DATE:
December 12, 2023
CATEGORY:
New Business
DEPT.:
City Clerk’s Office
TITLE: Selection and Appointment of Rental
Housing Committee Alternate Member
RECOMMENDATION
Adopt a Resolution of the City Council of the City of Mountain View Appointing Either Mark Balch or Li Zhang to Serve as the Alternate Member of the Rental Housing Committee, to be read in title only, further reading waived (Attachment 3 to the Council report).
BACKGROUND
The Rental Housing Committee (RHC) consists of five members and one alternate. The alternate member is permitted to attend all RHC meetings and to speak but is not authorized to vote unless a regular member of the RHC is absent at that meeting or is recused from voting on an agenda item. No more than two members of the RHC may own or manage any rental property or be real estate agents or developers.
The City Clerk’s Office conducted a recruitment to fill one vacancy on the RHC (unexpired term ending April 17, 2025) . Applications for Mark Balch, Alex Brown, Amanda Garley, Edith Gomez Marin, and Li Zhang were received for the RHC opening . On October 17, 2023, the Council interviewed the five applicants for the vacancy and recommended that Alex Brown be appointed out of the alternate position. On November 7, 2023, Alex Brown was appointed to the Rental Housing Committee as a full member. The names and term expiration dates for the current RHC members are as follows:
Name Term Expiration
Alex Brown April 17, 2025
Robert Cox April 17, 2027
Edie Keating April 17, 2027
Kevin Ma April 17, 2025
M. Guadalupe Rosas April 17, 2025
Vacancy—Alternate April 17, 2027
Selection and Appointment of Rental Housing Committee Alternate Member December 12, 2023
The appointment of Alex Brown created a vacancy in the alternate member position. Pursuant to Government Code § 54974, the City Clerk’s Office posted an unscheduled vacancy notice between November 8 and November 27, 2023. No additional applications were submitted to the City Clerk’s Office for the alternate member vacancy. Of the four remaining applicants from the October 17, 2023 interview session, the applications for Mark Balch (Attachment 1) and Li Zhang (Attachment 2) have been forwarded to the Council for the alternate member vacancy as the only applicants that indicated interest. Both Mark Balch and Li Zhang fall into the category of owning or managing rental property or are real estate agents or deve lopers. The Council may consider recommending a member who owns or manages rental property or is a real estate agent or developer as no current member falls into this category.
NEXT STEPS
Pursuant to City Council Policy K -2, applicants being considered for appointment to the Committee must be interviewed at least once to qualify for appointment. Since the applicants for consideration for the alternate member to the RHC were recently interviewed by the Council at its October 17 meeting, staff recommends the Council forgo an additional round of interviews.
Each Councilmember should vote for the applicant of their choice by ballot. Ballots will be collected, and the City Clerk will publicly announce each Councilmember’s vote, after which time a motion should be made to adopt the resolution appointing that applicant with the most votes to serve as the alternate member to the Rental Housing Committee.
ALTERNATIVES
Instead of selecting one of the applicants presented, the Council may direct the City Clerk’s Office to conduct a new, full recruitment for the alternate member to the Rental Housing Committee.
Selection and Appointment of Rental Housing Committee Alternate Member December 12, 2023
PUBLIC NOTICING
Agenda posting and a courtesy notification to all applicants.
Prepared by:
Heather Glaser
City Clerk
Approved by:
Kimbra McCarthy
City Manager
HG/6/CAM
428-12-12-23CR
203700
Attachments: 1. Balch Redacted Application
2. Zhang Redacted Application
3. Resolution of Appointment