September 3, 2020 Special Meeting of Mountain View City Council (Rental Housing Committee Applicant Interviews)

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Transcript

[00:01:37] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Uh, we will be go, we will start the study session for September 3rd and uh, I will call the meeting to order at 530. And this meeting will be conducted in accordance with the state of California, executive order M 2920 dated March 17, 2020, a long time ago. All members of the city council are participating in this meeting by video conference with no physical meeting location. Members of the public wishing to observe the meeting live may do so at mountain view.legistar.com on YouTube at mountain view.gov slash YouTube and on Comcast channel 26. As noted on the meeting agenda, members of the public may provide oral public comments during the public comment period for the item by signing up at mountain view.gov slash CC underscore speakers or by phone by dialing 669-900-9128 and entering webinar ID 973-351-61718. Any emails received by 5 PM today were forwarded to the city council, emails received after 5 PM will not be read during the meeting, but will be entered into the record for the meeting. And could we now have roll call, please?

[00:02:54] City Clerk: Council member Clark.

[00:02:56] Councilmember Chris Clark: Here?

[00:02:57] City Clerk: Council member Hicks.

[00:02:59] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Here.

[00:02:59] City Clerk: Council member Mattachek. Council member McAllister?

[00:03:07] Councilmember John McAlister: I'm here. Yay.

[00:03:09] City Clerk: Council member Ramirez?

[00:03:11] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Here.

[00:03:12] City Clerk: Ice Mayor Kamei?

[00:03:14] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: Here,

[00:03:14] City Clerk: may I be Koga?

[00:03:15] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Here, thank you. Thank you. We are all present, and we'll go on to our study session. 3.one, the rental housing committee applicant interviews, and, um, Let's see, cancel discussion. So we wanted to start off. By, um. Actually, I think don't we we normally start off with public comments, so why don't we do that? Um, if there's anyone in the attendee box who would like to make a public comment, um, please raise. Sorry, that's my assistant. Please raise your blue hand and um, and then if you're on the phone, please hit star 9. So I see 2 hands. Um, I'm going to say 2 minutes, please. Uh, three. So we'll start with Celine Demerci. Please unmute yourself. Um, although I don't have that button today. To unmute them.

[00:04:22] City Clerk: One moment, mayor. Let me just make sure. Sorry about that, Mary. Do you have access down?

[00:04:34] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. All right, so we'll start with Celine de Merci. And if you can unmute yourself, please.

[00:04:41] Celine Demerci: Hi, hi, Tom. Um, yeah, I really look forward to the uh, interviews today. Uh, you know, personnel's policy and I hope, uh, we picked the right person for the job. Um, I hope, in particular, that we appoint someone who will implement, uh, the spirit of CSFRA as well as the letter of that law, um, and, you know, someone who believes in control. Thank you.

[00:05:08] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. We'll go to David Peters, please unmute yourself, David.

[00:05:13] David Peters: Can you hear me? Hello? Can you hear me?

[00:05:19] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Yes, I can hear you.

[00:05:21] David Peters: Sorry. Uh, so I'm speaking on behalf of NBC, and although our coalition is focused on policing, we understand that our fight is linked to the fight for housing justice, both are rooted in institutionalized racism, which we are all working to dismantle. And that's why we support our fellow neighbors and asking the city council to appoint a member to the rental housing committee who will protect rent control in Mountain View. In our principles, we articulate the need to amplify the voices of communities most targeted by institutionalized racism. These are the communities that rely on the just implementation of rent control by the RHC in order to continue living here. If the council votes to appoint a member to the RHC, who will go against the will of the voters in the community, and undermine rent control from the inside out, the council will be reinforcing the institutional racism that has caused, or the TeenX population to drop dramatically in recent years. NBC stands in solidarity with our neighbors and calling on you to appoint a member of the Archie who's committed to fairly protecting rent control. Thank you.

[00:06:27] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, and we'll go to Eva Tang. Please unmute yourself.

[00:06:32] Eva Tang: Hello. Hi there. Um, thank you for giving us this time to speak. Um, I am looking forward to hearing from the individual candidates today. I am really hoping that you will appoint somebody who is a member of the renting community. Um, as well as somebody from, uh, the, sorry, excuse me, as well as, um, uh, representative from our mobile housing community as, um, I feel they are severely underrepresented, uh, within the CSFRA and also within, uh, this committee. Um, and I hope that whoever you appoint will also uphold, um, parts of the institution that, um, will allow for, um, the diversity that we love and enjoy in Mountain View as well as, um, protect those that, uh, are typically disenfranchised. Thank you.

[00:07:36] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Any other members in the tendee box wishing to speak? Yes, uh, Johannes Munzel, please unmute yourself.

[00:07:49] Johannes Munzel: Hi, can you hear me?

[00:07:50] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Yes.

[00:07:51] Johannes Munzel: Hi, this is, um, Yahoo speaking, um, Mountain View Resident as of recently. Um, I strongly urge council to, um, appoint only people who support rent control to the committee that is administering rent control, and, uh, in particular, uh, also to only appoint, um, uh, renters, whether that's space rent for a mobile home or or for an apartment. Um, doesn't matter, but it should be, you know, uh, people who are affected by this issue. making the decisions here. Thanks. Yield my time.

[00:08:32] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: You will go to Sebastian, please unmute yourself.

[00:08:38] Sebastian: Uh, can you hear me?

[00:08:39] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Yes.

[00:08:41] Sebastian: Okay, great. Um, well, I think everyone who spoke before is, um, you know, kind of touched on what it's going through my head too, but I'd really like to echo the need to pick someone who is in favor of rent control and can help maintain our city's diversity and, you know, not see it further decline as we've seen certain populations like Latinx population decrease over the years. So we don't want that to continue to happen. We need to reverse that. And reverse the gentrification that's happening in our city. So, Someone who is a renter and at the very least will maintain rent control and be advocate for it needs to be picked. In order to maintain our city as it is and not let it further deteriorate and favor only the rich.

[00:09:43] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Anyone else in the tandy box wishing to speak? I don't see any more blue hands, so we'll go to, are there any members on the phone machine this week?

[00:09:54] City Clerk: Nope.

[00:09:56] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: All right, I will close public comment then and bring it back to the council. And um, we wanted to spend some time discussing uh, the process and uh, interview questions, and you should have all received uh, attachment when is our sample questions that we've used in the past. Um, there's 2468 probably can't ask all of them. So I wanted to see, uh, your thoughts on which ones, um, or if you have others too, open to discussion on other questions. Oh, anyone. Yes, Alice, uh, counselor Hicks.

[00:10:39] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So, I'm, I thought the applications were really complete and, um, don't need to ask a lot of questions, but the 2 that rose to the top to me were B, on best practices, and D, regarding skills and experiences, but I'd be very open to any other ones. Those were just the ones that rose to the top for me.

[00:11:04] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. And say, B, and what was the other one?

[00:11:09] Councilmember Alison Hicks: D about skills and experiences?

[00:11:12] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great, great. Thank you. Council member Ramirez?

[00:11:17] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Mayor. Um, I I'm comfortable with those. Um, and I'd also like to suggest G, uh, what is the role or purpose of the RHC? I found, um, this is a question, I think, um, it's been asking a couple of other contexts, EPC in particular, and it's always very enlightening to hear, um, how folks perceive the role, um, that they're planning to serve on, or hoping to serve on. And then the only other thing I would recommend is, we do have, um, a candidate who, uh, has a voting record who has served in this capacity, and I think it's important, um, to, uh, to make a distinction, and the kinds of questions that we might ask that, can, candidates compared to candidates who, um, have not had the opportunity to serve. I think we, we found that there's, um, you know, we can gain some, some valuable knowledge, I think, and sort of getting their sense of, um, maybe particular topics that they felt were challenging, that they might be, um, you know, be, where, where we might learn, uh, how they took on a particularly challenging topic or, uh, learned about, um, you know, how they handle. I'm not doing a very good job here. In other words, I think it would be good to, to ask, ask a question about their service and their voting record, um, because there may be some valuable insight that we can get from that. So my question to the city attorney, are we able to do that or do we need to stick with the same questions to all the candidates?

[00:12:52] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: You know, it's a, it raises an interesting issue. My recommendation would be to keep the questions as as similar as possible for all the candidates. And for example, um, The, the purpose would be to maintain a fair playing field for all of the candidates to answer. And I do see some perhaps latitude in question D, uh, That question would give the, the, uh, candidate who has served on the RHC an opportunity to, uh, expand on those experiences, but, uh, I would hesitate to design different line of questioning for the, candidate who has served on the RHC. It could possibly provide a, uh, advantage or unfair, unfair playing field. So I wouldn't recommend designing specific questions based on on a person's background.

