looking at all issues related to

1:33:12affordable housing because i do think

1:33:13these all play together

1:33:15um

1:33:16so i think as long as it was kind of

1:33:18clear in terms of its objectives and

1:33:19expectations but i think a kind of

1:33:21monthly convening that was

1:33:23um

1:33:25i think you could decide as are there

1:33:26specific appointments and

1:33:28representatives or is it a monthly

1:33:30meeting that we're having on this topic

1:33:31with both encouraged to participate but

1:33:33i think some form of taking all this

1:33:36energy that's come forward and and

1:33:38creating a format for dialogue um and i

1:33:41guess we would have to speak with the

1:33:43city attorney and yourselves in terms of

1:33:45the council participation on something

1:33:47like that so that as council member

1:33:49lyman said in the past these are really

1:33:51policy decisions so what what would you

1:33:53want out of this task force um so i

1:33:55think those kind of things to be

1:33:57determined but i think a monthly

1:33:59meeting and dialogue seems like a good

1:34:00idea but i mean to owing to council

1:34:02member king joe's point it is absolutely

1:34:04true that the you're looking at who will

1:34:06be staffing it you're looking at who

1:34:07will be doing it that is

1:34:10one that would be an additional thing

1:34:11that isa would be responsible for

1:34:14and can i can i just say i think

1:34:17this whole package tonight you're going

1:34:18to be coming back to us with

1:34:21again we've not voted on these things

1:34:22you're going to come back fine-tune it a

1:34:24little bit you can give this concept

1:34:26some thought and come back to us with

1:34:29this

1:34:29but again this might maybe task force

1:34:32isn't the right name

1:34:34and staffing is an issue

1:34:36and this may cost more money but my view

1:34:38is we probably should have a goal and an

1:34:40independent collaborator

1:34:43moving this group forward to come out

1:34:45with some conclusions and not just get

1:34:46together to talk but get together to

1:34:49come out as the mayor has said with some

1:34:51resolution to some things

1:34:54that feel good at the end

1:34:57whether it be what are the key

1:34:59protections we want to do other than the

1:35:01the registry and anything else so it may

1:35:04cost money but to have someone that's

1:35:05not associated with the various groups

1:35:07before them might be useful

1:35:10my

1:35:11problem dealing with this is you know i

1:35:13just want to make sure and i agree with

1:35:15councilmember abelson we're thinking

1:35:17about the new uh units that are being

1:35:20built on san pablo avenue will all this

1:35:23affect uh our plans uh in on san pablo

1:35:28avenue would just cause uh

1:35:30create um

1:35:32and will people change their mind on

1:35:34building an el cerrito

1:35:36uh i don't i don't think so i i don't

1:35:38see the connection between the two since

1:35:40uh you know the

1:35:43the

1:35:45relationship is uh

1:35:48doesn't have to be connected

1:35:50when when we brought forth the package

1:35:52in december we did introduce some of

1:35:55those ordinances to exclude units built

1:35:57after january 1st of 2015.

