001tuning in welcome to the July 20th meeting of the Ann Arbor renters Commission as you all know the purpose of the commission is to advise the city council on the city administrator and matters affecting renters in our city our commission is made up of voting members who are appointed by the mayor and approved by city council two non-voting city council Liaisons two non-voting members representing different landlord perspectives and a non-voting representative from the University of Michigan Student Legal Services to speak during any of the public comment opportunities you'll be able to speak to the webinar link or by phone for phone access called 877-853-5247 and enter meeting ID 935-8080-1941 to be called on to speak press star nine or use the raised hand function if you're viewing through the zoom web link a2gov.org forward slash
002renters commission meeting is link that's a2gov.org forward slash renters commission meeting with RCM Capital each word you will then be called on by City staff one by one and you will have uh three minutes some to make your public comment um after when you have 30 seconds left you will be reminded by our city staff person um that you only have 30 seconds and after three minutes you'll be placed on mute so we can go to the next speaker okay moving on to roll call see commissioner Chen oh I think commissioner Chen are you present I see you here does that mean I see diamonds here but I'm not I think done that might be frozen should we continue going to the next person okay um commissioner Peterson absent commissioner Kelly is absence commissioner droppleman
003is absent commissioner else I am here in Petoskey Michigan sounds lovely commissioner Lowe's and wonderful commissioner Tibbetts I am here oh yeah Jeff where are you calling in from I forgot to ask and I forgot to say Ann Arbor great commissioner Ratcliffe hello I'm here calling in from Ann Arbor great welcome commissioner Thomas absence commissioner Pitts here from Ann Arbor wonderful and uh Kimberly you you do prefer Kimberly the full name right um you know I I I do prefer Kimberly but commissioner Pitts is fine I'll go with the commissioner pits absolutely yeah okay sure commissioner Pitts um please correct me if I make a mistake on that um and do you mind going on mute when you're not speaking I think we're getting some feedback from your end yes yes thank you very much
004commissioner Pitts uh commissioner good I'm here um calling from Ann Arbor waterfall thank you council member rodina is absent council member Harrison here from Ann Arbor welcome um I think I may have forgotten to call commissioner Rosen and she is absent okay I think we've hit everybody wonderful so now we can move on to our next item item number three approval of agenda is there a motion to prove the agenda as presented so moved by Jeff we have a second second uh who seconded that I didn't say I did Julia okay bye Julia great second by Julia um all those in favor of approving the agenda say I I all those opposed say name great with that uh the agenda for our July 20th meeting is approved Now we move on to item number four
005approval of minutes of our previous meeting the June 15th meeting we have a motion to approve our previous minutes so moved we have a second second second by Julia all is in favor of removing um the minutes from our last meeting say aye oh let's suppose say nay okay our meeting minutes from June are now approved now we can go on to um uh item number five our first general public comments Christian would you like to lead that so this first general public comment is an opportunity for members of the public to address the renters commission about any topic for up to three minutes public comment can be made by phone by calling 877-853-5247-488-788-0099 meeting ID 935-8080-1941 um if you are joining through the zoom link um you can join and that is a2gov.org renters
006commission meeting to be called on to speak callers must press star nine if listening by phone or use the raise hand feature and viewing through the web link we'll give it just a minute but there are no attendees thank you very much Kristen we can go on to the next item number six which is our business uh we can start with 6-a discussion about establishing a liaison to the house housing and Human Services Advisory Board it's hhsab uh we have one attachment here which is the summary of the role open up discussion on this um and just encourage anybody who's interested to become liaison to Express that interest now um I've attended I think two meetings and there's some really really great information in there go ahead Jeff uh just a quick question and reading
007through the um the summary that was provided um you know I see what their bylaws are um would this role be merely um just an advisory capacity where we kind of attendance looks like every other month um you know report to them and then bring back reports but in terms of their bylaws and their like their working plan and stuff like that um is that part of the liaison role as well or is that something they do as a committee and then we are just um observing that's a really good question you wouldn't be a voting member but you would be um able to kind of like you said advice advisory so kind of help inform those decisions uh Jamie I saw your hand go up yeah I was just gonna ask um when do
008those meetings take place and are they open to the public like our meetings are yeah they are open to the public um I believe and it's uh it's the second Thursday of every month is what it says on this sheet anyway and I I said in person here on the on the sheet but I I believe yeah it's zoomed now uh one more clarification um is it every month or every two months uh the sheet says every two months so they meet every month um but there just has been um like on both sides the hhsab and what the renters commission finding someone to commit to the whole um to attending every second Thursday and then you also have a renter's commission meeting every third Thursday it's a big um a big commitment so we've
009talked before about trying to share the role maybe having an hhseb member attend some of these meetings and there'll be kind of some back and forth that way but that every other is kind of to make the position a little bit more like flexible and I feel like maybe well I'd be willing to um volunteer for that if nobody else is interested thanks okay thank you Jeff I will put you in contact with the um that liaison for the hhsad I think they'll be really excited they've been interested in what the renters commission is up to so that's great thank you Jeff um is there anybody else before we move on is anywhere else who would be interested just want to open it one more time okay um sorry given the number of people that
010are um not here today um is that something we you know want to table until we can find out if anybody else is interested or um because we're missing what three or four people I think um I personally feel that you know they can always express interest later and we can always swap out our liaison um if that's desired I think it's been a vacant for a while personally but I'll pass it on to Jamie yeah I was just gonna say I don't know if this would be an option but I'd like to have like a list of substitutes like if Jeff you know was the liaison but couldn't make a meeting like I would be willing to kind of jump in um if that's an option or would be helpful I don't know if
011I could commit to the full thing but definitely interested Jordan was your hand up sorry I didn't I didn't mean to yeah I'd second that from Jamie um I think I'm happy Jeff that you're stepping up to be the main liaison but I would also be willing to be an alternate um maybe we could just have uh like a list of people one two three I'd be happy to be number three if Jamie's number two and if you can't make it you could just send a text to Jamie Jamie can't make it Jamie could send a text to me right okay um so should we hold a vote Kristen on that you don't need to great all right thank you very much Jeff again thank you Jamie um let's move on to 6-b discussion of
012and review of our 2023 2024 work plan let me open this up here I'm going to pull it up on the screen so Kristen could you explain a little bit to us that it says 2023 2024 work plan this up here says for the 2023 calendar year um yeah same um saying 2023 calendar year would have been a more accurate description on the agenda um so just kind of a review of the work plan that was approved at the end of last year and for new members the work plan is just kind of it's exactly what is named it's just the plan the renters commission agreed on um to work on this year but bylaws say that the renter's commission should um that you have to do a work plan um and then at the
