Rental Housing Committee - Regular Meeting

26th Rental Housing Committee regular meeting. This meeting is called to order at 6.03 p.m. Now I will proceed with the roll call. I see all members present here, including the alternate. Okay, let's move on to the consent calendar. These items will be approved by one motion unless any member of the committee wishes to remove an item or discussion. The purpose of the consent calendar is for the committee to efficiently and quickly consider routine or administrative business items with one motion. Public comment will occur after the discussion. We invite you to submit a speaker card now if you would like to speak on this item during public comment. Would any member of the committee like to pull an item? Seeing none, I now invite public comments. In-person public comments will be called to speak first. Any member of the public wishing to provide a virtual comment on this item, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or press star nine on your phone. I do not see anyone in the room and I do not see any attendees online. Okay, so. Raising, well, raising their hands, yes, okay. So now I will bring the item back for committee action. Would any member like to make a motion? I recognize Alex Brown.

The button isn't there, but I move that we approve the Rental Housing Committee meeting minutes for 28th May, 2026.

Okay, is there a second? Yeah, these are not being registered here. Oh, click this, and then this, and then, okay. Okay, are you done? Yep. All right, and then how about, oh, clear current speaker, got it.

Give us one moment, please.

Oh, they need to sort something out. We're going to take a break for technical duty now.

Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do.

Okay, so here. Okay, I need a seconder. All right, oh, there's no current speaker. Okay, so I see a motion by committee member Alex Brown and a second. Okay, it's up there. And a second from Vice Chair Emily Statz-Hislop. So I guess we can move to a vote. All right, that passes unanimously. All right, we're done with consent calendar and now let's move on to oral communications from the public. We will now open the meeting for oral communications from the public. This portion of the meeting is reserved for persons wishing to address the committee on any matter not on the agenda. Speakers are allowed to speak on any topic for up to three minutes during this section. State law prohibits the committee from acting on non-agenda items. Would any member of the public like to provide comments on non-agenda items? If you would like to speak on this item in person, please submit a speaker card to city staff now. In person public comments will be called to speak first. Any member of the public wishing to provide virtual comment on this item, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or press star nine on your phone. So I'm looking at, I do not see anyone in the room. I do not see any attendees online. So raising their hands. So I will dispense with this item. Now we will move on to number five, new business. and we will start with agenda item 5.1, contract renewal with Goldfarb and Lipman LLP for fiscal year 2026-27. Public comment will occur after the presentation item and committee questions. We invite you to submit a speaker card now if you know you would like to speak on this item during public comment. We will begin with a presentation from staff.

Thank you, Chair. All right, so we'll begin with agenda item 5.1. Again, that's fiscal year 2026-27 contract renewal for Goldfarb and Lipman. So the purpose of this presentation is to authorize the rent stabilization manager or designee to execute an agreement for the coming fiscal year 2026-27 with Goldfarb and Lipman for legal and litigation services. And so we have two contracts here that need. So first for CSFRA for a total amount not to exceed $250,000 and for MHRSO, the total not to exceed amount is 35,000. So for background, Goldfarb and Lipman provides legal counsel and litigation services for the RHC to assist with implementing and administering CSFRA and MHRSO. And so on the screen here, you can see some of of the services, so implementing and administering the laws, providing subject matter expertise, attending meetings, drafting regulations and staff reports, and just assisting with general issues and questions of the implementation of CSFRA and MHRSO, and representing the RHC in litigation. So the physical impact would be just those contract amounts of 250,000 for CSFRA and 35,000 for MHRSO. And we do bring this item to the RHC because any contract that exceeds $50,000 does require authorization from the RHC for execution. So the recommendation is to approve the Goldfarb and Littman contract for 250,000 for litigation and legal services and then for MHRSO that 35,000 and it would be okay to approve those in one motion.

And that concludes the presentation.

Any questions?

Now we will move on to questions from committee members. Are there any questions from the committee? Don't see any questions. Since there are no questions, I will now invite public comments. In-person public comments will be called to speak first. Any member of the public wishing to provide virtual comment on this item, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or press star nine on your phone. I don't see anyone in the room and I don't see any attendees in the queue. So I think there will be no public comment on this item. Next, we will go into committee deliberations and feedback. It would be appropriate at this time to entertain a motion for discussion by the Rental Housing Committee. Kevin Ma, I recognize you.