1:36:00so if you decided to pursue the just

1:36:03cause for example with five or more

1:36:05units that is something that could be a

1:36:07possibility

1:36:10mayor to to your direct question of a

1:36:13task force uh i i am very reluctant to

1:36:16to introduce the new task force but i

1:36:18can support that

1:36:20along with your proposal to

1:36:23have some sort of uh

1:36:26temporary

1:36:27cap so that there isn't the

1:36:30consequences of

1:36:32uh you know why we study that there's a

1:36:36whole lot of gouging going on

1:36:40so i understand that was your proposal i

1:36:42certainly can support that but

1:36:44uh you know

1:36:46again the

1:36:48the goal here should be to

1:36:51protect as many residents as possible

1:36:53whether they're

1:36:55housing providers or

1:36:58tenants so

1:37:00okay thank you

1:37:02and

1:37:03council member fidelity are you

1:37:05interested in the task force

1:37:07with a

1:37:09associated cap temporary cap

1:37:12i'd like to see what the staff comes

1:37:14back with i'm definitely interested in a

1:37:17a group

1:37:19in our community coming together and

1:37:21talking about what we should be doing

1:37:24okay so i'm just gonna um at the moment

1:37:26i just want to clarify that i'm not sure

1:37:28that

1:37:29staff is waiting to get direction from

1:37:31the council so at the moment i would say

1:37:33staff's not

1:37:34clear what what what what you would come

1:37:36back with so so where i believe the

1:37:39council is at this point

1:37:41um there have uh council member fidelity

1:37:43and council member lyman had some rough

1:37:45agreement on

1:37:47some components of the policy proposals

1:37:49that staff have brought forward

1:37:51uh mayor

1:37:53pardue okamoto

1:37:55suggested the idea of a task force with

1:37:57a temporary cap on rent increases while

1:37:59it was working and in lieu of that was

1:38:01supportive of

1:38:03the rough agreement that that council

1:38:04members fidelity and um lyman had

1:38:07suggested regarding the policy proposals

1:38:09that had been brought forward

1:38:11um i think council member abelson was in

1:38:13favor of a task force without the rent

1:38:14increase council for alignment is in

1:38:16favor of the task force with the rent

1:38:17increase so i'm not sure that we have

1:38:19clear direction from the council so i

1:38:21think as i i would um see i think that

1:38:24there are a couple of different paths

1:38:26forward at this point mayor and i just

1:38:27suggest that maybe you um

1:38:31get the council to to follow one of

1:38:33those paths and and come up with a

1:38:35majority to correct staff and then we

1:38:36can come back and it could be both we

1:38:38could come back with

1:38:39policy

1:38:40with ordinances an acting policy where

1:38:43we believe there was um some some

1:38:45consensus amongst a majority of the

1:38:47council members or we could come back

1:38:49with a task force or we could do both

1:38:51but i think so

1:38:53getting the council members to um to

1:38:55clarify what path um you'd like staff to

1:38:57follow would be helpful at this point

1:38:59and just to add to that we have not at

1:39:02all studied understood contemplated any

1:39:05sort of a cap a moratorium or anything

1:39:08like that so again this would be

1:39:10prolonging this process even further

1:39:12because we would have to study

1:39:14investigate find out all of the legal

1:39:16ramifications and bring that back to you

1:39:18at another month's time or a couple

1:39:21months time i don't know how quickly we

1:39:22could do that honestly we have not

1:39:24looked at that at all so

1:39:26i have a question regarding

1:39:28the temporary rent cap now with

1:39:32the city attorney here isn't that

1:39:34considered

1:39:35rent control

1:39:38yes it would be the way i have seen

1:39:40other cities do it um just to give you a

1:39:43full answer to add on to the yes um it

1:39:45has been either a temporary complete

1:39:48moratorium on rent increases or

1:39:51a cap on the amount that rents can be

1:39:53increased but but yes it would it would

1:39:55count as a form of rent control and so

1:39:57it would only apply to housing units

1:39:59that for which rent control is allowable

1:40:01under cost of hawkins but but it is also

1:40:03something that that several communities

1:40:05in in the in the area have done

1:40:09um

1:40:10or if i may i'd love to pull the low try

1:40:13and get some low hanging fruit um i

1:40:15would uh move that we direct staff to in

1:40:19so they can be put in place in time for

1:40:21business license renewal uh bring us

1:40:24bring forth a ordinance with regards to

1:40:27the rent registry

1:40:32well

1:40:33yes but if we put together a temporary

1:40:36well the rent registry would be able to

1:40:38look at uh retroactive

1:40:40okay and it and it would run concurrent

1:40:42with uh with with doing nothing it would

1:40:45run concurrent it would collect data

1:40:47okay that's kind of um

1:40:52it's if we're gonna

1:40:54have

1:40:55these study groups or

1:40:57whatever we're calling these

1:40:59citizen

1:41:01uh

1:41:02participants in this process

1:41:04and but we've already set up all these

1:41:06parameters regardless of what they are

1:41:08then we're sort of saying we want you to

1:41:10tell us what to do but we've already

1:41:11decided what to do and i don't really

1:41:14want to do that

1:41:15what i wanted what i would like to do is

1:41:19as maybe as sort of a wrinkle on what

1:41:21was suggested is to say

1:41:24let's do a quick study i've seen a

1:41:27format done

1:41:29where

1:41:31it often occurs at conferences and

1:41:34things where everybody

1:41:35uh divides into little subgroups and

1:41:38they have so many subgroups or whatever

1:41:41and then they all come together and so

1:41:44each subcommittee has their own opinion

1:41:47uh out of that process and this takes

1:41:49like one session

1:41:51to do

1:41:53so we're not talking money we're a lot

1:41:55of money we're not talking a lot of

1:41:57anything

1:41:59and then they uh come together as a

1:42:02larger group the whole group

1:42:04the whole task force as it were and uh

1:42:07try to form a task force opinion within

1:42:10side of uh

1:42:12you know the the session

1:42:14so maybe this could be

1:42:16i'm guessing uh a one day thing

1:42:19saturday

1:42:20one day no

1:42:22notification and so forth and that might

1:42:24get us

1:42:26um that might be

1:42:28more maneuverable than um

1:42:32a long process

1:42:34if i may or clarify on my motion

