 Hi, you're watching In the Studio here in the DCTV studios at Davis Media Access. My name is Autumn Laberino and I'm hosting this segment. Be sure to tune in weekdays at 10 a.m. to see other segments in addition to this on DCTV. Channel 15 on the Comcast system. You can also catch the replays on menu 99 on AT&T's U-Verse system. And be sure to check out our whole archive online at dctv slash davismedia.org. My pleasure today to have two of our Davis City Council members with us today and we're going to be talking about a proposed renters ordinance. So let me welcome Davis City Council members, Brett Lee and Lucas Frerichs. Welcome. Thank you. Thanks so much for having us. Yeah, so this interview came about, Brett, when you were in here recording your Meet the Candidates statements, we talked about this for quite a while and you were really passionate about it and it kind of got me intrigued that we have some real issues here in Davis. I think it starts with an incredibly low vacancy rate. So what can you tell me about that? Yeah, so the vacancy rates are less than 1%. It's sort of been estimated at anywhere from 0.3% to 0.5%. So in either case, far below 1%. And so the very low vacancy rent creates a dynamic where there's an imbalance, kind of a market imbalance in terms of the normal power of a renter versus the apartment owners in some sense. But there's actually a variety of reasons why I think a renter's ordinance is needed over and above the fact that there's a small vacancy rate. Okay, let's take those in turn. So where the renter's ordinance really came from was from my neighborhood association, the Osteemanner Neighborhood Association. And what was happening was there were certain houses that were known as party houses. So we live in the neighborhood where the pirate house is. So these houses would sort of be handed down from student to student. And so it could be the party house or it could be the volleyball player's house. And the neighbors or most everyone there sort of works. And so on Wednesday night at 1 AM when there's these crazy parties going on, you try it a few times where you'll go and try to be polite. Hey, can you turn the music down? And when it's this sort of ongoing recurring problem, what do you do next? And so the city had some tools to deal with it, but not that many. And really what happened was it just really degraded the quality of life for the neighbors. And so what a couple neighbors did, Vince Sturla and Daniel Boone, is they started looking at other university towns. They looked at Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, Berkeley, San Luis Obispo. And they looked at what their rental ordinances were doing. And they got some ideas from that and they sort of started working on it. And about that time, well, I was involved with it. And then eventually I was on the council. And so the past couple of years, I've been working on it on the council. And I've been joined with Lucas to help kind of shape it and then get it to the point where we think that it's ready to be voted on. And this is something you're hoping to bring later this spring? Actually in two weeks. And two weeks, so very soon. Yeah, so it's May 17th. Yep, it's on the council agenda. So what are some of the problems experienced? You talked a little bit about the problems experienced by neighbors. But what kind of things might renters experience to you where this ordinance would benefit them? Yeah, there's a real need for sort of the sort of ombudsman's approach, where an ability where folks who have issues with their experiencing in their apartments or their house that they're renting, when they're in some cases have landlords, they're not very responsive. And may in fact in many cases be out of town and not nearby or not very responsive to their needs. So there's an example of a couple of undergraduates that I am aware of that live in South Davis earlier this year when we had quite a bit of rainy weather. They had experienced sort of the buckling of their ceiling in their bathroom. It started to water to start pouring through the management for the apartment they were in was not responsive very much at all. It took them a long while to actually get some results and to get someone in there to actually work on fixing it. And this is actually in addition to the same apartment not having a working front door lock for well over a month as well. So I'm not sure that it's universal problem in Davis certainly. But I think it's definitely more, it happens more often than we're aware of. And I think a lot of students just sort of also put up with some of these issues and they don't necessarily, there's no real resource for them to go to in sort of one organized way to come to the city and say, hey, we're having issues here and how to seek sort of remedy for that. And also some sort of resources to help assist them. So it's very important. I imagine also with such a low vacancy rate that there might be some fear about if I make waves, if I report things, where am I going to live? Yes, so that brings up an important point. So where I think the vacancy rate really creates this issue is, if I know there are, and there are 10 people waiting in line for the apartment that I'm living in, I don't want to make too many waves. So when I complain and something isn't done, there are some regulations that apply statewide and also some county health regulations. But they ultimately assume that there's one path is to move out. Like, well, if the landlord's not cooperative, then you can move out. Or at some level, you can complain if there's something, there are a couple items, you have to have a working toilet, right? So, that's health code, right? It is, absolutely. But the remedy there, so the example I give is, we've got a group of students. There's eight of us living in a three-bedroom, two-bath