001e e e the April 18th 2024 meeting of the anabor renters commission the purpose of the renters commission is to advise the city council and the city administrator on matters affecting renters in the city uh and the rent the Anor renters commission is made up of voting members who are appointed by the mayor and approved by city council two nonvoting city council Liaisons two non- voting members representing different landlord perspectives and a non- voting representative from the University of Michigan Student Legal Services um to speak during any of the common public common opportunities you'll be able to speak through the webinar link or by phone and the instructions will be given during that portion of the the meeting okay we can move on to item two roll call so we'll go through and please as
002always just state where you're calling from uh I am here calling from Ann Arbor commissioner Chen yeah and I'm calling from front and michingan nice to see you commissioner Kelly could not make it commissioner dman here in Ann Arbor hello commissioner else here in an arbor commissioner Lowe's not here commissioner Tibbits here and an arbor commissioner Rosen hi here and an arbor commissioner Ratliff here and Ann Arbor hello commissioner Thomas is not here commissioner pittz here Ann aror hi nice to see you commissioner good here in an arbor hello commissioner excuse me council member Rina here in an arbor right council member Harrison is not here and and she texted me that she is running a couple of minutes late she should join us shortly okay great okay let's see it's one two two three
003four five six okay we do have six voting members we do have a quorum although narly okay um I item three um approval of the agenda is there a motion to approve the agenda is presented move to um approve the agenda okay move by rosanita do we have a second second second by Julian all those in favor say I I I I all those post say name okay so our agenda is approved go on to item four approval of minutes do have um a motion to approve last meeting's minutes so moved by Julia do we have a second oh second second by rosanita thank you all those in favor say I hi I I I oppos say n okay with that we've approved our minutes and I see Jeff you're just tuning in um nice
004to see you could you tell us where you're calling from hi yeah sorry I'm late I am calling from am am Michigan great no worries okay great to have you all right then we can move on then to item five ver general public comment right um public comment can be made by phone um at 877 853 5247 or 888 78899 and entering meeting ID 935 941 or um you can join by Zoom um by joining the meeting at a2gov.org g/r meeting if you'd like to address the r commission about any topic you can um use the raiseed hand feature if you're attending with zoom or you can press star nine to raise your hand we do have a hand raised um David Santa CR go ahead um and unmute I think I did can you
005hear me yes I can't I don't understand why my video is muted but uh forgive me I can't quite figure it out um anyway let me be quick about this so my name is David Santa croch I'm a um uh calling you tonight uh from the uh from my house in Cary town I've uh been teaching at the law school since 2 the year 2000 uh and my job there there is I practice law with students in a kind of a residency program and the vast majority of my practice all these years has been defending tenants from eviction and Prosecuting landlords when we get the opportunity for poor conditions and and um that kind of thing uh all in the county a lot a fair amount in an arbor uh I'm here in my individual
006capacity I want to just say I'm um supportive of the mission and the work of commission I've worked with uh Gail and Zachariah and some other lawyers at times uh looking at the at the various um changes that that you've all implemented and I I I I I I believe and I certainly supported the last round of uh changes but all the changes uh I'm also an empiricist and what I'm about to tell you is purely anecdotal but I think it's suggests maybe asking some questions of the constituency in add ition to being a housing Advocate uh my wife and I own three small houses in an AR in an arbor one's actually got four separate Apartments the other two are just small houses all in this market um in in in the Cary town
007area um two of them just became vacant and I rented them over two weekends where I would post on a Friday morning and do showings on a Saturday morning uh I followed the right to renew ordinance as revised I think there's some question out in the community as which one were op which set of revisions we're operating under we saw that with the with the when the first one went in the place um but I followed it as revised uh the these places are nothing special they were at market price and within 24 hours I had a dozen showings on each Saturday and turned down at least that many again um I talked to tenants and a lot of prospective tenants and a lot of parents and there felt like there was a lot of
008panic in the market I've never seen that kind of response to a to to to a to a posting I've been doing this I don't for 20 years I'm a small a small little player it's not what I do for a living um I've never seen this kind of demand and this Panic um the number of requests I had a number of offers just let me rent it the four pictures on Facebook Market Place are good enough I had several offers to double uh to to pay us another month's rent as a finder like it's as a finder's fee like and I didn't I did I went in order but I was just uh amazed at at at at what was out there I talked to some other landlords and the uni uniformly basically reported
009in a more frenzied highly compressed Market many of them who are filling buildings well into August are full right so it's it's it's we the the the and a lot of that's because a lot lot of students are leaving in a couple of weeks so the my un my view of this based on on what I'm hearing is that the market has been compressed and it's affecting behavior in the market again this is all anecdotal but I think it's it would it would behoove uh it would serve the commission well to go back and ask the constituency which is uh certainly on the right to renew it's mostly students I have clients who aren't students and this is just isn't on their radar uh what their experience was in this last Market um o and
010that to see whether this is just noise in the data or whether this their experience is because of the compression haven't gotten any haven't gotten any better and may have fact gone in the other direction I don't know but I think it's uh I I would suggest it's something U worth thinking about um thank you for your time thank you ban did you have a comment I forgot are we not supposed to respond to commentary I forgot the rules for this meeting rules for this particular set up generally there's not a lot of back and forth with during public comment but if you wanted to make a comment yeah I think I appreciate um you coming and sharing that feedback with us so we we operate similarly as a landlord um and I think there's
