Good evening. Today is Tuesday, October 28, 2025, and this is a meeting of the San Leandro Rent Review Board. Will the clerk call to order? First we have the Pledge of Allegiance.

Okay, we have...

So, lights over here.

Please stand.

Repeat after me.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America

and to the republic for which it stands,

one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Please call the roll.

Board Member Canale.

Here.

Board Member Spreer?

Here.

Board Member Silva?

Here.

Board Member Oliveira?

Here.

Board Member Usley?

Here.

All right.

We're all here.

Announcements.

Staff?

If someone wishes to make a public comment this evening, please submit a speaker card

to the city staff before the item is presented.

During the designated public comment period, speakers will be invited to speak and will

have a set time to share their comments.

up to three minutes. Speakers can come up to the table here where there's the chair

and staff will maintain the time by setting a timer and will notify the speakers when their

time has ended. Thank you. All right next item on the agenda is the minutes. We have the minutes

of our meeting of October 22nd, 2024. We received the minutes in the board packet. Chair Silva? Yes.

I have a question. I believe that we met after that date because I was at that

meeting of 1024 and I missed the next meeting because I broke my ankle. It was

a meeting I think when we had elections for you know appointed a new chair and

vice chair or whatever over again.

Steph? We can confirm that the last meeting of the

review board was October 22nd 2024 I believe the last elections of the chair

and vice chair was the prior meeting which would have been in October 2023 so

I wonder if that is the meeting you're thinking of yeah no I specifically

remember missing a meeting hearing about it like why wasn't I there when I was

expected and it's like I had broken my leg that day or the right around that

time and it was not quite mobile you're saying you agree there Ginny oh so I'm

so nobody else recalls a meeting after that no

okay all right so I think the process would be if there aren't any questions

it's about the minutes then we would then do public comment well first don't

we have to vote to approve the minutes I believe there needs to be public comment

before there is an action okay is there anybody that like to make comment on the

minutes as presented on the minutes you know we're going to have multiple public

the comment times. Okay. Pretty much on every item. So yes, Virginia. I think they can pick you up from here. Yeah, I'm coming. Okay. So unfortunately, I didn't read the minutes, but I want to corroborate what was remembered here. There were two meetings. One was to try to resolve all of the discrepancy

or the discussion about what kind of election was going to be accepted.

There were two meetings that year.

Now, I don't have my calendar from back then to know exactly what date it was,

but that's all I want to say is there was an extension of one of the last meetings.

Are there any other comments on the minutes?

There are no other public comments.

Okay, seeing no other public comments on the minutes, I'll close that discussion and open it up for board discussion.

Is there any discussion or questions of staff?

I think we need to get a first and a second on approving them before we have a discussion.

Okay, thank you.

Is there a motion to approve the minutes?

I move we approve the minutes.

Okay, is there a second?

I'll second.

Okay, seeing the motion a second, is there any discussion?

I'll call for the question. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Item passes 5-0.

Okay. Moving on to public comments. This is for public comments for items not on the agenda.

And we have items 5A and 5B as action items on the agenda. So if you would like to make a comment

on items other than 5A or 5B, now is the time.

Was there anybody in the audience who would like to make a comment on these items?

Our first public speaker is Douglas Spalding.

Am I supposed to speak into something here?

No, he'll pick you up right here.

Okay.

Well, you know, I haven't been to the Rent Review Board before.

I guess maybe I should be thankful since I'm a housing provider.

But it seems to me if your last meeting was more than a year ago and the meeting before that was the year previous, what the hell is the function of the Rent Review Board?

I do know because I go knock on doors that there is a general fear among tenants about raising complaints, trying to get resolution to issues.

because landlords like me, we have a lot of power,

and it's not that hard to make it difficult for somebody to live in my space

and make a move out, and nobody wants to have to go through that.

So if it were me, I'd like to say this is my first and my last meeting

of the Rent Review Board because my hope is that under the housing ordinance,

and I think that's probably coming up on 5A and 5B,

I would hope that the Rent Review Board is dissolved.

I know there was a so this is about the role of the rent review board and there

was a proposal from the mayor that the rent review board just become the the

the adjudicator the housing officer and no no no no no no we need a professional

to do that job to handle rent disputes and pass-throughs and every other kind

of dispute there is frankly if this were the Hint House you would be the wolf

or and there's you know a reason why people don't bring their cases here they

don't feel like they're gonna get a fair shake thank you thank you next speaker

the next speaker is Ginny Madison

so you all know I'm here because I haven't missed one of these since they

well since 2015 maybe 2014 I've been fighting for 10 years for the rent

review board to have teeth for the tenants to basically get some some help

because in every one of the hearings I've ever heard and they've all been run

very competently by Mr. Silva.

I suspect that he does a lot behind the scenes,

but we need to do it in front

because the tenants don't believe it.

They don't believe that they're supported

by this body or the city.

And they're half the population.

So that's why I'm here,

because I still haven't given up hope

that will fix this.

And I, too, have been working on the,

what are they calling it now,

the Rent Stabilization Ordinance, an RSO.

And I know why you don't want it.

You've explained many, many times.

But you can't do it all, Tom.

And that's the problem.

It needs some teeth besides yours.

It needs law.

behind it. It needs a stronger ordinance. So that's all I'm going to say. Thank you.

I would like to...

I think we have a few more public comments.

Related to this comment?

I believe the process would be we do the public comments and then there'll be a board discussion and statements at that point.

On item 7.

On item 7. We'll save it for item 7.

Okay, because I think we're all going to want to make statements on item 7.

That would be the place.

Yeah, we have a little bit different agenda than what we had before.

New city clerk, new agenda.

So anyway, next speaker please.

The next speaker is Mark Yanowitz.

Hi, good evening board.

Thank you for the opportunity of addressing you.

Obviously, you don't meet that often.

that often you don't have a lot of cases filed and it's been referred to as to

possibly why tenants don't feel safe, secure, competent, that there will be

competent and fair hearing without retaliation. We know that retaliation is

a fact and that may be one of the reasons and I hear that I'm a tenant

advocate as you know I'm also a housing provider I'm a landlord I'm one of the

small landlord mom and pop and I know tenants do feel a little bit insecure

about coming to speak out to confront to bring complaints against landlords but

but there's another there's another thing that you might look at if this

board is going to continue and if you're going to be effective there is the 7%

rent increase threshold that that is in the ordinance that trigger the ability

to file a complaint. Maybe if you lowered that, maybe we came to council, obviously

it'd have to be done to council. If the ordinance is going to stay in place, maybe it'll be

repealed in the greater scheme of the rent stabilization ordinance,

which does have a petition process. But maybe

if we're going to, we need to look at what can we do to make

this a more effective, efficient, and widespread

body. Maybe if we lowered the rent increase threshold

I don't know, zero, 1%, anything, that that would bring more people here.

