001e e e I'm sorry what you e e e welcome to the May 16th 2024 meeting of the Anarbor renters commission the purpose of the renters commission is to advise the city council and the city administrator in matters affecting renters in the city the Anarbor renters commission is made up of voting members who are appointed by the May mayor and approved by city council two non-voting city council Liaisons two non- voting members representing different landlord perspectives and the non- voting representative this meeting is being recorded during any of the public comment opportunities you'll be able to speak through the webinar link or by phone depending on your method of access to this meeting for phone access please call 877 853 5247 or 888 78899 and enter meeting ID 9358 801 941 to be called on
002to speak callers must press star9 if listening by phone or using the rais hand feature if viewed through the web link a2gov.org renters commmission meeting you will then be called upon by City staff one by one using the last three digits of their phone number or by username if available for those accessing through the web link you will hear an automated announcement that the host is allowing you to speak please state your name at the beginning of your comments City staff will indicate when callers have 30 seconds left of their three minute comment period after three minutes they'll be placed on mute so that we can proceed to the next speaker moving on to roll call please state the city or Township state where you're attending the meeting from I'm uh commissioner Ratcliffe I'm here
003calling from Ann Arbor Michigan um commissioner Farah Farah is not present um commissioner Chen yes I'm here I'm calling from anber Michigan thank you commissioner Celly is absent tonight commissioner dran is from an arbor okay oh there you are thank you commissioner um is it Al you got it I'm here in Anor as well good evening commissioner Lo is absent tonight commissioner Tibbits I am here in an arbor welcome commissioner Rosen I'm hearing an aror as well um commissioner Ratcliff I'm here calling from Ann Arbor commissioner Thomas is absent commissioner Pitts here from an arbor welcome um commissioner good here and an arbor welcome commissioner um Rina I'm sorry council member Rina is not on uh council member Harrison here from man Arbor welcome um we do not have a quum so we can't move
004to approve the agenda correct that's right um but since since without Quorum is sort of informal if there's anything that would like to change or add be kind of flexible okay um is there anything some anyone would like to change on the agenda or should we if not we'll just move forward see I don't see any hands raised so we'll just move forward on the agenda um again we don't have Quorum so we'll wait until the next meeting uh to approve April's minutes um we're g to move on to the first general public comment there'll be another public comment opportunity near the end of this meeting Kristen whenever you're ready right if anyone would like to address the renters commission about any topic for up to three minutes public comment can be made by phone
005by calling 877 853 5247 or 888 78899 and entering meeting ID 935 941 can also join um the meeting from the zoom web link and that link is a2gov.org renters commission meeting just a minute there are no attendees okay then we'll move forward um there's there isn't any unfinished business so we'll move on to new business the uh first item under new business is an update from the tenant education committee and Outreach events um see Jamie do you wanna yeah um I can give a little summary we met I think it was last week um a couple of us met um and I had drafted a just kind of a general work plan draft kind of Choose Your Own Adventure style um with some suggestions for what the tenant education committee could focus on um
006if they choose you know depending on who um comes on as new Commissioners and who's interested and what they're interested in doing um I kind of split things up based on just my guess of how long um certain tasks would take just so it was a little bit easier um to kind of um parse out depending on you know what other things people have commitments to and how much time they have um so and unfortunately I don't have the ability to share my screen um but we can definitely have Kristen share this out um and I can just run through some of the things that we um talked about potentially um doing uh we discussed coordinating like semi-regular speakers um from local organizations uh sharing local resources for our regular um Runners commission meetings um
007the thought of a newsletter came up maybe something either monthly or quarterly um and have that distributed to the renters commission um list serve um we discussed maybe some infographics uh describing different tenant education or tenant rights um materials either if someone was interested in producing new materials or um seeing what was out on online already existing um that seemed like a good fit to share with tenants um and then one of the things I think that was discussed um and correct me if I'm wrong but it seemed like more of a higher priority of interest um was maybe focusing on um how to get some of the tenant um education materials like the rights and duties booklet um translated into different languages so that they're a little more accessible for members of the community
008because right now that it only exists in English um and then I think we I don't remember the person's name Ros need to feel free to jump in if you do but there was like a um accessibility coordinator maybe at the city we have the Ada coordinator um and at last night's Codi meeting what she suggested was um actually like getting a list of or talking with fair housing because they have a lot of the like Ada kind of accommodations and modifications Come Through the Fair Housing Act um and Kodi itself said that they like they said that they'd be interested and that it would we kind of work on that a little bit during the summer what's Kodi yeah oh sorry it's the commission on disability issues um one thing that I had noticed