011you know we we have talk to students a lot of us do talk to students and I think the other thing just to kind of piggyback on all of this is a we've we've just made changes um that we hope will help and that there's two other kind of parts to the frenzy number one is just the how housing shortage right so I think a lot of things are getting kind of turned back and blame on these ordinances that are actually just there isn't that much housing and that's what you're seeing when you're getting 12 emails we are getting the same a lot more emails but it's not it's not necessarily the time frame it's that there there just isn't that much to to take from I think um is a big part of it
012and the second piece being you know the the weight list fees and the other things that have made it very competitive have really upped the anxiety and so um you know just to give you some assurance that we we as a commission are very much strongly um supporting working on those I know that there's legislation being drafted and so we hear you we know we're hearing that too um it is it is hard to watch and it is um upsetting to see the level of competitiveness and and a lot of that is because of the housing shortage rather than just a a time frame it's just they're admitting more people every year than we are building and that um is a big challenge as a city right it's just it's not just the renters um
013but we we really appreciate you coming and talking about those things too there are no other hands raised okay so uh I think we're good to move on I see that there is one more attendee and just if you do want to make a comment just raise your hand but uh we will move on moment okay we can go [Music] to here we are item six unfinished business uh we have none and then we can go to item seven uh new business start with 7- a uh recommendations for work I suppose I had I must have mentioned right to counsel last time or it had been brought up and I wanted to say some things about it um I will interpret this item in the Brad sense that was mentioned earlier which is just some
014ideas to give to all of you before I leave um so I think that one of the main things has already come up which is the supply issue it's impossible to ignore and uh the I think we haven't touched it a whole lot because it's it's a tri it's a broad question I think it's a tricky one too um but there's a lot of components to it and in my opinion um I think we need to be thinking about zoning it's just impossible to ignore that much of the city is zoned to only have a single family house in it built on it um and a lot of that probably needs does need to change beyond that there's other things there's other Solutions as well that I I hope the commission will explore including trying
015to um learn about um funding opportunities for public and social health um there's in different states across the country they're talking about um setting up new funds to help pay for new you know fund new developments of public and social housing I think one of the biggest problems why we don't have more public housing in the city is that uh we just don't there's not enough capital and uh public housing authority the Housing Commission with um um which you all know about uh has to go through all these jump through all these different hoops and get a little bit of money from this program a little bit money from that program and just it's really not sustainable um and it's no wonder why we don't have more and um to build off of the the
016public comment that was made um I I think that uh Mr Santa croch was right that we do need to talk to to renters about these new rules and continue talking to them uh one of the ways we have done that in the past is through a student government survey I'm more than happy to you know even when I'm done in the commission act as a conduit and make sure you guys have a contact uh with student government if you want to encourage them to rerun that survey with the same or similar questions to see how public opinion among students is changing since this is an issue that predominantly affects students the early Leasing and and all that um now onto right to counsel um I think that you know there was interest I had
017heard from a council member about right to counsel um I think mostly because of Detroit's program on right to council uh they in introduced this program uh after a lot of public pressure to um guarantee tenants who are facing eviction uh an attorney so they would have representation and I think one of the big reasons why is because I think it's are only about like 3% of tenants are are represented in eviction cases whereas over 90% of landlords are represented by an attorney so there's this huge disparity and in Detroit the big this they're really pushing for um the big thing is funding and um I think it'd be really great if uh you all consider exploring a right to council program not just for the city of an arbor but on a larger area
018because um while there are certainly evictions in an arbor some of our neighboring cities have areas with much higher rates of eviction and it seems like those areas might be better impacted in a positive way by a program so it might be best if you're going to approach that if you're going to approach the issue of right counil to do it on a larger scale although it doesn't that's not a a silver bullet either because um a lot of times when it comes to eviction the problem is the tenant doesn't have money and in attorney is not going to really help unfortunately a lot a lot of things to think about um I also hope you all will consider uh working with the inter Cooperative Council I know they have some demands related to housing
019uh which I think the renters commission should take a look at they have a website uh about this I think it's icc.org zoning I think I can send it out something like that um anyway um one of the proposals is to have a um uh right of first refusal for tenants so if they landlords are selling their homes or selling the rental units they have to first make an offer to the current tenants do you want to buy it and the tenants could could get together apply for a loan and then purchase it and turn it into a Cooperative which is why the the inter Cooperative council is very interested in this idea I think it's a very interesting proposal and it should be explored certainly um I I can't say I have a I
020have plenty of things to say but I'm going to leave it there um I uh I'm not sure if there's any questions or discussion you all want to have on this um I'm I have plenty of notes and plenty of ideas and I'm happy to share them with anybody yeah Rita [Music] um as I I agree with what you said especially about if there is going to be um a I just lost the name the right to councel that at at the county level um and I think that that would also help with cost sharing which might make it more affordable um or a little bit more pleasant uh fiscally um and the newest term that like I was hearing is no longer wrer or first refusal but tenant opportunity to purchase um I was