1:42:38my motion is is almost identical to

1:42:42assemblymember wix

1:42:44ab725 which is calling or 724 which is

1:42:48calling for

1:42:49a rent registry so

1:42:51um all i'm asking for is for us to

1:42:53collect data that that

1:42:55if we find it in time it can that data

1:42:58could be available to us uh by the end

1:43:01of june and the

1:43:03working groups the

1:43:05citizen groups would be able to

1:43:07capitalize on some of that information

1:43:09so the

1:43:10the

1:43:12the

1:43:13motion is

1:43:15to uh direct staff

1:43:17to move forward with an ordinance with

1:43:19regards to rent registry and are we

1:43:21voting tonight yes i'm asking for a

1:43:23second a second

1:43:26just to clarify we're not voting on the

1:43:27ordinance itself it is voting on

1:43:29directions

1:43:30this is voting on direction to staff

1:43:33but wouldn't would this

1:43:35thing that you're saying there's a

1:43:36motion on the floor can i

1:43:38we we have comment okay

1:43:40um

1:43:42is this without

1:43:44increasing fees

1:43:47um it would

1:43:49if in the interim it probably wouldn't

1:43:51necessarily need to have fees i mean i

1:43:53don't know if you're going to come back

1:43:54with the fees recommendation so we can

1:43:56um we explored the rent the database

1:43:59that we're using for our business

1:44:00license so we can

1:44:02seek further resources to see if there's

1:44:05a more cost efficient way

1:44:08but again we we also want to be mindful

1:44:10that we want to bring the data back in

1:44:12in a good presented in a good manner um

1:44:15so it may take some investment to be

1:44:17able to have that the the necessary

1:44:20tools to be able to do that

1:44:23and cost recovery was the initial way

1:44:25that we proposed for that to happen

1:44:27right i will support cost recovery but i

1:44:30just want to make sure of what that

1:44:32entails how do we how do we get that

1:44:35recovered yeah

1:44:37right and when we ask if there's a risk

1:44:39to it um right now

1:44:43i was i was just i'm sorry to interrupt

1:44:47the idea would be that if you provide us

1:44:48direction that we would come back with

1:44:50those details at a further date

1:44:52absolutely and we hear very clearly that

1:44:54we want it to be efficient effective and

1:44:57with some sort of measure of cost

1:44:59recovery that's we will contemplate all

1:45:01of that so the vote tonight is just for

1:45:03you to go research it and bring it back

1:45:06to bring it back to you actually do it

1:45:08not at this time no we would need to

1:45:10bring you an ordinance back for you to

1:45:11put that in place because we don't for

1:45:13example know what the fees cracked uh i

1:45:16don't know we'd have to know what the

1:45:17fee

1:45:18all of it but we we aren't making any um

1:45:22ultimate decision we're just saying look

1:45:24bring it back to us with him for more

1:45:26information

1:45:28yeah and i need to if with mr fideli's

1:45:31blessing i would love to make sure that

1:45:33we um describe what type of units we're

1:45:36covering i would like that to that

1:45:37ordinance to cover all units

1:45:39um so

1:45:40because it's an information gathering uh

1:45:43tool uh

1:45:44the broader the the broader the base the

1:45:47broader the number of units it's

1:45:48covering the least cost less cost it is

1:45:50to each unit

1:45:52um so if including adus yes

1:45:56so it would be single family to use

1:45:58duplex triplex quad plex and five plus

1:46:01so that

1:46:02that that would be

1:46:04you put adus in it

1:46:06so this would be just strictly data

1:46:08purposes for the

1:46:102618 rental units that are currently

1:46:13registered

1:46:15with the city

1:46:17and we will work on getting the others

1:46:20that are not in compliance and

1:46:22compliance the other 1300 units that are

1:46:24not in compliance yes

1:46:27the example i was giving of the of the

1:46:30landlord who

1:46:32uh had taken it off the rental market

1:46:34they did it legally

1:46:36um so so we're not talking about

1:46:38somebody who's

1:46:40it's never come back on the

1:46:42so that that yeah that could be part of

1:46:44our survey though that it could be a

1:46:46question that we can ask use the word

1:46:48who um who are registered so meaning if

1:46:51they recently took off their rental unit

1:46:54on the rental market we could

1:46:55potentially go back in time within the

1:46:57last two to three years i know that your

1:46:59ask was five years but we could reach

1:47:01out to that was more wondering what that

1:47:05was when i was asking that but my point

1:47:06now is you just made the comment the

1:47:09catching

1:47:10catching up with the ones who didn't

1:47:12they aren't it doesn't mean they're

1:47:14there to get caught up with because

1:47:15they're gone

1:47:16that's true that could be a true yep so

1:47:19they shouldn't be viewed as having done

1:47:20something to evade our um yeah it can

1:47:24vary it could be people are just turning

1:47:26their nose to us or

1:47:28people are really not running anymore so

1:47:30but i mean they did for for reasons of

1:47:33our fees or whatever i don't know you

1:47:35know what

1:47:36the point is it can be legitimate

1:47:39um

1:47:43as a reminder this isn't for any kind of

1:47:45enforcement at the this is we want to

1:47:47enforce getting good data but this is

1:47:48just to get data on our rental on the

1:47:50trends in our rental market

1:47:54okay we have a motion on the floor

1:47:56we have a second

1:48:01so do we receive remember fidelity

1:48:04assuming that you are agreeable with the

1:48:06additional clarifications from council

1:48:08member lymon that it would be for

1:48:10all unit types and that we would

1:48:11additionally look at um what a cost

1:48:13recovery program would look like for the

1:48:15registry

1:48:16that's why our discussion has always

1:48:17been i'm hoping it's could we restate

1:48:19the motion sure i move that we give

1:48:22staff direction to work on an ordinance

1:48:24for a

1:48:26rent registry that covers

1:48:29all rental types single family adus

1:48:33duplex triplex quad plex and five plus

1:48:37and

1:48:38the ordinance needs to discuss

1:48:40cost recovery

1:48:43all in

1:48:45that favor the yeah that was just

1:48:46reading that was just reading the

1:48:47ordinance okay

1:48:49all in favor aye

1:48:51those opposed

1:48:53no no

1:48:54abstentions

1:48:56motion passes

1:49:07we have additional direction

1:49:10councilmember lyman are you sure

1:49:14[Music]