013end of every year city council will receive a report um kind of a about what so it's a way to kind of measure your work and keep it organized anyone is interested in maybe describing some of the the work that's on there maybe some of the work that um is in progress or was accomplished that might be helpful yeah there are a few things that have been addressed or have started to be addressed um and I guess I'll start up at the very top we did do some research on the wait list situation where in the city there's been a lot of there's this new practice where a lot of landlords are charging money to be added to a wait list a lot of states and jurisdictions around the country do regulate that sort of
014thing but Michigan is not one of them um and so we we compile a report we got gathered some information by calling landlords and all that and we get handed that off to city council with some recommendations on it so we have I think addressed to the the top Point here um I don't I feel like we haven't really fully addressed the second point we have started to it a little bit inside of that which is uh addressing you know auditing I guess uh chapter 105 Section 8 5 30. that's the early leasing ordinance which regulates when leases can be signed for the next the successive term the next term like rental term and um I think we did propose we recommended that city council should consider making some changes to it and we provided
015a recommendation as well on that but I feel like there's probably more work that could be done there I don't think we've really updated the rights and duties attendance booklet a whole lot there have been some updates done by staff um see enforcement processes for chapter we've started doing that but I feel like um that could also do some work a right to council initiatives I haven't really updated a lot of people in you know I haven't updated the commission a whole lot on this but I have started contacting people who were involved in Detroit's right to council program and anybody's interested I would love to have you collaborate on that um yeah I'm not going to keep going here but there's there's quite a few things that have been addressed but there's also a
016lot that hasn't been addressed I wanted to add quickly that for the enforcement of chapter 105 um under the commission commissioner education section rental housing staff attended one of the meetings earlier this year and I'll send out a link to that um for our new members they did kind of an overview of the enforcement process and then they answered questions so that might be a helpful um meeting to watch or maybe like listen to podcast style um it was pretty informative um and then he did do some Fair Housing Act info with the HRC um visiting at a previous meeting and then you also have your meeting in April that is the only one so far yeah thanks one thing to add on to that is there was also we did request some clarification on
017enforcement of uh one specific part of the of chapter 105 which was uh I think 5 30 and and 531 and we did receive a memo from the city administrator that kind of clarified uh what the city's stance is on and how to enforce these things and some of the challenges they're experiencing and I I'd be happy to send that on to the entire Commission because I think it's important to read I'll uh put this question out here to the commission does anybody notice anything that's missing on here or do you disagree with the prioritization of a certain point if you have any questions about it I guess I feel like it would be nice to prioritize um some of the ELO stuff because we're running up on that and we still really haven't gotten
018education stuff out I'm starting to get a lot of emails so um yeah just that put in that two cents is there education to landlords or tenants or both well both I mean I think we always need both but um the tenants we have more Avenues to access I think quicker um but yeah it's getting to be that time definitely um I would be interested to um see some more work done related to the point about evictions and sorry I just made this small but I think it says yep diversion programs um so I don't know when would be a good time to introduce that I know we've kind of got a couple of things going on all at once right now but maybe with if there are any like new members that are particularly
019interested in that too that could be um something to prioritize I I understand it's low on the list but thanks Jamie Jeff um I think personally I would not mind seeing um maybe a slightly higher priority for uh getting that rights and duties booklet updated um you know since that seems to be the at this point in time kind of the first um contact ELO stuff might have to that's one of the first things that people see that you know that that law and and um making sure it's in there and it's something that that's not missed in a resource that uh everyone's supposed to get I think would be good um and I don't know if um we might want to add something about you know look looking at our other meetings in the
020past and some of the things that we've um uh dealt with whether it be the gas ordinance or now we're looking at the whole notification thing um something on here perhaps um regarding addressing concerns that might be brought to our attention as well um I know we kind of are expected to do that but it wouldn't hurt to maybe put it on there too could you repeat I'm sorry Jeff could you repeat that last point I think I didn't fully understand um just you know looking at some of the stuff that we've we've um uh done over the last you know since I've been involved in terms of you know holding education stuff and um you know people email us we have problems we've we've looked at various concerns that are kind of outside of
021these lists this list as it is and we don't know when they're going to be brought to our attention um maybe a an addition which would just include you know responding to concerns that are brought to our attention I know it's something thank you now are expected to do but it might not hurt to have it as part of our plan too you could even categorize those broadly like I think there's been like sustainability concerns which sometimes are brought up by renters and sometimes it's like legislation happening so maybe like a subcategory of the responding to new concerns could be sustainability and then maybe we could look at the trends of emails and see what else oh I had another thing about the tenant booklet um the most recent tenant booklet does include ELO but
022for right to renew it's a printout that is added to it um and um the clerk's office just updated all of them to include the um it's like we call a leaflet in the office um so if a landlord beaded them there'd be no weight sometimes we have to say like it'll it'll take us a little while to put them together can you come tomorrow um so right now there's about 2 000 prepped and they have no um wait they're ready immediately it's fantastic thank you rosinita um I agree with what everyone else was saying especially the um was it putting the eviction for the city of Ann Arbor at a higher point on the list um you know we I did read over the agenda and one of those letters was about that and
023I do know that we have that the eviction crisis going on within the county so it'd be nice to know where Ann Arbor stands and all of that um but also I don't know where I just don't know when it's getting implemented but I remember that the city council had passed um something about how homeowners including landlords we're going to have to do those new energy Audits and have that energy rating system of some sort was that coming Kristin do you know if that was coming out for this upcoming year or next year because they were going to have landlords I guess it was going to be on there and potential tenants were going to be able to see how I guess energy efficient the the rental units or not the buildings but like if
024they were renting someone's home how efficient those were going to be I don't know but I can find I can reach out um and find out either the rental housing or sustainability um because the status of that is because that I think does meet what a lot of the interest has been this past year right and I think we need to kind of get educated um yeah yeah I'll second that um Julia um I pretty much agree with what other people are saying oh and there goes my camera um but uh I just wanted to add um if we do like a sustainability section like Kristen was saying um and I think Zechariah you were onto the the there was a subcommittee in the sustainability office on green rental housing and we over a year
