Oakland

Tenants

Union

P.O. Box # 10573 / Oakland, CA 94610 / (510) 704-5276 or 763-0142 / www.oaklandtenantsunion.org

January 25, 2016

Oakland City Hall

1 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza
Oakland, CA 94612
Attention: Councilmembers:
Dan Kalb, district 1
Abel J. Guillen, district 2
Lynette Gibson McElhaney, district 3
Annie Campbell Washington, district 4
Noel Gallo, district 5
Desley Brooks, district 6
Larry Reid, district 7
Rebecca Kaplan, at-large
Libby Schaaf, Mayor
Barbara Parker, City Attorney
Brenda Roberts, Ci ty Audit or
Regarding: Tuesday January 26, 2016 CED Committee Meeting. Item #5: proposed amendments to the Rent
Adjustment Program Ordinance Board a lternate member coun t, terms and roles
As regards the Agenda Report and th e Recommendations from Cou ncil member at-large & Vice Ma yor
Rebecca Kaplan to approve the amendments to the Rent Adjustment Ordinance to alleviate the quorum problem.
Its important to know that the Rent Adjustment Programs (RAP) Housing Residential Rent and Relocation Board
appointees are self-selected to have the time and therefore the resources to devote to this task. This Board is
arguably one of the two most powerful boards in the city. By controlling shelter, they hold the power of life and
death. The power to destroy or strengthen communities. The prime appointees just need to appear.
In addition, the proposed changes affect more than the ordinance and conflict with the regulations. Do
comprehend that the residents of Oakland who might try to access the existing ordinance via the online MuniCode
will be presen ted with two issues: 1) the online sour ce is typically out -of-dat e, and 2) th e regulati ons ar e not
included. Viewing only the RAP ordinance would leave the residents of Oakland with only half of the information.
The following are responses to specific portions of the proposed ordin ance changes:
SECTION 1. Modification of Chapter 8.22 of the O.M.C.
8.22.020 - Defini tions.
The proposed text conflicts with what is already delineated in the regulations. This proposed change to the
ordinance definition needs to be removed.
8.22.040 - Composition and functions of the Board.
A. Composition
Addin g an additional al tern ate to ea ch of th e thr ee board member categor ies will be delet erious to the function
of the board an d to th e providing of justi ce. As the Oaklan d Tenants Union (OTU) ca n attest to, alt ernates do not
appear at board meetings unless they are alerted that they are needed. No one knows how much notice the

alternates are given. The RAP staff have unilaterally determined that the parties shall submit their supporting
materi als to the office 8 days before the a ppeals hea ring. That is a Wednesday. Th is information is t hen
assembled into an agenda packet and mailed on a Thursday or maybe even a Friday. If they are lucky, the Board
members may receive this information on a Saturday but it may be as late as Monday or Tuesday. The following is
included: the petition, the petition responder form, the hearing officers decision, the appeal form with supporting
explanation s, and final ly a time line of the process. At some point the Board m ember who cannot attend must
notice the board chair who then must contact an alternate. Unfortunately for the residents of Oakland, that
probably does not happen. In actuality, the prime Board member probably has to contact the RAP program
manager who then contacts the alternate. This may happen a week in advance or days in advance. The alternate
must then read and comprehend what has been thrust into their lap usually three appeals cases. To repeat: the
altern ates rar ely appear at a board meeting and they never become "seasoned" to the complexities of the ordi nance,
regulations an d the procedures.
The issue of vacancies and lack of attendance is generally the fault of inaction on the part of the mayor and the
city administration. They could complain they don't receive enough or appropriate (to them) applications.
Mayor Schaaf recently wanted to appoint a promoter of owner-investor interests someone who just happened to
rent to the renter alter nate position. The OT U happ ens to know that a qualified can didate for the renter positi on
had actually met with the mayor but was denied appointment because this person was appealing a hearing decision.
With Oaklan ds petition-based arbitr ation system, renter s must petition otherwise ther e is no stabilization because
the already limited provisions are waived. It should be expected that any and all renter members of the Board will
at some time be in the process of petitionin g and/or appea ling a hear ing decision. Th ey would obviously recuse
themselves from hearing their own appeal.
B. Vacancies and Removal
3. Report of Attendance.
Even though this has been in the ordinance for a very long time, attendance has not been provided in the
annual RAP report. The OTU doubts that this has ever been presented to the mayor or the administration. If this
is actually followed, it would be good to include the elected city council members and therefore Oakland residents
of the Boards at tendan ce.
C. Terms and Holdover.
2. Holdover.
The OTU demands NO to a 2 year holdover. See the aforementioned inaction of the mayor's office. There are
40 some boards & commi ssion. ALL ar e volunteer. T his mean s only the more well- off can donate th e time &
money associated with the particular topic to sit on these boards. With appointment comes responsibility. For the
last few years, only two of the Board members had ever taken a "case" all the way through petitioning, att ending a
petition hear ing, appeali ng and at tending an appeals heari ng. Thi s would have exposed them to the forms &
mailings as well. Our guess is those are the only two who have also throughly read the ordinance & regulations at
least once.
D. Duties and Functions.
5. Regular Meetings. and 6. Special Meetings.
Once again, this information is alr eady covered in the regulations. Stop repeating and confusing the +60,000
rental households who have to look at the already confusing ordinance & regulations. Those add up to
approximately 75 pages. Even with many years of notice, no one has attempted to make the necessary corrections
as is currently needed.
An appeals panel must consist only of the prime members. If an appeals panel is to meet on the same day as
the full board, there must be a two hour period between the end of one and the start of the other. The members
need time to read an d refresh their memories of the issues involved in the appeal s hearin g cases.
The r egular meet ings, comm ittee meetings and any so-cal led appeal panel meetings m ust be set by a vote of
the full Boar d. RAP st aff can offer coord ination for meet ing schedu ling but n ot call for or schedule meetings on
their own.
E. Appeal Panels.
2. Rent Program staff shall deter mine ...
This is already covered in the regulations. Based upon past history and due to only 3 of the 7 prime members
being present, app eal panels shal l be non-controversial cases.