009about the the rights and duties uh booklet is that there's nothing in there um that do discusses anything about what to do if you have a disability and you need to like say request a modification or accommodation from your landlord um who has to pay for it if you do what they how that process is supposed to work um also trying to make sure that it's accessible um for example while we have the regular printed versions we don't necessarily have like a large print version of it I think that there must there must be somebody at the city who's responsible for ADA compliance because the the booklet itself and not accessible would fall under the Ada as opposed to fair housing so I don't know right that that is we're talk right and we have
010an ADA coordinator but the the contents of the book itself um that kind of what the what it says is that it uses input from you know staff community members organizations can all provide input and um we do have individuals with disabilities who are renters in the city and the city itself is responsible for giving out um the vouchers that are specif like HUD you know the HUD vouchers that are specific to people with disabil is the the net vouchers so yeah that'd be good to include some information that that also includes information because people are aging in place and while they may not have had a disability when they were younger now that they're older they might need a bath uh a rail in the bathroom or something perfect yeah thank you explaining that
011Rosita um and I think the only other thing that we discussed um as a potential um something to focus on for the near future um and we have to give credit to Zachariah because this was his idea um a right to renew like timeline calculator so coming up with something that is a little bit easier to for a tenant to enter in like their lease start date and then spit out you know what is the actual date that they have until um to give their tenant a response or am I saying that right if they want to renew or not that that time period um yeah so I think those are the main things that we talked about um I also offered to um record attempt to record a um like a stream tutorial and
012that is on my to-do list for this weekend so um I will share that with Kristen once I'm able to um get that recorded and you all can do what you wish with it but yeah I think that's everything that we discussed for the most part um feel free to jump in if I'm leaving anything out though I think that was most of it um does anyone else have anything to add because I think we met twice between the last meeting and this and this meeting um I don't see anyone with their hand raised so just want to say thank you Jamie I know that it's a lot especially the the recording and I think um once everyone has a chance to see the the plan then we can um you know have it on
013the agenda for next month's meeting to go over it see if there are any questions okay we're going to move on to agenda item 7B um discussing the right to renew complaint Pro uh process um and I'll be honest I don't remember what we were supposed to discuss about this Kristen help I think there was interest in seeing um the complaint forms to kind of see how the updated forms are functioning and like what people are complaining about if there are any Trends um and then we have John Riser here who can provide um like additional clarification if if available for any of them um and maybe John can give us an overview of What complaints they're seeing and update us on what's happening with those well I was in court on one today actually
014um so the the forms that Christen did on the uh on the old ordinance and the new revised ordinance have been great in um kind of funneling the complaints down to um what violates the ordinance or not the process is really gotten smoother over time as we kind of get our hands around it um a complaint will go will come in and uh sometimes landlord attorneys um or tenant Union organizations or renters commission members direct members of the public to to file a complaint and we thank you for those and and they'll they'll come in with the form I don't did you share the forms with them are they in the packet Kristen so you have the forms you know what the forms look like and then Janet frell kind of does triage she's in
015rental housing on the first floor and if you know she'll calls it out if if she doesn't think it it uh violates our ordinance and then if she does she'll hand it on over to rental housing inspector Pete H and Then Pete will uh do some follow-up investigation talk to the complainant usually talk to the to the landlord um or the rental you know res the agent and then uh issue an infraction so I've got one going for fail to notify the tenant of the terms and condition of a renewal prior to 180 days violated the right to renew or the renewal ordinance had a call today about the the the the you know the uh six-month Dodge um um have another one that's uh I'm looking at these These are these are actual tickets
016in fractions that that are that are pending in court but so um like Pete will write the infraction uh and and it's often they didn't let the tenant know and the Tenant was um uh kind of left in the Lurch not having a place to go so that was a ticket we had one of those where the landlord has agreed to pay the two month um uh in the statute so of their own accord they agreed to it and that was a landlord that um you know got an attorney and said we just screwed up we didn't we didn't we missed we oops I'm we're sorry we're doing that so um you know kind if you have specific questions I don't know if Kristen did you provide them kind of the overview that Pete put
017together in a redemp okay yeah I added Pete so Pete provided like an emailed update of of some cases that are kind of active on his plate right now and I included that in the um uh like kind of like that redactive report that included like date information and then the Complaint Form um so you have that information um would you say that it's like would you they like in the forms are working the way that they should or um are there things that could be improved with them or anything like that I see Jamie's hand is raised too so yeah just a quick question I noticed and I was going to look it up but um I noticed these have a code case number do they get entered into stream they are in stream