025ago did recommend that an ordinance would go requiring part of the building inspection um to have environmental upgrades um but it's more than just a new thing there is part of the building code passed in the 80s saying that there has to be insulation Windows have to be sealed it's a whole weatherization act for any renter who pays their own heat uh and I don't believe that is enforced and it would be great if we could get building inspectors um to start enforcing that as a first step I completely agree with you Julia um I was I had the opportunity to talk with someone a student at University of Michigan who was doing a project with OSI the office of sustainability and Innovations at the city I met with them just you know a week
026ago or so and they were talking about um weatherization issues and and how to inform tenants of their options when it comes to weatherization and I recommended that OSI consider informing tenants about their rights under that under the whether it was existing weatherization law um and well I also asked about the recommendations that were made by the green rental housing task force that's the thing that you know the body that you mentioned earlier Julia it was formed by OSI and it gave some recommendations for the recommendations having to my knowledge been realized yet and I asked uh when we could expect that to be brought before city council and I believe if this is correct that they're expecting to to present something this fall I'll have to double check with OSI that's what I heard
027and I'm definitely excited for those um those recommendations to hopefully become a reality because I think there were some good ones in there one thing that comes to mind when you guys say that you know the efficiency part is really important but also I think in our education it's important to remember that um that we need to be telling tenants too that they can call DTE and get estimates um for bills and things like that because you know there's the sustainability piece but for people who are very low income the the biggest pieces to like what are my expenses going to be each month um and more so than than knowing the efficiency knowing the past history of those bills can be really helpful and is something that is available to them so just kind
028of as we're working through and coming up with the education pieces um it just does take a call to DTE to get that information and I'm sorry guys I've got a cold so I'm not very good at talking tonight so I won't do much of it but Jordan I actually have a question for you I'm going to make you talk again um you said you just have to call DTE because I had a question exactly about that and I thought there was an online way to check is there is it just calling or is there an online online to check it I haven't seen so um you know what I see on my interface is different because I have like all of the things um I can do some looking while we're on but I
029just generally have advised people to call and they do um get like the last 12 months history but let me do some looking while we're on the meeting if it's in the lease that you're paying the heat the landlord is supposed to supply you with the previous bills to give you an idea what it costs um you can't always call up because like I pay my landlord but the bills in his name so he forwards the bill to me so I can't call DTE and they won't tell me I'd just be curious have you tried Julia because they they tell us that they will tell because I mean technically when I'm having a tenant call you know our situations where people pay is one group pays they move out the next group pays and so
030they will they will call um and they'll be able to get the estimate even though the account is not in my name technically like I'm the default um but they'll be able to get the information even though the current account is in another name and also I believe that's true with City water as well so be curious as to if you've had the experience that they actually wouldn't share that information um because that's that is our situation that someone different is paying it and people are able to get to get estimates um so not saying that that isn't true but that that hasn't been the experience the attendance that I've referred to call have have gone through I mean I didn't try this year but I did last year with my previous landlord because he
031did the same thing the bill was in his name and then he forwarded the bill to me every month and um I had called before I moved in and they said no he's the owner we won't give you information that's really a bummer to hear but thanks thanks for sharing that with me I'll do a little more looking into it to make sure I'm informed of current practice too okay Kristen I saw your hand up I think that's a great thing to share with renters and it'd be really easy to put that information on the website um I don't know why that never occurred to me it's a call because it's always like I don't know every year you're trying to move into a new place you're kind of winging it otherwise so that I
032think would be great for it is and I mean I always give the personal caveat that you know things can vary a lot if you have you know for example we go through a group of people that all take 30 minute showers and then the next group comes in and they all take seven minute showers like your water bill could be a third um so I always kind of give a caveat that usage usage varies quite a bit but that that estimate is is helpful I think for people to have um especially like I said lower lower income folks especially too and it's true about water water and a lot of water information is public um and I don't know if customer service or foia is the best way to get that information but um
033it's that's true about water for renters who pay their own water the last thing I'll add here about the OSI green rental housing task force you know results of their recommendations and all that is that they are and what I heard is that they're probably going to produce some videos on how to weatherize apartment units and those could be pretty helpful explaining how to use stuff like ropecock or um the film you know window film and I'm gonna email them and see if there's any way that the commission can help in creating those videos or distribute one more thing and then we can move on I'm curious if the green rental housing task force did any collaboration with landlords to see what is permitted I know one person who's landlord um like said like don't
034don't put the film on like don't put anything around your window it's not allowed um and so I just was wondering like if that I don't I don't know if that is common um but I know people tend to be apprehensive about making changes things in their units so I just was curious about that that's a good question I think oh go ahead Julia I was just trying to give you a break for a minute there were landlords on the panel um and it's it's Hit or Miss depending on how well it's done whether it's actually going to damage when you take the tape off um so we were trying to uh get some changes in this new kind of Green Ordinance that would um it would get around that so that that part wouldn't
035be an issue thank you okay so bringing it back to the work plan um we do have some suggestions here for changes to the work plan um if there's anything else I think Now's the Time to mention them um one more thing that came to mind just to finish that thought is um as were as we're asking for participation in those videos you know I think having rental housing say like this would fail an inspection like those kind of things because that way when Tenants come back and say oh my landlord told me that it would fail you know that it wouldn't pass code if there was plastic on the window or something because I think that's what people are told and rightfully what landlords are you know kind of worried about in these um
036you know high density rental housing having a window block for egress those kind of things so I think that they would be an important part of that discussion you know that that was all I have to add to that I'd like to um build off of something that um that Jamie said earlier about the evictions you know someone else said that the eviction should be higher up in the list and I really agree with that I think that we put this as a low priority because we I'm speaking for myself I just don't know very much about eviction um diversion programs or I certainly didn't know very much at the time but I think that that is a very pressing problem and if anyone is interested in coming together and meeting to talk about different