Thank you, Chair. I make a motion to authorize the Rent Stabilization Manager or Designate to execute an agreement with Goldfarb-Lipman LLP for legal services related to Community Stabilization Fair Rent Act for fiscal year 2026-27 and to represent the Rental Housing Committee and the City of Mountain View in litigation related to the ACSFRA for fiscal year 2026-27 for a total amount not to exceed $250,000 and to authorize SIMILAR LEGAL SERVICES RELATED TO THE MOBILE HOME RENT STABILIZATION ORDINANCE FOR FISCAL YEAR 2026-27 AND TO REPRESENT THE RENTAL HOUSING COMMITTEE AND THE CITY MOUNTAIN VIEW IN LITIGATION RELATED TO THE MHRSO FOR FISCAL YEAR 2026-27 FOR A TOTAL AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $35,000.

SECOND. ALL RIGHT.

OKAY. SO WE HAVE A MOTION AND A SECOND. THE MOTION BY COMMITTEE MEMBER MA AND THE SECOND BY COMMITTEE MEMBER BROWN. LET'S MOVE TO A VOTE. and that passes unanimously. So now we will move on to item 5.2, contract renewal with Project Sentinel for fiscal year 2026-27. Public comment will occur after the presentation item and committee questions. We invite you to submit a speaker card now if you know you would like to speak on this item during public comment. We will begin with a presentation from staff.

All right, perfect, thank you. So agenda item 5.2. We'll begin with the purpose of this item is to authorize the rent stabilization manager or designee to execute an agreement for fiscal year 2026-27 with Project Sentinel for administrative and hearing process services. And so the amounts for that for CSFRA are not to exceed $125,000. And for MHRSO, it's a not to exceed amount of $13,000. And for some background here, Project Sentinel provides administrative support services to assist with implementing and administering both CSFRA and MHRSO petition process. So that includes the administrative support, invoicing and things like that, deploying and reimbursing facilitators for the pre-hearing settlement conference process, and then also for the actual hearing officer petition hearing process. And I'll show a breakdown of that in a second. The fiscal impact for this, again, would just be those amounts of 125,000 for CSFRA and 13,000 for MHRSO. And again, we come to you all with this because any contract over 50,000 requires RHC approval. and so on the recommendation here you'll see the breakdown for each one of those services so for um the csfra the 125 in breaks down as follows so for the administrative support of 10 000 facilitators 5 000 and the bulk of that is hearing officers which 110 000 And then with mobile homes, you'll see a number two, 13,000 is the total, 1,000 for administrative, 2,000 for facilitators, and 10,000 for hearing officers. And then these costs were based on the volume of petitions in the current year and sort of past year, so we looked at that and incorporated those numbers into this budget, which you had previously approved. That concludes that presentation. If there's any questions there.

All right, now we move back to questions from committee members. Are there any questions from the committee members? I recognize Committee Member Ma.

Thank you, Chair. For clarity, on the agenda document, it mentions division manager. Do we treat division manager as equivalent to rent stabilization manager?

We do. Okay, thank you. And I recognize committee, sorry, Vice Chair Stats Islop.

Thank you. Approximately how many cases does 125,000, excluding the MRSO, I know you made that calculation, just wondering what it was.

Sorry, I'm not, my speaker's not on. So it's probably close to maybe 50 or so. Okay.

Are there any more questions? Not seeing anybody in the queue. Since there are no more questions, I now invite public comments. In-person public comments will be called to speak first. Any member of the public wishing to provide virtual comment on this item, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or press star nine on your phone. So there's no one in the room and I do not see any virtual commenters online. So therefore we will now move into committee deliberations and feedback. It would be appropriate this time to entertain a motion for discussion by the RHC. Does anybody want to make a motion? Chair recognized, Committee Member Ma.

Thank you, Chair. I move to authorize the division manager or designee to execute an agreement with Project Sentinel to provide administrative and hearing process services for the Community Stabilization Fairment Act for fiscal year 2026-27 with a total amount not to exceed $125,000 as follows. Administrative support services in an amount not to exceed $10,000. Deploy and reimburse facilitators for the pre-hearing settlement conference process in an amount not to exceed $5,000, and to deploy and reimburse hearing officers for the petition hearing process in an amount not to exceed $110,000, and to authorize the division manager or other designee to execute an agreement with Project Sentinel to provide administrative and hearing process services for the mobile home rent stabilization ordinance for fiscal year 2026-27 with a total amount not to exceed $1,300. $13,000 as follows, administrative support services in amount not exceed $1,000, deploy and reimburse facilitators for the pre-hearing settlement conference process in amount not exceed $2,000 and to deploy and reimburse hearing officers for petition hearing process in amount not exceed $10,000.