018but I don't believe that they are um I don't think they're publicly searchable and so um I guess that's all the information I have on that the 22 just identifies the year that case was created and you'll see that's consistent I believe with the opened date also on here um so so they're all kind of like official in the system complaints okay Gail I see your hand too so John I'm just wondering if you can talk a little bit about like what happens once once uh Pete decides that there's an infraction how are how are these following up like where where have they gone from there and then I also have a question you you mentioned the six-month Dodge so I guess I'm curious since since the way the right to renew ordinance end was
019is written is that it has to be think months or more what's happening with those cases right well um if you remember the language was tweaked a little bit to make that clear I'm going to pull it up right now window and what I meant by that coly is that they'll have a tenant sign simultaneously a pair of six-month leases thinking that they're uh getting around the ordinance in the ordinance now says in uh chapter 105 8 530 I think it talks about total duration of yeah yeah yeah I'm looking for that yeah you I both know it does but where does it say that um it says it at B 531b well under the old one or the new one under the I'm looking at the new one oh I'm looking I'm I'm got
020to go to the clerk's website for that D are you sure that 531 is a new one didn't we get rid of 531 and combine them all into 530 it I'm sorry I it it's 5:30 section one um subsection B right leases with less yes less than eight months total duration yes so that that's so Pete's Pete's looking into one of those right now um so we're getting complaints about those um oh sorry my light just went off in the city hall um and then I guess the other question was back to what happens once there's been an infraction well if there's been an infraction issued they'll they'll uh we always we always set it for a formal hearing and you can infractions can be an informal hearing which would go in front of a
021magist R and then uh you can't be represented by attorney including the housing officer the rental housing inspector rather so we'd rather I want to be involved on them to know what's going on and I want to make sure that we know about it so there we we we ask for a Fullmer hearing which sets them in front of a judge they go on Judge Perry's docket um and and uh I'll be there sometimes a landlord will have a an attorney sometimes they won't the attorney will call me and I'll some some attorneys know about the law and some frankly don't um like the one this morning that we adjourned they it's not a registered rental they don't have a certificate of compliance they they messed up a couple ways on the uh on the
022right to renew so they actually had two tickets with two counts a piece four counts so it got adjourned for for all for the the the the owner you know somebody that owned a house in an arbor moved out of state thought it'd be fun to kind of rent in an arbor not knowing how tricky it can be and all the rights that you know that the tenants have and they're committed to kind of getting it right um so we we haven't uh you know usually it's an adjudication and a plea of responsible um and you know we try to you know one of the things Pete and I are kind of focused on is how was the tenant harmed in harmed in this one um you what what was you know what does the
023was the tenant not able to secure housing somewhere impacted or do they have to get more expensive in housing so you know what what what do the what does the tenant kind of feel about it as a factor I see Ros Anita's hand I don't know if I'm to call or I guess she's the chair she can call on herself I am but you know I wanted to wait my turn right um I guess I had one question but your answer kind of gave me a second question or followup um or they're both related I guess I'll start with since they didn't have an actual um legal rental then does that end up in stream as not complying with that like is there something formal and stream if someone if it turns out someone's rental
024unit wasn't legal I would think so and I think that would be a question more for Pete or Christian you have access to that database I don't know if you access it to it now you know that if it's not a registered rental or a legal rental you can escrow rent right that that's that's something that can happen um or CFC but I guess I'm not sure I can um look up and stream if I guess they would be C case violations are public but it might not be set up yet if it's not registered let me see what I can find what what kind of violations AR public I'm not sure what um like the registration and information about like being a register rental would be in scen but I don't think got the
025um code case like the H code 2024 and then the number I don't think that those are I guess while you're looking that at my other question is um with the ELO after you know with the complaint um those it sounds like those aren't also aren't searchable within stream um and so if they do sorry my legal terminology kind of eludes me right now but if they do kind of plead guilty or are found guilty of violating the ordinance then does will that eventually end up in stream down the line like how if like how would it be for like me as a renter to know that say I'm looking at a place to find out oh this this landlord here continuously you know violates this particular ordinance or oh this one here like they're