037policies that might be able to reduce the evictions um I would be open and very happy to participate go ahead Jimmy yeah and I just wanted to say I think the right to council like fits perfectly with that too so I feel like we're kind of already on that track you know in us in a way with right to console so that was um cool to hear that you're kind of working on that a little bit so before we move on from the work plan I just have two suggestions number one is that the um I'd like for the enforcement like right to renew enforcement suggestion committee or working group let's just call it a committee uh to meet sometime soon to discuss uh um there's a letter that was written by a former commissioner
038there was a response to the memorandum that I mentioned about um enforcement process for chapter 105. and also um I think that they should talk about uh I gotta organize my thoughts a little bit here I I they should certainly talk about that and then the other thing is that I think that the tenant tenant education committee should meet and discuss um early leasing ordinance materials and how to inform people specifically about their early leasing ordinance both tenants and landlords so I hope that is discussed at the next committee meeting if anyone here is interested in attending those um you're always invited okay any other thoughts uh on the work plan for any questions okay let's move on to our next point of business 6-c it's an up discussion of an update related to the
039city of Ann Arbor developer engagement requirement Kristen I think that if you feel comfortable leaving this into you you know brought the news to us four um just a second yeah um okay um so I'm sharing the developer engagement requirement background page right now um earlier this year in March we talked about this briefly at a past meeting I think um earlier in March um since uh renters reached out to say that their landlords or their landlord um essentially canceled their successive lease because they're Redevelopment project was approved so they found out in March that their August lease was canceled and it was really a tough situation to find housing and they kind of they're just expressed how difficult that was and how frustrating it was and after discussing with staff um we kind of
040just discussed that tenets of Redevelopment the building that's being developed they're not included in the notification that the developer sends so that prompted some discussion um about changing that and so two weeks ago the tenant education committee talked about it kind of talked about coming to the Planning Commission or the city council with a request for a resolution and I think that's makes sense but let's see planning Services the department that provides that mailing list to developers agree to just start doing it without any official Direction so moving forward you kind of have some options you can be okay with that you can still do an official recommendation for you can kind of say like we're okay with that for now but we're we're um we're wanting to do some more changes so we'd like
041to work with the Planning Commission more in the future so you have some some discussion you can do about it and then Jeff was working on a proposed resolution that I can also share uh uh stop sharing for now but um I'm going to pull that resolution up is there anything to add from anyone who attended the tenant Education meeting where it was discussed more okay bye I think one question I have is whatever recommendation is made and whatever changes are proposed here I think we should think about kind of put forward right out the timeline of what happened for this complex on on was it Forest Southport Forest yeah um and kind of play through what would have happened with the proposed rules because I want to make sure that whatever is proposed would
042have actually maybe maybe helped these people because I if it's if it's I mean it seems like a pretty Common Sense will change but these people were really left in a terrible position so I'd like to just kind of do a mock run through of what you know would if this requirement were in place with the tenants who were there really have received that postcard or would have been the previous batch of tenants for example you know and if they had received it what could they have done we is there a chance that they would have been had enough time or had the ability to maybe change what happened to them but thank you for the the whole summary there I think that absolutely makes sense I can look up um when that meeting was
043held because the postcard notices a meeting that the developer has to have before they even apply to the city and then the city application process is sometimes months long so I don't know if um I think it could have just made uh like given a renter more information when they were looking at signing again um but I'm going to look up the date of the meeting Jamie go on yeah um and I can't remember if we kind of worked this out in the prior meeting but just from my notes um I had made a note that there were quite a few people from the tenant at committee meeting who just felt like you know the the postcards are important but generally speaking the process just feels very unfair that a tenant has to sign a
044lease and then a landlord can just decide not to honor it um so I don't know if that's something that the did you say it was planning services I don't know I don't know if that's something that they have authority over or if that would be more of like a law law change but I mean I just wanted to throw that out there because I it seemed pretty strong from the group that that the fact that it was allowed to happen is just seems wrong Jamie to piggyback on that the one answer that we've never gotten is can we legally make it so that these types of Clauses are not allowed I mean I've shared I've shared numerous emails from tenants with this group with Zechariah over the years where we I mean things like
045we can change the rent with 30 days notice like what is the point of having a lease so some of these things were you know there was a caveat in that lease that that let them do this essentially and so that to me like postcard's nice but we still have never really answered like what from a legal perspective can we make happen that that landlords can't do the I mean you shouldn't be able to just increase someone's rent by 400 with 30 days notice just because you say in your lease says that and yeah I mean it's totally attendant education piece about please don't ever sign a lease that says this but when the pressure is on tenants and we know that housing is Slim here we already know why they get into those situations
046where they sign them um so to me that's the question I've never had a legal answer of like what more can we do through ordinances through City stuff sorry to try to prevent that in the first place thanks Jordan Julia um that is a really good point I didn't realize that they had a clause in their lease allowing that so that puts a different spin on it um and then it they're definitely in Michigan there are clauses that are illegal to have in a lease um and you can't give away your rights in a lease I'm not sure if Ann Arbor can do more specific laws about you know about Clauses in a lease but that would be something good to know um and I think it would be really good to know any developer
047who uh you know is in the planning process signs a lease with somebody knowing they're in the application for the permit um should be required to send notice to everybody they've signing a commitment you know a lease with or anybody who's viewing the property um should have to get a notification that they're in this process and not just kind of the neighbors the way it is now planning was really receptive to some of those concerns about um like other things that um that section of city code can require a developer or a property owner to do so they were they were pretty interested in future collaboration to talk about maybe posting the site or other things that are maybe like required to be visible or displayed at the site so if somebody comes to visit
048or to sign a lease they would see that it was under under application so um that's something to work on in the future can I say something yeah because uh when they signed this lease um in March the point is that the developers have had have they planned this had they planned this before the time or um earlier if they knew that they have done something I think it should be have some regulations in the Futures to prevent the thing like that happen that if they knew that it's going to happen then to develop this area and still sign the things I think we should try to have some regulations to prevent this kind of thing happen again um to piggyback on what Jordan said too um you know we might not be able to