All right, so we have a motion made by Committee Member Ma and seconded by Vice Chair, Stats Hislop. Let's have a vote. All right, it looks like that passes unanimously. All right, okay, moving on to item number six, committee staff announcements and updates. Thank you, committee members and staff. We will now move to committee staff announcements and updates. I will hand it back to staff for some presentations.

Thank you, Chair. We'll be sharing our upcoming office hours and workshops. We continue to host our virtual office hours on Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. virtually or at our office, which is located at 298 Escuela Avenue. We also refreshed our workshop schedule for the new fiscal year, and our upcoming workshops will be July 7th at 2 p.m., and that will be a workshop regarding new landlords in Mountain View and what to know about tenant protections. that is landlord-focused and will be hosted virtually. We are also having a workshop that evening and that will be for tenant-focused at 6 p.m. regarding the one-time utility adjustment petition. And then in August, we have two occurring, one being August 11th at 2 p.m. and that would be landlord-focused hosted virtually. The subject is how to lawfully increase rent. And then on August 14th at 6 p.m., we have a tenant-focused virtual workshop Topic being, I got a rent increase, what's next? We also are still hosting our Housing Help Center for Landlords every Thursday at our office, 298 Escuela Avenue, from 1 to 3 p.m. And there we're still giving support for rent stabilization and eviction protections, property registration and fees, compliance and petitions. And still on the first and third Thursdays of the month, we are having our Housing Help Center for tenants, and that's where we have housing programs like Affordable Housing is there to speak with tenants, Eviction Help, we still have CLESPA present at some of these. for assistance and they also provide legal resources and we have support services there with Community Services Agency, CSA, and they provide information on food distribution, financial assistance, mediation and homelessness prevention and Project Sentinels in attendance as well.

Okay, thank you for that presentation. Are there any questions or comments from committee members on the presentation? Chair recognizes Vice Chair Stan Cieslak.

Thank you. The virtual Welcome New Landlords workshop, is that open to anyone to attend?

Yeah, so all of our workshops are open to anyone. We do separate it out by tenant and landlord just because we think maybe one group, we focus the information towards them. However, anybody is welcome to attend. And we also have found that landlords prefer sort of during office hour, during work hour time. So two o'clock, we pick that time. But of course, anybody is welcome.

So you don't have to be a landlord or a tenant if you want to just learn.

Yes, and if you are interested in learning, please come. Thank you.

They are also posted on YouTube after, so they're available.

Are there any other committee members that would like to ask questions or make comments on this item?

all right seeing none um i i'll ask the staff to move on to the next presentation so agenda item 6.2 is just looking at future expected agenda items but there is no meeting in july so hopefully people will take some time to refresh

There is August 27th.

August 27th. We don't have the items for that yet.

Okay. Are there any comments from committee members on that?

Do you know when we'll get an update on REBs?

Yeah, I can make sure we have some information for you on REBS during the next meeting, and then we can look at putting together maybe a presentation for you all to look at where we are and how it's going. Thanks.

That would be welcome.

Right, and are there any other committee members that would like to ask questions or make comments on this item? Seeing none, I will... ask if there are any additional comments or announcements from committee members or city staff. I have one, okay? So it turns out, after we passed the schedule for the year, that I was informed later that the Chamber of Commerce will hold their city council candidate forum on the night of our next scheduled RHC meeting. I did reach out to the CEO and ask if there was a firm date from them, and he said, any date we pick, somebody will have a conflict, so yes. I did reach back to staff, but staff reminded me we've already passed that item, and so I can only be in one place, and as I was mulling it over, my across the street neighbor says to me, you know, Robert, this is an easy one. Somebody else can substitute for you on the RHC, but nobody else can substitute for you as the candidate at the forum. So I'm likely not to be there unless there is some strange change in either of the two schedules. I just wanted to give you guys a heads up on that. Are there any other comments or questions? Not seeing any, then I will move on to item seven, and I will announce that the meeting is adjourned at 6.24 p.m. The next Rental Housing Committee meeting is scheduled to be held on, as I said, Thursday, August 27th, at 6 p.m. Thank you all for attending.

What?

Yeah, I think that was a record. Well, you know, Kevin helped with the fact