1:49:22again in the in the effort to keep us

1:49:24moving forward

1:49:26i will make a motion give direction to

1:49:28staff to identify a um

1:49:32a ongoing

1:49:34sorry that's not the right word uh i

1:49:37give guidance to staff to develop a

1:49:39uh city working group proposal

1:49:43to

1:49:43continue to get

1:49:46information exchanged between

1:49:49housing providers and tenants

1:49:54i don't understand what you're saying i

1:49:56give staff direction to work on a

1:50:00program of workshops or

1:50:03ex

1:50:04task force

1:50:05to allow the

1:50:06housing providers

1:50:08and tenant rights people to continue a

1:50:11dialogue

1:50:15about what

1:50:17you didn't say

1:50:18about all of our ordinances that may or

1:50:20may not pass tonight i mean i i i

1:50:23thought we were going to be moving

1:50:25uh ordinances forward tonight but

1:50:27clearly we're not

1:50:28can i ask for clarification you uh when

1:50:30you said that one time versus a second

1:50:32time are you asking us to return

1:50:34with a couple proposals for what such a

1:50:36working group could look like so when we

1:50:38return or

1:50:39so that it's something that you're

1:50:41approving the the format of that and

1:50:43that we come back with a proposal

1:50:45because there's a lot of different

1:50:46models obviously sure let me use that as

1:50:48a place of retreat let me try something

1:50:51else i'd like to

1:50:54make a motion that we

1:50:55give staff direction to work on a just

1:50:58cause eviction

1:50:59uh

1:51:00that applies to units that

1:51:04buildings with five units or more

1:51:12okay

1:51:13so you've skipped the

1:51:15task force discovery i am i'm skipping

1:51:17that because i wasn't executive because

1:51:19i wanted to i wanted to see if that this

1:51:20one would work just cause give staff

1:51:22direction to work on a just cause for

1:51:24eviction

1:51:26um

1:51:27with a potentially a no cause you didn't

1:51:29cover no cause tonight but i've

1:51:31certainly heard a lot of discussion

1:51:33about no cause in the in various things

1:51:36so potentially it could be

1:51:38just cost for eviction on units on

1:51:41buildings with five units or more

1:51:44i would second that as long as it is the

1:51:46large multi-family units that we're

1:51:48talking about

1:51:52i actually thought we were not

1:51:55doing that as

1:51:56a step tonight it's not we're not

1:51:59passing the ordinance

1:52:09so it feels to me much like what you're

1:52:11just trying to

1:52:13push everything forward without

1:52:17having the discussion between the

1:52:19tenants group

1:52:21and the landlord group

1:52:23um well i put that on the table and

1:52:25nobody jumped on it so i figured i would

1:52:27retract that and do something else

1:52:30feels like we're going to go down the

1:52:31line on that but

1:52:33um it's

1:52:36i i think

1:52:38i i like the idea of having the two

1:52:40groups talk to each other

1:52:42um i mean i actually i mean i think it's

1:52:44a good process i mean i think it's

1:52:46has a lot of potential

1:52:48and um

1:52:50but we have to in order for it to do

1:52:52that we have to honor it

1:52:55and i don't think we honor it when we go

1:52:56ahead and say what we're going to do

1:52:58anyway

1:52:59well regardless of what it is i don't

1:53:01think that if we direct the staff to

1:53:03continue to look at jeff's cause that it

1:53:06means that we're not going to listen to

1:53:07what the task is to bring back a

1:53:10proposal that was the part that was

1:53:12troublesome

1:53:15um

1:53:16okay could it be reworded maybe continue

1:53:19to study

1:53:20so that it

1:53:22um

1:53:23i will reword the proposal i don't know

1:53:25if we have to act on the current one or

1:53:27if i i'm allowed to modify my own make a

1:53:29substitute motion i guess is the correct

1:53:31terminology

1:53:33uh that there was there i don't believe

1:53:34there was a sec there was there was so

1:53:36there is a motion on the table so i can

1:53:38do a substitute motion if i understand

1:53:40if i understand my own rules somewhere

1:53:42out there

1:53:44i'd like to make a substitute motion and

1:53:45this too could equally be

1:53:48[Music]

1:53:50received poorly miss abelson

1:53:53i'd like to

1:53:54direct staff to continue researching

1:53:56just cause eviction including no cause

1:54:01having that just cause eviction

1:54:04explaining how that just cause eviction

1:54:07might work in the context of

1:54:10large unit units with five or more sorry

1:54:13buildings with more five or more units

1:54:16and

1:54:18potentially considering a sunset on that

1:54:22ordinance so that it would

1:54:24potentially

1:54:26end in 12 months

1:54:38is there a second

1:54:44no

1:54:45well the original motion then is still

1:54:47on the table

1:54:53no second

1:54:55there was a second for the original

1:54:57moment so the original the original

1:54:58motion to direct staff to prepare a just

1:55:00cause eviction ordinance applying to

1:55:02buildings with five or more units is

1:55:04still on the table okay can i make a

1:55:06friendly amendment on that one

1:55:10sure

1:55:11i would like to change that to

1:55:13um

1:55:14instead of five plus units um can we

1:55:18change that to corporate owned units

1:55:21corporations owning it

1:55:23[Music]

1:55:29i'm not sure there's a way for us to

1:55:32well

1:55:32um

1:55:36we'd have to that would require

1:55:38additional legal research okay

1:55:40which and could that be done by staff

1:55:42that comes back to us

1:55:44we're talking about

1:55:45giving you some direction together i

1:55:47just think that i mean the reality i i

1:55:50sus

1:55:51well if one so just to play a couple

1:55:53things on the table i suspect that very

1:55:55few buildings with five or more units

1:55:56are owned by individual persons they are

1:55:59that i suspect that most of them are

1:56:00owned by some kind of corporate some

1:56:02sort of non-human person entity right

1:56:05like a c corp or a llc or

1:56:08or even a trust right which is a form of

1:56:11corporation however

1:56:13asking staff to consider it i'm more

1:56:15than willing to take that uh amendment

1:56:18if if mr fideli is

1:56:20i would also point out though that

1:56:22that there are probably some corporate

1:56:23owned units some corporate owned

1:56:25buildings that are fewer than five units

1:56:28correct but but for now we've just

1:56:30i just

1:56:31i want to be clear that the account that

1:56:32that is what council member quinto is

1:56:35is proposing

1:56:36we're just focused on the 107 buildings

1:56:40with 100 with

1:56:411493 units or

1:56:44might i get my numbers right 11

1:56:4714 11 50 11 50.

1:56:52oh that's true because it's got to be

1:56:54pretty well this would be

1:56:56uh

1:56:58oh that's another thing we could

1:56:59potentially

1:57:00because this could just apply to january

1:57:03buildings built prior to january of

1:57:05night of 2015

1:57:08because this is just cause eviction

1:57:10that's an option that you could

1:57:13specify so so i'm i'm working on my own

1:57:17amendment i'm working on my own

1:57:19uh

1:57:20motion but it's

1:57:22so

1:57:23looking at mr fideli uh it would be

1:57:25buildings five plus and larger built

1:57:28prior to january 1 2015.