[00:14:09] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you. Um, I did see also maybe C could be elaborated upon. But, um,

[00:14:21] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: Yes, and with you raise a good point within each question, Council members are allowed to drill down or ask individual candidates sort of sub questions for clarification. So, perhaps that's an opportunity, uh, as opposed to designing, uh, specific, uh, questions into your example, or proposed question, council member Ramirez, the other candidates wouldn't have a voting record, so it would immediately have a kind of a different, um, a different basis for, comparison. So, uh, If there are issue questions that address that what you're interested in learning, that those could be asked of all the candidates, such as a a candidate's views on a particular aspect of the CSFRA or issue related to rent stabilization. Does that help council member Ramirez or, yeah, some...

[00:15:31] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: I think that's that's fair. Maybe, um, I don't want to belabor the point too much because I appreciate what the city attorney is sharing, um, I think I, I, I feel like in the past there has been a distinction made between candidates with prior service and new candidates, and maybe one way we can, um, uh, we can assess that out as, you know, using one of the, the pre-written questions here, uh, and just, Ask the candidate who has served or who is currently serving to maybe provide examples, uh, that are more concrete than we would expect from somebody who has not served before. I would be satisfied with that.

[00:16:15] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great. Thank you. Council member Manachek?

[00:16:21] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thank you. So, um, I am also interested in G as council member Romero's noted. Uh, that's always a very interesting enlightening question to ask. And, um, I think in the past we've also asked. Um, how do you see the RHC interacting with the council? And I'd like to add that one. And I'm also interested in F. And given the discussions about seismic retrofit, um, and some of the other topics. Um, I'd like to add F. But I do feel like we're getting maybe too many questions here to answer in 15 minutes. Um, and so, um, maybe we're gonna have to talk about how we prioritize these. Thanks.

[00:17:16] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. So, um, your new question is how do you see the RHC's interaction with the council? Is that, yeah, accurate? Okay. Great. Thank you. I call number McAllister.

[00:17:29] Councilmember John McAlister: Yeah, um, I like the idea of G again. I was the one that sort of got the people on, uh, Planning commission, you know, you get an idea of the role, and it was interesting how many people didn't really understand it, and I think on G asking about RHC, there's quite a bit of the public doesn't really have a clear understanding of how the board is made up. You hear people saying 7 members or you got to have everybody that's pro, uh, rent control, and so, I think it's important that we help. If the people that are playing, they will give us better understanding if they really, uh, truly understand the role that they're supposed to be doing. So, uh, I think that, gee, it's definitely got to be in there.

[00:18:16] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Great, thank you. Any other? Comments. So we do have one, two, three, four, 5 if we add, um, counselor Matachek's new question. Um, I think they asked, we were we were giving 3 minutes per answer, but probably want to do a minute or so opening in a minute closing. So we could pair this down to 4 or I could just ask them to answer in 2 minutes. We want to do all five. Yes, council member Hicks.

[00:18:58] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So I had mentioned, uh, B on best practices and D on skills and experiences. But because nobody else had mentioned be on best practices, and some of the others may overlap that. I'm willing to take that off unless somebody else was, was really hoping to answer to that one.

[00:19:20] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Yeah, I'm fine with D, F, G, and Counselor member Medachek's new I. Um, does that sound good with everyone or? Happy to entertain, cutting down answers to, add another question.

[00:19:42] Unknown Speaker: Nope.

[00:19:43] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay. So those 4 questions, good. All right. and probably will maybe we can start with G. I was thinking order, so we could go G, G, F, G. You can G, I, D and F. Sorry, I've got a lot going on here outside. Um, and would you, you want, would you like to partic, uh, rotate the questions, everybody asks the question at, um, Or do you, I'm happy or do you want me to just do it?

[00:20:17] Unknown Speaker: Oh, yeah.

[00:20:18] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: All right, great. Um, okay. Good. So anything else we should discuss?

[00:20:27] Unknown Speaker: A so-called AB measure in.

[00:20:31] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: I don't know who that is. Um, if not, I guess we actually have a little time. I don't know if we, if the, Applicants are here that we could start early. Oh, my folks are willing to.

[00:20:47] City Clerk: Sure, yes, the 1st um, the 6 o'clock, um, Ms. Haynes, I say is here. If we want to, I can move her over to the panel.

[00:20:55] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Yeah, so she's ready to go, that'd be great. Great.

[00:21:11] Applicant Nicole Haines-Lipsey: Hello.

[00:21:15] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Hello, how are you?

[00:21:17] Applicant Nicole Haines-Lipsey: I'm good. How are you doing today, Mayor?

[00:21:19] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Thank you for joining us and if you don't mind, we finished our part early, so we'd like to go ahead and get started if that's okay with you.

[00:21:30] Applicant Nicole Haines-Lipsey: Sure, that sounds good. Is my audio okay? don't want it to be fading in and out.

[00:21:35] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: You sound great.

[00:21:37] Applicant Nicole Haines-Lipsey: Excellent.

[00:21:38] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great. So, um, we'd love to have you start with an opening statement, um, for a minute or 2 and then we have 4 questions for you, and if you could just take it 2 or 3 minutes to answer each one, we'd appreciate it. There may be some clarifying questions along the way as well, but we have 4 standard questions and then if you'd like to do a closing at the end, that would be great too.

[00:22:02] Applicant Nicole Haines-Lipsey: Excellent. I can definitely do that.

[00:22:04] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great. anytime you're ready to go.

[00:22:08] Nicole Haines-Lieb: So, hello, everyone. Um, I am Nicole Haineslib, say. I am currently the alternate member of the rental housing committee. I've been serving as a voting member, um, as you are all likely aware, since Count uh, since committee member Honey's resignation in January. And it's been a really great experience. Um, when I had applied initially to join the RHC. I was unsure of what role I would get, if any. And I think starting in an alternate role, was very developmental for me and allowed me to really get a little bit of time to fully get my arms around the issue, the dynamics of the committee itself. and really just get, um, fully immersed in, the issues that we deal with from meeting to meeting. And that has been a wonderful experience. And so now I'm here before you, interested in potentially taking the open role as a full voting member, um, moving from alternate voting member.

[00:23:22] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Hey, thank you. Uh, the 1st question we have for you. is what is the role or purpose of the RHC?

[00:23:31] Nicole Haines-Lieb: So the role of the RHC is truly to administer the CSFRI. We are charged with an interesting position in that we. At times, have policy making. Items come before us, and at other times we may have appeals come before us. And we really are, trying to interpret, and Ensure that we have promoted the spirit of the regulation, not just necessarily the letter. But while doing that. We have to be very careful to ensure that we are taking care of all our stakeholders. Rank control when it is a term that is band-aid about, has some connotations. And I don't think that the role of the RHC is to play into some of those more negative connotations. Actually, I think it's very important for the RHC to position itself as a fair organization, as a fair committee that is truly trying to administer this law, rather than punitively go after any one group or overlook any one group. And so it's a, it's a balancing act, um, but it is something that is very, very important, and it's actually partially why I enjoy how the RC has been structured relative to other committees. Um, that maybe subcommittees, just due to the nature of what we do. I think it's, um, created a lot of interesting synergies for us. And has really, um, given us a interesting playing field.

[00:25:20] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great, thank you. Um, moving on to the next question. What particular skills or experiences make you qualified to work? Towards reasonable and informed decisions that pertain to those? Oh, this is actually, I guess part of C. I'm just gonna just uh, maybe modify it and say, what particular skills or experiences make you qualified to do the work?

[00:25:47] Nicole Haines-Lieb: Sure. So in addition to having been on the committee as the alternate, so I have a little bit deeper view of the inner workings and some of the preparation work that goes into preparing for our meetings. Um, you know, we we do all our meetings in public. We're very respectful of the Brown act. That being said, there is individual solo work that goes into preparing for your meetings. And, Personally, I am in the financial services industry, and I occupy an interesting role in that, I am in risk and compliance, so I am in between the shell eye and may I space. That is a similar space to where the RHC attempts to point its policy making. We have to look at, may I do? Such and so thing under the terms of the CFSRA, and then we also need to look at, should I do, i.e. is it prudent to do? And take into consideration all attributes of when we are making a decision to ensure it is prudent and respectful of every stakeholder in our community, because we have a lovely, diverse community, um, and we don't want to lose that community, it takes everyone. From all walks of life to maintain that. And so, I believe that given my day-to-day life is helping people navigate that space. I try to bring that to my time on the orange thing. Additionally, um, I did work for a private equity real estate company for a few years when I lived in Dallas and I did have my real estate license active at that time. Now granted, I don't have a real estate license in California. I've not been active in that space for some time, but I do understand the basics and at least well enough that the state of Texas thought I was able to be licensed. I guess we could ask them if that was a good decision or not. But in all honesty, um, that has given me a interesting lens because I have familiarity with many of the concepts that we deal with.

[00:28:04] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. And uh, the next question is, how do you see the RHC's interaction with the council?