026fantastic they you know there's nothing in here about them we certified rental shows in stream and then um from there you can see information about the rental and then I think also possibly the inspection um oh the certificate of compliance and then for inspections um is what you're I think what you're asking is well I don't think there's information on in Jordan or or Bob as landlords or John Riser um kind of like the absence of something isn't end stream but like if something if they do have an inspection or they do have a registered rental that would be in stream but I don't believe that it show that there's um like available information on violations like they don't have yeah that's a little unclear to me about what violations are in there and what
027are not I frequently will look up a house like say a student or a parent contacts me as like can you look this up and I will look up the house and I can see where like it's been posted on inhabitable or something um but maybe John would have a better idea like what ticket level gets into stream and what doesn't that that's something that isn't clear to me but there are it's not a cut and dry that there are violations don't get into stream because they do and if you have a bad inspection and you fail it that's in there um but I'm unclear on like what level of ticket would get in there and what would not if that makes sense because usually the ones that I see are like more egregious that
028it was posted non-compliant or posted on inhabitable or whatever um that more agre cases I'm just thinking like with ELO when you're going to have some that are continuous complaints and so at what point is that going to be visible and where would that be visible and that's a good question and I don't know because I don't use the stream database I get my stuff from the rental housing inspector about he gives me uh a complaint he gives me the documentation he gives me the opinion and then really what he gives me is he gives me a ticket that shows up on a docket so I you know I've been texting Pete and I guess a followup question or some you know would be hey how can a how can a tenant or a prospective
029tenant use the stream database to find out whether a landlord has violated rental housing law either with respect to inspections registration or early lease oring in the future to know what what kind of landlord they might be dealing with I think that's what your query might be rosanita yes it is thank you for making it clear for me yeah like how do I find the Scoundrels that makes sense I mean I think we could probably look at this list too right like I mean there are some companies that are on here that the resolution that says got a ticket so I guess we're kind of moving through maybe I'll take a peek a couple of those um as we're going through and talking about other things too because I mean some of these do say
030a was issued So in theory if that's going to be in stream it would be in stream I would think um though some of these are closed date of like two weeks ago so I'm not sure but I'll look a couple up while we're sitting here wouldn't the tickets be searchable on the court website well yes you can do that I was going to talk about the JIS uh system so you could go into the court system and type in a name of a landlord to see now I don't know how much detail they're going to have there other than the DAT it was showed up on the docket whether it was adjourned to a new date whether it was adjudicated how much the fines and costs were um and and whether and how when
031were they paid so you could you could do that I don't know yes that'd be one way the to the 15 district court system yeah kind of going back to what you were saying rosanita um I I just feel like stream would be a really logical place I know we have talked before about tracking um violations for early leasing ordinance and um I think the fact that it there wasn't really a great system um for tenants to know or even I think for the commission I I believe this is the first time we've gotten like a report this is awesome like this information as a tenant would be really helpful um for someone that was you know trying if they had the ability to shop around um I think this would be really nice and
032a way to improve transparency around some of this stuff um I understand maybe you don't want to put everything in there but I think with the things that are reacted I I would think that would be a fair um a fair thing to have accessible to tenants the information in the report is information that would be provided if um if Foy so if somebody were to request kind of specifically these documents um I'm not sure that rental housing would prepare them in the same format but um the information would be like the city would have to per it I know that's very different from being able to easily search it and you're from a website um it is an option in the meantime possibly yeah because I was just thinking like if you were already
033going on stream to see like is this property do they have an updated you know certificate of compliance how many violations of early leasing Ordinance do they have um it would take like two weeks by the time I mean it would take less possibly but yeah yeah I I realize it's not super realistic if somebody's kind of looking for housing right now but I mean it's better than than nothing and um it's a good and it's a it's a start to to have it in there right um so would it be better if you contacted rental housing about that Kristen or if John contacted them about that is the question um can you make these visible to the public on stream and I know that instream from kind of the the inside you can select
034what's visible and what's not so there's all kinds of um I maybe not all kinds but you would just like check to have it be available to the public or not um so I'm not sure if housing code cases like these are set up to do that that's something I can ask for sure that's um if you could that'd be that'd be great so we would kind of know where to go from there right yeah because just the address having a um like a even if the status was kind of like if if they were issued a citation rather than just complaints um because I feel like a complaint in like the unfinished status like I a lot of the maybe not a lot but several of the complaint forms were like tenant wants to