home. Which is a common scenario. Sure, yeah. And one of the toilets doesn't work anymore. And you let the landlord know, hey, the toilet doesn't work. And they're like, yeah, I'll get there, right? I mean, because sometimes, so this is not to throw all the landlords under the bus. There are some apartment complexes and some single-family residential rentals. They are really on top of things. They run a very good operation. You call and complain or point something out. They're there very quickly within a day or two, making the repairs and everything kind of moves forward. But a lot of times, especially with the single-family rentals, anecdotally, we have people who kind of might own a home in Davis, but they live in Boston. And then they try to rent it remotely, and they're not really professionals. And they try to save a little money on property management. So, okay, one toilet's out. Well, I'll get the plumber out there a week later, it's not working. Okay, and then the second toilet goes out. Well, now we can actually do something. As long as you have a working toilet, they're not really in violation of any sort of state laws. Once the second toilet goes out, there is requirement that you have a working toilet, it's a safety issue, it's a health issue. But the remedy is you let the county know, and the county condemns the property as uninhabitable. So imagine you're a student, you're just finishing up midterms and getting ready for finals, and now what do you do? Do you really want to go to the county, complain that your apartment or house is uninhabitable, and then have to go find somewhere to live? It's a major life disruption, potentially. And then there's sort of lower tier things, so imagine your oven doesn't work. I don't know, do people really cook in ovens? I don't know, maybe. But it's out and three weeks later, it's still out, five weeks later, it's still not working, and you're like, well, what should I do? Do you really complain, and then the landlord will then say, well, you're kind of a complainer, so I'm gonna not renew your lease, and then someone else can move in. So there's kind of a variety of things. And then the city's not trying to micromanage the rental relationship, but have some basic reasonable standards and also set the basic expectations for the landlord, for the renter, and also for the neighbor. I mean, that's one of the nice things about this is there's components which address the neighbor's concerns, sort of rights and responsibilities. Landlords, rights and responsibilities, and also the tenants. And there's a nice balance between all three. So how would it work? I mean, those are some of the things it covers, but how would it work? How would it be funded? Who would be the players in it? So there's a couple of components. Maybe I'll just talk a little bit about it, maybe Lucas can fill in some of the details. So part of it is just an information resource. So landlords would register their properties, and they'd be required to. And as part of that, they would pay a fee. For multifamily residences, so apartment complexes, the maximum fee would be what we're proposing is $100 a year for the entire property. So if it's a 75-unit apartment complex or a 200-unit apartment complex, it's still just $100 a year for the entire complex. And not per unit. It's not an important distinction. So it's very modest. And for single-family residential rentals, and actually as an aside, about a third of the single-family residential units, homes, in Davis are rentals. So I mean, it's a very, very large, significant number of homes. But that would be set at $25. And the reason the prices are relatively low is the biggest piece is consolidating a lot of information. So if you're a landlord and your tenant's not behaving as you think they should, or you're concerned about, you know, landlord, what your landlord is doing, you can have this one-stop shop, which would be a website which would have that information, and then also just a little kiosk at City Hall. And there's nothing like this in place right now. That's correct, yeah. It's all very disparate. I mean, there are tiny bits here and there, but they're all, you have to really go search for everything, right, and nowhere to search. And both as neighbors and also as tenants and or landlords. So it's very important to sort of make this one-stop shopping sort of system. So we have everything, sort of that clearinghouse for all of this information to be together in one place, you know, resources for, you know, where to find housing. And for the first place, resources for folks dealing with code enforcement issues, right. I mean, things that might need to be addressed there. So all of that coming together under sort of one city umbrella website will be very helpful in- Dispute resolution as well. Absolutely. The city actually, that's a big part of it, I think. The city years ago had a mediation service set up. Yeah, and it was a city-funded program for a long, long time. Well, during the depths of the Great Recession, the city cut that program. You know, I mean, it was actually a very good program, but the funds were just not there to sort of continue to sustain it. And we had to take a look at, you know, many different types of programs and how to restructure. But out of the cutting of that program, a new nonprofit has actually formed here in Yolo County, the Yolo Conflict Resolution Center. And so this website that will be sort of under the city's umbrella will have direct contact and work with the Yolo Conflict Resolution Center to help connect folks for those types of services, some dispute resolution mediation type services between tenants and landlords or whomever. Yeah, so that would be the second sort of piece. So the first piece is just providing that information. The second is that resource. So before, like right