[00:28:15] Nicole Haines-Lieb: I love this question. So, I, um, as I referenced earlier, I think that the current structure is a very strong structure for the RHC working with the council. When, uh, measure D was up and being drafted, I very much enjoyed participating in the discussions of what we may communicate from the RHC to council regarding what may be put in there. I feel that, If we were to be, say, an advisory board, or an advisory committee, we would, potentially in the eyes of the public. Not have the same independent light that we do in our current structure. That all being said, um, it was very important to me to make sure that certain things that, though, Measure D did not pass, were in measure D specifically around the ability of the council to remove us from our appointments and also codifying that we will not pay ourselves. Those 2 components were incredibly important to me that we be in unison with the rest of the city council and city advisory committees on. Um, so I actually was very pleased when we made the decision to codify that. recently. I think it's very healthy and I think it helps to keep us focused on our mission, which is administering the CSFRA fairly to all stakeholders.

[00:29:47] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great, thank you. And the last question is, uh, How would you encourage maintenance? These are for the properties beyond the minimum for rental properties within the parameters of the CSFRA.

[00:30:02] Nicole Haines-Lieb: Sure. So this is always a difficult issue because there is concern. In individual's brains that, um, does not get a return that they feel is reasonably appropriate on their investment, they may decide not to make additional capital contributions, i.e. maintenance, into that investment beyond whatever is required by law. We recently. in our last meeting, um, looked at some regulations. That may, or potential of making some regulations, that may allow our healthing providers to pass on some of those costs to the tenants if those benefit, those improvements or those activities materially benefit the tenants. I'm very strongly supportive of this. I do think that capital injections are needed from time to time. And I personally believe as an individual who does rent property in Mountain View, but is not covered under the CSFRA currently and would be unlikely to be even in the future. Um, given the structure of my lease. I believe it's important that housing providers and tenants be on the same page around improvements. We have made multiple improvements in our unit. After speaking with our landlord, and working with him, and it's been a very fair and a very comfortable process where we're both on the same side of the table. And I think getting that by allowing some level of pass through. Is important because I actually think that we can have unified interest there in this regard. But currently, there may be concern in the community that it's difficult to do anything beyond the current, the mandatory or minimum maintenance.

[00:32:00] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great. Um, any clarifying questions from council members for Ms. Lucai. All right, um, would you like to provide a closing statement?

[00:32:14] Nicole Haines-Lieb: Sure. So um, thank you all for your time in visiting with me today. I really hope that I was able to answer your questions thoroughly, provide answers that helped you to understand my position on the issues and what I would bring to the table if I was a full voting member of the RHC. I remain open if anyone has any closing questions. Otherwise, I will let you get back to your rest of your meeting and move on to the next candidate. I don't want to monopolize all the time. Thank you. And everybody stay healthy, stay safe.

[00:32:48] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great. Thank you very much. Thank you for making the time to come and chat with us. We will um, probably make a decision this evening. Um, this is a study session, so then we will need to, um, uh, ratifier decision at, uh, council meeting. Uh, so, um, you will learn soon. You will know shortly, we'll notify you shortly of our decision. Thank you very much again.

[00:33:13] Nicole Haines-Lieb: Definitely, thank you all. Take care.

[00:33:18] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Right. Um. Our next uh, applicant is Richard U. Let's see if I. Is the best yet? I think I see him. It doesn't look like he's on the line quite yet. His interview time was 615, so we're a little early. Um, We were going to reach out to him to see if he was available, but if if available sooner. So, um, Wanda is working on that right now. But if we wanted to move on. I did kind of, if we could move on to Wei Hang fan, I see her in our box if she's ready to go. Okay, one moment.

[00:34:11] Weihan Fan: Hello. Can hear me?

[00:34:13] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: All right. Yes. Hello. How are you, Mr. Fan? Um, welcome, and thank you so much for making the time to interview with us. Thank you for applying for the RHC position. Um, we wanted to, um, if you'd like to, uh, offer an opening statement for a couple of minutes, uh, we also have 4 questions we'd like to ask you. We're asking everyone the same questions. There may be some clarifying questions from council members along the way. And then if you could, if you'd like to provide a closing statement, that would be great. So if you would like to start at any time, um, please welcome.

[00:34:52] Weihan Fan: All right, uh, hello, council members. I'm Weihan or Frank? I'm a relatively new resident who just moved here after graduating college and I currently rent a condo that's not covered by a CSFRA. Uh, so, uh, when I was uh, in college, I was a member of student government, uh, and uh, allocated funds to student organizations, uh, so that's why I wanted to, um, uh, continue doing public service, and I also frequently read like, um, policies and meeting minutes, including that of the RSC, uh, city council and uh, regional boards, uh, like culture and VTA, uh, and uh, I noticed that from some of the meetings I've watched that, uh, sometimes the, uh, RC uh, is not uh, does not very much acknowledge uh, public comments or uh, refer to them, even though I would say is a less formal committee than, say, the city council. So, um, I guess, uh, I'm hoping that I can bring a new perspective to our city and uh, helping engage better with members of the public that uh, don't necessarily attend uh, RC meetings or city council meetings.

[00:36:11] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great, thank you. So we'll start with our 1st question. What is the role or purpose of the RHC?

[00:36:21] Weihan Fan: So, uh, Ultimately, the artsy is pretty much a administrative organization, uh, and it's, uh, not its purpose, uh, to, uh, changed the meaning, uh, or sort of, uh, go, go around the CSFR, uh, FRA to, uh, achieve its policy goals. I think the artsy should just mostly be adjudicating body for, say, appeals as well as, uh, as well as uh, implementing regulations and policies that make it easier for both mentors and landlords to uh, follow stipulations and um, basically make it so that uh, everyone gets the most out of uh, the CSFI, even though um, it is uh, well known that uh, when control can often create impediments to uh, say maintenance or um, other issues of rentals.

[00:37:26] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Uh, next question, what particular skills or experiences make you qualified to do the work?

[00:37:34] Weihan Fan: So, uh, as I mentioned before, uh, I, uh, was the VPO finance of the student government, uh, at my university, uh, County Mello University, uh, where I uh, chaired a appointed committee uh, that allocated uh, about $2000000 in funds to student organizations. Um, and we also uh, audited the spending of those funds, uh, by those organizations. So, um, By, uh, being a part of this process, uh, I had some experience with uh, appointed committees and um, that are appointed by elected bodies, um, that have sort of a moderate amount of power and responsibility. And I'm pretty familiar with the dynamics of, um, uh, an appointed committee, uh, by elected body, which um, can often become complicated because the people who appointed might uh, offer different viewpoints and, uh, that may or may not coincide with the views of the elected body that points the body. And, um, I have some experience coordinating, uh, those viewpoints and, uh, reaching a productive conclusion. Uh, and uh, of course, uh, this comes with uh, the experience managing uh, financial workers as well as, um, as well. Yeah.

[00:38:56] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Uh, next question is, how do you see the RHC's interaction with the council?

[00:39:03] Weihan Fan: So, uh, ultimately, uh, even though the RC, uh, is appointed by the city council, uh, I think the RC, uh, is ultimately an independent body, and, uh, It doesn't necessarily have to, um, hold the same opinions, uh, and reach the same conclusions as the city council and uh, Um, say the city attorney, uh, which um, it did uh, regarding the, uh, mobile, mobile home issue. Uh, and uh, I think that the RC uh, should mostly uh, operate uh, uh, as its own body and uh, if needed, uh, it could hold joint study sessions with the, uh, city council, but, um, Yeah, um, I think because the CSFI uh, stipulated that RC is a, uh, independent body, um, I think, uh, primarily the intactions should be, uh, uh, limited and uh, to uh, formal channels, uh, like perhaps the RC members could make public comments at city council meetings, but uh, otherwise, I believe should be fairly limited.

[00:40:28] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great. And then uh last question. How would you encourage maintenance beyond the minimum for rental properties within the parameters of the CSFRA?

[00:40:41] Weihan Fan: So, uh, Legislation like the CSFI, obviously, um, create impediments uh, to landlord's willingness to uh, maintain properties. And, uh, I mean, uh, the 1st thing I want to talk about is uh, the recent uh, issue of capital improvements, amortization, uh, which uh, basically, uh, is a way of streamingline and streamlining the process of, um, the discretionary process of this uh, RC, deciding on, uh, petitions to increase rent by landlords, because ultimately, if you think about the financials of landlords, the rent of an individual renter is much less significant compared to the adjustment of the rent to the rentor rather than to the landlord. So, um, Ultimately, uh, I believe in order to incentivize landlords to perform uh, maintenance, uh, it is necessary to uh, make the process easier and perhaps uh, implement regulations that uh, constitute, um, Unanimous approval or uh, like uh, consenting approval uh, by both uh, renters and landlords, such at the, um, Landlord needs to go through less loopholes and jump to less hoops in order to get the necessary approvals to increase rent and perform the necessary maintenance. And, Yeah, um, I think, uh, within the scope of the artsy and the safari, uh, there's not that much, uh, uh, ability for the artsy to implement policies uh, that uh, increase incentives to maintenance because uh, most of it is set in stone in the law and on the most it can do is to um, implement regulations that uh, streamline the process to such that uh, it is easier to do potentials of upper adjustment for capital improvements and the maintenance.