049legally have a certain language on um you know notifications and stuff like that but we might be able to um just more generally even uh if it's possible require landlords you know if if you have to to remove a tenant because um not an eviction but remove a tenant because of something like this or some other like non-active God kind of situation that you know the the um landlord might have to cover you know um moving costs or um you know if they have to find a new place and it's more a certain amount of the difference in rent or something like that because they're choosing to then remove that person and then another option might be something um to considering these lines um you know some sort of rule that says you know if
050um you're going to cancel someone's lease because of this um and they need some extra time um then you can't charge them a month-to-month fee you know a lot of places if you're going to rent month to month um we'll we'll make it more and if you know in this kind of situation you know if if this person's lease is up in March but they don't actually have to leave the premises until July or August maybe they can use that extra time to find something new without having to pay an extra fee because they're the ones that are you know the new lease was terminated thank you for all the insightful comments here I agree with just about everything and what you all said um I know that there is a resolution a draft resolution
051that was written and Jeff you wrote that correct yes okay um Kristen do you think that would be a good time to go through that discuss it sure okay I'll pull it up on the screen here um Jeff do you want to introduce this and just kind of talk about um the points in it yeah sure um uh first off thank you for uh it's a Christian for um some help on this um and some ideas um you know it kind of um the first part kind of mirrors just um some of the stuff Kristen gave me some of the old ones we've done um and so it kind of outlines how um we've been contacted uh regarding this particular property um that the current city code requires um that that notification in a citizen
052participation meeting be held prior to applying for um any kind of uh building plan approval um it has to be um you know within a certain amount of time and then everyone has to be notified um uh the planning service department um is supposed to be the group that supplies the list so if a um If a landlord is going looking to redevelop a property they're required to notify everybody and the the list the list they get of who they have to notify is is from the planning uh the Planning Commission um and so um you know we we know the way I wrote this was to you know um basically say it sounds like the plane uh the Planning Commission does this already uh Washington does has agreed that they should um but to
053make it more um official that uh anyone being notified includes the surrounding people but also those that inhabit um the property itself because the the the language in in that chapter 55 does specifically say surrounding um but it doesn't explicitly say and the people on it so that was kind of the um where this came from Julia uh I think you did a great job on this and I think even though the Planning Commission has uh is is being supportive in these changes it's good for us to have this record um and it's good for us to encourage them to actually amend um chapter 55 because you know who knows who's going to be in the planning department 10 years from now um so I really support that and I prefer option one just because
054it sounded like we all kind of agreed with it so why not go with the stronger one I would add one sentence in here to say that pers uh prospective tenants should also be notified if it's during the process um and that any uh tenants who have not moved in yet but signed a lease um should be notified when the second all those points and I agree with the proposed Edition so if we're I don't know how strict we are with like Robert's Rules I would like to put that forward as a friendly Amendment yeah Jeff um oh go ahead um I think it's fine for that to be a friendly moment it hasn't been moved and seconded yet so if you um want to move and second it we can just have that be
055a friendly Amendment um and then if everybody agrees on that that's fine um and then you could vote on it as a whole I was assuming Jeff's presenting it was the moving it and then I would second that's great so that's moving to introduce the resolution so that we can discuss it and then uh Julia just seconded that introduction so now we're officially discussing the resolution and um Julia proposed an amendment and so long as it's like a friendly Amendment meaning that the the author of this resolution Jeff likes likes the amendment it can just be included without us having to pick a whole vote on it he does explain to anybody who doesn't know what's not super familiar with all that okay great um so it was moved and seconded we're not discussing the
056resolution the amendment was made although we should probably write some language uh so Julia do you want to just uh oh okay go ahead I was just going to ask um we should we make the the change in an official language before we then move to improve um because otherwise I feel like if if I added something we'd have to wait to bring it back to the next meeting yeah it's such a small change I think that we can quickly write that down um let's see uh Jeff do you have that that word document uh yes I do okay and you know another amendment would be to I'm not sure this is Julia's would be to delete the option one section or sorry option two rather so that we just have the uh the two
057resolved Clauses instead of the three there so it would read something like be further resolve that the renters commission suggests that the anniversity council and then chapter 55 of the city code to ensure that current residents and or tenants of a Redevelopment site explicitly included in the list of the required notifications as part of the citizen notification requirements currently outlined in chapter 5 Section 5.2 28.4 and I guess we could add that as a separate uh resolved Clause probably be it further resolved since this if we add more it might get a little long I don't know for the result that well I was I was I'm pulling it up right now um we could add it you know we could just add it out of option one and just say you know current residence
058um you know and tenants um uh future you know uh future leaseholders and perspective uh prospective tenants or residents I mean it wouldn't make that it wouldn't make it that long but I see what you're saying there okay I can share it if you guys can sure are you you have sharing privileges I think so I just made you a co-host so you should be able to now can we see it there's no chat or I would put in oh you're typing it okay well no you know what that's a good point um Zechariah because it's it's notification it might be yeah yeah I see what you're saying now I'm not sure if that really fits in the same category because you can't really have a list of people who haven't come to tour the
059place yet and all that um it seems like that's where we'd have to come in with like having um that they that like prospective tenants must be notified in writing once they have expressed interest in signing a lease or something it feels like there's a way to kind of cover that base um obviously yeah you can't email everybody but like our main point is right that these people would know before they sign a lease I think right I think in the first uh be it further resolved we can add a sentence saying any leaseholders who have yet to move in shall also be notified in the therefore resolved above option one you're saying no I think that can go in that paragraph current residence and then you can add another sentence any leaseholders who have
060yet to move in shall also be notified so at the very end of the of the Clause is that right in a separate sentence or if he can fit in the same sentence maybe current leaseholders current tenants would be leaseholders and if you have a lease but you're not a tenant you would also be a current leaseholder so maybe shortened to be yeah or at least holders okay and then the other sentence I was thinking about is um something along the lines once the Public Announcement portion of the permitting process begins the landlord must notify all prospective tenants of this foreign so if they're showing the apartment and they know they've got a public hearing two nights from then they have to tell anyone who's looking at the apartment I think the details of that
