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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-RHAC-2005-03-16 RENTAL HOUSING COMMISSION - Meeting Minutes March 16, 2005 Present: Dave Breeden, Phoebe Brown, Sharon Marx, Shane Seger, Michael Taylor, Pam Zinder 1. Call for announcements and additions to agenda Added agenda item to report on the PUD (Planned Unit Development) meeting 2. Discussion of Task Force Report Sharon Marx reported on the last meeting (March 10, 2005) of the Collegetown Neighborhood Council (CNC) - this council meets monthly and includes members of Cornell, the City government, neighbors, merchants, and students. The CNC meets monthly to discuss issues that occur in Collegetown. Last week - LeNorman Strong, Assistant Vice President for Student and Academic Services reported on a draft report from the Off-Campus Task Force. Members of the Commission received a copy of the report to review. 3. PUD meeting Shane reported on this meeting - this group was formed to serve as a planning tool to develop and redevelop the city - it looks at the nuts and bolts of creative planning - more flexible and creative. It also is an opportunity for the city to communicate with residents and improve quality of life issues. Michael suggested that we invite the City Planners or the Building Dept. to attend one of our meetings for better understanding. 4. Work towards assembling a 2005 Work Plan From the previous meeting, the goal was to look at our list of objectives that are part of the March 2, 2005 minutes and organize or group the topics together. The members of the commission looked at the list of 14 items and came up with 2 ways to group the items. The first way grouped items together in the following 3 groups: 1St group - number 1, 2nd group - number 2, 3, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13, 3rd group - 4, 5, 6, and 9 (see minutes from last meeting). Shane suggested another way to group - under the following headers: Education, Landlord Tenant Relations, Legislation, Rental Registry. As the group was discussing these items, Phoebe was not sure she was interested in the goals of the commission. Since she had not received information in advance, she decided to leave the meeting and review the information and see if the Commission was worthwhile for her. The meeting adjourned at 6:30 p.m. If anyone has problems with how meetings are run or organized, please give feedback to David Breeden. Submitted by, Pam Zinder 3/21/05 � 1 Rental Housing Advisory Commission Minutes of Meeting#1 Wednesday March 2, 2005 Chair David Breeden called meeting to order at 5:10 p.m Present: David Breeden, Councilperson Michael Taylor, Shane Seger, Joyce Muchan,Pam Zinder, Patricia Sipman, Sharon Marx Each person introduced him or her self, shared brief background and professional information and who he or she represents on The Commission. Discussion to set meeting schedule: day of week,time and how often to meet. Initially meetings will be held every two weeks on Wednesday 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.: March 16, March 30, April 13, and April 27 and then monthly starting May 25. Summer meeting dates will be determined later. Chair Breeden distributed information: Meeting Agenda for tonight March 2,2005 Working Agreement (City of Ithaca Communications Team) Chapter 100: Rental Housing Advisory Commission(includes Responsibilities) All present agreed The Commission's meeting would be more effective if informal, Roberts Rules of Order were suspended and The Working Agreement (be respectful, equal time, agree to disagree agreeably, etc.)was pass by acclamation Chair Breeden mentioned he met with Pam Mackesey, Councilperson First Ward,who has been meeting with Ithaca College administrators and students, who expressed interest in a number of issues concerning rental housing. Chair Breeden asked if there was an objection for an IC student to sit on The Commission as a guest who would participate in discussions but have no vote. Discussion, no objection,passed by acclamation. Due to the information gathered during the above discussion, it was suggested The Commission would be more effective if it had a better representation and will consider adding adjunct members or guests i.e. seniors (citizen),racial and Tompkins Cortland Community College(TC3) student. More discussion to follow at a future meeting. Chair Breeden read the Findings and Responsibilities of The Commission as stated in Chapter 100 Rental Housing Advisory Commission as adopted by City of Ithaca Common Council August 4, 1993. Chair Breeden distributed the July 5, 1989 Final Report to Common Council of the Rental Housing Task Force and urged The Commission to read the complete report but particularly Sections III and IV before next meeting. � I Rental Housing Advisory Commission -2- March 2, 2005 Chair Breeden asked each present to state his or her objectives for The Commission. Objectives gathered: 1. Urge Common Council to fund a capital project to put all City data on line(all properties, owners, etc.) including a 5-year rental housing history(code issues, fines, etc.) 2. "Repair and deduct"legislation(if landlord does not/will not make repair in timely fashion, tenant who makes the repair could deduct cost of repair from rent) 3. Establish a central place t o receive and process complaints such as a Renter's Rights group. Explore possibility of such a group offering a mediation or conciliation process. 