The City Council is scheduled to discuss rent stabilization and other tenant-related issues at its Tuesday, Jan. 5, meeting. To ensure seating is available for a larger audience, the city has changed the location of the meeting from the Council Chambers at City Hall to the Kofman Auditorium in the Historic Alameda High School, 2200 Central Ave.

Doors will open at 5 p.m. and speaker slips will be available at that time. The council will sit in closed session at 5:30 p.m. and the regular meeting will begin at 7 p.m. The city stated in a press release that it will implement an alternating speaker slip system to ensure everyone has equal access and time to speak.

“While the rent review process is the primary agenda item, this is a regular City Council meeting with other business to address as well,” the city stated. The agenda and staff reports are available at www.alamedaca.gov/agendas. 

Because broadcast facilities are not available at Kofman Auditorium, the city will not broadcast the meeting live on television. Instead the city will web-stream the meeting live for viewing at www.alamedaca.gov/live-webcast-city-meetings.  

The City Council faces a range of options to enhance tenant protections. According to the city these include a combination of:

• Reviewing rent increases
• Limiting the grounds for evictions
• Requiring relocation assistance for certain evictions 
• Stabilizing rent for certain rental units.

At the Jan. 5 meeting the Council will also consider extending a 65-day ordinance it passed in the early morning hours of Thursday, Nov. 5 after a heated meeting the led to two arrests (“Renters Storm City Hall, Get Moratorium,” Nov. 12). 

That ordinance placed a moratorium on both rent increases over 8 percent for certain rental properties and on evictions from all rental properties except for just cause. This emergency ordinance is scheduled to expire on Jan. 7. The council might vote to extend it for an additional 60 days.