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HomeMy WebLinkAbout19-City Administrator Sf!..., CITY OF SAN BER.RDINO - REQUEST .R COUNCIL ACTION From: Peggy Ducey ~City Administration DM~ May 31, 1995 Subject: Agreement between City and Campbell DeLong ResourGes to Develop Landlord Certification Manual Synopsis of Previous Council action: December, 1994 - Mayor and Council approved Rental Housing Program. Recommended motion: Adopt resolution. . ~ L m s;,-;z Contact person: D~i)g~t n",...Al' Phone: <;, ?? Supporting data attached: yes Ward: FUNDING REOUIREMENTS: Amount: $?3. 1 fiO 00 Source: (Acct. No.) 001-177-5502 (Acct. Description) General F~ ~ Finance: ~~ k c.otes: ~(!~~ 6/;qhS -#3f, I I .J Reo') q6~d.~O 7/loI9S" . Agenda Item No. /' . 75-0262 . . . . . STAFF REPORT In December of 1994, the Mayor and Common Council approved the San Bernardino Rental Housing Program. Since that time, preparations have been underway for the start of rental property inspections, as well as property owner training and certification. During the owner training, a Landlord Training Manual will be distributed that contains all the material covered in the training. Topics include tenant screening, crime prevention through environmental design, warning signs of drug activity, and the eviction process. The manual is not a substitute for the advice of an attorney; however, it serves as an important reference for owners once the training has been completed. A National Landlord Training Manual was originally developed for the City of Portland, oregon by Campbell DeLong Resources, Inc. The manual was developed under a federal Department of Justice grant and has served as the basis for other similar programs throughout the nation, including the program in Mesa, Arizona. The need for a specific manual for the City of San Bernardino has become apparent as staff has examined both the Mesa and Portland owner training programs. While Mesa has developed a very effective program, it is not easily transferrable to California, where landlord-tenant laws differ significantly. Similarly, the manual distributed in Portland incorporates specific Portland ordinances and other Oregon law. Staff is recommending that the City contract for the services of Campbell DeLong Resources, Inc., to develop a Landlord Manual and training program for the City of San Bernardino. The manual will incorporate California landlord-tenant law and applicable city ordinances. The consultant will also interview members of the community and City officials to gain a perspective on the issues facing San Bernardino. Not only will the San Bernardino manual be an important tool for the success of the Rental Housing Program, but the City will then be able to make the manual available to other agencies throughout California. While other jurisdictions have begun similar rental housing programs, no comprehensive manual has yet been developed in the state. By making our manual available for a fee, the potential exists for the City to recoup some of the costs of its development. Based on the number of calls the city Administrator's office has received from other agencies regarding our program, it is expected that the manual will be in demand. In addition to developing the manual, campbell DeLong will assist in conducting the first two landlord training classes in San Bernardino. The firm has significant background in conducting training classes, and has developed a training video for national distribution. Drawing on that experience, the first two landlord training sessions will be an important training time for the . . . . . Program Coordinator and other City staff, who will ultimately serve as trainers themselves. This quality instruction will help to ensure that this portion of the Rental Housing Program is effective in meeting the needs of the community. The consultant is also proposing that San Bernardino become its national training center for future "train the trainer" classes. Campbell DeLong is in the process of obtaining another Department of Justice grant to develop such classes, which would be offered to other agencies that plan to begin their own crime-free rental housing programs. The classes would be held in San Bernardino, using the City's program as a model. This would provide an excellent opportunity to showcase the City as a leader in using innovative means to address community problems. The cost of the manual development and training program is $23,150. Upon approval, development of the manual will take approximately 12 weeks, and landlord training could be expected to begin on within 4 weeks of contract approval. Funds are available from the allocation originally set aside for this Rental Housing Program. . . . . . SCOPE OF WORK: CAMPBELL DELONG RESOURCES, INC. MANUAL DEVELOPMENT The training manual is the foundation on which the program stands. Hands-on development of the Crime Free Mult-Housing Program begins by making sure that you have a program manual that is accurate, fair, effective, and readable. Hiring us to do the work will ensure that San Bernardino will get a high quality manual that meets all program requirements. The work will include: 1. Review state and local landlord/tenant law and revise manual draft. In order for the manual and course content to match San Bernardino's issues, the course must be tailored to state statutes and local ordinances. The first step is to review California's landlord/tenant law, civil rights law, and related law. In addition, San Bernardino may have additional laws specific to landlord/tenant situations - for example, defining additional protected classes, limiting rent increases, or requiring certain types of "cause" for eviction. Based on a review of state and local law, we will prepare a working draft of the manual for use during the field research phase. 