Mediation effort fails on close vote Mediation effort fails on close vote (March 25, 2005)

Landlords could say campaign donations paid off

By Jon Wiener

Two groups of apartment owners, regularly among the largest contributors to city council candidates, won a surprising victory earlier this month when the city reversed its position on landlord-tenant mediation.

Tri-County Apartment Association and Mountain View Housing Council gave nearly $7,000 in the last two city council campaigns, with the bulk of that money going to current council members.

But the one council member who did not take money from either group, Greg Perry, proved to be the decisive vote on March 8. The council voted 4-3 to reject a staff proposal to study the effectiveness of the current mediation program and potentially alter it to make participation mandatory.

If the proposal had passed without any changes as expected, the city's program would have remained both voluntary and non-binding without further action by the council.

Perry told the Voice he voted no because he did not think mandatory mediation was the best way to protect renters. But he said the issue was a perfect example of the potential problems that arise when council members accept contributions from lobbyists.

"I definitely think it looks bad," said Perry. "People are going to look at that and wonder if they would have looked at (mediation) the same."

Advocates from both sides of the issue spoke to the council at the meeting, and those backing the renters left with a sour taste in their mouths.

"They were giving much higher credibility to what the apartment owners were saying," said Philip Cosby, a volunteer with Peninsula Interfaith Action.

Council members rejected the suggestion that the donations might be enough to sway their votes. The four who voted against the proposed study -- Perry, Laura Macias, Tom Means and Matt Pear -- consistently oppose added regulations on businesses and property owners, and expressed concern about spending staff time studying something they were likely to oppose. Three other recipients of landlord money -- Nick Galiotto and Mike Kasperzak and Matt Neely -- supported the mediation proposal.

Kasperzak, who frequently disagrees with Perry, has twice earned the endorsements of Tri-County despite his open advocacy of mandatory mediation. Though he was disappointed in the results of the vote, he refused to link the decision to the campaign contributions, warning against what he called "ethical McCarthyism."

"If people aren't going to have faith that their elected officials can be fair and principled, then we probably need to get rid of the system, period," said Kasperzak.

Laura Macias, who accepted a $500 donation from the Housing Council last summer after the group endorsed her candidacy, said she voted against the staff proposal because it was biased in favor of mandatory mediation.

"I'd be a pretty tacky person if I was basing whom I listen to on who contributed to my campaign," added Macias.
Renter advocates call for relief

Mountain View runs its free mediation program under a contract with Project Sentinel. In the last fiscal year, the organization handled 239 disputes, with 39 going through the complete mediation process.

The idea for a mandatory program, similar to Palo Alto's, started gaining steam around the height of the dot-com boom when market forces were driving long-time renters out of their homes.

"People were getting evicted who lived in their units for 17 years, and they had no one to talk to. They simply had to pick up and move," remembered housing activist Cosby. The concept of mandatory mediation was included in the city's 2002 "housing element" plan and later listed as a city goal last year.

Affordable-housing advocates say the current lull in the rental housing market is the perfect time to make any necessary changes to the program. Despite this recent defeat, they can expect Council member Perry to make a proposal to require landlords to disclose their track record on security deposits.

"We can't devote ourselves full-time to getting the council to adopt a mandatory-mediation ordinance," said Cosby. "We're just volunteers."

E-mail Jon Wiener at jwiener@mv-voice.com

How the council voted on mandatory mediation
Council member Vote Landlord contributions* Nick Galiotto Aye $1,550 (2002 and 2004) Mike Kasperzak Aye $750 (1998 and 2002) Laura Macias Nay $1,00 (2004) Tom Means Nay $500 (2004) Matt Neely Aye $200 (2002) Matt Pear Nay $1,500 (2000 and 2004) Perry Nay $0 (2002)
* Total reported contributions from the Tri-County Apartment Association and the Mountain View Housing Council

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