021learning more about that and yeah it's just I don't know names change all the time yeah thank you and honestly I think it's a better name it I can understand better what that what the idea is just from the name yeah and you know one thing I forgot to say is um the university I can't be ignored here um I I think that there that you know we need to consider why there is seems to be more panic in the market and consider a number of hypotheses here definitely um I don't think it's just the the the dates anyway I don't think that's that's the only reason why if it is one um and the reason why I say that is in I don't know if you've you all read the papers last fall but
022the university has admitted so many people that it can't even uh uh guarantee its students dorm rooms in fact they had to turn several wreck rooms Recreation rooms into dorm rooms because they overpromise students and that's probably going to keep happening um and they do have plans to build more dorms but it's not it doesn't even keep up with the with the expansion and enrollment so I'm extremely concerned there and I know that that's a bit outside of the scope of the commission however as community members I think we all need to be aware of it and seriously think about how can we exert influence and pressure on the University uh because you know the city council obviously can only do so much but as community members we need to do something I mean this
023is really getting uh crazy I mean um and and also the uh I've seen some landlords using the high prices of the dorms that already exist as an excuse to keep their prices High and I I have it in text you know I that was pretty shocking to see as well um so I hope these are you'll also consider the role of the University here yeah Bob uh just to point out that there's a uh construction of a new dormatory with I think 12200 bedrooms actively going on in uh well more or less in in the neighborhood that that uh I'm in uh near uh on the site of old lbell field and there's there's plans for at least one more um kind of in the same sort of area so they're talking about 2400
024uh rooms uh within I think the new the one that's uh currently under construction will open in uh for the two 2026 school year and thanks Bob yeah it's exciting that they are making movements a lot more than they have in long time it still doesn't keep up with I think some of the increasement increases they've they've had in the past decade um but it's definitely the right direction okay any other points you know points of discussion comments questions thank you all sincerely for uh all the work you've put into this commission I know it can feel kind of like a sisian task to try to have a positive impact on this rental market uh but in the time I've been here I think that people what I've noticed is that tenants have become a
025lot more aware of what um what's going on and what their rights are you we know that booklets those rights booklets are going out much more frequently which is a positive development and I think people uh are really ready to to engage in Democratic processes on this issu that's pretty exciting um and I think I I hope that the at least the spirit of the rules like the right to renew rule will um continue to positively affect people um so thank you again and let's see we can move on to s- oh yes just a second before I move on just that I want to thank you also Zachariah that it's been wonderful having you chair the commission um and all your work in housing is greatly appreciated thank you Julia that means a lot
026especially coming from you thank you um oh yeah and I I hope you all pick like a t like a focus you know I I know sometimes we didn't have like a PR like a one thing that we're working on I think it' be good to look at our work plan uh whoever the next chair and CH or or just as a commission and just pick one of those things and just focus on that for a little bit um I think that's something that we should have done more frequently um great okay we can move on to 7-b officer elections so since I am stepping down as chair that seat is uh vacant so would anyone is anyone would like to nominate themselves or uh I don't know if you can nominate another person for
027I guess yeah you can nominate another person for uh the position of chair wasita um I don't know if anyone else is interested but I would like to be chair um to continue on the work that that the commission been focused on including some of the recommendations that Zariah has made okay um I'm sorry it sort of cut out there for a second you you said you're nominating oh yes I'm nominating myself okay okay gotcha terrific um and I'll have to defer here again do we need a second for a nomination okay do we have a second okay um great I second by Jeff um are there any other nominations for this position of chair okay great um so I assume we still have to vote on this um all those in favor of rosanita
028becoming the next Chair say I I Hi I hi okay all those opposed say Nate thank you yeah congratulations rosanita and thank you so much for stepping up thank you and I'm sorry to see you go you really did a great job of I know for me onboarding me on to the commission um and are you sure you want to go and leave us for medical school I'm very touched by you saying that and some other people on the commission have said that too it's really kind um yes I am it's been my dream for I tried to twist his arm this [Laughter] week and I think Zechariah too just like the general community building that you have worked toward right like there's so many spaces that you're in and you're always leading with kindness
029and compassion and setting an example for us all and I just I think we all really are grateful for um just even the privilege of watching you work over the last couple years it's been a really beautiful thing for me so I'm really grateful about that same here yeah I feel the same way too is this thank you very much Zach is this your last time to attend or yes it will be I'm I'm actually leaving to this my family overseas uh next month so I won't even be around for um the next meeting so this will be my last one oh sorry I'll just be in Detroit guys you're welcome to visit everybody come come see my new place so you can still get on Zoom then that's good to know you can join
030their renters commission and make changes there no you need to stay here no too busy zachari I second what second third what everybody has said I mean it's just been amazing to sort of watch you develop this and your thoroughness and your compassion and commitment is is pretty amazing and uh if you take even a little bit of this to your medical school I know you're going to be amazing thank you so much and thank you um commission council member Rina for creating the Commission in the first place I know it was the whole Council the voter on it but you really proposed it I'm glad it exists and this is about praising you right now I've had enough thank you it's not not only your passion I believe you do it with elegancies and
