Rental Housing Board OKs Authorizing City Council to Approve Its Annual Budget, City Manager to Hire and Fire Its Staff

The Pasadena Rental Housing Board (PRHB) on Wednesday unanimously approved an amended term sheet containing the Board’s specific requests related to the integration of the Board as City department.

While the Measure H charter amendment provides that the Board is an integral part of the City, it operates independently from the City Council, City Manager and City Attorney.

The Board has decided to move forward with the integration of the PRHB as City department to resolve concerns regarding staffing and procurement by the Board which were not addressed in the Measure H charter amendment.

The term sheet provides that the PRHB would be a separate department of the City to be called Rent Stabilization Department.

The Department Director and all other staff of PRHB will be employees of the City hired in accordance with standard City process.

PRHB will provide the job description for the Department Director to be approved by the City Council. The Board will interview candidates and recommend to the City manager the appointment of the Department Director.

The Department Director is expected to participate in the hiring of the staff, whose job descriptions will also be approved by the City Council.

At the meeting, the Board decided to add a provision in the term sheet which would require the City Manager to consult with the Board prior to disciplining or terminating the Department Director.

As per the term sheet, PRHB procurements will be subject to City charter requirements that require certain contracts be subject to competitive bidding process.

Under the charter, contracts that are exempted from a competitive bidding process include personal service contracts, contracts that are under $75,000, contracts with other governmental entities and contracts for unique services. 

As a department of the City, the term sheet also provides that the PRHB’s annual budget, funded through the Rental Housing Fee the Board will set, will be subject to the City budget approval process.

The term sheet also requires the City to provide furnished office space for the Rent Stabilization Department and provide other support similar to other City departments.

At the meeting, public commenter and local Realtor Adam Bray-Ali criticized the Board for moving forward with the integration of the PRHB as City department even as the Measure H charter amendment provides it should be independent from City Council.

“Measure H was written specifically to not be a City department. It was specifically designed to be separate from the City and not be subject to any oversight by the City Council or the City Manager and within just a few short months of meeting, obviously there’s some challenges with making these things all work without resources but members of the Board and people who are supporting the Board wrote this,” Ali said. 

“It seems this is a really ill guided attempt to abdicate your responsibilities as the rental housing Board under your own charter. Measure H is really specific. Your role is to do these things. By trying to now pawn it off on the City it seems as if you’re not actually doing what you had agreed to take on when you became members of the rental housing Board.”

Responding to the comment, Chair Ryan Bell said other jurisdictions also have the rental Board as City department.

“In every jurisdiction I’m aware of, the rent stabilization program is a department of a City. I don’t know what it would be a part of if it wasn’t part of the City.”

“To date, we haven’t had any recommendations or any other alternative ways to handle this. I think the intent as I understand it is for the program to be an integral part of the City government.” 

The term sheet will be presented to the City Council before its December break, according to Board documents.