[00:43:01] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great. Um, those are our questions. Are there any other clarifying questions from council members? No, alrighty. If you'd like to offer a closing statement. That would be great.

[00:43:15] Weihan Fan: Yeah, uh, I guess. Uh, this is the 1st position, uh, in adminicipal committee I've applied for. Thank you all for, uh, listening, uh, and thank you for your time, and I hope, uh, you consider my application. Uh, yeah, have a nice day.

[00:43:32] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great. Thank you very much. Mr. Fan, and um, we will be making a decision this evening. Uh, this is a steady session, so, um, it will be a recommendation to the council and we will, which we will have to vote on at a council meeting. Um, but you, we will let you know our um, decision shortly. So again, thank you very much for making time to join us and please take care. Thank you.

[00:44:02] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: And we are actually still early, but I think I saw Richard you, so if Mr. you would like to join us. We'd love to. Start.

[00:44:14] Unknown Speaker: Yes, one moment. Let's see. All right, there we go.

[00:44:29] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great, good evening, Mr. U. Thank you for joining us. Oh, yay, you get to see your face. Hi, how are you?

[00:44:38] Richard U: Good, thank you. How are you?

[00:44:40] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Doing well. as well as we can be, right? Well, things considered. Yes. Well, thank you for making time to join us and thank you for applying to our RHC. Um, we are asking um, our applicants this evening to offer an opening statement if you'd like, and then we have 4 questions for you. There may be some clarifying questions from council members. Um, and then if you'd like to offer a closing statement, that would be great. So if you could take maybe a couple of minutes on each, um, that would be, uh, very ideal. So, yes, whenever you're ready to start, happy to have you start.

[00:45:23] Richard U: Okay, cool. Hi everyone. Good evening. Um, my name is Richard U. I was actually born and raised in Mountain View. Um, so, I was able to grow up through sort of the change and definitely was able to see the change, sort of pre and post, um, like tech. Um, and so I went to Block, um, which is like borderline Mountain View Asalto school. Um, and while I was at block, I was actually on the, at the time, it was called the Mayor's Youth Committee. It was run, I think, by Matt Neely at the time, who was also assistant principal in Mountain View. Now it's the youth advisory committee. Um, and so I was on that for about 2 years um, at block. And within that, we planned, obviously, as you guys know, the mayor's youth conference, um, and then helped with starting up the, um, teen center, um, or like sort of redoing all of that stuff. So then I went to Mountain View High School, stayed local, um, and was part of a club called Unidos. um, which provided after school tutoring, um, for an ESL, um, elementary school, um, I think, 0 my god, Castro elementary school, I think is the one right around the corner. Um, and so we did that every every week. Um, I, I sort of helped run organizing, getting all the volunteers together, organizing sort of the fundraisers to get, um, swag and everything for for all of the, um, students going and volunteering with the kids. Um, and then for college, I didn't stay super local, but I went to UC Davis. Um, and so there I was a managerial economics major and I was involved in an organization called Camp Kism, which is a camper, um, kids whose pants have had cancer. And so while I was there, I was a director and basically involved in every aspect of Camp Kism, and we are completely student funded, so we had to run fundraising, operations, admin, recruiting, training, and everything within that sort. So within that organization, when I 1st started, we had about. Um, 2025 campers, um, with about 15 to 20 counselors, and then by the time I left and graduated, we had over 120 campers with about 55 to 60 um, counseling staff. Um, yeah. That's a little bit about myself.

[00:47:57] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Yeah, make sure of that. Um, so we'll start with the questions then. And their 1st question is um, what is the role or purpose of the RHC?

[00:48:09] Richard U: So I think the role of the RHC is to be a fair neutral, um, group that is responsible to establish the rules and regulations of the CSFRA and then also be ones to um, create policies to also enforce those, um, as well as follow up. Um, and I think they're also responsible to ensure that there's fair market value rates for, um, all renters within the community, um, and also being proactive to research and conduct, um, sort of, I don't maybe like surveys or just sort of like, um, be proactive in making sure that the community is happy and that, um, things don't sort of come at a surprise. Um. Yeah. And also be sort of like, I guess, the, the, the, the, the group, that sort of that liaison and that middle person between the 2 um, between like a landlord and tenant group.

[00:49:14] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great. Um, next question. What particular skills or experiences make you qualified for the work to do the work?

[00:49:23] Richard U: Um, so. I think in terms of like being fair and running organizations, like when I was running with Camp Kesm, I was able to, um, be able to see every side in terms of, of, of running, running businesses from young. Um, and also, since I was probably in like middle school. I've helped my family manage. They have a 5 unit rental in downtown Mountain View. Um, so I've been helping them do that and sort of being that. Um, my parents came to the US when they were in like their teens or or like early 20s. So I was born and raised here. And so as growing up, I was always that child that they're like, hey, can you help do this? Can you help do that? So I was really able to learn a lot of things and really learn from like the tenants that we had there and sort of see like what worked for them, what didn't work with them and sort of do what we could to keep a good relationship, to try to keep the tenants there long term. Um, and so within that, really learned a lot about just like property management and things like that. And then obviously when I went to college, I was able to see the flip side of everything, um, of being a renter and the nuances of working with, um, a landlord and property management companies and things like that. So I was really able to understand, um, and see the disconnect and for me personally with the tenants that we have. Um, really use that to sort of mediate a relationship so that way it is, um, a 2 way street. Um, and so, I think that also, within, um, post-college, I was involved in an organization called Sour for Youth, it provides academic advocacy for foster youth in the Bay Area. Um, and I started helping with operations on that side too. And so within that because I was working very closely with the kids as mentors and also working on the operation side, I sort of had to draw a fine line between, um, not sort of like favoring one side or the other when making decisions and really looking at things with all the data, all the stats and and making the best decision all around for everyone and not just those involved, but the entire community as well.

[00:51:32] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great. Um, next question is, how do you see the RHC's interaction with the city council?

[00:51:42] Richard U: So from what I understand, it, um, RFC is supposed to be its own separate, like body or entity and not necessarily supposed to be governed or or ruled under the city council, so I think it would more so be, um, either like collaborations or whatever the proper, um, protocol processes as it is for interactions, but I think that the RHC in general should have, um, its own sort of, Um, checks and balance, it's within itself and not necessarily like report, but could like reach out to the council for advice or sort of consultation, but not necessarily like take direction. But like I said, whatever the proper protocol is for that at the time is what should be followed.

[00:52:24] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great. Um, and then, last question. How would you encourage maintenance beyond the minimum for rental properties within the parameters of CSFRA?

[00:52:40] Richard U: So how would I encourage? Oh, so maintenance within within properties beyond minimum? Um, So I think a big thing about property, uh, like just encouraging property maintenance is also educating the owners on the parts of maintenance, um, and understanding, um, both sides, right? Because the more well you maintain a property, the better condition it stays. Um, and then ultimately sort of the less dollar amount it comes out of, of, of your pocket, right? Because I think you have to look at every situation from the opposite side. And I know that a lot of, um, landlords always look at sort of the dollar amount and it's sort of just like, look, if you maintain the properties correctly and you do the right things and you, um, follow the recommended protocol, then at the end of the day, you're going to spend less money because you're not going to have these big issues that blow up and have all, and have X, Y, and Z. So I think educating, creating a training program, um, to be able to educate the landlords on that side because it is sort of a 2 way partnership for a landlord and tenants to be successful, right? Um, and then I think that, Just thinking outside the box, I know there's in the past have been programs where there's been like, um, grants allocated for like energy efficient savings or X, Y, and Z things if you, um, if you make improvements around either a rental property or home. Um, I don't know the specifics because I've never actually um, taken advantage of them, but I think in, in terms of like being able to encourage like maintenance beyond minimum, um, if, if the city is able to have like a budget for things like that, then it'd be cool to come up with some type of like maintenance plan program where, where, there's some type of incentive um, for property owners. And I don't know if that's possible, but it could be even like partnerships that we create with different companies and you get services for doing something like that and it's not necessarily dog amounts, but I think there's a lot of ways to encourage maintenance without sort of saying this is the law you have to or we're going to figure out a way to force you. I think, um, if you, if you do a lot of just educating the property owners, I think, and potentially even providing incentives. I think that that comes with. Brown and everything. That sort of answer that question.

[00:55:06] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Yes I think so.

[00:55:08] Richard U: Okay, cool.

[00:55:10] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Yeah, do any council members have any clarifying questions for Mr. you? No? Okay then, um, would you like to offer a closing comment?