031you do it with honor and respect this is very important thank you thank you thank you I don't think I'm I'm the chair anymore so I can't call on you Cynthia uh council member Harrison okay it's gonna take a lot of getting used to sorry I just I just kind of wanted to chime in and and piggyback um just to really thank you Zachariah for um you know your work as chair on this commission um I've you know really appreciated the work that you've put in and um you do it with Grace and honor and um you know with a lot of Pride uh and um you know you you're just natural at it and uh rosan has got bigo to fil um but uh I think I think I mentioned to you when I
032saw you last that you're going to be real great doctor um we're we're gonna miss you uh but we'll I'll have to make sure to stay in touch with you is uh yeah I just really appreciate um you know what you've done for the for the commission so thank you so much Cynthia and you really flatter me all of you and thank you so much for the kind words I I will note that the often the elections will take effect at the next meeting so that rosanita wouldn't be thrown into suddenly running without preparing so we're not gonna let you off the hook that easy I think you just because I'm still in the mode of waiting for zar just say okay now we're moving on to the next item okay fine I'm back at
033the risk of at the risk of repeating myself everybody I should say Zachariah all I could say is you have been a phenomenal chairperson and this committee would not have accomplished half I think of what it has without your leadership so thank you for all that you've done thank you so much Jeff and I know I texted you this earlier I know uh you know just let us know even email the commission members how we can support for the aaps stuff please it's been on my mind a lot um okay well we actually had a very light agenda um I think one we could kind of do it oh go ahead Travis sorry I just wanted to confirm do we only have the one officer that needed to be elected because of your vacancy or
034do we need to elect all officers maybe that's a question for Kristen uh we don't need to elect a new Vice chair which Julia is remaining the vice chair um but uh I should note that um I believe it is June um so rosanita was elected to fill the remaining time on your term we'll do another one um this summer for chair and vice chair thanks I just just wanteded to make sure on that so then yeah we'll continue with that term until normal time okay thank you yes of course thank you okay great um I think it would be good if we all opened up the work plan and took a look and maybe started a conversation about what this commission should focus on uh going forward so let me open that up and
035I can share my screen it take me a second to find this sorry well while we're doing that Jamie is this your last meeting I think I will be here for next month's meeting but that will be my last one okay wait we're losing you too yeah I believe I'll be with I'll be I I maybe next month is my last one too you to done done so if anyone wants to continue serving even if they um their term expires you you can just uh submit another application and please do if you're interested continuing yeah Jordan it's also super easy so it Imports all of your stuff so it takes like three minutes yeah I just did mine uh about a month ago and it was it took yeah three minutes they send you an
036email so check your still interested and uh um you just say yep I'm still interested and you're done so please do it yeah Dandan are you interested in continuing or do you think you're gonna I have I have uh submit the um applications yes I have I have thank you yeah great yeah Travis yeah so I was going to save this for my Council comments but since we've kind of gone there as a conversation to to fill some time um I believe that everyone who's here currently who term is expiring in May has reapplied except for Jamie um and we knew she was rolling off and so um that's a pretty easy process to get people kind of reappointed um and so um yeah and if anyone has changed their mind and doesn't want to
037continue to serve let us know but I think that everybody who is eligible for reapplication who's here tonight has done so do I have to do anything done anything I don't know that your term is expiring yet oh you're you're also not appointed by us I don't think let me let me check on that because you're kind of appointed by the university yeah okay I'll just hang out until I hear otherwise yeah okay can everyone see it yes okay um yeah so I this should be is this the most OPD the 2023 calendar year is that the one we're no this would be 2024 calendar year right I'm sorry guys Kristen please if you if you know where this is I'm having the hardest I'm finding it for some reason I one second I'll share
038and I just found it okay go ahead and share I'll let you do it oh okay U actually you know what put yours back up mine has a bunch of edited so please just put put yours up in no worries thank you so much okay yeah so um like I said I think it'd be good if the commission just chooses um one thing to start with and really focuses on that to uh um oh I'm so the beginning at least no worries now I got it okay there we go so I'll that's right we had split it up into three different sections uh rental housing reform sorry um rental housing reform in our legislation commissioner education and stakeholder education so let's just I'll open the floor and if anything if one of these items really
039stands out to you please um speak up yeah Jeff and Rosen uh thank you um just in in listening to some of the um the comments today already and um you know in light of of the stuff that we we've just worked to get changed and passed in the city council I wonder if um at least for uh the first little bit here our um one of our focuses should be uh stakeholder education you know get the the info out there that there's a new you know a new ordinance or changes to the existing ordinance I should say um and um like that survey you mentions might be hard to do right now with students leaving but um maybe Revis that for um Gathering new information and how the the ordinance might be affecting folks
040and um what they know about it and then going from there sure that's a good idea thanks Jeff rosanita um I agree that's important I had a couple of questions that I think it might be more for the council members um in the proposed 2025 budget I saw something in there about adding um new people in or at least one new staff member for um was it building inspection is that is there did you see anything um about Staffing for enforcement of the housing rules rental for rental housing um I don't is that so oh yeah go ahead I'm sorry no please go ahead I don't I don't think so but not 100% I don't graab and yeah and I would say I am also I'm just starting to dig into the proposed budget and