035remain anonymous but if there's like a date and the apartment or the landlord or something the landlord there's maybe enough information there to to deduce who the tenant is but maybe after the case is closed um so I'll ask rental housing and see kind of what they're what they're thinking on okay thank you um let's see I don't see any more hands are there any more um questions comments concerns about um this agenda item number okay then we're going to move on to item 7c on the agenda um the discussion about the update on the for the weight list or junk fees um really I think the big qu the main question is is there movement on it um and can we ex I know that it's budget season and all that right now so
036it's not like we expect it on the agenda on Monday but um is it POS is it that's that's on my lap and it hasn't been moving as fast as frankly Travis and uh uh you know council member Harrison wanted to so that's that's on my that's on my plate uh I'm going to be working with a colleague of mine another assistant City attorney and we're going to get a draft together that that we will um share with uh council members Harrison and Rina and hope to have that a draft of that in a couple weeks Gail Rosen was kind enough to supply me with some examples and list things of various fees that that some landlords uh that landlords charge so thank you for that Galaxy your hands up but I appreciate what you
037sent us and to to me and Jen so is there any other information we can provide to you to help no just some examples of these uh so you know one of the things we're going to have to do is Define them and then we're going to have to just then regulate them so is any fee that that a landlord uh charge outside of rent a junk fee or there's some legitimate fees so and I guess Jordan and and Bob and any other landlords would you know um you can share with with with uh with us or this commission um your thoughts on you know what what's a legitimate fee or what what's a what's a junk fee what's a fee that is something that a landlord should be able to charge and what's just
038a Shakedown for money you know I I I don't know is a lockout fee a junk fee if the agent has to drive in to let a tenant in I you know I is a is it a junk fee if the tenant incurs something through parking on the lawn or doing something that um the incurs a cost of the landlord that gets passed on so is that a junk fee or is that a non- junk fee so you know defining it and then regulating it is going to be the tricky part it's easy to say junk fee but that's not what our ordinance is going to say Obviously uh Jordan yeah I mean John you and I have talked about this a little bit but some of the things that you and I have talked
039about are you know I mean these tremendous weight list fees that essentially you know lock people in to leasing from one landlord with no promise of a lease that totally changed the power Dynamic um you know yes there are some costs to operating a business there is a cost to do um you know a a reference check sometimes there's time that's spent to do that there are um yeah costs to have a maintenance person go in but if the fee is you know $350 for a lockout or something I mean there there are levels at which it's that's just not there's no argument for that you're just trying to cover your expenses as a landlord weight list and pre-tenancy fees you know having to pay for a cleaning fee before you've moved in seems pretty
040absolutely so there's some things that are cut and dry but again I mean I I think we should be deferring to the tenants to Define to us what what are the fees that are affecting them and that are that are you know making it impossible to either stay in a place or to find places like those and and I think the tenants Union's petition does give us a pretty good guide for what tenants are asking for and I think we really need to to make sure that we're working to Center the tenants voices and the tenants experiences and since I know Julia is a renter I will um I will step down for for her comments but I think those are the big things is that we we need to to work with the tenants
041to figure out what this should be go ahead Julia so I was kind kind of wondering about looking at the um pre-tenancy fees you know the weightless fees have been the kind of really off the charts things you know the late fees have always been a pain in the neck obviously you weren't burden more than $10 while you're charging 75 you know that kind of thing but this having to pay a month and a half or a month rent in advance really feels to me like they're asking security deposits from seven different people people um and I'm wondering if there's not some way to tighter Define the security deposit is if you're taking money in advance for a unit that it needs to be treated like the security deposit right because what I did notice
042is that some of those weight lft fees they're non-refundable in in some cases and so if I pay $500 $700 $2,000 and it's non-refundable and you know I need to be in a place in two weeks or well in a month and then you don't contact me for three months it shouldn't I should have a way to be able to cancel that and get my money back or not pay that in the first place really yeah um other go ahead Gale yeah and additionally like I you know what I sent to to to John where some of the the fees or the charges that I see through the tenants that that I see and a lot of them are just these hidden fees that you know you don't they're not part of your you know
043if you if someone says hey we're going to lease this unit to you for $1,500 a month you know and then later you find out and you know you have to get renters insurance which is not a bad idea but you know a lot of landlords require it um and by the way there's going to be an administrative fee just for fun you know there's going to be a no hassle fee you need to get have a valet trash service and we're going to charge you for the valley trash service um I'm just looking at other fees that I've seen oh and at the end of the lease we're going to Define all the charges that we can charge your security deposit so if a screen's broken we're going to charge you $100 the screen