2. Review of rental customs and practices. In addition to manual revisions that derive directly from differences in law, we will also incorporate other changes into the manual to assure it meets the needs of San Bernardino. These elements will be worked into the manual as they are uncovered - some will found during the field research phase, others will be apparent prior to that. Those changes will address: ~ Market/" cultural" differences. Every state is different. Every city is different. The most effective manual will do more than simply incorporate legal differences. An effective manual must also reflect the character and culture of landlord and tenant practices. For example, in every jurisdiction we have worked with, there are unique rental practices in use that are not required by law, but simply pennitted by law. To be effective, we must understand these practices, and develop a manual and training within this context. ~ Changing emphasis where appropriate. Many issues that are pressing in one city don't matter as much in another - for example types of drugs and methods of distribution vary surprisingly. Civil rights issues, while generally regulated by similar laws across the country, will have different characteristics, histories, and case law guiding the understanding and application of the law in each jurisdiction. These and other issues need to be examined and adjusted to make your manual most effective. ~ Other resources. Appendix materials and other references throughout the manual will be reviewed and developed to make sure appropriate information is included. 3. Interview area "experts." To research the issues noted above, we must know how the law is typically applied and the specific techniques used to meet the challenges of managing residential housing in San Bernardino. Therefore, research with local "experts" is needed. After we develop the initial draft of the manual, we will conduct interviews by phone and 2 Campbell Delong Resources, Inc. . . . . . in person with appropriate "experts" in San Bernardino. Examples of likely interview subjects include representatives from: ~ Local property management associations. ~ Housing Authority /Section 8 coordinators. ~ Landlords who have had problems, and those who have found solutions. ~ Legal aid attorneys/tenant advocates. ~ Landlord attorneys. ~ Neighborhood activists or citizen participation personnel who deal with neighborhood livability problems. ~ Housing code enforcement personnel. ~ Police personnel (how to get records, search warrant data, drug enforcement policies, whom to call, etc.) ~ "Wildcards" - representatives from innovative property management and/or screening companies, neighborhood organizers, independent defense attorneys. These are people whose identities often become apparent as the initial interviews are conducted. This process will necessarily require flexibility as information is uncovered. We will work closely with San Bernardino to identify potential interview candidates. We anticipate up to five days of interviewing and research to be conducted on-site, with additional and follow- up interviews conducted by phone in the weeks after. To ensure full transfer of training knowledge it is very important that your local trainer participate in the on-site interviews. 4. Make necessary manual revisions. Compile and review all research results, review manual, revise based on input. 5. Final review. Distribute manual to previously interviewed "experts" and ask for feedback. 6. Collect feedback, make final revisions, check details as appropriate with experts by phone. Collect clean copies of landlord/tenant law and other applicable statutes and ordinances. Compile the manual and present to your local coordinators for printing. At the conclusion of the manual development process, San Bernardino will have a complete, photo-ready manual prepared for publication. The manual will also be delivered to the City of San Bernardino on disk, in Word for Windows 6.0 format. It will the City of San Bernardino's responsibility to publish - copy and bind - the final document published. REGARDING THE "CRIME FREE" LEASE ADDENDUM We will develop a draft of a crime free lease addendum based on California law. As we discussed by phone, the nature California law is not likely to permit the same type of addendum that Arizona