City attorney: "[The ordinance] provides what we believe is a mid-ground between the various sides... It's not as extreme as what ARCH recommended overall but it would provide a little bit more notice to tenants to help them out w/ planning."
Conversation
Council question time! The very first question, from CM Hall: "We don't know what Bellevue's going to do, do we?"
City attorney, who says she talked w/ Bellevue city attorney today: "Their Council has not taken this up...They have no imminent plans to consider any of these."
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CM Marts makes the motion to approve the ordinance and mentions how in committee, the problem they were trying to solve was giving people more notice to plan given how tight housing is. Says the ordinance helps bring more consistency w/ other jurisdictions.
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CM de Michele says housing is a sensitive issue but notes that this ordinance is specifically limited in scope. Notes the impact it would have on families needing to search for new housing, likely outside of Issaquah. Says the ordinance is "a homelessness prevention measure."
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Mayor Pauly asks who bears the costs of enforcement. City attorney explains that it just creates an additional condition to the private agreement between landlord & tenant, meaning it could serve as another condition for a nullification of the contract.
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CM Joe expresses concerns that the ordinance would encourage landlords to aim for higher increases. Says the courts would need to know what conditions are applicable in each jurisdiction, implying that this would be difficult for a judge.
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"If I'm sitting as a pro tem judge in court, how am I gonna know which law applies? You got an Issaquah address, but you've got a number of Issaquah addresses that are Sammamish, some that are outside the city. How's the judge supposed to know which provisions apply?"
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IANAL but is it really that weird of an expectation for judges, the literal arbiters of law, to know the law and understand the basic concept of city boundaries?
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City attorney says it's a valid point and says that outreach to tenants to inform them of this law would be important to ensure it has an impact.
Joe says city hasn't evaluated all the parts of the landlord-tenant laws that this could have an impact on.
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CM Joe moves to postpone this discussion until November 7th b/c he wants to see if Bellevue takes this issue on. CM de Michele clarifies that Issaquah's current ordinance only has notice provisions for >3% increases, not separate ones for >10% increases like what was implied.
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CM Marts says he's not sure what waiting for Bellevue would do when so many other jurisdictions have already passed protections. Says the ordinance is simple in its focus and that he would be nervous trying to pack other issues into it, like homelessness and evictions.
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CM Hunt believes the city has the data it needs to vote tonight. Says the YOY rent increases being some of the highest in the state are enough data. Says that there's simplicity in trying to be consistent across jurisdictions instead of finding an Issaquah-specific solution.
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CM de Michele says the ordinance is "a very modest action that will help some people make better arrangements for their lives... Let's just take this simple action and deal with the complexities [afterwards]."
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Council President Walsh says she came in tonight undecided. Says she'd consider postponing to consider the other two items, but says that's not what this motion to postpone was about. Taking action tonight would not stop Council from having another conversation down the line.
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Back to the main motion, but first, CM Hunt says she'll make an additional motion after the ordinance to research the other ARCH recommendations. Cites maintaining consistency with Redmond & other jurisdictions.
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CM Joe says he concerned the motion on the table would increase the cost of providing rental units. Says putting more uncertainty for landlords will increase prices overall. Keeps describing the increased notice as a "tax on apartments", which it is not.
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CM Hall says "he really wants to get to yes," but cites lack of data. Says he needs to understand the impacts that high YOY rent increases are having and needs to see that borne out in the data. "I don't think it's a bad policy...but I'll be voting no."
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Ordinance to require a 120 day notice to tenants for rent increases >3% passes on a 4-2 vote. CMs de Michele, Hunt, Marts, and Walsh vote in support.
CM Hunt then makes her motion to have a Council Committee review ARCH recommendations for late fees & move-in fees.
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Main factor for her is that other ARCH cities adopted these other requirements recently. Emphasizes consistency between jurisdictions & using a regional approach.
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CM de Michele, who is on that committee, says she previously didn't support the other two parts moving forward but would want the opportunity to reconsider. Would want to consider other solutions and wouldn't want to be bound to just ARCH's solutions.
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CM Marts says he "will need help from [staff]" on understanding relationships between affordability and the recommended provisions. Says he won't know how to determine the legitimacy of opposing sides on the issue otherwise. Is supportive of having the further conversation.
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Mayor asks that the scope of the motion be expanded so that the staff can deliver more concrete data, "otherwise this is just stories." Wants the ordinance to go to the Committee of the Whole instead.
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CP Walsh supports this going back to the Committee on Services, Safety & Parks. Says the city knows the data on the scope of the problem but not necessarily the potential impacts of the proposed solutions.
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After a Q from CM Hall, CM Hunt says the committee could end up recommending things beyond ARCH's proposals.
Vote to bring other tenant protection issues back to the Committee on Services, Safety, & Parks passes unanimously 6-0. With that, I end my tweeting. Thanks for reading.
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