[00:55:24] Richard U: Um, yeah, I mean, I just wanted to thank you guys all for your time. I know this is sort of weird having to do this on Zoom. Um, but I'm definitely excited to, um, potentially have the opportunity to join the RFC to bring a different perspective, um, and and be able to sort of keep that relationship between tenants and landlords in Mountain View happy and successful, and bring back and sort of keep and maintain the, um, the culture of Mountain View that we had when I grew up as much as we can without, um, having it blow up too quickly.

[00:55:59] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great. Well, thank you again for making time to join us and divorce, for your interest and, um, this is a study session, so we will make a recommendation as likely this evening and then that needs to be approved by us at a, a regular council meeting, but we will let you know, um, soon, uh, what, all right.

[00:56:21] Richard U: Great. Sounds good. Thank you so much. Have a great week. Stay safe everyone.

[00:56:26] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Be safe and healthy. Bye bye.

[00:56:27] Richard U: Thanks, you too, bye.

[00:56:31] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Alright. Um, oh, right, even, um, more ahead of schedule, but I see, I think I see Hank Dempsey. If he's ready to go, would love to have him join us.

[00:56:49] Unknown Speaker: Yes, I'll bring him in and apologies, council member Clark. That was my fault. moved you over for a moment. Sorry about that. Just one moment.

[00:56:58] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Oh, yes, I'm sorry, counselor, may I check? Did you have a? Question or comment?

[00:57:03] Councilmember Chris Clark: You know, um, I was gonna say this right before, um, we spoke with, um, Mr. U, but, um, I was gonna ask if if it is possible if we could see. Um, it, it's a, it's really nice to be able to see them live, see their expressions and, you know, have a real person there. So if the others don't mind, we'd love to see you.

[00:57:29] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: I will ask them if they are not on video, if they could turn it on.

[00:57:33] Councilmember Chris Clark: Thanks.

[00:57:34] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you for that suggestion. Um... Mr. Dempsey should be on just a moment. There we go. Good evening, Mr Dempsey. Welcome.

[00:57:53] Hank Dempsey: Oh, thank you. Thank you for taking here, please, God. Thank you so much. Definitely back, so.

[00:58:03] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for making time to interview with us and for your interest in the RHC. Um, We would, uh, if you'd like to start with an opening statement. Um, spend a couple minutes on that and then we have 4 questions for asking of all the applicants. And then if you'd like to close with a closing statement, that would be great. So, and whenever you're ready, happy to hear from you.

[00:58:32] Hank Dempsey: I hope everybody can be okay. Um, good evening, not American, I'm vice mayor, uh, council members, I appreciate the time. My name is Hangman. I'm a resident of our city park. I'm sorry. Oh, hear me?

[00:58:51] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: We're having a little trouble. You're breaking up. Is there, um,

[00:58:56] Hank Dempsey: Oh, I'm getting the same. Let me, I'll just talk a little lower. That helps. Okay. That'll be okay. So, I'm gonna take this as a brother to be, um, I'm new to this. I am a rental law expert by any stretch that they imagine. Hopefully everybody compare me. Um, Essentially, it's indicated general realist, um, uh, emphetic, uh, different party if that helps. Don't that work?

[00:59:32] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: It's still breaking up. It sounds like an echo?

[00:59:35] Hank Dempsey: I don't know. It'll help. I'd be happy to drop off a video. I can give a call back and get in the queue and then in 20 minutes or something. Hopefully that'll be enough.

[00:59:46] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Actually, ahead and schedule. So yes, whenever you're ready to come, come back, well.

[00:59:51] Hank Dempsey: That's okay. apologies.

[00:59:53] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: No worries. Thank you. This is just our world that we live in right now. Great. I'll see you in a bit.

[01:00:02] Hank Dempsey: Okay, thank you. Um.

[01:00:11] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: We don't see our next Applicant yet, so, um. But I do see Alex Brown. Could we see if Alex? Alex, could would you be ready to interview with us? Oh, go ahead and move him over. Thank you.

[01:00:35] Unknown Speaker: You know, he's been in touch this evening because I think he should be all set.

[01:00:41] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great. Alex, are you? Oh, there you are. Great. Welcome. I hope you're, um, don't mind we're trying to move things along in with all the technical issues, uh, we wanted to, start you, if you don't mind. Start you a little early. Um, so thank you again for your uh, interest in the RHC and for, oh, are you able to? Okay, wait. Can you hear me okay?

[01:01:14] Alex Brown: Yes, great.

[01:01:15] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay. I just want to do a soundtrack first.

[01:01:17] Alex Brown: Awesome.

[01:01:18] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you for, yeah, thanks for your interest in the RHC and thanks for making time to interview with us. Um, If you'd like to start with an opening statement for a couple minutes, and then we have 4 questions. We're asking the same of everyone, and then if you want to close out with a statement that would be great, and please feel free to start when you're ready.

[01:01:39] Alex Brown: Awesome. Yeah. I did not prepare an opening statement. I think I know most of you by now. Uh, I've been in Mountain View for a little over 7 years and you stopped me if I started breaking up. Uh, I moved to Mountain View. I got into mobile home. I got to know a lot of people in my community, but also in the surrounding mountain view community. And I saw that with the changes that came, just as the decade developed, that a lot of people were suffering, and in 2016, when people came together to try to fight, to stabilize their communities, to try to prevent displaced, to try to keep people in their homes. I was happy and I was proud of the community. And I've tried to help organize all of my neighbors, I've worked with a lot of organizations throughout the city and surrounding cities, and trying to make a difference in trying to make the world a better place and trying to help people. And I think that the CSFRA is one significant tool that we have to try to keep people in their homes and to also just to keep things going at an even good pace where everyone can succeed. Everyone has a chance. People are less likely to be shocked. And by being forced to move because they cannot afford to live in their homes, children are not forced to move districts or communities. And I see this is doing my part to try to make that difference, to try to help. facilitate this. And, you know. I want to do my part to help mound view. Yeah.

[01:03:25] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great, I appreciate that. Um, we'll start with the question. So 1st one is, uh, what is the role or purpose of the RHC?

[01:03:36] Alex Brown: This is a good one. It's also pretty easy. Laws don't interpret themselves. Uh, when you write something into law. You cannot account for every circumstance or situation that will come up that might happen. So you set up a purpose. You give findings for why you're trying to do something and you say what you're trying to do. In the case of the community stabilization and fair rent act, they're trying to stabilize rents in order to preserve a sense of community and prevent displacement. And the rental housing committee is a part of that law. It is codified to be able to have a set of people who understand what they're doing, like what the law is trying to do, and act to fill in gaps, to make sure that everything works, to fulfill the spirit of the law, to try to help the city. Because you need people. You. Council members are people who try to take something that exists and make it work in a way that continues. And that is what the RHC is for, is the rental housing committee is to help people with rents. It, they set the AGA, they write rules and regulations about the contents of the CSRA. It is, A body of people whose job it is to take the time to understand what is out there, what laws affect the city. What is in the charter and apply it.

[01:05:07] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Uh, next question. What particular skills or experiences make you qualified to do the work?

[01:05:16] Alex Brown: So I've been coming to, uh, city council and the rental housing committee for years now. I show up to every meeting that I can, and in COVID, I've been joining the Zoom for every meeting that I can, because I'm that kind of nerd. This is something that I love. This is something I enjoy. I have read through the CSFRA multiple times, and I reference it. When I can, in order to try to, to, like, bring clarity to, when people have questions, hey, what, what, what about the RC? What about the SFRA affects me? Uh, I like to think that I'm usually able to point them to what text matters or find the case law in, uh, in the courts or in the case, the law in the state that is impacting them because it's something that, It's a skill that I have that I like to be able to help people with. Ah. I'm also, I'm an engineer. I'm very pedantic. I read I read deep into things and try to make sense of it, but also, Housing, I think, is fundamental to people's existence. It's key to their survival, and it's something that I have taken on myself as a priority that I like to focus on is understanding people's circumstances and trying to do what I can to help.

[01:06:33] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great. Uh, let's see. Next question is how do you see the RHC's interaction with the council? City council?

[01:06:44] Alex Brown: Oh yeah, this one's my favorite. Uh I know all of you. We've talked many times. I've seen how the current rental housing committee and previous versions of the body have interacted with the city council, I think that the interaction between city staff, the city council, and the rental housing committee is key to being functional as a city as a body. I think that we are one community, collectively, and that oftentimes there needs to be interacting between the council and the committee, that when you have a study session in one body, oftentimes it is, preceded by one or the other, because it is, either the council needs to do, whether it be, uh, put up charter amendment on the ballot, to change the contents of the CSFRA, or to set up new standards for health, safety for housing to be able to impact the rental community, which is something that changes how the RHC is able to adapt for the AJ and for any petitions through the through the hearing process. And so, I think up to this point, there has been, you know, there's, there's been some issues in trying to, to coordinate that process where the RC would send a memo to council, council would respond. The CSFRA subcommittee last year is an example of that. I think that there's a lot of room for improvement, but I think that's something everyone here can do.