1:57:32what are the numbers on that again

1:57:35does that increase the number of

1:57:37no degree

1:57:42because we didn't specify any dates

1:57:44previously and again we're not locking

1:57:47this in tonight you're going back to

1:57:49study this and tell us where okay

1:57:52so and including mr quinto's question

1:57:56about uh

1:57:59the definition of property owner

1:58:02thank you

1:58:05you're seconding all that i i think i

1:58:08continue my second thing okay

1:58:10all in favor

1:58:11aye aye

1:58:12as opposed no

1:58:15abstentions

1:58:17motion passes

1:58:20okay

1:58:24minimum lease term do we need

1:58:26um

1:58:27minimum lease terms is low hanging fruit

1:58:29staff actually is if you want you can go

1:58:32i'll second that if you want to move

1:58:33that forward move them

1:58:36what minimum lease term

1:58:38proposal that you guys

1:58:40to come back with us

1:58:42yeah i think uh council member lyman you

1:58:45might i think the thing you're concerned

1:58:47with is we just wanted to specify that

1:58:50that doesn't prohibit leases sometimes

1:58:52from being

1:58:53fascinated yeah the the the

1:58:56the what you provided us in december i

1:58:58thought was fine for that uh ordinance

1:59:01so i'm i would be i'm not certain we

1:59:04need to give you any additional

1:59:05direction because i actually think the

1:59:06ordinance that was presented in december

1:59:08that we read is fine so actually

1:59:10i'm not certain the only thing that we

1:59:12might give direction mr fideli is is on

1:59:15how it would fold into other ordinances

1:59:20so that we get we so that

1:59:22so we don't end up with a

1:59:24lot of little pieces of ordinances

1:59:27i know that doesn't necessarily follow

1:59:29the guidance you gave earlier about

1:59:31bringing it to us in in small bits so we

1:59:33can act on them independently but we did

1:59:36do the first reading of a

1:59:39minimum lease ordinance in december and

1:59:41i have no reason to change that

1:59:43direction at this time

1:59:46i concur with that okay so that we would

1:59:48basically be bringing back the ordinance

1:59:50that was already introduced

1:59:52but for the for a second reading and

1:59:54adoption but we would make sure that the

1:59:56other ordinances that the council gives

1:59:58us direction about tonight

2:00:00um are integrated with that with that

2:00:03ordinance yeah so it may it may trigger

2:00:05a new first reading of that ordinance as

2:00:07a result of how to dovetail it with

2:00:08others

2:00:09it might but

2:00:11we'll figure that out i think we're

2:00:12being

2:00:14the motion is to to vote on something we

2:00:16don't know the details of right

2:00:19is that what you're doing right now no

2:00:20direction

2:00:21giving direction

2:00:23no but the part of the wrinkle about

2:00:27it having to could you repeat what you

2:00:29just said certainly um

2:00:32i guess my motion to be to be clear

2:00:34since we already have had the first

2:00:36reading of the minimum lease term and

2:00:37that's what it's actually mr fideli's

2:00:39motion but i will help him with it

2:00:41would be to

2:00:43give staff direction to see if the

2:00:46existing

2:00:48minimum lease ordinance that we voted on

2:00:50in december needs revision

2:00:53associated with other ordinances that

2:00:55we're looking at

2:00:56but otherwise to bring it back

2:00:58as part of a package so what you're

2:01:00doing what if i if i could ask a

2:01:02question you're what you're doing is

2:01:04going through and doing all of it now

2:01:08and

2:01:09so

2:01:10right

2:01:11that's why i think you're on the

2:01:13i'm i'm trying to

2:01:14looks like it missed mr mr quinto and i

2:01:17actually agree that i would prefer to

2:01:19actually move this forward then to build

2:01:21a a

2:01:22a bureaucracy to

2:01:24[Music]

2:01:25study this i i made an attempt to i

2:01:29actually moved meeting is not a

2:01:30bureaucracy it wasn't what intended to

2:01:32be a one-time meeting i was trying to

2:01:33give staff direction on on a program of

2:01:36meetings that we could do and and no one

2:01:38jumped on that so for me um

2:01:41this these are things that we've

2:01:43discussed and i think we all support so

2:01:45i'm trying to move them forward not sure

2:01:47we all support granted granted we had a

2:01:503-2 vote just a minute ago okay we had

2:01:53several the um

2:01:58[Music]