044might not cost $100 but they're setting up all these fees that are just kind of hidden in in the lease a feed a suble not that there isn't you know potentially um Jordan said work that needs to be done and there are some fees attached to that but they're just they're just all hidden a fee to find someone to take over your lease um you know all of these all of these fees in addition to the the weightless fees which are also onerous it just makes it it makes it ridiculously expensive to um to try to rent and and it's and and it they're so hard to predict that it makes it very hard for at least the students that I see for them to have to be able to budget to have a really
045good idea of what they're going to the cost they're going to incur when they when they sign a lease agreement so it to me it sounds like between what Gale gave what the tenants Union is set there's enough to go on to have a rough draft of the resolution not sorry the ordinance um and to and to go from there um I don't know who raised their hand first if it was Jamie or Julia um I'll go alphabetical with Jamie oh thank you um I just wanted to throw this out there I don't know if this would quite fit under the junk fe's umbrella um and my suggestion wouldn't be like doing away with it Al together but I do think it's um interesting the way that pet rent um varies quite a bit among
046different landlords I know some don't let you have pets you know at all um but I think in in my opinion there's an amount that is more reasonable for a pet and then there are amounts that kind of dip into the territory of um it doesn't seem as reasonable um especially when there is that pet deposit paid up front and then obviously any damages that your pet caused you would be responsible for you know taking out of your deposit at least I think um yeah the pet fees is one of those things that I think just really the disparity of you know who is able to have a pet you know the enjoyment of a pet in their home is kind of something I would be curious about I think some of the examples you
047were giving John they don't you know you were like if somebody parked on the lawn or something there's damages versus fees so when it's the things like Gail listed that that should just be in the rent of course you're going to create garbage right I yeah so I I do have a draft and I have a draft that uh addresses apption fees and pre-tenancy weight list fees but what that needs to be expanded to include fees um that are that are junk fees th so those need to be defined and and uh articulated in the ordinance and so what you sent Gail was very helpful and uh if others want to send me ex to to Kristen examples of fees uh that they've seen uh um the please do so thank you don't have but
048we're we're interested in seeing them thank you John and um thank you for clarifying that there is that there's a draft um and that letting us know that there's definite movement that's that's happening with this um I think that's kind of been one of the big concerns is until now we didn't know that there was like a physical draft yet um let's see I don't see any more hands and so we will go ahead and move on to the next item on the agenda um which is an update on the city budget and the rental housing um inspector's full-time request um employee request denial uh Kristen thank you um I had shared previously um a link to the budget explaining um that rental housing was asking for a few um staff members and um that
049was not correct um the budget listed I think like development services inspector or something like that and it turns out that they are for um um uh like trade inspectors like um electric plumbing mechanical dangerous buildings and they're to be paid for out of the construction fund um those in addition to kind of the the other like permit Le aison position um also would be for Construction Services paid for out of the construction fund so there are no um requests for fulltime time employees for rental housing as part of the uh request uh to City Council on Monday my understanding is that rental housing did initially request and that um kind of as the budget preparation process or as part of that process um they did not make it to the final round my understanding
050is that that's the case for um multiple departments who were seeking uh full-time employees um to be paid for in general Leisa sh that they do intend to request again next year and that after they kind of get through um this budget and posting the new positions and hiring and training that they'll be able to focus a little bit more on um kind of like gathering information to demonstrate need if that's a priority for them simp will say the same for um the next fiscal year and in order to show um that there's a a need um I think we had kind of briefly talked on this one onone but is there is like I haven't seen a form you know that from that a tenant can use to kind of make that complaint request
051in another inspection saying you know the fire alarm broke BR it's on the floor and it just they've never replaced it I've asked like five times yeah so I'm not aware of a like a general Complaint Form like that I know that um rental housing staff like Janet and Brandy receive complaints like that by email and I think the website directs complaints to be submitted by email so I'm not sure how rental housing um kind of keep track of that data for like what types of complaints they receive the most of and when and how many um I'm not sure um if they're in stream um or if they're kind of like a in a paper file I think those are good um those are good pieces that would demonstrate need I think it would
052show the volume of work to enforce code um so I think rental housing like I it would be totally appropriate for the renters commission to offer again to help um like with data collection or to appeal to council or um kind of ask if there is any way uh to assist with demonstrating um so I'm happy to kind of relay that if that's what you'd like um or if you wanted to put something kind of more formal together that would be fine too um oh uh Julia go ahead um I think it makes sense uh to maybe meet with them in the end of the summer or something so that we have some time coming up on the next budget where we can have a little bit more documentation and we can actually talk as