I'm not sure, but I'm just looking at ways to tinker with this ordinance

to maybe make it more useful, because I think the facts speak for themselves.

You're only meeting once a year.

There's not a lot of business generated here, and maybe the city doesn't need this.

Maybe it's expense, obviously, paying our underpaid staff to be here.

But anyway, I'm just looking for ideas as to how this can be more effective.

Maybe it'll be subsumed in the rent stabilization ordinance.

Maybe it'll be repealed.

But if it's going to exist, maybe we need to look at ways to make it more attractive and appealing to participants to come here.

And maybe that rent increase threshold is one of the ways.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Maria Cimeno.

Is there translation?

There is not translation.

Oh.

Can I translate?

Yeah.

Sure.

We'll double the time.

Yeah.

We'll double.

Come on up, please.

So that way you're closer to the mic.

And so for translations, come on up.

And then we have a couple of lessons we've learned from translating.

And so what we have to do is this.

Speak only in about 20 or 25 word groups.

Because if you start going longer than a sentence or two,

then it gets lost in the translation.

Dice que cuando estás hablando que como unas 20 palabras o menos,

porque si estás hablando y hablando y hablando,

se pierde todo en ellos entendiéndonos de poquito a poquito.

Okay, how do you want to start?

My name is Maria Cerveño.

So her name is Maria Cerveño.

I live in the city of San Leandro.

She lives in the city of San Leandro.

She stayed at the same moment's garden apartments.

In the apartments I live in San Leandro.

So she's kind of nervous because this is her first time here, so she's not exactly sure what exactly to say.

She has four kids.

She says that this has been a really nice place of where she's been living at.

She feels safe and comfortable there.

She said they just get nervous.

What do you want to say about the property, the city, San Leandro?

She likes the city of San Leandro.

So she lived here in San Leandro and she moved away for about eight months.

So she kind of moved around Fremont and San Francisco, but she ended up coming back to

the city of San Leandro because she likes it here and she wants to continue to live here.

today

I live with my four children and we pay the rent and we live with them.

She says since she's been back she's like she said she was with her four kids two are adults so they've been helping her with the rent because again like she said she just likes the city of San León, Germany.

she likes the property where she lives at and she doesn't want to have to go and look

anywhere else and

and then for the rent portion of it she's comfortable right now with what

she's paying her monthly because she gets the community and her kids are

there with her.

Thank you.

All right.

That's what she wanted to say.

Muchas gracias.

Thank you.

The next commenter is Ana Maria Diaz.

Oh, that's me.

So this is my first time here, so I'm not exactly sure.

Other than I've been at my community, I'm managing here in San Leandro.

I do hear some of my residents sometimes frustrated and stuff.

But then the overall of it, I do hear them being comfortable where they're at

because they say that it's a community where they're seeing a lot of advantage.

They're seeing a lot of changes.

Of course, they would love to have their rent lowered,

but they do feel that what they're paying,

and this is what I've heard from my community.

I asked a few of them if they would come to speak on behalf of that some of them

were not able to just for situations but like I said in the you know I've been

here in San Leandro as a property manager for the community that I'm at

and I feel that my residents there are comfortable but you know they like it

there you know and I just hope that you know the city of San Leandro will

continue to be the best city that they can and how about the residents as well

as landlords to continue to do our jobs as well as we can.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Roberta McClish.

Hello everyone. My name is Roberta McClish. I am a resident at St. Maurice Gardens and

that is my landlord that just spoke, Anna Marie. I'm very comfortable with being at

the property is gated and I feel safe. I'm a disabled female and I live with my son,

my adult son. He takes care of me. I've been living in San Leandro for the last past three

years. Very, very safe community. I lived in Oakland all my life, so I just wanted to

step down and come this way a little bit out so that I could feel a little more safer.

and since I've been in San Leandro, San Leandro has been the place.

I can ride my chair all over the place and I don't have to dodge bullets.

So I feel really, really safe in that community.

I am managing rent-wise because I'm on a special program.

Other than that, if I wasn't, I wouldn't be able to afford the rent.

It's just too unaffordable if I didn't have Section 8.

I'm grateful to have it.

And I know a lot of other people would love to have it and be on the program because it does help out a great deal.

But without it, I wouldn't be able to, I probably would end up homeless, to be honest with you.

I'm grateful to St. Maurice Gardens for allowing me to be there.

and you know my landlord is very pleasant and they have made a lot of

changes to the community which is making it more pleasant to be there I love it

because a lot of things that were not getting done and I've been there through

six managements and then Anna Marina came and since they've been there it's

been they have been making the community livable and comfortable so I just wanted

say that I'm grateful to be in San Leandro. Grateful. Thank you. Thank you.

There are no more speakers. Is there anybody else in the audience that would

like to speak under public comments? What does that mean? Items anything other than

than 5A or 5B.

No, mine was in addition to those items.

So there are no more general public comments.

Okay.

Oh, and so we'll do public comment when we get to that item,

and I'm just going to hold on to that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure.

I just wanted to piggyback.

Oh, sorry, no, no.

We'll actually have public comment for those items later in the meeting.

Oh, so we'll wait till after.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's so confusing.

I know.

We've got plenty of opportunity.

Okay.

The card just helps me keep track of that.

They're planning the opportunity.

And then we'll know to call you when it's time.

Thank you.

Okay.

So I'll go ahead and close public comments.

Item 5 on the agenda is action items.

5A is the election of the chair and the vice chair.

And staff, please.

Thank you, Chair Silva.

The Rent Review Board's rules of procedure,

which are outlined in the Administrative Code,

require annual elections of the chair and the vice chair.

The chair is the presiding officer of the rent review board,

and meeting responsibilities include preserving decorum and order,

announcing decisions, deciding all questions of order,

and appointing all committees.

The vice chair's responsibility is presiding over a rent review board meeting

in the absence of the chair.

And that concludes my presentation.

All right.

Do we have anybody that would like to nominate themselves as chair?

I would like to nominate Tom Silva to continue as chair,

because I do think he has done a good job of running the meetings.

Is there a second?

Second.

Okay.

Is there any discussion on the question?

Seeing none, I'll call for the question.

all those in favor say aye aye any opposed item passes 5-0 item 5b oh I'm

sorry I mean there's also the advice chair oh I'm sorry pardon me pardon me

there was 5a1 and now 5a2 thank you vice chair would you continue as vice

chair I would like to continue as vice chair and I will second that motion

Okay. Any discussion on chair, vice chair? Seeing none, I'll call for the question. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Item passes 5-0. Thank you.

Thank you.

Item 5B, fiscal year 24-25 annual review of the rent review ordinance and tenant relocation assistance ordinance programs. And we have our staff report.