now, if you have a dispute, really it sort of leads to small claims court. That's the only path. Pretty much. And so this would be the sort of intermediate step and more people would be able to take it and the Sacramento Rental Housing Association so they would provide some training for the mediators. So they would be really up on what the tenant landlord law is. So these aren't people just trying to reach an agreement for agreement's sake. They will actually be a good resource and say, hey, this is what the law is. And so, hey, I think your expectations are out of line or, wow, your expectations are in line. How come you guys aren't working together on this? And so there's the information piece and that mediation piece is very important. Sometimes it can be between roommates, right? I am on the name on the lease. You move in and you're supposed to pay me $500 and you didn't pay, but you were gone visiting your friend and there's this little squabble and it just sort of, all the roommates are going, whoa, what's going on, what do we do? Just having a mediator just to sit with and go, oh, okay, well, that seems like we could probably do that. We're down to our last couple of minutes so I do want to ask, what are you hearing out there in terms of support or any concerns about the proposal? So I was going to say, we've had a lot of conversations with folks, I mean, in the community neighborhood groups certainly, but also had major conversations with a lot of the landlords themselves, particularly the big sort of apartment landlords that were the big complexes and things, tandem properties and other folks. And they're cautiously optimistic that we're sort of going in the right direction. They were really concerned. They did not want to see a fee assessed on an individual apartment basis. And they also, and I think this is a very valid concern and something that we've really worked to address is they don't want also the assumption that everybody is sort of guilty from the beginning. This is supposed to be to help solve problems. So when there are issues that arise, we can actually address those as opposed to assuming that everybody is sort of falling into this category with that there are issues that need to be fixed. So there's one other important piece to this. And so apartments are purpose built for rental activity. And this will also include a inspection component for single family residences. So single family residents are, the use is different. It's different when a family lives there versus eight relative strangers all sort of moving in. And so one of the things that we've heard a lot about our illegal garage conversions, which could be, there could be some safety issues there. Yeah, people living in a garage with the gas water heater and a variety of things. And so one of the things that this does include is an inspection component for single family residential. So initially when we talked about it, we met with the people who are in charge of apartment complexes. They were sort of like, well, this inspection piece, look, we're designed to be rentals. We're designed to do what we're doing. Do we really need to do this? And what was nice in those conversations that Lucas and I had with the various interest groups is we were able to kind of really better understand what the current situation is. And the reality is, I think the lion's share of issues in terms of inspection needs are around the single family residential, which are converted from one use to another. And we've actually started to see, in many instances around Davis, situations where you have what was historically a single family residence that was a three or four bedroom house that has been carved inside into 10 bedrooms with 10 to 15 students. I would call them mini dorms. Well, actually the city even has a mini dorm ordinance that limits on the upper end, essentially around a six bedroom home. But what we've actually seen is illegal activity where there's these conversions going on and you've had situations of up to 12 plus bedrooms in the same footprint of essentially a three or four bedroom house. So that's of concern. That's of absolutely serious concern. Even if the codes are being followed inside the house, we can't have that sort of density and you can't have sort of, if it's a four bedroom house, you cannot have 12 bedrooms going on inside. That's just something that we've got to make sure that we're being attuned to both the neighbor's concerns and the community, but also landlords and also tenants and students' concerns. So trying to be balanced. Just very briefly. One of the things also from the neighbor's perspective is we will require that there be a local contact. So there'll be somebody within, let's call it 50 miles away, so that if there is an issue with the property, they'll have somebody they can contact, whether that's the owner or property management company, but somebody, there needs to be somebody responsible nearby. Who's not in Boston, for example. Not just the absentee sort of, yeah. PO Box, somewhere in the Bahamas, right. All right, so again, this is coming to council. Your expectation is on May 17th. And if people want to get more information, I assume cityofdavis.org, and there's a way to contact council members there, if you have questions. You can just kind of click on the links. I want to thank you both for coming in and talking about this. And by the way, we're happy to do this, have this kind of informal discussion on any topics of the day with any council members. So please consider it an open invitation. Oh, thank you. Thanks so much. You've been watching in the studio here at Davis Media Access. We've been talking about a proposed renters ordinance. And my guests have been Davis City Council members, Brett Lee and Lucas Frerichs. I want to thank them for joining us. See you next time.