Remarks by Kurt Gonska
12 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 1
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Commissioner Gonsko. I'd like to make a motion that the board permanently exempt this property from the rent control law as a single family home that has been occupied by its owner for two consecutive years and adopt the proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law.
Commissioner gonzales. I move that the board affirm the hearing officer's decision and findings of fact and conclusions of law.
First of all, thank you to everyone who's involved in this process because it's been something that has obviously brought in a lot of unpaid bills. And I just want to point out that essentially when some landlords don't pay this fee, everyone else is essentially making up for it because as our budgets get stretched, it puts more pressure on the rent control board to raise the registration fee over time. And so this is one way in which we can maintain balanced budgets and to some degree delay how often we need to raise that registration fee. So thank you for being so attentive to this and…
Yeah, well, just, I mean, we don't have a, basically, we see how much has been collected, but I'm not sure how much is still outstanding to be collected.
I don't expect you to have that dollar figure in front of you, so maybe if you can provide just a general sense, or I don't know if other staff has any
Okay. And another question, I didn't ask you this in advance, so it's totally understandable if you don't have the information in front of you, but for looking into 2024, 25, 26, do you have a sense of how much is owed or if it's similar generally to 22 and 23?
My question is related to this, not directly about the staff report, but I think we were informed and written comment from the tenant at the building that the units, maybe multiple units on this property are rented out by Airbnb. While we're not in a position to determine if they're complying with the law or not in that regard, what is the rent control? Procedure for or is there a procedure for notifying code enforcement when, through whatever means, we become aware of rentals on Airbnb? My apologies, commissioner.
Maybe it's a question for the executive director, but is there ever direct communication between you or the staff and code enforcement when you, maybe not in a case like this where it's somebody reporting to us, but if you come across through, maybe an inspector goes out and realizes or determines that somebody is using Airbnb in a property, do they ever directly report that to code enforcement or do anything as a next step?
Commissioner Gonska? I move that we affirm the dismissal of the application.
So I think some of the, definitely many of the things contained in the in the report, in the evidence. And frankly, some of the things heard here tonight are really concerning because it seems like some of the back and forth is really not about what our regulations state and what the law is. It's more about, actually, we heard in admissions tonight that there are problems and that they haven't been properly addressed. And somehow there's this suggestion that the tenant should just have to work around it, find some solution for it. when the solution is for the building owner to properly…
Yeah, I agree with that. I think, I mean, really here, as of the close of the record, there was no actual issue with the backup of the drain. So it would be fine with me to just, you know, affirm the decision, but we're bending over backwards here, and I think it's helpful. You know, things like this can sometimes ebb and flow in terms of being a problem one day but not the next. So I think we're going above and beyond here, which I think is a good thing for the tenant to waive that six-month waiting period. So I think this is an excellent solution. Commissioner Leslie?