Rental Housing Committee - Regular Meeting

Welcome to the May 28, 2026 Rental Housing Committee regular meeting. This meeting is called to order at 6.03 p.m. But before we do that, I want to As the new chair of the Rental Housing Committee, I want to thank the previous chair, Kevin Ma, for his excellent work and ability to keep the meeting not only just on time, but be able to do it in record speed. Don't expect so much from me, at least not at first, but I have a giant to emulate. Anyway, now I will proceed with roll call. It appears that all members are present. Okay. Okay. So now let's go on to the consent calendar. Item three, these items will be approved by one motion unless any member of the committee wishes to remove an item for 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? I'm not seeing any. Okay. 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.

I've always wanted to say that.

Okay, let's see. I don't see anybody in the audience here and I don't see anybody online.

So I guess we'll go on.

Okay, I will now bring the item back for committee action. A motion to approve the consent calendar should include reading the title of the agenda items 3.1. Would anyone like to make a motion? Ah, looks like Kevin Ma has moved. And Emily? Okay. This one? Okay, Kevin.

Thank you, Chair. I move the balance of the consent calendar, that being 3.1, approve the Rental Housing Committee meeting minutes for the meeting of April 23rd, 2026.

All right, and this motion has been seconded by Vice Chair Emily Stotz-Hisla. So now I guess we can go to a vote. Motion has passed 5-0 unanimously. All right. Let's move on to 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 a non-agenda item? If you would like to speak on this item in person, please submit a speaker card to the city staff now. 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. So I do not see any members of the public to step up for this. And I also... Do not see anybody in the virtual queue. All right, so since there are none, we may move on to new business. Item 5.1. We will now move on to agenda item 5.1, fiscal year 2026-2027, budgets and annual fees for the Community Stabilization and Fair Rent Act and mobile home rent stabilization ordinance. 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. Take it away, staff.

Thank you very much, Chair and members of the Rental Housing Committee. Tonight, we're going to adopt a resolution approving the fiscal year budget for this coming fiscal year. This has been discussed in the previous meeting without any submitted changes from the Rental Housing Committee and establishing a rental housing fee and space rental fee for the next fiscal year. As a background, which we also provided in the last meeting, the Rental Housing Committee has the duty and power to set a budget and the fees, as shown in the CFRA section 1709 and the MHRSO section 46. In the meantime, the city's Finance and Administrative Services Department made a couple of minor changes to the previously presented budget, namely a $3,000 reduction in the transfer to compensated absences, a $4 increase in salary benefits, resulting in a net reduction of expenditures of $2,996. And in the MHRSO budget, there was an increase of $1,000 in operation, an increase of $1,000 for unfunded liability, and an increase of $1,000 for transfer to comp absences, and a $3 increase in salary benefits. So the CSFRA budget looks as follows. The total revenue is budgeted for $2,062,622, and total expenses, $2.589 for the CSFRA. These expenses are divided in a couple of main categories, operating expenses about 2.3 million, the city administration about $270,000 and a reserve of $517,000. And dependent on the adopted budget, the rental fee is recommended to be 143 for the annual fee, which comes down to $11.92 per month per unit. Same for the MHRSO budget, the total revenue is estimated to come down to $225,300 and the total expenses at $282,829. Again, operating expenses makes up the majority of the costs at $282,000, with city administration about $37,000 and the reserves of $56,000. The space rental fee for this budget would be $142 per year or $11.83 per month per unit. The adoption of these budgets provides appropriations for the operation of the CSFRA and the MHRSO. The CSFRA is 100% cost recovery program and fully funded by fees. The MHRSO is also a cost recovery program, but it's also supplemented by the city's general fund in an amount of $50,000. Both budgets will be forwarded to Finance and Administrative Services Department for incorporation in the citywide budget process. So the recommendation for tonight is to adopt a resolution approving the fiscal year 2026-27 budgets for the CSFRA and the MHRSO and establishing a rental housing fee and space rental fee for fiscal year 2026-27 to be read in title. Only further reading waived. That's the end of the presentation. Happy to answer any questions.

All right. Now we move to questions from the committee members. Do any of the committee members have questions?

Just a quick reminder, for the $1.64 million cost for staffing, how many FDE is that?

For the CSFRA, that is I think eight.