Thank you Chair Silva. Good evening members of the Rent Review Board. Staff have prepared the fiscal year 2024-2025 annual review of the Rent Review Ordinance and Tenant Relocation Assistant Ordinance for your consideration tonight.

San Leandro's Rent Review Program provides a public forum for both housing providers and tenants to mutually resolve proposed rent increases that are either greater than 7% or in situations where two or more rent increases within a 12 month period.

The City works with community organization ECHO Housing to implement the rent review program

and respond to resident questions about the Rent Review Board ordinance.

The Rent Review Ordinance requires that the Rent Review Board annually prepare a report

to Council assessing the effectiveness of the Rent Review Program.

The report in your packets tonight covers the period of July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025.

During that time, ECHO Housing received 28 inquiries related to the rent review ordinance.

Twenty of those were from tenants and eight were from landlords.

Many of these inquiries were general questions about the rent review ordinance, such as whether

the property is subject to the rent review ordinance or if the amount of a rent increase

is eligible for a rent review board hearing.

In terms of outcome, 11 of those inquiries were ineligible for a rent review board hearing.

Eligible cases were resolved through mutual agreement between the landlord and tenant.

In three cases, the rent increase notices were revised to comply with rent review ordinance

requirements.

Subsequently, there were no rent review board hearings during the report period.

The report also includes data on the tenant relocation assistance program as well as the

local rental market.

During the report period, ECHO Housing received 19 inquiries related to tenant relocation assistance.

12 of those inquiries were from tenants and 7 were from housing providers and property owners.

Two households reported receiving tenant relocation assistance.

Three were referred to legal services.

And 11 of the inquiries were not eligible for tenant relocation assistance under the tenant relocation ordinance.

In terms of rent data, we're seeing that average rents in the area continue to grow

and that San Leandro's rents are still slightly less on average

compared to Alameda County as a whole.

Staff recommend that the Rent Review Board recommend

that City Council accept the fiscal year 2024-2025 annual review.

Upon the Rent Review Board's approval of this item,

the review will then be presented to City Council

at a future regular City Council meeting.

That concludes staff's presentation,

and we're now available for any board questions.

As a reminder, we're going to do the staff report, board member questions on the staff report.

Then I'm going to open the item up to public comment, and then we're going to have board discussion after the public comment.

So for this particular part, this would be questions of the staff of their report.

Mia?

A couple of questions.

one this report that you just read which we received in writing is this what we'll

be voting on to just have it submitted to City Council and say that we agree

with this and support this that's correct that's the recommended action

for that item second question when you talk about the items that came to through

echo housing for the tenant relocation assistance ordinance the number of cake

heard 19 inquiries 12 from tenants 7 from landlords is that a part of the

inquiries that came to echo housing above in the RRO where you say there were 20

from tenants and 8 from landlords is this just a subsection of that or these

in addition to so yeah if I'm understanding the question correctly of

Of the 28 inquiries that ECHO Housing received related to the rent review ordinance, 20 of

those were from tenants and eight were from landlords.

So of the 28 inquiries that ECHO received related to the rent review ordinance, were

19 of those related to the tenant relocation assistance?

Yeah.

was this a separate I understand yeah so we reported them as two separate items

28 inquiries related to rent review ordinance 19 inquiries related to tenant

relocation ordinance so well total yes probably we did not do an analysis that

looked at if there were any overlap so there could be there is a possibility

that one or two of them someone could have asked about both but we could look

into that for the future but yeah they received up to 47 inquiries but there

could be some situations where someone maybe had an inquiry both about the rent

review board and about the tenant relocation ordinance. Okay I feel like

that's kind of a major oversight to not know. Yeah we can do that analysis next

time we can report how many inquiries were for both and how many unique

inquiries were received for tenant relocation and rent roading board.

Any other questions?

I'm not sure I can think of a comment.

Oh, I turned my timer off.

No, I had the timer on.

Is it hard for discussions done already?

No, I had it for the public comment.

It just ran on.

Any other board members have questions?

I just have a comment.

Please.

I'm glad to see this this time I think I asked about it during the last meeting

was to have some outcomes especially because they're receiving a grant and

usually connected with grants outcomes and then the prior page that you didn't

read I just wanted to note that there was a typo because it says AB 1482 was in

2029 but that was in 2019. Thank you. You can correct that for this.

I have a question.

Pardon me.

Any other board member questions?

I have another one now.

Please.

Do we have a comparison as to, in terms of the inquiries received,

how this compares to previous years, especially pre-COVID years?

Because I do know the statistics are going to be way skewed since then.

Yeah, we definitely have seen a decrease.

in the number of inquiries since 2019

and the adoption of Assembly Bill 1482.

This review does not include a historic analysis,

but that's definitely something that we could explore

adding to future reviews.

Can we explore adding it to this review?

Can that be looked into and added?

If the board wanted to direct us to add that

to the future review that we present to council, we could.

I think last year the process we used, that was used was

board members discussed and decided on particular comments

that were added to the review and that's what was submitted to council.

Are there any other questions?

I have one.

I want to talk about the rental data for a moment.

And can you explain how you came up with the numbers from Yardi Matrix and Rent Cafe?

Yeah, we took the board feedback to use commercially available rental data for this year's annual view when talking about average rents and rental trends.

At the time, the city had a Yardi Matrix subscription, and so we used that for the source.

In terms of details, I'd like to introduce our housing specialist, Robert Fain, who pulled that data.

Yeah, and I could say, I mean, the subset of the rainfall data that we, like Grace mentioned,

that was the data that the city had a subscription to,

and that subset of the data represents approximately 2,919 units in San Leandro.

and that looked at the data at the end of the fiscal year.

So from available on Yardi data, which was June of 2025.

Thank you.

Are there any other board member questions at this time?

Yes.

Yes, Mia.

Related to this question about the info

from Yardi Matrix and Red Cafe.

So is this data only covered property that's in rent from information from Yardi

Matrix and Rent Cafe or does it cover data from other smaller private landlords who

might not be using those systems?

My understanding is that it's a combination of Yardi's proprietary data and other indices and other, I think they use CoStar and some of these larger real estate databases also feed into Yardi Matrix is my understanding, but I'll defer.

nothing to add and it does represent it's the publicly available data it does

represent a subsection of the rental market is what we have heard that is

typically the more the larger commercial larger residential development

do we know how that compares to in terms of the smaller developments or what

percentage of our rental housing here in San Leandro is under this larger you

know system under these larger landlord run systems I think that would be a

little bit harder to know because I think the smaller properties might not

be reporting into like a larger system that we could easily pull from I think

we found historically that even census data is great but can also be limited I

I think a lot of times census data will maybe capture some of the smaller properties, but because it's in a look-back period, it might not be the most accurate.

So I would say that probably every data set we have has limitations in terms of like there's going to – it's not going to be an absolutely 100% picture.