4. Recommendation to the Building Department to make the new"line"position a Customer Service Representative 5. Recommendation to the Building Department to expedite renewal of Certificate of Compliance and other paperwork in a timely fashion and prevent months of delay 6. Recommendation to Common Council to increase Building Department fees to add staff in order to expedite work load(inspections, final paperwork, etc.) in a timely fashion and to allow Building Dept. to keep said fees, rather than having them return to the general fund 7. Gather information from existing programs in Ithaca and compile education for renters 8. Research other cities (especially college towns) for existing rental housing programs 9. Recommendation for carbon monoxide detectors be a requirement for rental housing 10. Education about alternative dispute resolution 11. Advocacy for housing such as public developments 12. Education about security deposits—"how to get it back"document,move in inspection form to report condition of property at move in to be used in move out evaluation 13. Education of how to deal with landlord/tenants 14. Consider amendments to Chapter 100 i.e. better and/or more equal representation Due to the hour of 6:35 p.m., Chair Breeden called the meeting to an end. Respectfully submitted by Sharon M. Marx Secretary for this meeting March 3, 2005 • Rental Housing Advisory Commission Minutes, 3/30/05 In Attendance: Dave (Chair), Michael (Note-taker), Phoebe, Joyce, Sharon, Patty, Pam Additions to Agenda: Phoebe presenting Mutual Housing Association Joyce adds Diversity/Inclusiveness Patty adds Code Enforcement Discussion Dave adds discussion of absence policy Patty states that Code enforcement is inconsistent because of a lack of a computer database. Wants to do analysis of when codes are enforced and are there any particular landlords that have evaded punishment for code violations. Patty mentions that code violations used to be criminal. Patty will email Phyliss Radke questions about code enforcement so that Phyliss can be prepared to answer them when she comes to our next meeting. Joyce discussed how the Ithaca Journal misrepresented her in an article a couple weeks ago, Patty states she saw the Ithaca Journal correction for their original mistake. Joyce suggests that when individual members of the Commission make statements to the press use "I" instead of we, clearly distinguishing your own opinion from the position of the RHAC. Also, statements to the press should be written and not oral. Phoebe gave a great presentation on the Mutual Housing Association of Tompkins County, bringing handouts and the Associations monthly calendar of events. Some information: Residents get a yearly membership to the YMCA Residents Assistance Program allows for 3 visits yearly to Family and Child Services for stress, grief, and any other personal concern. Monthly calander includes birthdays! MHA is a diverse community with tenants of many different backgrounds Phoebe will put Dave in touch with MHA director to invite MHA director to a meeting of the RHAC. Phoebe offered to host a meeting at her house Commission could pass a resolution urging council to use CBDG funds to help MHA Joyce states that diversity can not be added after writing the 2005 RHAC workplan as that will just permeate institutional racism in our community. Need to incorporate diversity at the beginning of the process. Diversity in the broadest sense, racial, neighborhood, experience. Phoebe comments that representation is not satisfied by just having one "representative." Phoebe has an idea for Public Forum on rental housing issues in the City. Group really likes that idea, it is decided it should be held at GIAC, we will advertise throughout the community using free media and flyers. We will ask the public what they want to see improved in Ithaca's rental housing market. We will bring applications to serve on the RHAC to the meeting. We will encourage Council and the Mayor to increase the number of positions on the RHAC to incorporate more diversity. RHAC will create a presentation to make at the public forum but will wait on doing workplan until we get input from a greater variety of people who will assuredly provide different perspectives valuable to our mission. Phoebe, Joyce, and Michael agree to head up Subcommittee planning the forum. Absence Policy*Dave says very important to show up, and that the members of the RHAC who have yet to come to a meeting should be asked to leave the Commission. Discussion ventured into whether the Common Council liason should be a voting member of the commission. Meeting adjourned at 6:30 r ` Notes from RHAC 3/30/05 Sub-Committee Meeting: (these are essentially plans for the public forum. If anyone has specific notes on anything else we covered, and would like to include them in the files for the Commission, please send them on to me. Thanks!) Text for flier: Did you know that almost 75% of City Residents are renters? Do you have concerns with the state of rental housing in Ithaca? The Newly Revived Rental Housing Advisory Commission needs your input to help us address rental housing housings confronting the City of Ithaca April 27th 6:00-7:30 at the Greater Ithaca Activities Center gymnasium. 318 N. Albany St Light Refreshments will be provided. Agenda: When Individuals come into the room: A sign in sheet where we ask for email from people who want updates on rental housing issues in the city. Information from various organizations that are related to rental housing. Nametags We provide individuals with sheets where they can write out individual experiences with rental housing problems (Joyce.can you draft this sheet?). 1. Welcome/Introduction (What the job of the Commission is, what can we do) 2. Small Group Discussion (with facilitator and note taker in each group. a)What are some critical issues confronting renters? b)What can the City do to help improve the overall quality of Rental Housing within the City? 3. Report back small group items 4. Call for Community Engagement Must contact: Media--- Ithaca Journal Cornell Sun Ithaca Times WHCU WVBR The Ithacan Community Organizations and Locations throughout City: Washington St Civic Association First St Civic Association South Hill Civic Association INNS MHA Village of Ithaca Latino Civic Association Cornell University Collegetown neighborhood council Ithaca Downtown Partnership office to get onto the Commons Towers West Village Chestnut Hill Apts Southside GIAC CTB P and C Juna.s Gimme Laundromats Bus Stops Theatre Arts Spencer st Dave Breeden breeden(a�lightlink.com