Hey, any other speakers? Seems there are no other speakers. No more questions, so 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. Seeing no one in the audience and no one on the virtual queue, I will move on to committee deliberations and feedback. A motion to approve should include reading the following items. Okay, to adopt a resolution of the Rental Housing Committee of Mountain View approving the fiscal year 2026-27 budgets for the Community Stabilization and Fairer Rent Act and the Mobile Home Rent Stabilization Ordinance and establishing the rental housing fee and space rental fee for fiscal year 2026-27. All right. A motion has been made. Oh, okay. Kevin Ma.

Thank you, Chair. I move to adopt a resolution of the Rental Housing Committee to approve the fiscal year 2026-27 budgets of the CSFRA and the MHRSO as presented.

All right.

Okay, the motion has been made. Second. And now is seconded by Alex Brown. Let's call for the vote. This motion passes 5-0. And now we can move on to item 5.2. Rental Housing Committee meeting scheduled 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 again, Chair. This is a short presentation, and this agenda item's purpose is to adopt a resolution to set the dates for Rental Housing Committee meetings for this coming fiscal year. In the CSFRA and the MHRSO, it is required for the Rental Housing Committee to hold regular meetings to ensure performance under its duty under the CSFRA and MHRSO. And for that purpose, the Rental Housing Committee adopts an annual meeting schedule. This is the proposed meeting schedule, which we try to keep it on the fourth Thursdays of the month. except for November and December, since those are heavy holiday months. And so that will be the third, I think it's the third Thursday of the month. And then in June, we scheduled for the second Thursday of the month. So the recommendation is for the Rental Housing Committee to deliberate about these days and adopt a resolution to set the dates for the meeting. This ends the presentation.

Thank you. Now we move on to questions from committee members. Are there any committee members who have a question? Doesn't look like it. So since there are no questions, I now invite public comments. In-person public comments will be called to speak first. Seeing no one in the audience, it looks like. We do have any member of the public wishing to provide virtual comment on the item, please click the raise hand button, zoom, or press star and I on the phone. Is Philip Crosby, or is that staff?

Member of the public, but they didn't raise their hand.

Oh, okay. Okay, so they're not commenting, okay, thank you. And so, let's see, we will now then go INTO COMMITTEE DELIBERATIONS AND FEEDBACK, WOULD ANY MEMBER OF THE COMMITTEE LIKE TO PROPOSE A MOTION? A MOTION TO APPROVE SHOULD INCLUDE READING THE FOLLOWING ITEMS. TO ADOPT A RESOLUTION OF THE RENTAL HOUSING COMMITTEE, THE CITY OF MOUNTAIN VIEW SETTING THE DATES FOR THE RENTAL HOUSING COMMITTEE MEETINGS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2026-2027.

Thank you, Chair. I move that motion.

And it appears we have a seconder, Edie Keating. All right, so let's call for the vote.

Second.

All right, okay, so that passes 5-0. All right, now we move on to item 5.3, Rental Housing Committee Work Plan for Fiscal Year 2026-2027. 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. The purpose of this agenda item is to review and provide input on the Rental Housing Committee Fiscal Year 26-27 work plan. We provided a tentative schedule for your convenience. Just like other committees, the Rental Housing Committee does set an annual work plan to guide the business of the Rental Housing Committee, providing a schedule of recurring and anticipated new items. and estimated timelines. It does include items on an as-needed basis, so as appeal hearings and review and discussion or adoption of policies regulations. It also includes recurring items, just like the budget review, the setting of the annual general adjustments of rent, updates on the CSFRA and MHRO programs, elections of chairs and vice chair, approval of the calendar and work plan, and approval of contracts. And if needed, the work plan can be modified during the year. So the proposed work plan, I gave a detailed schedule, which I will not go over, but as you can see, the first and second item of each Rental Housing Committee agenda item will be appeals and regulations as needed. together with some annual overviews of parts of our program and of course the monthly overview of workshops and clinics and office hours. And then every half year we provide half year financials and a half year activity report which are currently scheduled for September and February. And that is the proposed work plan. So we would like for you to review and provide input to staff on this work plan.

Thank you.

All right, let me get back to the main page.

Okay, so now we move on to questions from committee members. I see Mark Balch.

Yes, thank you for the preview on the work plan. Are there any policy questions that are outstanding that you think might be appropriate to bring to the committee over the coming six to 12 months?

We don't have any urgent policy questions outstanding. We still want to address the tenant-subtenant relationship that can be regulated in regulations. So that will probably, as staff timing allows, come back to you in one of the future meetings.

Thank you.

Okay, I recognize Alex.

Thank you, Chair.