And I would say that typically when you want to look at smaller properties, census data can be a really helpful data source there.

so do we know do we know what we don't know do we know how much data how many

smaller landlords are out there not reporting is that 70% of our rental

market or is it 20% of our rental market or do we know I don't know off the top

of my head I think like the property like the proportion of like the larger

properties versus the smaller ones but that's definitely part of the analysis

that we could include in future years we could talk a little bit about you know

the housing stock and how much of it is larger versus smaller that's something

that the rent review board would like to see in future reviews are there any

Any other questions?

Seeing none, I'm going to open it up for public comment on item 5B and we have some speaker

cards?

We do.

The first speaker is Sierra Diaz.

Just to give you a little background for how the Yardi reports typically work, is they

take A, B, and C properties.

And C properties are typically the smaller buildings, just because four units, eight

units, things of that nature will fall into the C category because they're usually older

and smaller.

So that's how Yardi usually does their reports.

I'm not sure that's how they pulled them, but that's typically how it works just to give you some insight.

I just wanted to piggyback on some of the things that they were mentioning earlier, some of the feedback that the others gave.

And I know there's been rumblings of, you know, reviewing the rent increase and backing it down.

And it's really heartwarming to hear that people are feeling safe in their homes.

I am a landlord and I just came from I have a portfolio in Concord and just

went through I don't know if you're familiar but they just changed their

system and then went back and went ahead and upped it but in a very short period

when it first went into effect it was almost an immediate hit on certain

neighborhoods where landlords just stopped improving their properties and

you could just drive through and if you were familiar you could see how it

really impacted the neighborhood and it terrifies me to see that happen out here

you know even just driving through here tonight it's so beautiful and there's so

many really well maintained properties but I know that as a landlord in this

area as well that with our costs and expenses these days they're outrageous

I know that many of you have you know probably a renters insurance or homeowners

insurance all those things and the cost just keep going up and I hear from you

know a couple of these residents where they feel safe that security cost on

average building it's close to $8,000 a month and then with trash going up our

trash bills are anywhere from ten to twelve thousand dollars a month and I

don't know if you're familiar with this but the trash company now has cameras so

if a resident puts a black plastic bag in the recycling portion that gets flagged

by the cameras and then the landlord has to pay a fee and it's like $87 per

item. So I mean our bills are just crazy and so I'm just really concerned that if

that rent increase gets back down that a lot of those good services and these

well-maintained buildings that they'll have no choice but to change and they

won't be the same and it just again it really is terrifying because it's such a

beautiful and it is so nice to hear people say they feel safe and

comfortable and I would hope to be able to continue that so just to kind of keep

thought in the back of your mind. Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker is Mark Janowitz.

Thank you. My understanding is that the ordinance that established the Rent Review Board

also requires this annual report and as the city representative said that she was presenting

an annual report on the assessing the effectiveness of the program. Now I didn't hear anything

in your report with all due respect assessing the effectiveness of the program. You've heard

some public comments that the program is not very effective, but I would like to hear that.

That's I believe that's in your enabling statute that you're supposed to have a report on the

effectiveness of the program. The stuff that you've heard that the that ECHO Housing has

responded to. That doesn't really have to do with you, that can, that's an

independent contract and it doesn't relate to quote-unquote the effectiveness

of the program. So I'm only saying that because there's been comments about that.

Now with respect to to the data that you have, I think there's some question as

to the accuracy of it and the good news is that the city has enacted a

a rent registry and that will be hopefully to answer a lot of these questions about the accuracy of the of the data that you're collecting. It is for the purpose of collecting data that goes to a lot of the questions that you've had that are presented here. Rents, rent increases, reasons for vacancies, reasons for units on the market, reason for units off the property, off the market.

With respect to maintaining property, there was just a comment about how the speaker would hate to see properties going downhill.

Well, that's where the city has a role.

The city attorney can well inform you about how the city's building inspectors come in and should have a vigorous program of building code and enforcement.

and if the landlord has to make expenses, pay money to maintain the property, which of course is what rent goes to,

and if those rents under a proposed rent stabilization ordinance, for example,

are not enough to maintain a landlord's fair and constitutional rate of return,

well, the proposed ordinances that are before the city allow the landlord to petition to maintain,

to make sure that landlords do have a fair return.

So that, coupled with a vigorous enforcement program by the city through the City Building

Inspection Department, will make sure the properties are maintained and that the quality

of the housing in San Leandro and the community and the safety and the security of all of

us is maintained.

So that's insured by law, by the independent program of the City Building Inspector, and

by the constitutional requirements of the proposed rent stabilization.

So all of that is well taken care of.

And so those are all accommodated for and accounted for.

And that's why it's sound public policy to have like a rent stabilization order

because it brings all these factors into play.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Jenny Madsen.

so

I know my timer's running

I get phone calls

all the time from people

because they see on the

website

the city's website this is what you're supposed to do

if you have a problem they call Echo

Housing and then they call me

or somebody tells them to call me

I've been doing this for so long

I got just last Thursday I got a call from somebody who at

Gateway whose rent has been raised 20 percent

she says what can I do can I go to the rent review board

I'm the one that's answering these questions people this is not right

and because Echo Housing doesn't when I have talked to them

they say and I want to know what their grid looks like because they have busy

phones these guys are answering the phones they're taking different calls

for different cities because they do it for a lot of different jurisdictions and

they're trying to put this on you know is this rent review board or is this the

rent tenant relocation I mean they're marking things down I want to know what

those grids look like I want to know what they're recording because it's

pressured but I can tell you from personal experience my landlord there's

one bit one apartment it's just like mine I've been renting there for 20

years they keep trying to make that one to more than $2,000 $2,199 is what it was

nobody wants to rent it at that it was been empty for three months they're

They're finally lowering it to 1895, and somebody's moving in.

But I am also the one, the tenant that goes out and pulls the black plastic bags out of the recycling bin.

No landlord entity does that.