041so um uh it is not something that I've come across at this stage but it's a question that I that maybe we can submit as part of our budget questions thank you and Jeff is your hand up from earlier oh yeah sorry about that no worries is it down now yes thanks okay anyone else Julia um I think I just want to Second what rosanita said um I think that there's you know issues with the process of writing tickets for um the right to renew in the early Leasing and and you know what do people do when there are violations what do we do when there's like like I saw there's somebody um on the list who uh Communications to the commission um you know that that one landlord keeps coming up a lot and
042doesn't seem to care that they get written tickets they just keep doing what they want to do um and some level I think think of better enforcement um and you know this is very antidotal but back in the day the the rental inspectors were pretty strong and it generated um you know they paid for themselves because there were violations and they issued tickets um and the housing stock in an arbor is obviously older but you know when I'm comparing back in the 80s with what the building inspectors used to do the housing stocks really gone down in the community when you walk around um the rental housing is really looking shabby and I and I think that building inspectors could play a positive role and fixing that thank you J Jordan I'd Echo that too
043and I think the you know the idea of really connecting with CSG to kind of have a plan in the fall um for a survey would would likely be helpful um and I think that can touch on both of those things right like um the last survey talked about how things were being maintained were you getting notice before things you know it's pretty comprehensive and I think that that could help guide our our education too since we know that at least in the student body we're getting 50% of people who um were covering with what their needs are um so yeah I think I just another voice for kind of making sure that we are prioritizing um prioritizing checking in I I had thought Am I Wrong Zachary I thought at one point that there
044that there had been a repeat survey sent out and that we were like waiting for results did that not does that sound familiar to you I for some reason like maybe six months ago I thought I thought that there had been some sort of repeat survey in relation to housing but maybe I'm maybe I'm misremembering I don't know I thought we were waiting for results at some point recently it's a good question I don't recall that I don't know if they did win last year I know we we did wi the year before um I can check in and and try to get an answer on that Travis know need yeah I just wanted to touch on enforcement also and just also kind of remind folks that part of I think part of the reason
045we realized that um enforcement was becoming an issue was because there were a lot of um at least identified by the city issue there were a lot of issues that the city wasn't enforcing against because they felt that they actually the the ordinance itself wasn't strong enough at the time and so that was part of the the reforms that we just passed as well and so I do think um as the new ordinance is now taking effect and and is in place and um staff feels more strongly about kind of the stick that they have have uh to enforce in some of this that I think we'll need to also keep our eyes on that in terms of determining whether or not now we see enforcement picking up because I actually am not confident that
046um the lack of enforcement previously was necessarily a staffing issue versus a making the determination that it wasn't a technical violation even if it violated the spirit of the ordinance and so part of part of our ordinance revisions Were Meant to tighten that up and close those loopholes and so um so I think time will tell in that respect too over the next um you know leasing period playing out Rosita and then Jan is it anyone hearing rosanita okay I think she might be frozen okay let's move on to Jamie and we'll Circle back yeah um related to enforcement and ordinances I think um and I don't even know like quite how much this would be like a responsibility of the Mission versus like something the city could do um but as a tenant recently
047I have found um the stream I think is the new version of where you can look up like permits for where you live I found that to be really helpful um and I think like maybe a little more promotion around that for tenants could be beneficial um I think it's really kind of empowering as a tenant to be able to see you know what whether or not your landlord has let that certificate of compliance lapse or you know even look up maybe past issues um that may be creeping into current issues that you're dealing with um but yeah I found that system to be really helpful I think it's relatively easy to use but there could still be like a little more um a little more effort to help make it more user friendly um
048I agree Gail sorry having a little trouble unmuting myself um I agree that that stream could be a little more user friendly I found etrack it to be easier so it might be helpful if someone could explain to us kind of where to go if stream doesn't seem to be giving us all the information but back to um the enforcement I I'm wondering if we used to get I thought um redacted versions or you know of complaints that have been filed and I'm wondering if we can get those again because you know I think people are are filing complaints as they're trying to figure things out and especially since the ordinance has been amended and it might be helpful for us to see kind of what's been filed and what's happened with those um with
049those cases and and just even how many complaints have been filed yeah I think we had specifically requested those uh complaints uh about ordinance 8530 or 8531 it's early leasing ordinance are right to renew um I'm guessing could probably ask Chris and do the same if you all want to do that um do do you want to I guess let's s on that for a second do you want to do that now or do we want to wait a little while and then request well I guess I would prefer to request it now I think you know at least for the students anyway the leasing period is kind of you know almost done now you know the the 15 days for Mo or the you know the the releasing dates for for most of the
050properties has already come and gone so at least for the students they know whether they were um able to renew or not renew or you know those those issues have sort of played themselves out already I think primarily okay um yeah Kristen would it be possible to get an updated list of redacted complaints for um those two ordinances absolutely thank you rosanita I'm sorry about that apparently my Internet isn't happy right today um after is after a certain number of code violations um is a landlord's ability to be a landlord uh taken away like do they lose the certificate of occupancy do they lose the ability to operate as a landlord or a property management company within the city or is it just continual fines my understanding is fines but I don't know uh Travis