[01:08:14] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. And last question. Um, How would you encourage maintenance beyond the minimum for rental properties within the parameters of the CSFRA?

[01:08:27] Alex Brown: Yeah, it is my 3rd favorite question. So I had, uh, Uh, okay. So when it comes to capital improvement pastors and other forms of encouraging of capital investment in properties. I think it's something that the RHC has some powers to do, but is not tasked to do directly. I think that when it comes to soft story retrofits, which has been a big issue that has come before council several times because it is a risk that we have for a lot of people in the city where their homes are not safe and secure from seismic events right now, that, The 1st step would be to amend the health and safety code. the 2nd step would be to, for the RC to, under section 1710. Uh, Like a speedy process for upward adjustment for landlords who need to invest capital in their places to comply with local ordinances, as is defined in the law. But it comes to, uh, luxury improvements or improvements above and beyond the minimum or improvements that are required by the codes. That one is tougher. because it's explicitly called out as something that is not allowed in the CSFRA, but with that section could be amended in the charter by popular vote. Uh, it's also something that can be gotten around in some ways super private contract, although that one is more difficult.

[01:09:57] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Any clarifying questions from council members? For Mr. Brown? No? Come on, guys. All right, well, would you like to close out?

[01:10:11] Alex Brown: No, I just, I'm just glad to finally be able to, to try to step up and help out. in a more official capacity. I think than in the audience long enough, and I want to be able to do my part. And uh, yeah, I'd be happy to work with you. Right.

[01:10:29] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great. Well, thank you again for your time and for your interest, and we'll be making a most likely making a recommendation this evening that we'll vote on at a council, the other council meeting. So we will let you know our decision soon.

[01:10:45] Alex Brown: Thanks Thanks and stay safe and healthy.

[01:10:51] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Bye. See. So let me see if Mr. Dempsey's back.

[01:11:01] City Clerk: He is under the phone number mayor.

[01:11:03] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay, great. Could we bring him in?

[01:11:05] City Clerk: Yes, I'll go ahead and bring him in.

[01:11:08] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you.

[01:11:11] City Clerk: Actually, it's looking like Perhaps because he's joining by phone. I can allow him to speak, but it doesn't look like I can move him over. Let's see if this will work. Oh, here we go. Okay.

[01:11:27] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Oh, Mr. Dempsey, are you with us? You able to hear us?

[01:11:32] Dempsey: Hi, can you hear me?

[01:11:33] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Yes. Great. That's clear. Wonderful. I miss seeing you.

[01:11:37] Dempsey: Terribly sorry. Sorry about all the technical stuff.

[01:11:41] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Yeah. No worries. Working from home. Yes. Well, thank you again. Thanks for coming back to us. Let's start over. We can start from the top. So if you'd like to offer an opening statement. That'd be great.

[01:11:54] Dempsey: Thank you. I appreciate it. And again, my apologies for the technical difficulties. Um, I think I've already burned a couple of minutes, so let me just say shortly, what brings me to applying for RHC, again, as someone who's not a rental housing expert. It's just a combination of public service, I think empathy and community. Um, I spent years working in public service bed at the state level. And uh, the last years had to move back to Mountain View to take care of elders, and so I joined the private sector. But I miss it. And so the, uh, part of me just kind of wants to go back to being part of helping, you know, a city run itself. But, you know, COVID kind of made me rethink how important that is made me think it was more important. Frankly, because as a tech worker, I'm very lucky I get to work from home, many, many people who live in Mountain View, as you know well, don't have that luxury. Um, folks that I interact with all the time, I check in on when I go to see them at work and they're worried about whether they're going to have a job in a month. And, Being mindful of my own privilege has kind of impressed upon me, I think how important it is to look out for other folks too. And I think this is one way, I think, many, to uh, to practice that. And I think finally, just, you know, by the time we're done with COVID in the recession that, that will seem because of it. I don't want to see mountain view change. I don't want to see a lot of the people that I know and care about. We just have different employment situations. I don't wanna see them leave. And so part of it for me is, is merely trying to keep mountain view, a town that I, that I love and want to be a part of. So I'll leave it there.

[01:13:29] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great, thank you. Uh, we'll go into our questions. Our 1st one is, um, What is the roller purpose of the RHC?

[01:13:38] Dempsey: Sure. And I think many people have already spoke well to this, but it is fundamentally an administrative and an adjudicative function. It is emphatically not legislative. Uh, and so what that means is trying to make the CSFRA work as efficiently and effectively within the bounds of its creation. Um, And that, you know, that means promulgating the regs and making sure the program's running well. I think a lot of it involves checking in with the population that's affected by it. And seeing, hey, is it working? Is it doing what it's supposed to? Are people being protected? Are our units leaving the market? It's, so it is a bit of, uh, you know, filling in the cracks from a, um, uh, regulatory standpoint, but it's also checking to make sure that the system that's been designed works. But again, it's, it is administering the law. Um, it is not superseding it and uh, that's a responsibility. I think I'd be very mindful of.

[01:14:40] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Um, and then, um, see What particular skills or experiences make you qualified to do the work?

[01:14:53] Dempsey: Sure So I'm an attorney by training, um, masters of public policy as well, both from Berkeley, and I've spent the last, uh, or not the last, but I spent a little more than 10 years working, uh, for the state legislature actually as a committee consultant. So, uh, I ran the privacy committee before that, uh, business professions and consumer protection committee. So I've actually spent a lot of time working with code, uh, reading it, analyzing it, amending it and explaining it. So it's uh, it's a, uh, form of work that I'm actually quite familiar with, although it's in a different context. And I think that that's generally applicable to this kind of work, although again, it wasn't specifically housing law.

[01:15:33] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. And then, um, How do you see the RHC's interaction with the council?

[01:15:41] Dempsey: Oh, great question. So, um, it clearly it's an independent role, that was spelled out very clearly, uh, and the roles are different. So there shouldn't be much clash there. But I think, you know, government is a team sport. And we're all on the same team. We care about the same people. We're trying to do the same thing. So even while the RHC is independent and the roles are different. I think deep consultation is totally appropriate. Um, particularly because the council has more experience. The council has a kind of a 10,000 foot view of things that are happening, they may know how different parts of the rental market. What's happening in the city? And I think that it's absolutely incumbent upon anybody that works in government, to avail themselves of the knowledge, the expertise, the insight that other folks in government have, doesn't mean you have to do what they say. But it means you absolutely should listen to people who who are smart and people who have experience. And so to my mind, um, you know, as I said, it's a team sport, and I would want to be as deeply consultative, to learn from people who can see the problem from a different perspective. I think that's really valuable and a best practice in government.

[01:16:53] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great, thank you. And uh, finally, how would you encourage maintenance beyond the minimum for rental properties within the parameters of the CSFRA?

[01:17:04] Public Speaker: Sure. So, I mean, it would, I guess it depends a little bit about what we need as maintenance, but I think the general principle would be, trying to find, setting us, like a capped amount, that could be an included cost under the fair rate of return. But I think that that, you know, if we're going to do that, if you're going to have a capped amount, that, that you can include under rate of return. I think it actually would be important to seek out tenant consent. I think having the tenants either ask for or be okay with these upgrades beyond what the code requires. I think that's a really important part of uh, making it part of fair rate of return. I think that's kind of how you make sure that it's a it's a just, necessary, wanted improvement.

[01:17:55] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great. Um, any clarifying questions from council members? No. Any hands up. So, um, if you'd like to provide a closing statement. Is your density?

[01:18:11] Public Speaker: Sure. Well, members, I appreciate, you know, both your time and your patience, and again, my apologies for not being able to get my technology right. Um, you know, I'm, I'm grateful for the chance to talk to you and I'm, I hope that, uh, I can find a role at some point to be able to serve with the city, whether it's RHC, a different committee somehow. Um, but my hope is to find a way to to contribute to the health and well-being of the city. Um, and as I said, I appreciated your time listening to me tonight.

[01:18:42] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Thank you again for your interest and for making the time to join us and, um, you probably heard this, uh, uh, that we will be making a recommendation was likely this evening that, uh, then the council will, uh, approve, um, at a, at a regular council meeting. Um, so we will let you know soon uh, what our decision is. Thank you again for, um, and thank you for your patience with all the technical issues. Um, this, yeah, this is a whole new world we're in right now. But um, please stay safe and healthy. And take care. Well, let's see. move on. Um. We have. What time is it? A little early still. Let's see if Adriana Rositas is with us yet.

[01:19:40] Unknown Speaker: I don't see her on the line, uh, mayor, but um, Ms. Hansen is, if you would like to take her sooner.

[01:19:47] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great. Yes, if we could take Miss Hanson.