I'm a tenant, and I do it, and I'm the oldest one there, but I care.

and that's what San Leandro has always survived on is people who care and step

up I had a lot of anecdotal information like that about the phone call from

Gateway I want to know how many people called to go to the rent review board or

called echo housing were told oh no we don't do mobile homes because I'm

betting it was a big percentage we need to know what they're saying and why they

say they're calling. I'm also looking in the assessor's database. I'm trying to

map all. I can't wait for the rent registry. I'm mapping all the rental

properties now. The only problem that I'm having is finding out what the rent's

being charged. That's what the rent registry is going to do. But all I know

from people that I talked to who live downtown, when their rent gets raised,

three people just moved out of a downtown they liked their apartment fine

they moved out to the Central Valley because that's where the cheaper rent is

that is all the speaker cards we have on this item is there anybody else in the

audience that would like to speak on item 5b seeing none I'm going to close

the public comment on item 5b and we go on to board discussion who would like to

go first

I mean I frankly I'm not sure what there is to discuss about this it doesn't

we're I mean we're not saying much you don't get a lot of detail from echo

housing I mean we do hear every year when we do these people's complaints

about information we don't have you know last year when we discussed this I think

I I remember asking us to request request information be put in a year ago

though and I don't remember what actually I've requested even though the

board disagreed with it but you know I'm just kind of wondering what the purpose

of this will be maybe you can you know maybe you have something Tom that'll

make it seem useful to us

you know this better than I do and you might you might make it make some sense

to me I understand everything it says that's not what I mean by making sense

I just I'm trying to understand its value its purpose and what we're saying

by voting to approve giving this information to the council or not city

attorney rich so I just have to point back up account that the the

ordinance or dash thirty two that's five hundred is that the porch land with

annually prepare report to the council assessing the effectiveness of the rent

review program and you may recommend changes as may be appropriate so if the

board has a majority body wants to recommend changes to the repeat the

review or to the effectiveness of the rent review program they can do that

okay I get that perhaps I agree with mr. Jones that I mean this doesn't really

as this isn't assessing our board at all this is telling us what are the rents

and we don't know what percentage of rents this even covers because we don't

know what percentage of landlords the information from the already and rent

cafe cover we heard that so many people you know a certain number of people

contacted echo housing and you know none of them ended none of those they either

resolved it in one way or another which we don't know how and the resolution I

think is important to know if you know what was done but the only thing we know

that none of them came to our board so how does this report assess the

effectiveness of the board our board here if that's what we're supposed to

that's what you're supposed to be doing I think it's the effectiveness of the

rent review program not the board so the program itself certainly there are

arguments that we made tonight, and I would defer to staff, that the interplay of AB 1482

with the percentage that's set by the ordinance doesn't necessarily equate to cases having

to come because landlords are complying with AB 1482, and the threshold dollars, threshold

change is 5% plus CPI.

So it stays below the 7%.

So if we're assessing the effectiveness of a program,

we've seen here, I guess, what the program has done.

It received so many inquiries.

Half weren't eligible for us, or nearly half.

Other things were resolved.

Do we consider, I mean,

do we consider that effective? I don't know, us as a board, do we consider that the program

is effective? I can't tell. I don't know if we have, did we have goals for what we expected

with the outcomes to assess if we achieve those outcomes?

Yes.

So, yeah, I'm sorry, was that a question for staff?

Yes, yeah.

No, the board did not establish any sort of goals for the number of inquiries.

Our contract with Echo Housing is related to tenant landlord counseling overall.

The goals relate to how many people are served, but not necessarily the kind of inquiries.

And I'll just, you know, as a reminder, the work that Echo Housing does around tenant

landlord counseling, tenant landlord mediation, generally it includes rent

review ordinance and tenant relocation but it also includes California law,

habitability, fair housing, a whole host of other tenant landlord issues. A lot of

times what we're finding from ECHO with what they're reporting to us is that by

educating the landlord and the tenant about the requirements oftentimes it's

because you know property owners don't understand they don't know about the

rent review warrants they don't know about the noticing requirements maybe

they don't know they weren't aware of the particular particular year the 1482

cap requirements and so once they learn those things oftentimes they will adjust

their notice accordingly so when we look at here many of these inquiries involved

didn't require follow-up 11 weren't eligible for our be hearing cases that

qualify for a hearing which I'm guessing would be 28 minus 11 so 17 or resolved

through mutual agreement between the landlord and tenant correct because

sometimes when we talk about we report the number of inquiries that isn't

necessarily someone who wants a rent review board hearing it could just be

that someone wants to get general information about the rent review

ordinance sometimes a landlord wants to know what the cap is because they're

making a decision about you know how much they're going to increase the rent

and then oftentimes there is I mean because that is something that we

contract with that go to do around mediation oftentimes they're able to do

education and mediation and so the last few years in all the situations none of

the tenants have decided to come forward with a record review board hearing we

talked about there's been a decrease in cases since the adoption of AB 1482 and

was in 2019 I don't recall what part of the year it occurred but I'm January 1

2020 so January 1 of 2020 then is what it went into effect yes yes so we really

have no way of knowing if it was because of AB 1482 or if it was because of

COVID and we put restrictions in place that said nobody's raising rents or evicting anybody

while we're you know locked at home and

would that be true so we can't really yeah I think it's a complicated thing and I think you know staff

review we really stick to the facts and there are a lot of different forces right that come into play

with that there was COVID the pandemic the softening of the rental market and 1482 what

What we have heard from ECHO is I think sometimes because of the 1482 rent caps,

that will impact a landlord's decision about how much they're going to do the rent review case,

especially once they hear that a 7% increase would require a hearing.

I think for a lot of landlords it's just not worth the hassle.

And then because of 1482, there haven't been very many years where that's been an allowable rent cap.

Please.

And then I have a question.

I'm sorry.

Mia, you'll come back if you want.

Yeah.

You'll yield for now?

Yes.

Okay, thank you.

Okay.

I just had a question.

I understand a lot of things have been delegated to ECHO through their grant.

They're basically funneling people out.

So if they need education about what the laws are or they need to see if they're eligible,

maybe they're in a type of housing that isn't eligible for the program.

But when it comes to the role of mediation, is that something that we can re-delegate back to ourselves

to say if this is something that should be mediated it's our job to bring them

forth to mediate and not delegate it to ECHO to try mediation before coming to

us. Yeah I would say that there's a reason that the city does contracts with

ECHO to do landlord mediation, tenant landowners because they are the experts

they're the experts in housing law they've been doing it for many many years

they do it for a lot of number of jurisdiction I think they have a skill

set and a knowledge base that makes them a lot more effective at that.

Yeah, and I think there would probably be some scope questions too around, because I

will say the service around tenant order mediation, it includes rent review ordinance and tenant

relocation, but it really is around housing issues overall.

There is quite a lot of issues that they do mediation related to.

So I'm sorry, any other questions, follow up?

Yeah, just trying to figure out, like, is that something that we would have the power of saying that that part of, like, if it falls within our program, it would just come to us, that they wouldn't.

Because it would, I think there was like three that could have hypothetically came to us if they hadn't resolved them.

There are three cases that might have been eligible, but I think it's also a question of whether the tenant wants to, chooses to bring a hearing.

and you know unfortunately we don't have the scope to really do a lot of

exhaustive follow-up and interviews with people to find out the reasons why

they're not deciding to bring a hearing so it yeah yeah I think it is in the

purview of the rent review board you know around or to provide feedback around

the program and you know if they wanted to make a comment that you thought that

the board would be a better body for mediating things.