061is something that the like one of the commissions of the Planning Commission would be interested in working with the renters Commission on like what does notify mean does it mean posting the actual site does it mean on the website does it mean like a piece of paper that's something they're kind of the staff kind of was like rentals commission they're like experts on like the renter perspective so you'd like to work with them on it so I think in the future with with this ask of the Planning Commission I think um to expect some opportunity to to work on it with them to build off of that I think that we should probably include both option one and option two those Clauses because they're definitely not mutually exclusive and we can say we are requesting
062you know this General change but we are also requesting to assist in the process I'm not sure how Hands-On we want to be but if we want to make it um we want to clarify our position and our feelings um we can always just request to be involved like as an is done in option two plus so are you saying like the option two Clause kind of um would make it so that we could work on including um future prospective residents versus having to explicitly say it yeah or even just if they don't understand or if they don't fully get because I'm not sure it is clear here from the yeah I mean okay so one thing is I know we don't talk about how the notification needs to occur you know as I think
063was Kristen was saying I believe um and we could write that all that out or we could just ask it be involved in the process and um so my recommendation on that is to remove the words option two and have it be further resolved that the renters commission is available to assist rather than request just to make it a little milder um and then if they wanted to get into a bigger discussion about what does notification mean which I think is being discussed at every level everywhere because not everyone is fully into internet um kind of in a weird amount um um really quickly here I think that the and or to ensure that current residents and or current leaseholders uh I think you just remove the ore yeah just say and personally um although
064could we just take out current residents uh and Christian you would mention that um a current resident is a leaseholder right I can't think of an instance query or we could just say current recognition um the postcards are addressed to like current occupant or current resident anyway so I think it's fine to leave and it's not clear to me from here that from this that we want the landlord I guess to require any prospective resonant and are trying to be informed the properties button okay yeah no that makes a lot of sense it looks great any other so did we want to then keep the bottom one as well foreign additional stuff that might come up or maybe add the word additional or um or other or something like that um and somebody had said
065change and I think requests to um is available volunteers or is available yeah so the changes that were made here were to add um current leaseholders into the first be it for further resolved and then also to include both options instead of picking for their own and that um available instead of requests were there other changes okay I think that's still fine and like the like the originally proposed friendly amendment I think that the change is still pretty minimal I consider them all friendly okay perfect Jamie just one quick question on the last um point do we feel like we need to specify that they should be notifying um current or prospective tenants prior to signing the lease or does that seem implied if someone's a perspective I I think it wouldn't hurt to just
066say before signing release um but it should be implied I mean I guess the other option would be if you know you sign the lease and give it to the landlord and they go oh by the way that's something you could always discuss when doing the like actual um like meeting with with the Planning Commission to have to kind of give to them to use in their Amendment yeah that makes a lot of sense okay it feels like we're ready to move on to adopting the amendment or you know voting to adopt the amendment uh is there a motion to move to to adopt the amendment we don't need one it's friendly oh sorry to adopt the resolution is what I meant to say excuse me to call the question and adopt the resolution okay
067emotion my Jamie second marriage all those in favor of adopting this resolution as it is before us say I um I was supposed to say name okay congratulations Jeff it's great resolution thank you Kristen for helping okay wonderful now let's move on to 6 Dash D uh which is Officer elections the two officers opposite positions in the commission are the chair in the vice chair as far as I'm aware um as you all know I'm the current chair and Lucy is Lucy Peterson whose absent today is the vice chair I talked to Lucy about whether or not she wanted to run you know was she interested in becoming the vice chair again and she said no so I'll just before we open up for any sort of discussion I'll just say that I um would
068be really happy if somebody was interested in becoming the chair or the vice chair I've been having a good time but I would think it'd be good for someone else to give it a give it a try if you're interested and all with that I'll open up the floor and just asking if there's anybody interested I'm assuming the vice chair doesn't really have to do anything unless the chair is gone is that a correct assumption if nobody else is willing I would be Vice chair it was one or two meetings um in the past year where Lucy facilitated so that's pretty like light duty so someone should move and then there'll be a second and then a vote um so Julia it is interesting so this one I'm wondering a little bit more about other
069people who aren't here go ahead I'm sorry Chris I will say that um I think it's a good sign that if you're here and you want to be the vice chair that's probably bodes well for you that you should that's the video I I know that people have very busy schedules but um that's a good point I haven't heard it from anyone else that they were interested though in the last meeting when we briefly discussed it okay I forgot it was brought up at the last meeting okay yes so do I move myself as nominated for vice chair I think you can okay so moved I'll second it I was gonna move it but I'll second instead okay should we take nominations for the uh the chair or do we go right to the movement
070to voting on the vice chair position prison you will do a separate boat this time um sometimes I think it could be as one motion but since it's already separate we'll just we'll vote you can vote quickly and then share okay so all those in favor of Julia become the vice Chair say aye aye I was posting a okay congratulations Julia you're the vice chair see I don't have my little oh can I do the Emojis here I don't have the little things with the little horn bump layering you can do in regular Zoom unfortunately no it's too serious for that okay so on to the question of the chair is there anyone interested in serving as the chair fairly easy you know just direct the meetings and uh both the both the chair and
071the vice chair uh do have input into what gets on the agenda as well I nominate Zechariah to be the chair okay uh Jeff I was just gonna say based on what you said earlier I don't know but if you were still interested and willing I I would like to do the same for me okay not to nominate yourself okay no um yeah thank you I I would accept um so I guess you can be a second to Julian um before we go into voting I will say that you know I've been the chair for a year I guess yeah um and if anyone is interested and being the chair um assuming that you know you guys vote for me here I would be happy to step down and just hand it off to somebody
072else I think it's good to get experience for the commission especially since I'm I'll only be living in Ann Arbor for another year uh so we can talk about that any point we can discuss uh you know anybody interested becoming the chair but let's move on to voting um all is in favor say aye aye are those opposed say name great thank you very much I really do appreciate that um I am trying my best and I thank you um okay so with that we can move on to item seven which is reports let's go to 7-a report from City Council uh Cynthia hi there you're ready to give a quick report well um how was everyone this evening I um the only thing I really have to report out um that's new with city
