A rental board member deemed ineligible by the City Attorney’s office signed an affidavit explaining eligibility rules for the position.
As part of her application for the rental board, Brenda Lyon signed a form 700 that explains members are ineligible if they managed rental property, among other things, three years prior to being appointed to the board.
Lyon also listed her experience in rental property management on her resume, which was included as part of her Feb. 11 application for the board.
According to that application, Lyon worked for Ziprent Management from 2022 to 2025.
The application packet was included in City Council agendas for the May 11 meeting with included a statement about her work.
“Before the recent Eaton Fires, I was a Sr. Manager of the original core staff of a rapidly growing online property management company that handled full service listings, showings, property management, repairs, turnovers, relisting, and lease renewals of rental units,” Lyon’s statement said. “Each city boasted their own ever changing ordinances that we had to keep up to date on. It was a daily balance to be the peacemaker and liaison between owners and tenants.
“There were many heated arguments, phone calls and emails on a daily basis that we had to deescalate. I truly understand the challenges on a large and small scale that landlords face when dealing with trying to increase rents to match the costs they face on a local and federal level for taxes, fees, utilities and upkeep. I also watch the widespread rent increases of the last decade that have doubled and tripled all across the United States that not many tenants can afford.”
Only Councilmember Rick Cole asked Lyon about her experience in property management at the meeting.
“I was working in all avenues,” Lyon said. “I was a liaison between landlords and tenants. So my day-to-day was dealing with every aspect of rentals, listening to tenants and landlords. So we would go through the leases, we would go through moving in, moving out.”
After the City Council voted to place Lyon on the board, the Pasadena City Attorney’s office informed her by letter that she is ineligible to serve as an alternate tenant member because of her work in property management three years prior to her appointment.
The May 28 letter signed by Deputy City Attorney Allysa B. Martinez cites Article XVIII of the City Charter, which bars tenant members and alternate tenant members from having a “Material Interest in Rental Property” at the time of appointment or during their service on the board.
“Although you indicated on your application that you did not have a Material Interest in Rental Property, the broad definition of that term in the City’s Charter controls, and it includes your recent employment at a property management company,” Martinez wrote. “Given this Material Interest in Rental Property, you are not eligible to serve as an Alternate Tenant Member on the Pasadena Rental Housing Board.”
According to the City Charter, a board member must resign within five days if they gain material interest in rental property.
Committee, commission and board members serve at the pleasure of the City Council and in most cases, can be removed by a vote of the Council.
Lyon disclosed her property management background throughout the process and has questioned why concerns about her eligibility surfaced only after her appointment.
Get our daily Pasadena newspaper in your email box. Free.
Get all the latest Pasadena news, more than 10 fresh stories daily, 7 days a week at 7 a.m.
