AGENDA ITEM #17
TOWN OF FAIRFAX
STAFF REPORT
April 5, 2023
TO: Mayor and Town Council
FROM: Heather Abrams, Town Manager
SUBJECT: Update on Workshop on Just Cause Eviction Ordinance to be held May 6, 2023 __________________________________________________________________________________
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends that the Council receive the following update.
BACKGROUND
At the February 1, 2023 Council Meeting, Council decided to plan a workshop to discuss possible amendments to the Town’s Just Cause Evictions Ordinance adopted in November 2022. The Workshop will be held on Saturday, May 6, 2023, from 10:00 a.m. to approximately 3:00 p.m.
Participation will be via Zoom. The workshop will also be broadcast on the local government channel and livestreamed.
The workshop will be facilitated by CivicMakers and PlantoPlace. A special edition Town Newsletter will be released with an EventBrite link to register for the workshop and a preworkshop survey will be available to help the neutral facilitators prioritize the topics for discussion.
Civic Makers and Plan to Place are contracted with Marin County through grant funding as described in the financial impact section of this report. Plan to Place is a Marin-based firm. Many requests were received for a neutral facilitator, and Town staff are thankful to work with them as they can provide professional neutral facilitation of the workshop. The facilitators require a Zoom format to allow each person to speak equally without room sounds interfering. Because the new Brown Act rules do not allow the Town Council to meet via Zoom only, the Council will not be able to attend. The facilitators have committed to reporting to the Council at the next regularly scheduled Council Meeting, which is June 7, 2023. This will give the facilitators a reasonable amount of time to prepare their report for the Council, and the June 7 regularly scheduled Council Meeting format will allow the Council to speak in accordance with the Brown Act. The facilitators acknowledge that the Council would all like to attend, however, the format and the Brown Act do not allow it.
DISCUSSION
The workshop subcommittee, made up of Mayor Cutrano and Vice Mayor Coler, requested that staff prepare this update in order to communicate about the workshop, which is of great public interest. While this report is placed on the consent calendar because it is only an update, a regular agenda item regarding a residents petition for discussion regarding Town Code Chapters
5.54 and 5.55. (tenant protections) and a request to repeal both sections of the Code, appears 2 later in this agenda. (In addition, a citizen’s ballot initiative process is underway to repeal Town Code Chapters 5.54 and 5.55). If direction to repeal the Code sections is directed by the Council, staff requests the Council discuss whether the workshop should be postponed until further direction is provided as to the focus of the workshop.
FISCAL IMPACT
There is no direct fiscal impact of this workshop to the Town. The Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) Executive Board has allocated funds to support countywide housing collaboration through the Housing Working Group (HWG), which is composed of all local jurisdictions in Marin County, over three years. This money is to be used to fund technical assistance providers to support the HWG jurisdictions in accessing resources and creating tailored products and services to meet jurisdictional needs.