053a group and try to figure it out you know it seems a little bit like if the the regularly time schedule isn't being met because there's a backlog of waiting Inspections just on the regular uh by anual whatever the the schedule is um that that in itself is like evidence that they need it but if there's some other way you know we can discuss to figure out how best to make this argument to counil and it's totally possible that rental housing um kind of prepared that information and provided it to um like City and the city administrator and other staff who kind of prepare the budget that eventually gets to counsel so um if they'd be willing to confirm or share information on that I can ask too um so I guess it's not to
054say I guess we don't know that they didn't um kind of do that but I I'm just not sure how it was weighted like among other needs at the City by decision makers I can certainly ask yeah if you could ask and um you know let us know what they say then and I think that would help us know how to go forward is that right Julia sorry does um anyone else have any thing on on the rental inspections or Staffing for inspections uh I do if I can I got I've been texting Pete and he said uh uh first of all tenants can search stream to find out with this regard registrations just because there's a registration doesn't mean there's a registration by the owner finally it doesn't mean that there's a certification either
055usually the paper registrations are followed up with an inspection over time uh so if a tenant wants to look up look it up 99% of the time they'll find if they see the address listed said they find that it has been issued a license they can see it online if there are any problems they should give me a call so you folks might want to have rental housing as a guest and I know chrisan you've reached out uh like hey can you give us a an overview of stream or how to use it or what what can a tenant find out there how how a prospective tenant can use stream to their advantage to to to see if that's somewhere they want to rent or not and that's something we could reach out to Pete
056to get honestly it's not a database I use much now was that was Pete's answer for complaints or was it for like that that was for that and I'm sure he'll have a good answer for complaints I just don't want to text a guy at n at night you can give him a chance to prepare sure yeah I think I mean we we we understand the function of stream as far as like the certificate of occupancy I think the big question is when people are being issued these citations what shows up in stream um you know to be more clear with questions yeah yeah maybe the tenant guide to City databases whether it's stream or whether it's um JIS for the court systems and you know what what what what gives you what what each
057gives you by results are those things that we can request from the court and from Building Services or are those things we we'd have to make it ourselves h no it's it's it's a public facing uh uh database that you go oh no I meant I meant the you know kind of oh how stream for beginners yeah know for renters yeah you could develop a committee to do or beg Kristen to help with or Pete or you know staff could do it and then you could review it that might be something that would be helpful it seems like kind of something along the lines of the the video that Jamie was looking at preparing maybe kind of like a companion PDF to go with that would be helpful um and I think rental housing would
058be a great resource for kind of confirming the information I'm not sure that they would be able to devote staff time to creating it it would be nice to know what information we can get as renters um because you know even with Jamie um making the video this weekend it's wanting to make sure that we we do have the list of what you can find or search for um does anyone else have question or comment all right then we'll go ahead and move forward um to planning for the 7e planning for the next meeting um does anyone have something in particular that they'd like to see on the agenda for for next month um I'll go with an up no well I'll start with an um for next meeting um you know of course approving
059the the minutes from last month and this month um hopefully a new update from John about the um the junk fee ordinance um and an update about was it discussing the outcomes of the tenant Education meeting that we had um this month as well um Julia um I'd like it if uh council members could give an update on the vacancies and I know that there's been applications and hopefully some of them can move on to city council so we can have a fuller [Music] commission um I do know that we the um after last month's meeting Travis did put forward um Michelle Le is her last name and as one um and I haven't and that one did go before but because she's not a resident of the city um I think it has like
060a second Vote or something but I think that's on the the city council meeting for Monday so she hopefully will be here in June at June meeting um and then the rest of it yeah getting the vacancy an update vacancy list because I think we oh Kristen if you're finished I can um I'll confirm that the new member should be appointed as long as Council votes to approve it on Monday so you will have a new person next week or next month um and in the past you've asked about short-term rentals I was curious if that's something you'd like an update on I know there's been a little bit of work in rental housing with creating some resources for filing complaints and providing information um to Residents yes please okay uh Bob so what uh
061I know John was talking about a presentation from rental housing what's the timeline that we would need to get that kind of a presentation scheduled um and should that be a consideration um I reached out to them earlier today with a couple of dates this month based on um I asked about I believe they last attended in June of not June March of 2022 and I know there's been kind of significant change on the commission since then um it was super helpful for the commission I think and very informational so I think it would be good to do it again um I proposed um I proposed the June meeting the September meeting and the October meeting um I think June would be a little quick um and if if they only have availability in July