073council is that we the first meeting in July we passed the driver's equality ordinance the driving equality ordinance so that was kind of a big deal we're excited about that um and yeah that's really about all that I have unless anyone has any questions did you have a question Zach yes um right thank you for passing that ordinance I was uh very supportive I'm very happy that I'm all adopted it unanimously too right yes yes they passed unanimously it was really great so um you know we're kind of working too terrific yeah [Music] go ahead I'm sorry I think you froze up for for a bit what were you saying I'm sorry I'm having some internet issues please finish that thought oh no no I was just saying yeah we were excited yeah we passed
074it so um you know we've gotten folks from other jurisdictions municipalities reaching out so we're now working on um efforts at the state level similar actions at the state level so yes thank you but that's fantastic yeah um I I have a question about the waitlist situation um there were some concerns expressed by various council members um when we um I think back in October I remember some council members talking about that at a meeting and you know we had that um the waitlist report sent out to the council members and I was wondering if you'd heard about anybody interested in those recommendations or uh interested in doing something about the situation should we don't go another year with uh these paid wait lists yeah the um I uh met with council member redina last
075night and we are um in the process of sitting down with uh Rise um Mr riser to to discuss uh you talk about the fees right the waitlist fees is that what you're Roofing exactly the weightless these application fees that sort of yeah application wait list hold fees yes we're so we are in the process of of working on working on that we should be meeting the three of us probably within the next week or so so fantastic news thank you very much yeah yeah thanks yes that's all I have for now okay thank you very much Cynthia any other questions okay then we'll move on to 7-b ought from our hhsib liaison Jeff I don't think you have a report on this one since you were just elected this meeting um I have nothing
076to add at this time and thank you Jeff and we'll move down uh down to seven Dash C report from the staff liaison um my only item I um mentioned earlier all of the tenant booklets that are in stock right now are updated so we were trying to get those ready before um kind of like move-in time so any landlords or tenants who would like to pick up their tenant booklet that's um as updated as possible um they are ready and there's about 2 000 so there's no wait um to pick it up um what's up spread the word or um if anybody would like to pick some up um the clerk's office you can help up at any time thank you Kristen uh now we'll go to seven Dash D report reports from Commissioners
077committees and our working groups um does do any Commissioners will start there have any uh reports anything to add okay and one quick report from me besides the right to counsel discussions that I've had with some members of the Detroit Tenants Union um which you know anyone here is welcome to join going forward uh I've also been notified that there was a Tenants Union attendance Association founded for McKinley properties so if you know anybody who lives in McKinley properties is interested in talking with tenants about tenant rights um please do let me know I think that uh I'm personally very supportive of tenants unions and Tennis associations and uh I'm wondering if we're going to see a Resurgence here of tenants getting a bit more organized okay were there any committees that Ms the tenant
078education committee did we did we meet since our last meeting I can't remember the meeting um I think two weeks ago so the sixth or the fourth I already talked about that's right I'm gonna update from I think Jamie uh uh engagement about so that's right Jamie do you have anything to add or anyone who's at that meeting to add um I don't think I have anything to add um we've spent a lot of the meeting discussing the developer developer development engagement however you say that um and I thought we had a really good discussion um we had many new commission members attend and it was really great turnout to see um we did also talk about we talked briefly about the um Community engagement uh event that occurred back in April and just plans
079to try and formalize more of a response and process um around Community engagement and similar events going forward um myself Zechariah and Jordan are actually planning to meet with um Leslie and Linda from the Human Rights Commission um sometime next month and just kind of talk through like what their process looks like and try and get some ideas from them and brainstorm together of how we could improve going forward and maybe even collaborate with Human Rights Commission so that we're not like overlapping in our work I think that was about everything in Julia's hand I was just wondering because you know we had that the section of the um the city section of the tenants rights is is on the work plan and and I was about to say oh well maybe we should do
080that in education committee but I don't know how comfortable the Commissioners feel with their own level of knowledge of the landlord tenant law perhaps it makes sense to um put it on the agenda you know for a couple meetings in the row to work through it uh as a whole rather than sending it to a committee just an idea I think that's a really good point Julia and I'd like to point out that our attorney seat on the commission is currently vacant um Nick Ramel had to step down and I have made a few uh I have made a few phone calls uh to a couple people who suggested by Nick to try to get them to apply um I haven't had any luck yet but I'm there's still a few people who I haven't
081heard back from yet I think that they should be involved in the drafting of you know any sort of new language and in that this booklet but just to add on I think that we should at least discuss it during tenant education committee and then we can either choose to bring it back to the whole group the whole commission or keep it there okay any other reports all right let's move on to item number nine uh nine-a we do have a few Communications uh to the commission let me pull these up here yeah two okay First Communication is regarding safety security at the courthouse Square Apartments I know they've had a number of issues and it looks like the front door is that correct is not functioning properly the lock in the front door I
082know Jordan you know a lot about the situation and so do you Kristen sorry I've got a little visitor Kristen why don't you start and I'll fill in in a minute when I can get him doing something yeah so this tenant um this this is um a person who's emailed in the past with issues at Courthouse Square and they were kind of emphasizing that they're still happening um if you scroll down their original email um kind of outlines the whole situation that they experience [Music] um and then I forwarded the entire email to rental housing um and the police department and also to the Housing Commission and then I checked in with Riser and our attorney generalizer and um I don't remember what he said about the front door of a building I don't know
083if if that was a requirement or not I want to say no um at a unit store needs to like lock adequately but I don't know about the front door of a building I thought Chris said that um hello everyone I thought that uh Chris said that the was not a requirement it's a front door lock they also looked into the the windows and he looked at the code on those and because they're not used for um circulating air because they have interior units it wasn't a requirement out of the code that they have screens I maybe you already parted that out person I don't think I have actually um so that was uh kind of looking into the screen um we had a previous email about screens and I think the the thought was
084that sense the windows are operable they should be required to have screens and then rental housing did a little bit more research um and determine that sense the windows aren't for ventilation um screens are not required and I think that was true that they hadn't been required in the past so they perhaps never had screens yeah these sound like that's my question sorry guys my little guy's trying to um I'm going to turn my camera off and comes in Casey comes out of the bathroom uh but I that's my understanding too I think that it sounds like they the the front door has been propped open since the first um of June they were saying that it it's like a long time that the lock hasn't worked um and that it's been propped open at
