APPROVED AS TO FORM AND LEGALITY
___________________________
CITY ATTORNEY’S OFFICE
OAKLAND CITY COUNCIL
RESOLUTION NO. ______________ C.M.S.
INTRODUCED BY CITY COUNCIL PRESIDENT NIKKI FORTUNATO BAS, CITY ADMINISTRATOR ED REISKIN, AND CITY ATTORNEY BARBARA J.PARKER
RESOLUTION HONORING CHANÉE FRANKLIN MINOR FOR HER
OUTSTANDING SERVICE TO THE CITY OF OAKLAND AS MANAGER
OF THE CITY’S RENT ADJUSTMENT PROGRAM
WHEREAS, the mission of the Rent Adjustment Program (“Rent Program”) is to promote community stability, healthy housing, and diversity for Oakland’s residents, while preventing illegal rent increases and evictions, and ensuring a fair return for housing providers; and
WHEREAS, an effective Rent Program is essential to pr event displacement and slow gentrification, and
WHEREAS, from 2014 through 2018, the Rent Program suffered from leadership turnover, lack of resources, an enormous backlog of petitions and appeals, and increasing demand for services including increased numbers of petitions and appeals; and
WHEREAS, the City Auditor conducted a n audit of the Rent Program in fiscal year 2015-16 and identified numerous challenges the program faced including, among other things, insufficient staffing; the filing of increasing numbers of petitions and appeals ; inadequate case management, limited community outreach and education, and lack of training for Housing Residential Rent and Relocation Board (Rent Board) members, and inadequate funding; and:
WHEREAS, Chanée Franklin Minor became Manager of the Rent Program in October 2018 and immediately began work to improve the program, including improving efficiency, increasing access for the public , and instituting regular staff trainings and Rent Board trainings, and
WHEREAS, shortly after taking over management of the Rent Program, Chanée Franklin Minor demonstrated to the City Council the need for increase d resources and requested and obtained an increase in the R ent Program f ee allowing for hiring of additional staff and improvement of program processes, transparency, public outreach & education, and compliance; and
WHEREAS, Chanée Franklin Minor worked with the City Attorney’s Office to draft and develop the Rent Program Efficiency Ordinance that the Council adopted in August 2020 , amending the Rent Adjustment Ordinance to create efficiency and reduce appeal times by streamlining ap peals procedures and, among other things, imposing more stringent attendance requirements for Board Members; and
2 WHEREAS, within two years after Chanée Franklin Minor t ook the helm at the Rent Program, the backlog of petitions waiting to be processed and appeals waiting to be adjudicated was entirely eliminated ; and remarkably under Chanée Franklin Minor’s management the wait time for appeals was reduced from five months to 30 days; and
WHEREAS, under Chanée Franklin Minor’s stewardship, the Rent Program dramatically expanded its community education efforts and applied an equity approach to target the most vulnerable people in our City, increasing the number of community workshops conducted by Rent Program staff by eighty percent; conducting workshops in diverse neighborhoods across the City; and performing onsite housing counseling at community festivals including Art & Soul, The Juneteenth Celebration, the Chinatown Street Festival, Rockridge Out and About, Oaktoberfest, and the Dia de los Muertos Celebration in Fruitvale; and
WHEREAS, Chanée Franklin Minor substantially increased public access to the program by expanding the hours the Program is open to the public from 12 hours per week to 31 hours per week and increased the average number of counseling sessions from 262 per month to more than 420 per month; and
WHEREAS, under Chanée Franklin Minor’s leadership the Rent Program published its first Guide to Oakland Rental Housing Law, a comprehensive overview of state and lo cal law published in Spanish, English, and Chinese; and
.WHEREAS, under Chanée Franklin Minor’s guidance the Rent Program has also published sixteen new informational sheets on topics such as security deposits, rent control, the emergency moratorium, and eviction protections, all of which have been translated into Spanish and Chinese and published on the Rent Program website; and the Rent Program has developed and sent informational postcards regarding changes in the law to thousands of city residents including a postcard explaining the eviction moratorium that was sent to roughly 30,000 residents; and
WHEREAS, under Chanée Franklin Minor’s leadership the Rent Program developed a much needed database of eviction notices and a practice of sending “know your rights” materials to tenants who are served with eviction notices; and
WHEREAS, during her tenure at the Rent Program, Chanée Franklin Minor provided critical information and recommendations to Council that facilitated the enactment of several important pieces of legislation including multiple amendments to the Rent Adjustment Ordinance, amendments to the Tenant Protection Ordinance, the Eviction Moratorium Ordinance, the Consumer Price Index Rent Adjustment Ordinance, and the Rent Registry Ordinance; and
WHEREAS, during her tenure, Chanée Franklin Minor transformed the rent program from a passive enforcement program to an active enforcement model of rent regulation including community education; dispute resolution and mediation services, and rent registration and eviction tracking; and
WHEREAS, Chanée Franklin Minor was born and raised in Oakland, and is the daughter of Oakland Public School Teachers, Leda Harrison and Distinguished Educator Charles Franklin; and
WHEREAS, Chanée Franklin Minor is a graduate of UCLA, Cornell Law School, The American University of Paris, and New College at the University of Oxford where she received a certificate in International Human Rights Law; and
WHEREAS, Chanée Franklin Minor began her legal career a s a trial attorney at the Eviction Defense Center, subsequently was a Senior Staff Attorney for the City of Berkeley’s Rent Stabilization Board ; served as a policy advisor for housing and civil rights under former Congressman and Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums; and in 2011 Governor Jerry Brown appointed 3 Chanée Franklin Minor to the Fair Employment and Housing Commission where she took a leading role in developing regulations for California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act; and
WHEREAS, in 2012, the National Bar Association recognized Chanée Franklin Minor on its Top 40 Under 40 Nation’s Best Advocates; that same year, as a member of Obama for America’s Northern California Steering Committee, she was elected to represent the 13th Congressional District as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention; and in 2020 she was appointed to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights; and
WHEREAS, Chanée Franklin Minor’s thoughtful and steadfast stewardship of the Rent Program has won her the respect of both landlord advocates and tenant advocates; and
WHEREAS, Chanée Franklin Minor’s commitment to the community may only be surpassed by her love and devotion to her daughters, Anaya and Samara; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED: That the City Council, City Administrator, and City Attorney honor Chanée Franklin Minor and express their profound gratitude for her outstanding leadership of the Rent Adjustment Program and extraordinary service to the City of Oakland and its residents; and be it
FURTHER RESOLVED: That the City of Oakland thanks Chanée Franklin Minor for her vision, and the miraculous and lightning speed with which she transformed the Rent Program from a passive enforcement program to an active enforcement model of rent regulation including community education; dispute resolution and mediation services, and rent registration and eviction tracking.
IN COUNCIL, OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA,
PASSED BY THE FOLLOWING VOTE:
AYES - FIFE, GALLO, KALB, KAPLAN, REID, TAYLOR, THAO AND
PRESIDENT FORTUNATO BAS
NOES –
ABSENT –
ABSTENTION –
ATTEST:
ASHA REED
City Clerk and Clerk of the Council of the
City of Oakland, California
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