You could certainly make that comment,

but ultimately, yes, the tenant has to decide

to go through the process of doing the hearing.

I just think when I hear a lot of the chatter

from the feedback from the public of like,

they feel like we're not doing enough

or they don't feel that we have a lot of teeth,

but being able to say that if those parts

that are ready for mediation and they're right for mediation

where if it came before us and then other tenants

could then hear minutes and see that other people are coming for mediation.

They at least knew that we existed and that we were there as a listening ear for them.

We could definitely ask ECHO to just provide a little more proactive.

I mean, they definitely make people aware of their rights

under the rent and review ordinance and the hearing,

but we could certainly have some extra talking points and things for them

and ask them to let tenants know when they provide counseling.

thank you

yeah

so maybe

related to that

I mean we talk about

the city's contracted with ECHO

because they're experts on the law

they have a skill set and a knowledge base that make it really helpful

you know then I think

what is our purpose

if they're the ones that have a skill set and a knowledge base,

what would make some items not or be worthy of coming to us

if ECHO's skills and knowledge couldn't mediate and resolve the issue?

Usually, I mean, I think what we find in the past is I think what ECHO specializes in

is direct mediation between the tenant and the landlord.

And I think in the case when that breaks down for whatever reason, that's typically when a tenant will then want to escalate to a hearing because they just can't come to an agreement between themselves and they need a larger kind of body.

You know, because, you know, ECHO does try to take, you know, they try to serve both, you know, and so sometimes, you know, they're not necessarily taking a study.

They're providing education.

They're providing a forum to try to come to an agreement.

And when they cannot, that will typically be when a member wants to do a hearing.

Okay, that makes sense. I think I also see it as, I find it a useful situation because prior to COVID, we've had years when there were so many cases, we couldn't hear them in any timely fashion for people, right?

we only meet once a month and you know someone could only hear so many cases

there were a lot more than cases that existed so I certainly see that as I get

as a filtering process are we seeing any uptick in cases maybe just since last

year for example as we're now moving out of the you know the COVID quarantine

phase and the rent restriction phase and things getting back to a little more

normal are we seeing a change just in the past let's say 12 months? In the past 12

months I can't think of the top of my head the difference between last year and

this year in terms of rent review and tenant relocation increase I think the

numbers are about the same in terms of the number of included those two ordinances.

I think we can definitely say in terms of the field, there's definitely been an influx

for tenant services, tenant legal services mediation overall. I think ECHO is seeing

an increase in need. Our legal service, our contact of legal service providers are seeing

an increase in need. But in terms of the rent review ordinance and the tenant relocation

assistance, I think that's been about the same. At least over the last couple years.

And as I said, we did not include – we've definitely seen a trend since 2019 of a lack of hearing,

but we haven't looked at historic data in terms of the number of inquiries.

I'd like to think that we could look at historic data in all your free time.

Yeah, we have that noted as feedback for next year's review.

Didn't we talk about this a year ago and say we'd love to have that kind of data too?

The information we heard was definitely more outcome data, and we added that to this report.

There was interest in understanding who the inquiries were coming from in terms of tenant and landlords.

We added that.

We also heard there was an interest in demographic information, which we did look into,

but unfortunately our reporting structure isn't set up.

Well, there's two issues.

There's one, there's privacy concerns given the small sample size

and sort of putting demographic data into a public report.

And then additionally, our reporting structure only shows demographic information

to echo overall a program of tenant-landlord counseling,

and that's outside of the scope of this board and this item.

So I have a question.

I'm sorry.

Are there any other board member comments on the 24-25 report?

I did have one other comment.

Yes.

I'm kind of curious on whether you guys track people that have vacant properties

because I know like in my HOA, we had two that were vacant for five years.

I mean, how you can have houses that are vacant for so long,

these investors that have bought property and just leave them vacant

and there's nobody living in them?

Like people are struggling for housing and you have these places that are vacant.

Do they report on that type of information?

We look at vacancy rates, I think, you know, from yarding matrix.

and that, as we talked about, has some limitations.

I think that's showing about,

also showing a slight increase in the vacancy,

or I'm sorry, decrease in vacancy rates.

So we do include that.

Any questions?

I have one.

So this was for the period of 7-1-24 to 6-30-25?

Correct.

and the threshold for rent review hearings is an increase of 7% or greater in the 12-month period, correct?

Correct.

And AB 1482 has statewide caps of 5% plus regional CPI.

And it seems to stick in my head that the regional CPI for the report period was 3.6%,

Because I remember an 8.6% increase.

So basically, if we had, we would have had just a narrow window of between 7% and 8.6% as far as the increases,

that would have been eligible for us to hear during the reporting period, correct?

Correct.

Okay. And earlier you stated that when Echo Housing educated folks on all of this, it tended to be under the 7% and they were able to come to some agreement most of the time.

Yeah, there's a difference. Yeah. So in 11 cases, they were ineligible. Many of those ineligible cases was because the increase was less than 7%.

Okay.

In some cases, maybe it was higher, but the noticing didn't comply with the rent review ordinance.

Sometimes the landlord wasn't aware of the rent review ordinance, and once they are, they changed their notice.

I also know, anecdotally, I can't speak to the exact number, but there are definitely landlords that,

even when the allowed is a little bit higher than 7%, once they realize that a 7% is eligible for a rent review board hearing,

they'll make decisions not to go beyond that because it's just not worth risking doing a hearing.

So in effect, we had a de facto cap to some degree of 7%.

I think we, yeah, I could say that I think sometimes landlords will make a decision

not to move forward when they learn about the requirements for a hearing.

Okay. And then I have a process question, if I could.

I was wondering if we could split 5B into two separate items.

One is approving the report as presented or with, because it basically performs to what we have as far as our practices for the reporting period.

And then having a second part, either as under this or under the board reports, in which board members could make comments about suggestions and changes and such.

Or would we have to have people suggest a change, we discuss it, we have a motion in a second and vote on it.

I need to know how, because I feel there is some need to be able to, for the individual board members to each have their own, put a little something into the sauce here.

How would we do that?

You would, I think you can do it either way, but my recommendation to make it clear for staff and on the record is clearly you can have votes and motions,

or we can hear comments, and if there's consensus about particular requests to the staff or direction to staff,

you can do it by consensus.

So that's why I was trying to split it, so that way we have a clear vote on approving the report,

approving or disproving the report.

Yeah.

And then we have the ability to have discussion and consensus.

Yeah.

Would that be acceptable?

That would be acceptable.

All right.

I find that confusing.

if we're having a discussion and consensus about things we'd like to add or change,

then we'd be saying we want you to change the report and not present it as is.

For future, because this was under our current program.

So you're saying have a discussion about if we want to have things we'd like you to do at next year's report

and we will not change this year's report.

Correct.

Okay.