The annual review of petitions and processes, given that we have fewer petitions these days, are we feeling less constrained by the number of hearing officers we have? Or is that still something that is a concern that we should address?

Yeah, the concern is alleviated because after we send out an RFP, we signed on five new hearing officers. Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of work for them right now because of the reduced amount of petitions. But we are, the resources are there.

That is a better direction to be in, yeah. Is there an opportunity to host or meet with them in the work plan? Is that something that we can add in there?

Of course, I will jot that down.

Thank you.

I recognize Kevin Ma.

Thank you, Chair. This is a question to staff. I recognize that staff is doing ongoing work to revise and update the regulations. I was wondering what is the general scope of those updates?

Yeah. So we started with Chapter 1, 2, and 3, which you guys are already approved. So the next batch is going to mainly be focused on Chapter 4 to 8. It's mostly a restructuring, making it easier to read, change the order a little bit of those chapters.

Okay, thank you.

And recognize Committee Member Keating.

Thank you. With harassment, you know, structure, is that fully implemented or there's more to do there?

That is fully implemented. There are forms on the website. There is a page that explains what the anti-retaliation and anti-harassment regulations contain. We held our first workshop this month. Yeah, and there's a form for tenants to fill out and a response form for landlords to fill out.

So I'm happy to hear that and if there's a late agenda and that can come to the Rental Housing Committee sometime for review just to see how it all worked out, I would.

Sure, we can provide an annual update if that's what you're requesting.

I guess at least a first update and then maybe ask us if we want an annual update. Okay, yeah.

Oh. All right, recognize Vice Chair Hyslop.

Regarding those complaint, would it be possible to have that be a data point on the updates form?

So in general, yeah, we are going to look at the activity report, the half-year activity report. We're going to revise it and add some other stuff in it as well. So the anti-harassment could also be part of that, yeah.

Okay.

Are there any other speakers? Not seeing any. 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 on Zoom or press star nine on your phone. So I don't see any in-person and I don't see any... So therefore, we will now go into committee deliberation and feedback. It says here no motion is required. So does staff have everything they need from us? Yeah, thank you. Okay, thank you very much. And thank you to the committee for your good suggestions. That brings us to item number six, committee staff announcements and updates. I will hand this back to staff for some presentations.

Thank you, Chair. We continue to have our virtual office hours for anyone on Tuesdays from 10 to 12 p.m. It can be accessed at the link provided. Staff's working to finalize the workshop schedule for the next fiscal year, and we will present the next batch of workshops at the next RHC meeting, which is June 11th. And we also continue to host our tenant housing help center on the first and third Thursdays of the month, both in person and virtually, from 6 to 8 p.m. at our office. Division staff is present, as well as community partners, such as Project Sentinel, CSA, and CLESPA.

And our landlord office hours are still on Thursdays from one to three and are also hosted at our office at 298 Escuela Avenue.

Earlier this month, we co-hosted with Pacific Clinics for our fifth annual summer kickoff to help the community stay happy, healthy and housed. We had 33 local community organizations provide resources and information and we had about 426 community member attendees. Each table had an art activity for children to create while their guardians learned about the services and resources provided by the organizations. Various family-friendly activities took place throughout the event, including an art class, story time, face painting, chalk drawing contest. The fire department was there with a fire truck and an ambulance, as well as performers, and we concluded the day with a raffle for STEM-based activity games for children. The CSFRA also turned 10 years old, and MHRSO turned five. We celebrated with a cake cutting from Member Keating, and it was very exciting. Our booth was very popular at that time. And this is just a very popular, fun event for our division and the community. It's a highly attended event each year at Rainsdorf Park, and we look forward to next year's event.

Any comments or questions from committee?

Well done. 10 more minutes. Right, so you're gonna go on to now expected future, what's that? Oh, okay, are there any questions, additional questions or comments from committee members on item 6.1? Not seeing any, let's move on to item 6.2. Expected future items for RHC meetings. There's a staff presentation, right? Sure, we'll do that.

So for Thursday, June 11th, on the agenda, we have the annual contracts to be approved by the Rental Housing Committee for Goldfarb-Lipman and for Project Sentinel for the next fiscal year.

All right. All right, are there any additional comments or announcements from committee members or city staff? Not seeing any, I'll move on to item seven, adjournment. The meeting is adjourned at 6.30 p.m. The next Rental Housing Committee meeting is scheduled to be held on Thursday, June 11th at 6 p.m. Thank you all. This has been done with Kevin Mossby.