Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Housing Committee Process topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Local housing providers tell council advisory committee processes sideline landlords and providers
Summary
Several housing providers and property managers told the council on Oct. 20 that recent Housing Advisory Committee meetings compressed dozens of items into single agenda packages and did not adequately include housing providers input, asking the council to review the committee's procedures.
Multiple housing providers and a property-industry commenter told the Albany City Council on Oct. 20 that recent Housing Advisory Committee meetings had grouped many policy proposals into single agenda items and had not given housing providers sufficient time or attention to respond.
Francesco Papalia, who said he has worked in real estate for more than three decades and has lived in Albany since 1987, addressed the council during public comment and asked members to review how the Housing Advisory Committee has been operating. Papalia said a Sept. 3 agenda had lumped 15 new policies into one item and allowed three minutes of public comment total for the entire block of policies, effectively restricting public input on each proposal.
"It is unnecessary that it was all lumped together," Papalia said. "It could have easily been subdivided." He and other commenters told the council they feared the committees processes would skew policy discussions away from perspectives of housing providers.
Saya Farhtala, another housing-provider commenter who had submitted a letter to the council, urged the council to review the Sept. 3 meeting video and consider whether the committee makeup and processes were producing balanced recommendations. Farhtala said housing providers who attend advisory meetings often feel their voices are not considered and warned that recommendations not grounded in practical realities would be difficult to implement.
Council members acknowledged the concerns and said the council would review the letters and the meeting videos. The city managers office told the council that future policy items would be presented to the council in formats that allow sufficient study and public engagement, including through study sessions if needed.
No specific procedural changes were adopted Oct. 20; councilmembers and staff said they would evaluate the concerns and could return to the committees procedures in a future agenda when appropriate.