062and August I think it's totally an option August would be really difficult for me to um August and July both with with the election because I think it would take a little bit more to prep for this meeting um I think there would be kind of a lot of back and forth with providing them questions and kind of stuff like that but if they don't have availability um otherwise I could certainly make it work um so I think it's reasonable to expect it's hard to say I know they're going into their busy season so I'm not sure um what they would have so um I'll keep the group updated on what they say for a 10 okay thanks Kristen then I mean it's kind of a lot on the agenda for next month anyway I
063mean well it's our Norm but um you know we can always move something if they do say that yes we can meet in June okay um I don't see any more hand raised so we'll now move on for to the item 8A the report from city council uh council member Harrison do you have anything to update us on no I don't other than we're just it's budget cycle we're getting through budget cycle um so no no no current updates I count that as an update yeah work hard on the budget okay thank thank you uh council member Harrison um and 8B is the report from the Greg but he's not here um let's see uh the report Christ anything to else to update us with I don't have any formal updates um except that the
064r or that the city clerk's office will be recruiting for election inspector soon and I'll extend um kind of that to this group um we'll be hiring for election day and then also for working early voting um that'll be the nine days before the Monday before election day and um so I'll I'll send that information up to you guys soon but other than that I don't have anything formal thank you and so then we'll move on to the second general public comment um which is three minutes per speaker all right if any uh member of the public would like to address the rent's commission about any topic for up to three minutes um public comment can be made by phone at 877 853 5247 or 888 78899 and entering meeting ID 935 941 um can
065also join with the zoom web link and that is a2gov.org renters commission meeting I'll give it a second see if anyone joins um there's nobody in the zoom room right now give it a second in case anyone no speakers sorry um okay well then we'll move forward to Communications um we did received I think it was three emails um that were attached to tonight's agenda um I don't know if you can show us the emails Kristen I know that one had to do with the early leasing ordinance and a um a was it I'll call it a threat of being charged what is it three times the month L rent I believe um I think is this the one about the mole no okay this one here is a was a homeowner um who lives
066next to a rental unit where there was allegedly in exchange of gunfire um a young man living in the house was involved the police and detectives came um and the neighbor would like the um landlord it sounds like to evict the tenants um but honestly there really isn't anything that the in my opinion that the renters commission can do about this it's not within our purview that's between um does anyone else have a comment okay then um Kristen can we go on to the next one um yes this is the one that I was talking with uh talking about where said that he would start recuring daily charges of two times the daily rent because they don't have the signed paperwork and each day they continue without the signed paperwork the charges will continue to
067acrew [Music] um and I think if you scroll up Kristen there was something where threat triple the rent unless he renews the lease um they copied the landlord office and this one then I think this is their response right the response was the lease requires a 60-day notice to renew or to provide written notice to vacate um if and he asked if he plant of renew vacate um and thank you Kristen for your response saying that we don't have any regulations on that only on the um ELO and providing that to him and then the third one was a complaint about mold um and it sounds like the tenant did um receive or submit a complaint form the one thing I wasn't clear about is I don't know if that's a City rental issue or
068also a county health issue as well if we would just what we say like just refer them to to that I know that it's said that Janet it's at dear Janet on there but that's the only other thing I can think of we didn't provide any resources about that and I don't think we have any on the renters commission website about um things like that I know the renters or the rental housing website has some information about mold um but that's something we can if that is the case if there's like a county in I don't know like inspection process or regulations there we can certainly update our kind of bounceback email we send people when they email the renters commission and we could also um update the website I'm also happy to respond with
069that resource um if can yeah I don't know for sure it's just normally when I think about more the about health um so I I can look it up and oh Jamie yeah I just Googled it quickly it looks like they do have a complaint process through the health department thank you Jamie yeah okay great so then Kristen if you can send them that um in the response and maybe is that something we should add to the the bounceback email absolutely suggested yeah okay um does anyone else have any questions or comments on the the emails that we received all right then um that's it we don't have a quorum but I will say that um it the last thing on our agenda is to adjourn so I guess I will see you all next
070month um thanks for bearing with me on my first meeting as chair you did great thank you great job y great job than you good love James thank you have a great have a great month um like I said see you next month than bye e e for