allows. Nevertheless, a very powerful addendum can be created that will provide substantially the same screening impact as the Arizona version. We will also add 3 Campbell Delong Resources, Inc. . . . . some lease addendum elements that have proved successful in reducing the likelihood of tenants deciding to move in unauthorized occupants after they take possession of the rental - one of the most common avenues for the introduction of illegal activity onto rental property. We will develop a draft. We recommend that San Bernardino provide the legal review necessary prior to promoting it in its training. (The issue here is that, unlike the rest of training, this is the one area where San Bernardino will be recommending a specific document, with specific legal language, to be used by all trainees.) While you can pay us to hire such legal advice, we are certain that you have access to less expensive legal advice that we can obtain as a private company from out of state. CONDUCTING THE TRAININGS/SKILLS TRANSFERENCE When done in the context of the Crime Free Multi-Housing Program, the point of the "Phase I" training should be two fold: 1) to ensure that as many trainees as possible are inspired to go onto complete Phases II and III, and 2) to ensure that, regardless of whether they go on to the additional phases, that participants walk with out with many new tools, and are strongly inspired to begin using them immediately. San Bernardino will schedule the initial trainings and we will conduct them jointly with your selected in-house trainers. The process for how the initial trainings will be conducted will be decided jointly with your trainer and program manager. Options range from our putting on the entire training, start to finish, to a full sharing of training presentation duties. Regardless of how we set it up, let's make sure that San Bernardino has an opportunity to video tape the sections of the training that are particularly based on the civil landlord/tenant relationship so that trainers can retain copies for reference in the future. How we actually conduct the skills transference will depend heavily on the qualifications of the trainers selected. While there is no requirement that trainers become "certified" by us to be able to put on the training, we certainly recommend it. To be certified as meeting the standards of the original Landlord Training Program, (the "Phase I" training) requires both train-the-trainer work and a review process. For trainers, we only do performance-based certification. That means a trainer becomes certified when they demonstrate the skill to put on the training, not when they have complete a set amount of classroom time. The most reliable route to certification is this: 1. Select a trainer who already has a good background in the issues (see attachment). 2. Make sure that trainer(s) works closely with Campbell to develop the manual, including participation in all local interviews. The local trainer(s) must work at becoming an expert themselves. 3. Co-train with Campbell for one to four trainings. (If as many as four trainings are presented, there may not be a need to conduct steps 4 and 5.) . 4. Submit to Campbell for review a video of a complete training presented by the trainer. 4 Campbell Delong Resources, Inc. . . . . . 5. Make adjustments, if necessary, in training approach based on feedback from Campbell. We can often predict the likelihood of a trainer having the potential to become certified. However, because it is a performance-based qualification, we cannot guarantee certification of individual trainers in advance. For the purpose of the budget on this project, we are assuming that San Bernardino will want us to prepare for and take the lead presentation responsibilities for three trainings. (We can, of course, provide as many trainings as desired after that at a per-training cost, at your option.) The most appropriate way to set up the initial trainings will depend somewhat on San Bernardino's housing market. If, like Mesa, your problem rentals are almost exclusively in large multi-family properties, then holding trainings during the business week only is the preferred approach. If you have a mix of types of housing, we should market and present some trainings during the week and some on a Saturday (in Portland and Milwaukee, for example, trainings in excess of 100 participants are common on both weekends and business days.) Note as well that we do not charge extra for larger trainings and encourage an aggressive marketing process. The average training we conduct has approximately 100 participants in attendance. We have conducted the full training for as few as 15 and as many as 175. While these numbers are larger than you may have heard in Mesa, rest assured that the full impact is there. We can provide technical assistance for marketing the trainings to ensure that trainings are as full as possible. While we are not overly concerned about size of training (assuming the training facility and A/V equipment can handle it), in our experience, training dynamics definitely change when the