I will also add for last year I think the process that was used was each board

member provided some comments and then there were motions made around formal

board member comments that were attached to the review and that was what was

presented to council.

Alright. So I'd like to proceed in unless I hear any other comments on the 24-25

report seeing none I'll entertain a motion to approve the report as

presented is there a motion I'll make the motion is there a second to the

motion to approve it as presented okay any discussion on the question all those

in favor say aye aye aye any opposed the report approval or report passes 5-0

comments suggestions rich I believe you said we start off we see if we can

develop a consensus on each one you can yeah that's one way to do it okay that's

probably the most efficient although messy but we'll get through it or you

You can go by motion.

You can make motions and then take individual votes.

Or you can just make it one big package.

What you said about last year when we did this,

that we came back at another meeting.

Was there a second meeting or did we do it that night?

No, that was done a few years ago.

And I think there were other items also to discuss, I think, at that one.

Last year, the process was each board member took terms kind of sharing some thoughts.

And then after that, there were some board members made motions to kind of summarize the comments that were made.

Okay.

So I'd like to kick off the discussion.

And this will color the discussion, I believe,

is that I would like to see a recognition that the current AB 1482 limits of 5% plus regional CPI of 1.3%

that went into effect on August 1st of this year and runs through at least July 31st of next year

sets a rent cap of 6.3 percent, which is under our 7 percent hearing threshold.

I don't want to make any comments upon whether or not it's appropriate or not,

but I would like to inform the council that due to state law, we are not eligible,

most likely to hear any rent increase hearings because state law limits it

below our hearing threshold. So that's the one item that I'd like to put out

right now. Yeah, does our, I don't recall that our ordinance gives us any way to address that issue if we're out of compliance with state law.

well no we're in compliance it's just that our threshold for hearings is below

the cap for state law above the cap above the cap and all I want to do is

make notice of that to the council not commenting one way or another just that

this is the quandary and because of state law we will not have a rent review

hearing for any increases until probably this time next year that because of that

and I'll make that as a formal motion is there a second so what is the formal

motion just to bring it to the attention yes yeah the bring to the attention of

the City Council that under AB 1482 the regional CPI for Alameda County is 1.3

effective August 1st, 2025 and runs through July 31st, 2026. With the 5% base

that's a 6.3% increase and so the state

RET cap is below our hearing threshold of 7%.

I second your motion to bring this to the City Council of Judiciary.

okay is there any discussion on the motion yeah I think it's very right to

bring it to their attention because I mean you could literally have somebody

raise somebody's rent 6.9% which be above the maximum state threshold but below

where they could become dust even for reprieve so it means like it's still

it kind of defeats the purpose.

Thank you.

Are there any other comments on that?

Seeing none, I'll call for the question.

All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Passes 5-0.

Are there any others?

I don't know.

I mean, many of the issues that some of us, a lot for myself, have talked about of information we'd like to see,

I don't know that I could write that all down tonight to have us vote on it.

But I do know that, you know, I'd like to know what information is possible to get.

you said some of the data we requested the demographic demographic data isn't

even you know it's not possible based on the structure we use so not knowing our

structure I don't know if we can adjust our structure and if we can gather

additional demographic data and I have to think about what demographic data would I want

so as an individual of this board without bringing it to the boards you

know without being able to verbalize it or put it down in writing right now for

the rest of us to vote on I'm thinking it it would not be improper if I thought

this out and sent it to staff in an email saying please let me know if this is data

we can that we can gather you know we have the ability to do this or find a way to do

it and then our next time we talk about this we can discuss if we want to do that or not.

I mean certainly you can you can share suggestions and feedback to staff you know related to

data and we can always look at it and if it's feasible and you know in terms of

you know time and scope and resources and relevant then we will absolutely look

into it and we will include it in the review to answer your earlier question I

think some of the things that we heard which I think we definitely could

include in the next year's review is looking at some of this like trends

over time in terms of inquiries received and I think a little bit more

discussion when we talk about the data that we're using for average rents

talking about the universes in terms of like you know small properties and large

property those are absolutely things that we can include in future reviews.

In terms of items that will be that you know whatever you put into a review are

they things that we all have to agree on as a board that we want you to put in

or can we ask you, like I said, if I think about it over the course of the year and say,

hey, can you put this in the next report?

And then we can just look at it when it comes back, you know, next year,

and the board can say, no, we don't want to put that in.

Yeah, I would say that definitely we're always open to feedback.

If you're aware of a source, for instance, of a good source for rental market data

or something like that, you're always welcome to share that with staff.

you know it's not necessarily like direction you know but you're sharing

information or sharing inquiries and we will definitely take that into

consideration as we're putting together the review.

Just saying you know I'm just feeling a little out of sorts tonight it's been so

long since we've talked about this and so it was not you know I wasn't thinking

about it until it until we have discussion tonight is when the ideas come

up and I won't be thinking about it a year from now if I'm not if I don't act

on it you know next month and in the month after and do some back and forth

exchange yeah and we certainly did know all the feedback that we got last year

and just like that you know means that for next year too you know that we know

what we're hearing from you all and we always look to see you know ways we can

improve the review and add additional relevant information.

So if I heard you right, we're welcome to send in individual comments.

Or information if there's a particular data source or something like that.

That's always welcome to hear in terms of, yeah, it's not necessarily direction, but

staff can always look into it and see if it is relevant for the review.

And we could also poll the board tonight to see if there's anything that anybody would

like to say now.

Okay, so I would like to poll the board.

And I want to go with my vice chair first, since you are nodding.

Is there anything that you would like to see considered?

Well, I think, you know, as I've said in the past, and this report is a little bit better,

but it really is a part of the whole.

It's just a piece.

and I think we need to look at the whole numbers.

You know, I'd like to know how many calls or clients that ECHO worked with for San Leandro.

I mean, what is this 47 number equivalent to?

So it's 47 tenant relocation and rent review ordinance inquiries.