[01:19:52] Unknown Speaker: Okay, she should be coming over in just a moment. Hello, Ms. Hansen. Can you hear us? You could unmute yourself.

[01:20:16] Unknown Speaker: Oh, there you are. Oh, all right. Oh well. No worries. It's a badge of honor.

[01:20:26] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Well, thank you so much for your interest in the RHC and for joining us this evening and thanks for accommodating our time. We're moving a little ahead of schedule, but I think that's a good thing for all of us. So, um, if you'd like to, uh, provide an opening statement for a couple of minutes and then we have 4 questions to ask of you. There might be some clarifying questions after that. Um, and then if you'd like to close out with a statement, that would be great and please feel free to start when you're ready.

[01:20:56] Ms. Hansen: Okay, well, uh, I got uh, involved in even considering this after the June 1st meeting of the rental housing committee. I've been extremely disappointed in both rental housing committee and council. Uh, and uh, I'll, I'll just give you a little history. Uh, so I'm a senior in the biggest mobile home park in Mountain View. Uh, in 2015, 2016, early 2016. I started the residence association for San Diego Villa. And over the years that grew in because of my friends and neighbors who participated and are still participating. Uh, that grew into the Mountain Dew mobile home alliance. Uh, and we are now, we have 8 uh, we have 370 members, I think, and uh, We have uh, 8 people on the steering committee and from different parks, and uh, we meet every Saturday. Uh virtually. Uh, so we're a very active organization. And my position is that uh, because I'm the one who handles the database. Uh, I know a lot of the people and because I've been in the park for over 20 years. I already know a lot of the people. Uh, I decided to offer to, uh, become a candidate for this seat. Because I kind of feel obligated to all the seniors in the park, as you know, it's the largest population of seniors. In, um, mountain view, there in the parks. Uh, and as you know, we are still uncovered by any kind of rent stabilization. Uh, seniors have been complaining about this since 2001. Uh, and you can find this in the, uh, the collection of the Mountain View boys, uh, some of the history. One of the significant pieces of history is that in 2003, Sally Leaper got involved with John Bidovich, and she got us a or, I'm not sure how this happened. She says she didn't do it alone. Uh, but we had rent freeze for 5 years. Uh, that is because somebody finally stood up to John Binovich. And we know that the council is not going to do that. We know the rental housing committee certainly is going to do that. So at any rate, um, I just want to offer you some perspective on some of those people. Uh, I've offered them on in oral comments, uh, before the council and told you some of their stories. I know you probably don't remember them. Uh, but there are a lot of very uh, compromised, disabled sick people here. Uh, and uh, people are really frightened because social security, uh, is a fixed income, of course, and the cola, the cost of living adjustment, is never up to uh, date, uh, in the last 12 years, 4 years, there has been no cola at all for social security. Uh, in most of the years, it's between one. 5 and 2%. Uh, just the other day uh, someone contacted me. She said, I don't have a job because of the pandemic and I just got this 3.5% increase. Uh, and, um, you know, that's because of the rental housing committee set that for 2019. Uh, we did get involved on that. And, uh, I talked to Maria Ahmad this morning, uh, she said, yes, we're going to go to 2.9. Thank you, rental housing committee. Thank you, Maria Mud. Uh, we don't like John Budovic much, but we do like all the people who work for him. Uh, so anyway, uh, I wanted you to know that there are people in the parks who are very concerned, worried, frightened, that as those uh, AGAs pile up over the years. They're worried. Uh, if they can sell their homes, they won't have anywhere to go. Uh, Well, I don't want to go into a long story, but, you know, those people could end up on the street in RV's, in cars, uh, somewhere else in the community. I don't know. Uh, it's a, it's a very stressful situation. Uh, for people who are living having to live beyond their means because they have to pay for their medication, uh, on their credit cards. Uh, I've done that. I know what that's like. Uh, so I'm very frustrated uh, with the rental housing committee in particular and uh, so that's why I decided to get involved. That's my opening state.

[01:25:47] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great, thank you. We're going to go into our questions. 1st one is what's the what is the role?

[01:25:52] Ms. Hansen: Well, one of the roles is to ensure a fair rate of return. Uh, for housing providers. Uh, and I'll confine my remarks to the mobile home parks because that's what I know best. We have 6 uh parks. We have 5 owners. Uh, we have. I have no problem with the Calchicks, the Calas, the Okus, the moors. Uh, but those folks in the smaller parks are going to have problems because they're, they're owners, they're heirs once they pass on, are probably going to try to sell the park, and that is a national trend now. Uh, that just today, there was a Bloomberg news item saying, yeah, mobile home investors are just, you know, skyrocketing because they know that this is a really good deal. People are defenseless, they can't, they will be able to raise the rent on people and they will be able to make a massive profit. So, uh, people are scared in in short. Uh, but the fair rent of return is fine. Uh, what we don't want is an outrageous rent of return, which is what the Sahara and Santiago Villa are giving their owner. Uh, and that is be, that is another thing I made in an oral comment. I did a little project saying, um, uh, finding the rentals and find figuring out how much money, uh, our park owner, uh, for those 2 parks is making, and I don't want to go into details now. But in short, I feel like uh, the residents of these 2 parks should not be having any AGA at all, 0 Because he was making so much money. That is an unfair. That is something that a rental housing committee should confront and probably want. The other thing is, yes, it's supposed to administrate, uh, uh, do a fair administration and make decisions uh, between housing providers and tenants. Uh, and uh, it hasn't been doing that. It has been biased for the life of the Randall Housing Committee. Uh, there has been bias. And uh, I am not optimistic. I don't know what's going to happen, but at least we're rid of Tom Means. He was the worst of the worst.

[01:28:10] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Oh, I'm going to ask you, uh, we, we, we are now on a time schedule, so if you could...

[01:28:18] Ms. Hansen: I'm sorry, that's all right. killed my video here. There it is. And I have a hand. I will save you some time. I don't want to answer the 4th question that's not.

[01:28:30] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Actually, cancel my McAllister has his hands up, so let me go to him.

[01:28:34] Councilmember John McAlister: Yeah, thanks. So, B, um, a question is, You have a property owner that's pretty, um, Uh, Interesting to work with. How would you, when you represent them, do you think that the other property, uh, mobile homeowners are might, um, who are fair and reasonable might be, um, Penalized in some way, going forward with whatever comes out. And their tenants?

[01:29:09] Ms. Hansen: Yep, that's such a broad question. I don't really know how to answer that because, yes, that's possible, but I also, here, and this is rumor, I don't know, that Mr. Vitovich is providing, uh, legal services for some of those owners. Uh, and, you know, I probably even shouldn't say that, but, uh, you know, I, I think that that is possible. Uh, I don't want to endanger those owners who are doing the right thing. Uh, Frank Calchek in particular has a very happy, uh, bunch of residents at his home, his his part. Uh, so yes, I think that that is a possibility. Uh, but I don't know how um, we would even address that question because we don't need, the devil is in the details, basically.

[01:30:00] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay, thank you.

[01:30:01] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: All right, well, go on to this next question. What particular skills or experiences make you qualified to do the work?

[01:30:09] Ms. Hansen: Well, I've been a technical writer for almost 30 years now, so I have a technical background. Uh, but, uh, I haven't done, I, I do my own taxes. I, I understand financial uh, spreadsheets. Uh, I understand, uh, legal ease. Uh, I've learned legal uh, to understand legal age through these years of watching council and uh, RHC. Uh, so I would say I have some personal experience. I don't have work experience. Um, one thing that, uh, rankles me, I have to say because, uh, is just something that Adam Schift said the other day really interests me. Uh, he was concerned about, um, the fact that the aren't getting the Congress isn't getting security, uh, uh, in person briefings, they're getting it, uh, on, in writing. He said, you can wordsmith. Uh, you can work with the document to be literally correct, but completely misleading. And that is something that is relevant, uh, here, uh, to, All of the, uh, illegal, legal, legal, is really difficult. And particularly at that June 1st meeting, where we tried to understand what was going on. It took a long long time. And it's very frustrating, not just to me, but the entire community here. They don't understand. We don't understand. And we're probably, it's probably designed that we won't understand.

[01:31:54] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Next question is, how do you see the RHC's interaction with the city council?

[01:32:01] Ms. Hansen: I see it as, um, uh, sad right now. Uh, we know of one RHC member who has exposed his bias by sending email to uh, 2 of the council members. Uh, and it has been suspected over the years that he has been completely a rubber stamped vote for certain council members. Uh, and that email kind of really. You know, betrayed his bias. Uh, what I would do, and if I'm appointed, and I think you want to find me, but I'll just make this offer. Uh, I would, um, That that council member routinely votes, uh, with uh, the housing providers, landlords, whatever you want. I would nullify that person's vote by doing the exact opposite. So, I would want to uh, completely, uh, take out both my opinion and his opinion, uh, and leave the the forum, the forum of 3, which is the quorum is required in section 1709, that you can have 3 members, make the all of the decisions. So that would be my offer to correct some of the bias on the council. Uh, that to leave the decisions to the 3 members who were left.

