The Fair Rent Commission held its regular meeting on Wednesday, April 22, 2026, beginning at approximately 7:00 PM and adjourning at 10:00 PM. The agenda included jurisdictional review of four new complaints, approval of bylaws amendments, a discussion on changing the appeal time period, and hearings on three pending matters: a compliance hearing for Rivera, a compliance hearing and motion for reconsideration for Barnaby, and new complaints from De Leon and Lynch. The commission voted on multiple motions and ordered further settlement discussions in one case.
Four complaints were reviewed for jurisdictional acceptance:
I didn't start the recording, but it's recorded now. Could you just call the order? Yeah. On the meetings that we're going to send out three. We have on the agenda is public comment. Anybody from the public would like to speak. I'm seeing none, so I'll vote public comment. Next, we have the approval of minutes from our February 11th, 2026 regular meeting. We have a motion to approve those minutes. Second. Any discussion in favor? Any stain? The motion passes. Next, do we have any correspondence? No, no correspondence outside of uh the matters that are to be covered. So the report on new complaints and jurisdictional review. Correct. I'll turn to that briefly. So we're in a new matter. Um Humphrey, uh, which is related. This is uh Madison Humphrey, which is related to uh to caravetta property on that particular matter. Um their allegations are related to an excessive rent complaint um going from one 460 dollars a month to 1635 dollars a month, um and indicating that there was um a notice you know in January of a hundred and forty-five dollar increase effective in 10 days, and and in essence they're they're just indicating they feel that those that the rent increase is excessive, and I think they're also claiming that they did not get appropriate notice of the of the rent food. That's one matter. Um do you want to do these individuals? I think um I think we could do it once again, or okay. Well, except for except possibly for the last, I think maybe we should go individually. We could do a beneficiary. So do we have a motion to hear the on free matter? Or accept jurisdiction, it's an accept jurisdiction on the complaint. Second any discussion in favor, uh the opposer abstain will accept jurisdiction on that complaint. Uh we have a matter called Bruntley and Mally uh versus center realty. Uh that is a uh also I believe a that is uh that is center realty and up realty, I think is the is the uh this is 309 South Main Street. So I think that is that one of your clients, Mr. Gottley. It is um in any event, uh the allegations check off excessive rent issues, repair issues, and health code and safety violations. Um they talk about uh uh they talk about how they want to that the landlord wants to increase to a rental charge of 1850 dollars, or I'm sorry, they say there's no increase now, but that they believe the rental charge of 1850 per month is excessive. Uh they talk about excessive noise from surrounding apartments. Um they talk about jumping through a group uh in terms of uh some kind of electricity or metering issue, um talk about ceilings to be cleaned and repaired, um uh having a wrong breaker and some repair issues with respect to that. Um moisture in terms of multiple leaks in some rooms, a sag and ceiling, and what the what is alleged to be mold uh so that and that is ultimately was not originally signed by both tenants, but it is now signed by both tenants. So we have a motion to accept jurisdiction on that one. Second, any discussion? All in favor, um we accept jurisdiction on that complaint. So the quick question. So the commission's already set an answer date on that one. How could it set an answer date if it hasn't been accepted by the commission yet? We send out a notice if it were to be dismissed, and so would be uh set up. So what because you know the the ordinance uh requires that once a complaint is received and a notice be issued. So that doesn't mean that it's necessarily been uh accepted for jurisdiction, but this is our first opportunity to do jurisdictional review, so that's what we could. But again, if it were to be dismissed, it would have you know we would have heard here that they weren't gonna take it. So before jurisdiction, so before jurisdiction is found by the commission through a vote, there's an arbitrary answer date set without there being any jurisdiction.