051yeah there is nothing in the ordinances that we have passed that would that would do that thanks so like 100 safety violations and it's still allowed to be a rental I mean I've seen some of the places around campus having grown up here and some of them still look the same some of sorry I would I would have to I would have to get a different I would have to get a different answer for you on that nothing in the ordinances we have recently passed that came from this body have anything related to revoking those are those are fines um if there are safety violations things like that I don't know I I don't I would have to look into that with our staff if you could that'd be great and good to know um
052because those are some of the issues that have also come into play in some of the court cases say as well Julia um you know this is ancient history but um back in the 80s when I worked for legal services for Student Legal Services we did with the tenant Union file a complaint um at the uh housing variance Commission um because there were landlords in town where the fire department had on record that firefighters were not allowed to enter the places they were so unsafe but the building inspectors were not taking away their certificates of occupancies um so we had to like file within the city to fight that and we did get one taken away and then he did like two little repairs and they give it back to them so they do they
053I'm sure they have the power they just don't do it and and honestly it probably doesn't come up because I don't think they issue multiple violations like that I think stuff just slides okay so a number of things here but what I'm hearing mostly are um some concerns about the complaint process especially when it comes to the newer ordinances we had heard from the city administrator that there is some concern about only Janet frell uh processing all these complaints and not having enough you know staff hours dedicated to that and where you know we what the process would be I think it would be good to follow up and make and see if they found a stable solution for that um I hope that our council members will will consider that throughout the budgeting process
054um because maybe a solution has been found I don't know uh but it seemed like the city administrator was concerned that's one is complaints issues and then a second one is education of tenants that came up I think a couple times here um making sure tenants know about the new rules when it comes to right right to renew and also uh about stream and how to access that sort of information so complaint issues and tenant education issues are what I'm hearing a lot of is there another major thing there that I'm skipping over I know there's some other issues mentioned definitely but okay well UL Ely it will be the you know all of your decision on what to focus on next but I think it would be great if you all investigated that complaint
055uh process question and make sure that they did find a solution um and I guess this this is kind of going into our next um our next agenda item I think which is planned for next meeting but um like guess let's just move on to 7-c which is planned for our next meeting and I hope I I'll propose that you all put on your agenda discussion of the complaint process and TR maybe we can get some um clarification from staff to see if those issues have been fixed from the administrator's memo and also talk about Outreach regarding 8530 that's the the new combined right to renew ordinance and stream so tenants know how to access complaint information regarding their unit so guess those are two agenda points yeah Rosen rosanita um sorry back at the
056I don't know why I'm saying the beginning of the month but a little over a week ago um Jamie had sent out a survey about meeting for attended educ um education is it committee uh because we were supposed to talk about you know meeting for table when what events we were going to table at and um what not and now finding out that she's leaving um what are we going to do about that I think that's something else we also need to discuss that's a good point I I that slipped my mind um I think until we have more people unless someone here wants to take that on I guess let's first put that out everybody is there someone who has the time and energy and wants to find a meeing time for this committee
057and figure some of those stuff out regarding tabling I will just say I only got rosanita was the only person that responded so I I did just email Kristen I was like should we still I mean I'm happy to meet with you Rosita before I take off to um plan things out but I wasn't sure without knowing like who would be taking that forward um so I think it's still like to meet to know to learn a bit more about the tenant education committee and about tabling and how of that works but I think maybe zachariah's right in terms of waiting until we have the new Commissioners who may have more time and a heavy heavy interest in sitting there and talking to to people at events okay I will um I'll get that scheduled
058with Kristen because I think she would be helpful to be in that meeting too just from like a logistics standpoint thanks great um Julia um yeah and if you could send out when a meeting is set to all of us so that if I didn't answer it because my schedule is really he I and I figured oh well if I can make what they pick I'll make it um but I think even if we don't have the strength to have this as a separate committee that we could still discuss tabling at a regular meeting um so I don't know if Kristen if you can come up with a list of like Community you know City sponsored s um if there's a calendar out that makes sense or if you could direct one of us to
059do that I you know I'd certainly be willing to sit at a table even if I can't always make the committee meeting Absolutely I'll look at um some parks locations also that may be available for reservation I know that one of your past events ended up being kind of in carry town but I think you wanted it kind of a little bit more the plaza area so I'll I'll check in with parks and see um what the reservations available are offer thank you uh Kim hi yeah Jamie I forgot to answer you as well I was just gonna make the meeting too so I apologize okay thanks Kim so um how about this how about you all plan to it sounds like you do want to meet is that right before the next next general
060meeting they okay you will try to meet um let's also put that on the agenda so we will have um this my train of thought here um on the on the next agenda there's the discussion of the complaint process there will be discussion of educ tenant education um and I guess we can split this up into a couple points uh tenant education on the questions of 8530 and I guess a530 and stream and then also tenant Outreach events I guess like tabling we can put that as a separate thing so three points total um and then that way the if you all have not had a chance to meet we can still discuss it or you all could discuss at the next general meeting that makes sense okay anything else for the next meeting okay