[01:33:36] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: And then there was the 4th question you, uh, uh, I'll read it.

[01:33:40] Ms. Hansen: Yeah, and I won't address that because that is not in my wheelhouse and I don't want to just. You know.

[01:33:47] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Would you like to offer a closing? Oh, well, actually, are there any clarifying questions from council members? Nope. Would you like to, um, offer a closing statement, Ms. Hansen?

[01:34:00] Ms. Hansen: Well, I do have low expectations and I have to say that, uh, I feel that my, my low expectations are amplified by all of the people I see around me and talk to all the time. Uh, that nobody really expects that this problem of mobile home rent stabilization for mobile homes is ever going to get fixed. If it is, we would have a, um, If we, we aren't covered by CSFRA, we could be covered by an ordinance, but only if it was written by, uh, uh, an attorney who understood mobile home law, uh, there is one in San Jose, his name is Bruce Stanton's written ordinances for many, many cities in California. Uh, that is, so if we're not covered by CSFRA, and we're not covered by ordinance, which I kind of don't expect either one to happen. Uh, things are just going to go on as they have been. Sorry.

[01:35:03] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Oh, uh, thank you for your time, and thank you for your time. Um, as you've probably heard we will most likely make a recommendation this evening. That'll go to the council at a council meeting for ratification, so we will let you know our decision shortly. Thank you for listening. And thank you for your time. Stay safe and healthy and take care. Uh, our last applicant, Adriana Rositas. I don't see her in the tendee box. Did he click any notice from her?

[01:35:41] Unknown Speaker: Oh, and we were trying to reach out to her earlier. We have not been successful. So, um, her appointment was at 7. So, um, she has not been on the line yet.

[01:35:54] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay. Um, and I know we had one more applicant who we knew would not be able to make it this evening.

[01:36:00] Unknown Speaker: Correct.

[01:36:01] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Um. This council want to go into deliberation? You want to take a short break?

[01:36:08] Unknown Speaker: Yeah. No, we want, let's go right into deliberation.

[01:36:14] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay. All right. Uh. If anyone would like to start us. And entertain emotion at any time as well. Council member Ramirez.

[01:36:29] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Mayor. Um, So I, uh, I appreciate all of the, the applicants, um, and I think there were, there were quite a number of impressive, uh, applications submitted, um, and, uh, I think the interviews were very helpful in differentiating among the candidates. Um, and I appreciate anyone's interest in serving on one of the more challenging, um, appointed bodies that we have in the city. So thank you all for, uh, for your participation. Um, so I think as if I, as I've expressed in the handful of other appointments that we've done. I do have a general preference for reappointing, uh, incumbents if they've done a good job, um, you know, if there isn't, uh, some compelling reason to, uh, not provide somebody who is currently serving in a given capacity. Um, you know, if there, if there isn't, you know, some challenge associated with their service or, um, you know, perhaps there is, there's a candidate who is so compelling that we could not, um, you know, uh, fail to appoint that one just because it, it's maybe an opportunity, we wouldn't otherwise have it. If those, if we don't have circumstances like that, then I, I have a general preference to, um, maintain, um, you know, the institutional, uh, sort of memory and and, and the, the, cohesiveness of a, of a given, um, body. Um, I thought that Nicole's application was very strong, I thought her interview was good. Um, and uh, I haven't, I must, you know, I'll confess, I don't regularly watch the RHC meetings, but, um, from what I understand, her attendance has been pretty good and she participates. Um, uh, and I think has been, um, uh, an asset to the body. So my, recommendation would be to appoint her, to fill, um, the, the balance of the, of the term, um, that she currently is, is sort of serving in now. Um, so I'll go ahead and make a motion to that effect.

[01:38:46] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great, so there is the mission. Thank you, Council member Ramirez, Vice mayor?

[01:38:52] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you, mayor. Uh, I just wanted to 2nd uh, council member Ramirez's motion, uh, as well as echo his appreciation and gratitude for all our applicants tonight. Those who we got to see virtually or got to hear virtually or those who just applied but couldn't make the interviews. I know were living in really unique times. And so, um, just appreciate that we had so much interest, um, from people who want to serve for this uh, volunteer position. Um, as council member, Ramirez was mentioning, um, Nicole has been serving in this role since the resignation of Miss Honey and, um, has been uh, doing the work of an RHC, um, committee member. And with that, I take comfort in her serving out the remainder of the term. Thank you.

[01:39:45] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: sorry, that was the 2nd nice name. Great. Thank you. Counts number Hicks.

[01:39:51] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Well, I can't 3rd the motion, but um, I basically agree. Um, and I was in, in addition to, I, I do think that experience is very important and particularly because we may see some turnover on the committee, um, within the next year, I would, I, you know, I think with the, the, um, the kind of particularities of what the, the RHC goes through. I would really like to have somebody who's up and running. Um, in addition, I was impressed that uh, Nicole's uh, application was one of the few that went through the differences. She said that the committee would be facing under COVID, and since there's, you know, potentially a lot of housing vulnerability and homelessness, I was, um, happy to see that she was looking at the new phase we might be going through and thinking about it in detail. So, um, and I also agree with what the previous council members have said that, Actually, that I appreciated all the applications, and if I could, I would put everybody on the RHC, I, you know, I wish more people could serve, but I will be supporting my emotion. Thank you.

[01:41:05] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great, thank you. Counselor, man a check.

[01:41:09] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thank you. Um. Well, I'm really glad that we did these interviews. I am, was very impressed with many of the candidates. Um, more so, you know, than I was with necessarily the applications. So I am really pleased. We have such a great pool. Um from which to choose. And, um, I do, however, appreciate that, um, Nicole has been serving, um, as the alternate, but fully participating in the meetings and voting. And I have watched a few of the meetings. And I think she's done a nice job. Um, I don't doubt that others could also do a nice job. And so, um, I I am supportive of having Nicole as the, um, regular member to serve out the term. And, um, I appreciate that so many people applied and we have such great food. Thanks.

[01:42:17] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great, thank you. Any other council members with comments? Yes, council member Clark.

[01:42:22] Councilmember Chris Clark: I was, um, just going to say, I agree as well, um, with West Sunset and all support commotion. Um, just a question for the mayor. Do we, um, do we need to address the, uh, the alternate, um, see that that would, or the, at this point, or is that something we do later?

[01:42:39] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Well, obviously that'll end up being vacant. Um, because my understanding is we can or we do, or can or cannot or do, do not have to appoint this evening. Um, I'd like to go ahead and just take this motion and then if there's interest in another motion that's fine. Um, I was just gonna add, um, But, um, uh, uh, in light of the, the, the length of this, um, appointment. Um, it might be fine just to have a point the, the voting member this evening. Um, but, um, you know, we can discuss that after this vote. And, um, did you have other comments, council number, Clark? Okay, great. Um, I would just add too that I was extremely impressed by the applicants and, um, when the number and then the quality and, um, I hope that, um, whoever, who we, those who don't get selected this evening will, um, continue to stay interested, um, there are many openings that come up along the way. Um, we will be doing some recruiting for some of our other commissions and advisory boards as well. So, um, I hope that every, um, those who came forward this evening will, will, will consider other opportunities, if not this one. So, with that, um, do we need to do a roll call vote or could we just do, since this is a study session, the Sherla hands?

[01:44:12] Unknown Speaker: That that would be fine.

[01:44:13] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great. So the motion is for um, Nicole. Haines live safe. Sorry, if I pronounce that last name wrong, um, to be the voting member, and that was notioned by council member, Mirror, 2nded by the vice mayor. All those in favor if you can raise your hands. That would be great. And I see unanimous. So, uh, that is the motion that, uh, carries, um, any other emotions? Or discussion?

[01:44:44] Unknown Speaker: No.

[01:44:45] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay, great. Well, that concludes our interviews in our study session. Um, will this be, see, quick, do you have a sense of when this will be brought to the full council? Will it be for Tuesday?

[01:44:58] City Clerk: It will be for Tuesday, so very shortly, that agenda will be posted and that will be included.

[01:45:04] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: And then, um, the, um, well, um, is, let's say, if she's approved, start immediately.

[01:45:12] City Clerk: Yes. The password. Okay. And then we'll reach out to the other applicants as well. Some of them are still on the line, but we'll reach out with them that information as well.

[01:45:24] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great. All righty. Okay, um, any other, let's get my agenda that we have, anything else to do this evening? I don't think so. So with that, we stand adjourned at 714. Please have a great long Labor Day weekend. And we'll see you on Tuesday evening for our regular council meeting. Thank you everyone. Stay safe. And healthy, please take care. Good night.

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