That is within the scope of this review.

other items would be outside of those scope of the board and this review would it be possible

so that's scope creep would it be possible to for them to provide their SOPs standard operating

procedures or procedures in general so we know this is how the client is is moved forward left

right or on to the rent review board more information about how specifically

rent review cases are being how they're how they're handling the clients as they

come in on the phone or in person what direction are they given him at what

point are they moved or encouraged to go towards the rent review board for

further we can definitely get that information from echo and we can include

in the review for next year a little more description kind of qualitative

description about like what a typical inquiry looks like on the rent review

board side yeah more so more so like a flow chart you know hey if this

customer is calling about this it drops to here or it goes to here yes or no I

just feel like there's a big piece missing in the middle we have parts but

we don't have the whole picture and I think we could improve upon that and I

think that 47 it's really double counted they probably call them both yeah you

know I did just check and I think it's about it's about three it's not a whole

lot yeah but we can definitely just aggregate that right now but that's my

suggestion thank you please I'd like to piggyback a little bit off the vice chair

with the SOP related it their structure might be displayed in their contract

can we get a copy of their current contract with the city because my

curiosity is you know in my personal life will work related life there's a

lot of fiduciary issues and that's my concern what are they getting what's the

contracted amount in lieu of the 30 to 47 inquiries how does that math work out

because I just feel like a little short change just want a little little more

information but also what is their communication to residents about us like

is there a flyer that's provided to contact is there information about this

board I think maybe they're verbalized you know they're told oh yeah there's

the rent review board but I've never seen I've lived in San Leandro for 30 years I've actually

utilized this board for my own case as a tenant in 16 15 or 16 and but that was me hunting and

that was also me working for the city of San Leandro at the time so you know that that little

maybe conduit as to who we are you know would like to know that what that's

what that involves

I'd like to piggyback on that I think I think being able to know if there's

duplicate clients and then also like I've worked in grants like my whole

career a lot of times they ask you for like vignette stories I mean that you

don't you don't get name or ethnicity or where they are it's just more of like

client came to us asked us this question and they give you like generalities but

at least you get like a kind of a story of who's getting this service so having

that kind of incorporated as a deliverable because as an outcome and

then I also think that the mediation function should go back to us I mean

yeah they know housing law but so do all of us and we do have the city of

camp journey and I think if you we do have connections with like code

enforcement and stuff so if they come in and they're saying there's substandard

issues we have authority to delegate to those other authorities so I think that

we do have ability to help mediate cases and have the teeth there so I think

that really is a function that you come back to us before the board instead of

having them handle that and then we never see that person or even put it on

the record that this issue existed

I want to go in a completely different direction.

My comments.

And my comments are going to surprise a few folks in the audience.

But given where we're at right now, the Rent Review Board has done a phenomenal job in the 20-plus years it's been in existence.

However, I believe that the markets and times have changed.

And I believe that there's a better way, a much more inclusive way, to handle the broadest spectrum of rental housing provider and residence disputes.

And that was established through a mandatory mediation program in which you can mediate anything, anything, on a written rental agreement.

This is the basis for what was put in place in the unincorporated area about a year ago

in conjunction with a complaint-driven code enforcement program.

And at the time, I know the various tenant advocates were challenged to bring folks forward

with all of that.

There were a few legitimate complaints that were successfully addressed within the confines

of that mandatory mediation along with complaint-driven code enforcement.

So I know that this board is expensive to operate.

This hearing is probably meters running.

We have in our attorney and two staff in the room, and we have the room.

So that's why I strongly, I am a satisfied client of ECHO Housing Mediation.

I recently completed one on a really gnarly habitability issue for a senior who couldn't take care of themselves anymore, and they helped out a lot.

So I would like for staff to look at the unincorporated areas, a combination of the mandatory mediation along with the complaint-driven inspection program,

and have perhaps information on that for our next report.

Any other comments before I close this item out?

Can I ask you a question about your comment?

What is, you mean by mandatory mediation instead of...

You and I have a dispute, okay?

Right.

If we can't resolve it, we have to go to the mediator there in the unincorporated area.

So if I have a problem, if there's a dispute between me and one of my residents in Cherryland,

the resident knows that they could go to the county's mediation site

and request mandatory mediation for that issue.

Would Echo Housing be the mediator, or were you saying that this board would still exist?

No, it's a third-party mediator.

A third-party mediator.

Yeah, basically the board would dissolve.

that's what I know yeah but what is mandatory for the mandatory part you have to participate

if you don't it's mediation just a quick reminder on I'm sorry I'm sorry thank you I'm sorry okay

all right I got public involved I'm sorry Mark I'm sorry okay well anyway it is you have to

participate participation is mandatory and there are teeth in it with County

Council for lack of participation okay all right see are there any other items

on 5b1 seeing none I'm going to close it I'm going to go to city staff reports

and announcements. And so just to clarify before we go into that end, was there any other action

that we want to add? In terms of city announcements, we have one announcement. The city council will

be meeting on December 8th, 2025 to review a draft rent stabilization ordinance as well as

program cost options. The meeting will be located at City Council Chambers at City Hall and can also

be attended virtually. A link to the meeting materials along with materials from prior public

meetings on this topic will be posted to the City Housing website, sanleandro.org slash housing protections.

Okay. Board reports or announcements.

I have two. The first one is I'm going to pass out to my colleagues data I picked up earlier.

No, there's two reports. And if you could pass one down to our staff. This is Craigslist for San

Leandro one bedrooms and two bedrooms I would although we have the report from

Yardi and rent cafe one bedrooms and there was from June one bedrooms in San

Leandro there's are very soft right now and we're as Miss Madsen had alluded to

they're going for a like 1900 a month and whereas you had them at 21 a couple

hundred bucks a month more in your report so I want to point out that there

is a change occurring in the San Leandro marketplace and it is negatively

impacting the older stock of them by older stock meaning pre 1980 which is

like 98% of the open market units because everything else built since then

was a portable stock of San Leandro so we are seeing a definite softness in the

market and it is collaborate I can collaborate with the previous speakers

that said about operating costs and everything else going up so I wanted to

bring this to your attention and then the second one I have is an announcement

back at the end of last year I retired as a rental housing advocate and I am

I'm now celebrating 10 months of recovery.

Thank you.

Thank you.

But I'm still here on the board as a rental housing provider in the city of San Leandro.

But I did want to announce because at the last meeting, I was a director of CAA, but I have since retired.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

33 years.

Okay.

Any other board reports or announcements?

Seeing none.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Yes, back to the issues that we said I should bring up under this section.

Oh, yes, yes, yes.

I'm sorry.

Ms. Mattson talked about what, you know, in the 10 years that she's been working on this

and how Mr. Silva has done a good job but hasn't necessarily gotten her where she wanted to go.

would like to point out that mr. Silva has not been the chair in all those ten

years and there were there were two chairs before him while I was on the

board so you know that's before 2015 okay so even before that so if you have

concerns you know there were other people and mr. Jones did I get that

correct right you were discussing you know you had brought up and I think we

may have mentioned this during the meeting to the vet you know what's our

purpose because we haven't had any people come here so you know why do we

exist nobody wants to come just without having hard data in front of me I can

tell you that prior to COVID we had lots of people come to us and you know the

offset of COVID together with the implementation of AB 1492

has you know changed that and I think we need to we haven't analyzed yet

if that if the frequency or people coming to us is going to change but you

know prior to the issues that prevented us from really having any reason to meet

we used to get a lot a lot of cases here

just wanted to make those statements thank you any other okay seeing none

I'll entertain a motion to adjourn.

Second.

All right.

All those in favor, aye.

Aye.

We are adjourned at 8.31.

Thank you.