061great well we can move on then to item eight reports uh 8-a report from city council you have anything else to share go ahead um so we started talking about this a little bit I wanted to give an update on the the um appointments process and um upcoming vacancies um so I know that we mentioned that four of the existing Commissioners whose terms are expiring at the end of May have reapplied um and then we have one current um General vacancy uh that existed and so we have made council member Harrison and I and chair Farah have made a recommendation to the mayor um to reappoint the four who have reapplied um and to fill the vacancy with an an applicant who um who submitted their application I've talked to her um if she is
062appointed she is a student which I don't believe we currently have a student perspective on the body um and an undergraduate student which is a perspective I don't think we've had um in a while Z Zack I don't remember if you were still in undergrad when you first got appointed but I remember but we've had graduate students but I don't think a lot of undergraduate students and so um My Hope Is that she will move forward to fill a full two-year term because the vacancy that we would be appointing her to actually also would expire at the end of May so I made clear we want we want her for the the full term um and then I was just doing kind of the math year and um with with commissioner uh Jamie rolling off
063if Arthur is not reapplying um and then the existing renters Advocate attorney vacancy and when chair Farah uh resigns we'll have four additional vacancies we need to get filled and so um we are looking to make sure that those get filled as well I made sure to give the mayor a heads up that we hope to have recommendations for them as well since it's a two-step process we've got a uh we're going to be moving pretty quickly here so that we can try to get those seats filled um by the end of May so that we're up to full strength in June um so that's kind of what we're looking at but we are moving forward on some of those and I know that that's been uh an issue here we have a we actually
064have a lot of members of this body but a number of them are non- voting so obviously despite a lot of people around the the uh Zoom screen here um not everyone can vote and so they don't count towards Quorum and so I know that that's been an issue um so that was really the big thing that I know has been on folks radar and wanted to give you an update that we are working to get those positions filled um and and I will just add again I was going to do this at this point anyway and then we kind of went around but just wanted to thank you again Zariah for your service um really has been wonderful working with you and you really helped to get this commission up and running um when
065we first launched and your advocacy and all of the the organizations kind of adjacent to this commission um and obviously uh just in general uh has been really helpful and helping to bring people in and thank you very much I obviously wish you well as you head off to medical school but I'm still very grumpy about it so thank you thank you thank you thank you for the report um all right uh we can move on to 8-b report from hhsa liaison I know actually Jeff you were not able to make the last meeting and I didn't I was away I was on um was not in town I wasn't able to contact our alternate so I don't think we had a um a representative at their last meeting but correct me if I'm wrong
066there Jeff um um no that's that's correct um uh unfortunately I was not able to make it because of the ongoing aaps issues so um um no one was able to attend that last meeting but I have plans to be the next one thank you Jeff understandable okay we'll move on to 8-c report from staff leison so Kristen let us know if you have any reports um I believe that I emailed out that the new Complaint Form and um guide for the updated right to renew are online um I provided the information on rental housing but I don't know if they posted it or not yet um I can check and then follow up with them if it hasn't been posted um and then after I confirm that it's posted on rand's website I can
067um be sure to do a [Music] subscriber okay thank you Chris then um and thank you so much um for your all your diligence and organization all skills I'm very impressed as always and thanks for always like coming to these meeting so late I really do appreciate it um this is my last chance to tell you on the commissions so thank you so much as always um all right uh yeah that would be great if uh rental Housing Services could get that on our website um soon 8-d report from Commissioners do any Commissioners you all like to give a report on anything you're working on anything you've seen it's coming up um I would just say Kimberly and the um council members were I saw them all at the um groundbreaking uh for the new
068uh building going up on Katherine like a cross from the farmers market and it was a really good event and it sounds like it's going to be a great building yeah very exciting Jordan yeah I just wanted to give a little plug for any landlords that are listening Bob or any others um there is a like a land landlord sorry it's late networking mixer event next week um it's going to be held on the 23d and it will be from 4 to 7 and it's at corner Brewery in Ipsy we're just trying to come together as um washut area landlords um just to kind of figure out how we can all do better and work more collaborative collaboratively and also help um you know just build community talk about opportunities for um ways that we
069can impact the um large number of folks that are on housed in our community and our neighbors um but also just kind of connect and work together and and learn about um each other's businesses and so there are light snacks provided so we are asking for an RSVP um if anybody is interested um Kristen I guess since you're the the funnel person I'll funnel it through um Kristen so you can just email the renters commission email um and get those to us and I can get you the invite um but anybody's welcome and honestly if you don't RSVP we'd rather have you there than not so it's open to all landlords property managers um anyone kind of in decision-making spaces or in community spaces in those roles in the greater washing County area so again
070next week the 23rd Corner Brewery 4 to 7 hope to see you uh landlords and property managers there thank you Jordan anyone else okay we can move on to item nine uh second general public comment um public comment can be made by phone by calling 877 85352 47 or 888 78899 and entering meeting ID 935 881 941 and you can also join um the zoom link and that is a2g .or g/ renters commission meeting and if you in the zoom meeting you can go ahead and use the raise hand feature if you'd like to be called on to speak if you are calling in you can press star n to raise your hand um if anyone would like to address the rental commission can go ahead and raise your hand now and then we will