085least the last couple weeks and is still propped open so that was my understanding as well okay I think that oh go ahead Jamie was it who is speak English then well I was just starting you know there's there's requirements besides Ann Arbor city codes um but as with most tenant things it's very hard to get it enforced uh the one advantage at Courthouse Square is that um the tenants are eligible for Legal Services and often when you've moved in with something the landlord is required to put it in good repair keep in good repair even if it's not in the code like a washing machine if you rented a place with a washing machine they have to fix the washing machine when it breaks and I think that concept applies to the front door
086also um but I'm not sure what we can do as a commission except recognize how hard it is what did rental housing Kristen did you talk to rental housing about the store specific thing and sorry if I missed that I've had to hop out of the room but did we talk to them about the door I think that um I didn't speak with rental housing but I think that John Riser did and I think the information that he got was that the like the front door of a multi-unit apartment building um would not be required to have a lock but um maybe if maybe like with more context if we if we provided some more information to the inspector that maybe helpful in determining kind of like with the window situation well I've been texting
087Pete um uh Chris and then you know does the courthouse Square front door need to have a lock on it not by the code standards and then he said each living unit does so but but if people are getting in there um I don't know if that's a security thing or yeah you know whether it's the place should be called or do rounds or or or something in that if there are people who are supposed to be there that are causing disturbances um looking at the uh uh I know that there was a problem with people going in there and then they were kind of sleeping there on the second floor too yeah there's a big open room I mean right yes there's no like we have both Avenues I feel like as a community
088as a society we can say first of all we need to acknowledge that this isn't necessarily a population that is comfortable interacting with the police like the police are I know I know you know the police are not a solution and you know so they do have the new managing woman can we you know like is there a role for someone in the city to be to be the one that calls and says just can you just fix the front door can you tell us when this is going to happen can you tell us like and and they might say it's you mean does it not shut or not lock it does it does not lock and it might not be a requirement to lock that front door I mean sure fine but isn't there
089is it I mean I'm I'm happy to do it on my own like isn't there a role for giving these people some power in like they they had a door that locked they had security and they deserved security and I'm just really frustrated that we we're taking this information we're getting these people's vulnerability you know on the line and their stories and then we're like well there's not a code so nothing can happen like that's the part to me that feels it feels really objectifying at this point so how how can we as a community as a city beyond the renters commission where do we go with these things I guess that's the question well I'll reach out to Chris McFarland to find out if there's anything that that can be done but we can't
090make up standards that don't exist in the code that doesn't mean we can't reach out to them and have a conversation but you know we can only enforce what the code allows us to enforce we can only require um what what the code allows us to require I'll I'll reach out to Chris to see if there's anything that can be done as far as Outreach uh to the landlord to the property management company about it especially when it comes to security I get that thank you and I'm not angry at you I'm angry though no no I know it's part of the system now where it's like oh hey we're going to do things and then we keep coming back to the same group of people with but we can't you know so I yeah
091that's that's my struggle Jeff um uh two things actually um tying under this this locking thing is has anybody has anybody seen the lease that these people have signed that may or may not imply that there is some additional requirement of the landlord to provide security um you know oftentimes they say things like you're gonna get two keys one for your unit and one for the outer door if it says you know don't prop the door or you know like like in my where I live it's one of the parts of the thing is you know the door should not be propped open you should not um you know that kind of implies that they are requiring you to keep the door locked so why would they not have the same requirement and I don't
092know that's a good question I'm going to reach out to Chris McFarland and to find out what the code section is and whether anything can be done and I will reply uh to Kristen and then she can share with you folks as to what what code section says they don't have to do it and beyond that are there anything discussions we can have with respect to tenant safety um or hawc or legal services or I mean one of these other entities of course this I'm not saying us I'm saying us as a society like maybe there are some other people that could reach out might be a good question for Gail I know Gail isn't at this meeting but Gail might have a resource um I'll send an email out tomorrow um asking about um
093I don't wanna this is a very important topic I'm you know this is also the end of our meeting here I wonder if we should have us I guess I'll ask this a question is are people interested in having a separate meeting just about the courthouse Square issue I know we've done that in the past a couple times um and I know it's not really our responsibility it's a commission to go down go in and try to solve you know tenants problems we're predominantly here to to give feedback to the city council but I think that there is room here to better understand where to redirect tenants who are experiencing similar situations there's there's you know what's a successful path to getting this problem fixed and how do we get tenants on those Pat on
094that path when they contact us I feel like that that is within the scope of this commission and I think that's something that we could discuss uh figure out how to what that path would look like for these tenants and uh be ready to give similar advice to people in similar situations uh but is there interest in just you know moving this discussion into like a working group meeting uh sometime in the next couple weeks okay all right yeah well I guess everyone will be invited to that we'll just discuss the various Communications we received from these tenants um and we'll have to make it sure we find a time that Jordan and Jamie can attend since I know you two have been involved in this for a while um and I saw rosanita your
095hand was I think it was was it your hand was up it was I had a couple of questions but if we're having a separate meeting then um it can one of them can wait the other one was I know we had the second letter is is it from this I was just wondering if it was from the same person or two different people yeah same person is um is it okay Kristen for me to like forward the prior email change of the people who have newly joined the commission since that or well I'll send it I can sign that information out okay it's just yeah the since the name was you know blacked out couldn't tell if it was the same person or two separate cases yeah same person and then I'll um I'll
096put together all of the kind of background information on this um and then send it out prior to that um kind of the special meeting that gets schedule up maybe I'll work with um Jordan and Jamie and whoever else was involved to put that together okay um thank you for your driver's willingness to meet separately on that I don't want this General commission meeting to go too long here so I think it's best that we just dedicate an entire um working group meeting on to discussing the whole issue okay are there any other questions or comments about those two Communications from the tenant at Courthouse Square okay those are our only two Communications so we can move on to item 10 which is adjournment uh do we have a motion to adjourn so I moved
097thank you Jeff do we have a second second by Julia all is in favor of adjourning say I I was supposed to name okay with that we are adjourned thank you everyone for the great conversations um and discussions tonight thanks