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The City Council agreed Tuesday to appoint three new members to two of its advisory committees: one member to the Rental Housing Committee (RHC) and two members to the Environmental Planning Commission (EPC).
The council settled on alternate incumbent Alex Brown for the RHC, in a 5-2 vote, with Council members Lisa Matichak and Margaret Abe-Koga voting for Mark Balch, a Google product manager and residential rental property owner.
Incumbent Alex Nuñez secured another term on the EPC with five votes. The remaining votes were split evenly between Paul Donahue, a Ventana Micro Systems engineer, and Silja Paymer, a Los Altos High School teacher.
Donahue prevailed in the tie-breaking vote, 4-3, with Council members Abe-Koga, Matichak, Emily Ann Ramos and Pat Showalter voting in his favor.
The Rental Housing Committee
An unscheduled vacancy recently left the RHC with one open seat that is set to expire in April 2025. A pool of five Mountain View residents applied for it, offering a range of perspectives and experiences, with some throwing their hat in the ring for the first time while others, like Brown, have served on city advisory committees before.
During the interview, the council asked candidates to reflect on the biggest issues that they see facing the RHC in the future. Several candidates described the city’s aging housing stock and the retrofits needed in upcoming years.
They also touched on the issue of RUBS – a ratio utility billing system – that, at recent RHC meetings, has pitted tenants and property owners against each other. Landlords have largely favored RUBS, citing its ease of use and conservation benefits, while tenants have found the system confusing and out of step with the city’s rent stabilization laws.
Recognizing these complexities, the candidates described the importance of the RHC in implementing the Community Stabilization and Fair Rent Act (CSFRA) equitably, as well as its role in adjudicating housing disputes.
With his previous experience as an alternate, Brown emerged as a favored candidate for the committee appointment. Brown highlighted his in-depth reading of the CSFRA and, as a mobile home owner, his knowledge of the city’s Mobile Home Rent Stabilization Ordinance.
For Brown, the role of the RHC is to interpret and implement these laws. “The RHC is there because text is ambiguous. And it needs a person to actually work through and exercise the rights. The RHC is there to implement and make functional what the voters passed, and also what the council passed,” he said.
Balch emphasized the importance of administering housing laws and saw the RHC as facilitating this process, particularly in cases of housing conflict. He also drew attention to his experience as a rental property owner and manager, a position that Matichak found compelling, given that the RHC does not have any landlords or property owners on the committee.
“It is important to have somebody who represents the property owner, the landlord, as the full member on the RHC,” she said, in support of Balch’s candidacy.
With Brown’s new appointment to the RHC, an opening has been created for an alternate position, which the city plans to advertise soon.
Brown is replacing the partial term of Kirin Madison and will join committee members Edie Keating, Guadalupe Rosas, Robert Cox and Kevin Ma.
The Environmental Planning Commission
Three candidates vied for two open seats on the EPC, with incumbent Nuñez securing another full term and newcomer Donahue edging out Paymer in a tie-breaking vote.
The EPC gives key direction to issues of land use and zoning, with a particular focus on the long-term plans of the city’s development and often weighs in on projects with recommendations about environmental stewardship.
Although coming from different backgrounds, the three candidates largely aligned in their responses to council’s questions about what they saw as good land use and how it can improve the city’s development.
Nuñez fielded the first response, stating that good land use improved the quality of life for residents, not just in the present moment but also in the future.
Donahue and Paymer picked up on these themes, also stating that land use was about people and improving lives, with Paymer adding that good land use also meant being very conscious about how space is used.
When asked about what particular contributions they would bring to the commission, each of the candidates drew on their extensive experience participating in civic forums.
Nuñez referred to his previous contributions to the EPC, working on different precise and general plans, while adding that he brought a unique generational perspective to the committee that also represented many of the experiences of the city’s low-income Hispanic community.
Donahue, a long-time Mountain View resident, referred to his 30 years of combined experience serving on city and county commissions and committees, such as the Parks and Recreation Commission, Downtown Committee, Board of Library Trustees and the Santa Clara County Airport Land Use Commission.
For several of the council members, these experiences swayed their decision to support his appointment to EPC.
Paymer, a frequent contributor to council meeting and committee discussions, described herself as a bicyclist with a green perspective. Her advocacy work has largely focused on attending Development Review Committee meetings, she said, and she is very familiar with development projects coming down the pipeline.
Other topics the candidates aligned on included intentional thinking about how to create walkable, bikeable, pedestrian friendly terrain that was more inclusive of housing and less focused on office space.
While council members largely agreed to reappoint Nuñez, they split on Donahue and Paymer, expressing preferences for the different strengths that each candidate would bring to the commission.
“I think there’s an argument for voting for somebody with a lot of experience, but also an argument for opening it up to somebody who hasn’t had an opportunity in the past, when they do a great job of interviewing and have been an activist,” Mayor Alison Hicks said.
Ultimately, Donahue won the tie-breaking vote against Paymer, in a vote of 4-3.
Donahue will replace Preeti Hehmeyer and will join Nuñez, Chris Clark, Hank Dempsey, Jose Gutierrez and Joyce Yin in January. Both terms are set to expire in December 2027.
How can you have a committee to regulate rent and understand the business if no person owns property, let alone no one is a landlord?
“the RHC does not have any landlords or property owners on the committee”
If you own a home in town in MV pay attention to what’s going on here because they’re going to eventually include all homes, so you’re going to lose the option to rent your home if you need to.
No Jay – what are your credentials as a “fortune teller”? a homeowner, unafraid of future
Filling in the new backup RHC commissioner – yes a landlord/property manager would be a good well-rounding choice. I would say an imperative now.