4. Membership on an Appeal Panel is determined bv Rent Program staff. ...

Based on past experience, the OTU recommends this be changed to: Appeal Panel members are to be
determined by the prime board members in consultation with the Rent Adjustment Program staff.
Membership need not be permanent and may be specifically selected for each appeals panel meeting based
upon experience and availability. As is common with many boards and commissions, the current Board is run
by the RAP program manager. The opposite should be true. The program manager writes the annual report and
sends it to the city administration & council without any input from the Board. If it werent for cajoling from the
OTU in recent years, the program manager would not have even made the annual report available to the Board.
The progr am man ager also withholds i nformation from th e Board regar ding poli cy decisions. The Boar d has been
very lax.
8.22.120 - Appeal procedure.
B. Appeal Hearings.
1. The Board or Appeal Panel shall have a goal of hearing the appeal wi thin thirty (30) days of filing
the notice of appeal.
Whil e 30 days has been ordai ned for some time, it is highly unr ealistic once one con sider s the l ogisti cs of
appealing a hearing officers decision. Notice has to be given to the parties of a date, they have to gather their
information and submit it 8 days in advance. 30 days would always be very tight. If the council is searching for a
round n umber, 60 or 90 days would be more real istic.
SECTION 5. The Rent Adjustment Board shall propose changes to the Rent Board regulations to conform
the regulations to the changes hereby made to the Ordinance and propose such changes to the City Council
within 90 days of the adoption of this ordinance.
The OTU ha s already addressed the r epetitious & subtle changes that ar e intend ed for the ordi nance and that
are already included in the regul ation s. T he proposed SECTION 5 is n ot on ly not needed, but it also is demanding
that the Board rubberstamp the councils proposed ordinance changes by now revising the regulations to meet the
ordinance changes. Is this laziness? Previously, during the Capital Improvements/Debt Service debate, the council
not only made changes to both the ordinance and regulations but in many situations did it from the dias without the
ability for the public to part icipate.
Severe changes need to be made to the Rent Adjustment Program. The mayors appointees to the Rent
Committee of her recent Housing Cabinet have proposed a valid system of rent stabilization that will switch the
onus from the renter to the rentier (the owner-investor). This will drastically reduce the number of appeals and
will solve the problem rather tha n attempt to apply what amounts to an ill-informed band-aid.
The Oakland Tenants Union is an all-volunteer organization dedicated to helping renters stay in their homes and
maintaining the communities created by these renters. The OTU has a long history of interaction with the
complexities of th e Rent Adjustmen t Progra m and we str ongly suggest we be involved up-fr ont in proposed
changes to the program.

brian geiser, on behalf of the

Oakland Tena nts Un ion