2:02:01i'm sorry councilmember fidelity did you

2:02:02second councilmember

2:02:04it's actually his motion i realized my

2:02:05motion he clarified so i'm sorry you won

2:02:08a second the most i'm i'm second i'm

2:02:10saying mr fideli since he is agreed to

2:02:12that parliamentarian greg

2:02:17all right so there's a motion on the

2:02:19floor

2:02:20all in favor

2:02:23aye aye those opposed no

2:02:26extensions motion passes

2:02:31all right so i was

2:02:33still interested in

2:02:35what i had proposed before but um it

2:02:38sounds that

2:02:39you you may have people who are willing

2:02:41to make those motions on your behalf

2:02:44i mean the one that you're talking about

2:02:46the

2:02:47the task force okay i will make a motion

2:02:50to hear from the mom and pop landlords

2:02:52in terms of where they think they could

2:02:54find common ground with the tenants of

2:02:55elsa i could i'd be happy to try to uh

2:02:58craft one right now

2:03:01the i would like to make a motion that

2:03:04staff bring back

2:03:07a

2:03:09proposed format for doing it two ways

2:03:11and then tell us which one you think is

2:03:13the better way to do like a one-time

2:03:16meeting or a

2:03:18dialogue that goes on over a longer

2:03:20period of time

2:03:21and then

2:03:22and if you could have the cost

2:03:23associated with that and then

2:03:26if uh the group of

2:03:29residents and they would need all need

2:03:31to be residents would be made up equally

2:03:34of

2:03:35landlords and tenants

2:03:37and

2:03:39with a multitude of building sizes

2:03:43um

2:03:44and um

2:03:45i'm willing to accept amendments here

2:03:48can you clear i just i would just like

2:03:49to suggest that it would be helpful for

2:03:51us in crafting something if you could

2:03:53articulate what the goal of the task the

2:03:55goal thank you the goal of it would be

2:03:59to

2:04:01present a

2:04:03hopefully i don't know if this is

2:04:04possible but

2:04:05the goal is still the same

2:04:08to prevent a uh

2:04:10series of recommendations about this

2:04:13housing process that we're going through

2:04:15right now

2:04:16that would be um

2:04:19desirable by both landlords and tenants

2:04:22as a workable model

2:04:24so if i could

2:04:26help just to tie it to

2:04:28to um

2:04:30to just because you did reference the

2:04:32process that we're going through and

2:04:33just a reminder that we're discussing

2:04:35pillar b

2:04:36of

2:04:38i mean the whole thing right which which

2:04:40is with the primary

2:04:42points of which are prevent displacement

2:04:45and

2:04:46four pillars

2:04:48increase

2:04:49increase and help stabilize that risk

2:04:51populations thank you yes thank you okay

2:04:54so

2:04:55i will second that

2:04:57and

2:04:58and i just wanted to when costs are

2:05:00considered could you consider an

2:05:02individual collaborator too

2:05:04i mean we don't have to do that that

2:05:06might be a it could be a third option

2:05:08that's fine whatever just so we have a

2:05:10real move toward a resolution in this

2:05:13exercise

2:05:15and and one thing i just wanted to say

2:05:16is i don't view this as

2:05:18as a conflict to what we're doing here

2:05:20tonight if this group comes up with some

2:05:22wonderful ideas we come together we can

2:05:25change we can come back before our

2:05:27council and change what we just did if

2:05:29in fact there's agreement god bless us

2:05:32so thank you i will second this if this

2:05:34is not second it's already had a second

2:05:36by quinto

2:05:37all right so i i will say all in favor

2:05:40aye aye those opposed

2:05:43motion carries

2:05:46what about tenant protections uh while

2:05:48this task force is being assembled

2:05:51i'll i'll make the unpopular motion i'm

2:05:53more than willing to be on the minority

2:05:55for a change um i will move that we

2:06:00ask staff to look at an ordinance

2:06:04that

2:06:05does put into place a rent

2:06:09cap during the

2:06:10period of time that we're doing the

2:06:12working session that we're trying to

2:06:13come up with

2:06:15a

2:06:17overall solution for pillar b

2:06:20so it would obviously be

2:06:22the duration of the

2:06:24of the cap would be tied to your

2:06:26proposals

2:06:28around

2:06:29uh the working sessions working groups

2:06:31um

2:06:32it would i think i would stick with the

2:06:3510 percent annum that i proposed uh

2:06:37previously as part of the relocation

2:06:40and uh that i would have it

2:06:43retroactive to our december 18 2018

2:06:47date if they came up with a proposal to

2:06:50make this a permanent task force

2:06:53then what you just said was a permanent

2:06:56um

2:06:57uh that was certainly wasn't my intent

2:06:59i'm not assuming what you said though

2:07:01fine not to exceed one year

2:07:04that's rent control for a year is that

2:07:05correct

2:07:06it's not to exceed not to exceed um but

2:07:09i would also we we would need to

2:07:11we would probably come back with a with

2:07:13a with less time just based on some

2:07:16legal issues that we'd need to look at

2:07:18but i unders but i understood council i

2:07:19think we can take it face value council

2:07:21member lyman's

2:07:22motion to up no no more than a year

2:07:25and just to be clear it's it would be

2:07:28no

2:07:29so it would be a 10 a 10 cap on rent

2:07:32increases annually retroactive to

2:07:34december 18 2018.

2:07:36correct

2:07:38okay for up to a year how can you be

2:07:40retroactive

2:07:44it is feasible i it's i'm not certain i

2:07:46mean it's i'm not certain it's perfect

2:07:48but it it is feasible if somebody's it's

2:07:50another legal issue that we need to look

2:07:52at but but several

2:07:54cities that have implemented similar

2:07:56types of moratoriums on rent increases

2:07:59have made them retroactive to the dates

2:08:00that the city council first took up the

2:08:02issue

2:08:05so but logistically what that means then

2:08:07is that somebody pays the the rent

2:08:11and then they get a check from the

2:08:12landlord

2:08:14is that what that means

2:08:16i'm sorry what do you mean someone put a

2:08:18lease in

2:08:19i thought that was clear

2:08:21um so if let's say this let's pick

2:08:24december 15th okay december 15th the

2:08:26person pays their rent

2:08:29okay and they pay their rent again in uh

2:08:32january and they do it again in

2:08:34february

2:08:36okay come come today let's pretend like

2:08:39it was today

2:08:40and

2:08:43we we do this action

2:08:46does that mean that they then have to

2:08:47refund

2:08:49the rent

2:08:51to the tenant the landlord

2:08:53um

2:08:54the way that i have seen most of these

2:08:56set up they're tied to

2:08:59a notice of rent increase that is

2:09:01unilateral by the landlord not um not

2:09:04tied to a an agreed-upon new lease

2:09:09so the answer would be no as i have

2:09:10typically seen these moratoriums crafted

2:09:14and as we would so i'm following which

2:09:16way no um no there would not the

2:09:20landlord wouldn't in the case in which

2:09:21in on december 15 the landlord and

2:09:23tenant entered into a new lease okay if

2:09:26we made this retroactive to december

2:09:2818th

2:09:29in the the landlord would not have to

2:09:32refund money to the tenant so it's only

2:09:34if it's on that exact date that's sort

2:09:36of like

2:09:37it has to do with the structure of of

2:09:39the of how the rent increase was

2:09:41implemented in the in the hypothetical

2:09:44that you outlined it was as a result of

2:09:46a new lease that had been agreed upon

2:09:48not a unilateral rent increase imposed

2:09:51by the landlord

2:09:53an example would be if if the rent in

2:09:56december was two thousand dollars

2:09:58and in january the landlord made it

2:10:0121.95

2:10:04then they're not subject to this and

2:10:07their housing unit is older than 1995.