071um call to speak we do have one attendee your hand was previously raised if you are interested in oh I see raised awesome I will move you in now all right go ahead okay I don't know if you can hear me can you guys hear me okay yes all right I just want to say my name is Carol and um I'm a landlord in the area I've been a landlord for five years now I'm also in a lum of Michigan um but um I just you know I just wanted to attend and learn a little a little bit more about your group and what you guys do and I'm very impressed um with u how polite you all are and how good you all are to each other um and I just yeah I just
072wanted to say hi and introduce myself and thank you for what you're doing and um considering possibly joining but um I I'm just here to learn more about you guys and what you're doing so it looks like you're doing a lot and you're doing good work so it's nice to see all of you and meet you at least you know orderly here that's it really just want to introduce myself thank you all right there are no other attendees thank you and thank you Carol for your comment please feel free to reach out to us via email any time if you ever have any questions about what we're doing um and uh if you um need help finding where the application is if you're interested in applying um just send us an email and we'll give
073you all the information thank you okay now we move on to item 10 our last item before adjournment um okay uh communication start off with this email um regarding uh unannounced entry to a rental unit by the landlord um yeah I almost certain that they're violating I mean if this is accurate then what what would be the landlord would be violating the the law because they're supposed to give um make a good faith effort to give notice I believe um Bob I saw your hand went up yeah go ahead my understanding is it's 24 hours for a non-emergency um so yeah I find this inappropriate and probably illegal but I'm not a lawyer yeah I'm glad that it went that Sarah was able to respond and give them the complaint information because that's probably the
074next step is to IED to that unfortunately if anyone's interested there is a a specific ordinance that creates a two-tiered created a two tied system for privacy as they uh called it in an arbor um so everyone gets like the base tier of privacy and then you can also set out kind of more ground rules if you notify your landlord and only under certain conditions are they allowed to come in uh you can look it up it's called I think the Privacy ordinance or that's how it's commonly referred to as and there's some explainers online oh yeah Julia um um Ju Just that there are cases that unfortunately start out like this [Music] um where it does bleed over into being sexual harassment yeah definitely I feels like it has those undertones um I did
075find a this I literally just searched a privacy ordinance in Arbor um and it explains here the tier one and tier 2 system um I think very few people know about that at Le tenant and that came out of it was not uncommon for landlords to be assaulting their female tenets um so that's where that ordinance came from that makes sense um did that come out of Tenants Union as well or would that part of tenen um it was along with um the the women's crisis center also I see wow good to know I didn't know that um okay this one seems like it's a tenant who is not in an arbor it's contact of the an arbor tenant rights commission which sounds like probably our commission but we don't file we don't actually you
076know we don't manage complaints here so um yeah Kristen did we receive anything that might match this that's what I'm aware of okay got maybe the thing about parental Housing Services okay um right CMB it's not giving out physical booklets so okay um yeah go ahead Julia well just that I have concerns that um CMB hasn't given out booklets for years and they have it online um they have the older version online they haven't updated we've heard complaints about them not updating it um I know it's not the city's practice or at least we were told it's not the city's practice to write tickets on this but when somebody's out of compliance continually um I I think they're just telling the inspector that they're doing the right thing now shouldn't be good enough that they
077should get a ticket a lot of people complain about CMB with early leasing in the city did pursue one ticket but not all the other tenants that complain yeah um I think I think I I'm curious to see what would happen if you know they go through the proper channels of submitting a complaint through rental Housing Services about this Travis you are muted thank you um yeah I was just going to say that too I think the appropriate responses to um file the formal complaint I think you know the unfortunate reality is this is this may be one of those situations where what what I know used to happen all the time when I was renting which is you know when you're going to sign your lease they say oh and we have this booklet
078and they point at it and they offer it um but they don't necessarily put it in a packet or give it away and then that is you know that satisfies the requirement of making the offer of the the booklet even if the person doesn't take it um and so but I think this is one of those situations where we would actually we would just need somebody to actually investigate the the facts of the case and so like I I don't think we can based on the information we have I don't I don't think we can necessarily say there's for sure a violation but there certainly could be and so I think there's definitely enough for the person to to file a complaint which it looks like um that recommendation was made to them yeah Travis
079and um I know I've been in touch with with some CNB tenants and I'll I'll talk to them as well and see if um just kind of encourage them to do the same okay um yeah this was regarding renewal okay thanks Kristen for responding to this so it sounds like so they haven't received an offer to renew um that might just require them asking the landlord for the offer and they might just come into compliance that way but um if that doesn't happen I guess they I hope they file a complaint I think some especially smaller landlords just don't know and they forget i' I've heard of that a couple times as especially for non-student tenants where they're they usually offer renewal very late in the game and you know I wonder if that's happening
080here okay any comments questions on those four Communications that we we just saw okay thank you well that brings us to the last item item 11 adjournment so uh do we have a motion to adjourn I to ad by rosanita do we have a second second second second by Donan I heard all those in favor say I I hi all those post say May and with that we are adjourned thank you everybody we miss you thanks very much good luck