2:10:10then they wouldn't be they would that's

2:10:12an increase that's less than 10 percent

2:10:13so they can do that so they're not in

2:10:15the new jeopardy if the rent was 2 000

2:10:18in december and they made it 2300 in

2:10:21january then what would be at risk is

2:10:24the hundred dollars between 2200 and

2:10:272300 and they could don't have to refund

2:10:30it directly they could apply it to

2:10:32future uh rent payments

2:10:34so it wouldn't be the entire rent that's

2:10:37true that they don't have to refund it i

2:10:40i believe that is accurate and we could

2:10:42certainly write the ordinance that way

2:10:45so so all that would be a jeopardy would

2:10:48be the the amount between

2:10:51what the actual increase was and a 10

2:10:53percent increase and since most of these

2:10:55people have testified that they don't

2:10:57even do five percent increases on an

2:10:59annual basis no one in this room

2:11:01probably has to worry about this because

2:11:03none of them have done it

2:11:05that's all their testimony so all of our

2:11:07good housing providers have fallen into

2:11:10a category by making it ten percent that

2:11:12they probably didn't they don't have an

2:11:14issue

2:11:15okay

2:11:17okay so motions on the four is there a

2:11:20second

2:11:24a

2:11:25question

2:11:26uh can the mayor second my motion she

2:11:29can

2:11:30okay

2:11:31i second it

2:11:34all in favor

2:11:36aye there's opposed no

2:11:41motion

2:11:42is denied

2:11:51all right do we have any more

2:11:52recommendations for the staff uh mr

2:11:54fidel do you want to deal with uh

2:11:56relocation

2:11:59we did a relocation with rent increase

2:12:01in december uh the staff had brought us

2:12:03rent relocation relocation with

2:12:06uh

2:12:07for demolition i don't know if you want

2:12:09to move that forward at this time that

2:12:11as

2:12:12staff has testified it's

2:12:14it's a good planning tool not

2:12:16necessarily a necessary so we could

2:12:18defer that to the working group

2:12:24i'd like it the way

2:12:25it this does not involve the rent

2:12:27increase by 20 percent over two years is

2:12:30that correct

2:12:32the

2:12:33a relocation package for demolition

2:12:35that's shorthand for the actual red

2:12:38ordinance that they brought to us in

2:12:39december

2:12:42for

2:12:44seniors and disabled i would be

2:12:46supportive yeah so it would be for five

2:12:48months for special circumstance um less

2:12:51the rent increase

2:12:53well that was

2:12:55just demolition nationally

2:12:58that was the one that was

2:13:01a huge amount of money

2:13:04for i think it was the increase you were

2:13:06concerned about i think it was the one i

2:13:07was and i'm and what i'm

2:13:10thinking i i

2:13:11i always say when i think about these

2:13:13things i think what if i were the person

2:13:15on this side what if i were the person

2:13:17on the other side so this is without the

2:13:20rent increase over two years so

2:13:24i think this is the one and correct me

2:13:26if i'm wrong where

2:13:28uh i said

2:13:31wait a minute i'm if i were the land i'm

2:13:33if i were looking at myself as the

2:13:35landlord's side

2:13:36and i said wait a minute i'm disabled

2:13:39but the other person isn't because i

2:13:41made i mean imaginary people

2:13:43the um i couldn't refund all that money

2:13:48to a tenant

2:13:52i couldn't you know however so again

2:13:54this is generally if there's going to be

2:13:56some sort of massive reinvestment into

2:13:58the property where there is generally

2:14:01these costs are built into it before

2:14:03that activity where where does the

2:14:04wording say that because i didn't hear

2:14:06that

2:14:08it's relocation and it's actually for

2:14:10properties being demolished so we talked

2:14:12about for example just demolish yeah yes

2:14:15it's not with the rent increase that's

2:14:17demolished and major remodel or

2:14:19repurposing did you restate it just so i

2:14:21could hear it that way

2:14:23um i move that we send to staff for

2:14:27reconsideration the

2:14:30um

2:14:30[Music]

2:14:33how do you phrase that

2:14:35the demolition demolition relocation

2:14:37relocation policy

2:14:41for tenants that includes an extra month

2:14:45beyond the existing

2:14:47provision

2:14:49for certain circumstances involving age

2:14:52and

2:14:53disabilities

2:14:57for the tenants per

2:14:58month for

2:15:01five months is that what it was yeah

2:15:03special circumstance households would be

2:15:05five months total all others would be

2:15:08three months and it would be based on a

2:15:12hundred and twenty percent of areas only

2:15:13for demolition correct

2:15:16okay

2:15:22that was my motion

2:15:25is there a second

2:15:31okay

2:15:33i will explain why i'm not

2:15:36seconding this i actually think this is

2:15:38something that the working group should

2:15:39work on because they hopefully might

2:15:41come back with uh with incorporating

2:15:43some of the

2:15:44just emotions we put in place in

2:15:46december so i i

2:15:48am delighted that this is dying for lack

2:15:50of a second

2:16:00well

2:16:00i i will second it

2:16:03and just in that i would like to see

2:16:06them come back with more information on

2:16:08it

2:16:10which we could change if we'd like what

2:16:12they offer up instead of us but

2:16:16demolition has well i don't need to talk

2:16:18anymore about it's been an issue here

2:16:20for a couple of years that we've been

2:16:21concerned about and relocation and

2:16:24displacement has been an issue so this

2:16:26is

2:16:26seems to be a simple

2:16:28provision

2:16:30mr lyman would you like to discuss your

2:16:32i still want more

2:16:34so

2:16:34that's if the guidance is to just do the

2:16:37tenant relocation with demolition that

2:16:38was here that was presented to us on

2:16:41december 18th

2:16:42i want more um if

2:16:46hopefully i mean i'll take i'll take

2:16:48i'll agree with with council member

2:16:50abelson um i would love to see our

2:16:52working group continue to work on this

2:16:54on this matter uh so i

2:16:58i could move it forward but certainly

2:17:00would want um the working group to be

2:17:02able to work on this as part of their

2:17:04pillar b

2:17:05uh

2:17:06statute

2:17:07so so taking

2:17:09mr fideli's words and

2:17:12echoing them just because we're moving

2:17:14just because we're asking staff to bring

2:17:16back ordinances does not preclude us

2:17:17from changing those ordinances

2:17:19so we we could move something even even

2:17:23flawed and not far enough we could move

2:17:26it forward and

2:17:27and still have the working group

2:17:30continue to evaluate it

2:17:32okay emotions on the floor

2:17:34we have a second

2:17:36all in favor

2:17:38aye

2:17:39those opposed no

2:17:47oh okay so then we have

2:17:50failed

2:17:51it fails when it's time i vote so it

2:17:53does not pass okay

2:17:55all right that's my first tie okay

2:17:59all right um

2:18:01all right do we have any more

2:18:04yeah the the last one um for

2:18:07consideration but i think that we're

2:18:09going to substitute that with the rent

2:18:10registry of course with your

2:18:13consideration as the termination of

2:18:14tenancy

2:18:16which where we were going to collect the

2:18:17data for tenancies that were being

2:18:19terminated correct i think

2:18:21i think we're in consensus that we will

2:18:23not move forward with that with going

2:18:25forward with the registry

2:18:29okay

2:18:30[Music]

2:18:32do we have any

2:18:36i think we have everything that we need

2:18:40to bring these back for your

2:18:42consideration good luck

2:18:44thank you

2:18:45thank you

2:18:46thank you for your presentation and

2:18:48thank you for

2:18:50all the work that you've done on this

2:18:51and thank you for all the future work

2:18:53that you'll be doing on this especially

2:18:57an extra thank you for that

2:18:59and thank um thank everybody in the

2:19:01audience for coming out tonight and

2:19:04hopefully we can continue to work

2:19:06together and really come with up with

2:19:07some good solutions that work for

2:19:09everyone

2:19:10um or at least make everyone equally

2:19:12unhappy

2:19:14thank you very much i appreciate that

2:19:16and we're not all in this meeting

2:19:26we will have a recess and start the next

2:19:28meeting at eight pm

2:19:31it says seven

2:19:33yeah well it's almost you're asking that

2:19:3648.

2:21:19[Music]

2:21:25i heard there was an email too

2:21:27i don't remember i thought chinese food

2:21:29i remember oh i was here and someone

2:21:31said directly

2:21:34okay well i'm gonna i'm gonna

2:21:39all right we're ready

2:21:41i hope so ready to move on to the next

2:21:44meeting

2:21:45everybody everybody

2:21:49i don't even think

2:21:51there's women's

2:22:07please take your conversations outside

2:22:09of the room if you're not going to stay

2:22:10for the next meeting

2:22:12thank you

2:22:31all right we will start the next regular

2:22:33city council meeting may have roll call

2:22:36council member fidelity here mayor pro

2:22:38tem lyman present mayor pardue okimoto

2:22:42present council member abelson president

2:22:44councilmember quinto

2:22:47all right next we have the pledge

2:22:48allegiance

2:22:51i pledge allegiance to the flag of the

2:22:54united states of america and to the

2:22:57republic for which it stands

2:22:59one nation under god indivisible with

2:23:03liberty and justice for all

2:23:12do we have any

2:23:14staff reports

2:23:16none tonight your owner thank you

2:23:18and from the council

2:23:21oh

2:23:24councilmember quinto yes

2:23:26i had the honor and pleasure to

2:23:28attend the chinese new year parade in

2:23:31san francisco the other weekend

2:23:34and were able to march with

2:23:37the papa float

2:23:39which

2:23:40celebrated the 150th anniversary of the

2:23:44transcontinental railroad which was

2:23:46built by

2:23:47uh the chinese 150 years ago too

2:23:51so

2:23:53we were able to

2:23:54[Music]

2:23:55march with the apapa group and to

2:23:57celebrate that so

2:23:59with some of our uh uh chinese and asian

2:24:02american electeds in northern california

2:24:06weren't you on a float too no i was not

2:24:08gone

2:24:10thank you

2:24:12anybody else councilmember

2:24:14yes i have

2:24:15um several reports uh one is uh saturday

2:24:19i was invited

2:24:20to join a group called ignite which uh

2:24:24supports uh young women

2:24:27who might potentially be interested in

2:24:29uh

2:24:30can i think running for office

2:24:35these

2:24:35groups went down into high school age

2:24:38so

2:24:39that was a lot of fun we also had

2:24:42college students and

2:24:44a lot of interesting dialogue so if

2:24:46anyone ever gets the opportunity

2:24:50to participate in one of their

2:24:51activities i

2:24:53encourage you to do so

2:24:55i also attended the crab feed

2:24:58that was put on by

2:25:00police employees

2:25:02of el cerrito and earlier i did it

2:25:05also attend as did i believe our

2:25:08entire council except for who was it not

2:25:11were you not able which one the crab the

2:25:15first crab food previous one i went to

2:25:16that one they ate the most crabs