numbers cross the 100 mark. So, until trainers are comfortable with the material, somewhat smaller trainings are preferable. SCOPE OF WORK: CITY OF SAN BERNARDINO To make the best use of time, and ensure that the fullest transfer of skills is achieved, we recommend that the City of San Bernardino provide the following: 1. Send background materials to Campbell DeLong Resources. This would include copies of any city ordinances, county regulations, or description of any other unique legal issues that potentially effect the manual content. These many include any of the following: ~ Laws that are targeted to property owners who tolerate illegal activity (e.g., allowing fines, closure, or seizure of property). ~ Civil rights law that is unique to the Oty or County of San Bernardino. For example, various larger jurisdictions have laws that define additional "protected classes" beyond those that are already define in State and Federal law. ~ Unique rental requirements. For example, some jurisdictions in California require "just cause" evictions; others mandate rent control. 5 Campbell Delong Resources, Inc. . . . ~ Building maintenance code enforcement issues, particularly if there are new or controversial regulations in place - e.g., mandated inspection programs, rental registration fees, or other similar programs. ~ Available data on the nature of rental housing in San Bernardino. Ideally, I would like estimates of the percentage of dwelling units in the city that are rentals; ratio of renting to owner-occupancy in the most impacted areas of the city; the ratio of multi-family (more than a four-plex) compared to single family residential housing in the impacted areas. ~ Basic description of how the city responds to locations where there is drug or illegal gang activity. Any existing materials on this would be fine - for example, what type of written materials are given out to civilians regarding drug tip hot lines, approaches for reporting, etc. Also, what type of approaches are currently employed by the San Bernardino police to address chronic complaint locations in rental property? 2. Select your program coordinator and trainer. The position(s) need to be filled prior to conducting the field research in San Bernardino. For one example of the qualifications of the potential trainers, please see the attached excerpt. These people will accompany me on all "expert" interviews. I believe strongly that their participation in the initial interviews will make a major difference to their comfort with the material, their familiarity with the industry, and their overall training skill. There is nothing like hearing two equally well- respected experts make completely opposing statements to begin teaching trainers the value of knowing the difference between "folk law" and the actual law. . 3. Manage all scheduling of interviews during the site visit. 4. Prepare desired Appendix materials for the manual. Resource lists, local law, state landlord/tenant law. While we can compile such information, in our experience, it is much more cost effective for the local jurisdiction to do so. 5. Prepare for and handle all logistics associated with conducting the program, including: ~ Marketing. ~ Training room reservations and A/V equipment management. ~ Ordering of the Crime Free Multi-Housing signs and management of distribution. ~ Certificate development and management. ~ Database management associated with tracking trainees, properties, and certifications. ~ Printing of manuals. 6. Develop the Fire Prevention supplement. This is another example where we can do the work, but it may be more cost effective to have the fire prevention manual developed by your local fire fighting personnel. .7. Prepare for implementation of "Phase II" CPTED certification. Again, this is a task that we can help develop, but we don't think you'll need our expertise for doing so. The 6 Campbell Delong Resources, Inc. . . . . . training in Mesa prepares you well for direct implementation of the CPTED component. Activities include: ~ Develop the basic CPTED requirements that the city will enforce and review them with us. ~ Ensure personnel are prepared to conduct CPTED site reviews and be able to certify property that meets the minimum requirements. 8. Prepare for conducting Apartment Watch training in Phase III. We are very good at conducting this type of training and would enjoy the opportunity to show the City of San Bernardino how we do it. However, we also assume that San Bernardino already has experience Neighborhood Watch and Apartment Watch trainers who know how to conduct a meeting with residents in ways that will ensure the highest likelihood of those residents re-embracing their responsibility to each other and the community. If you would like us to conduct Apartment Watch training, just let us know and we will make a budget modification to cover this. Ideally, such trainings could be conducted on the same trip as the Phase I landlord training, and thus keep costs as reasonable as possible. TIMELINE The following shows a schedule of events that will ensure San Bernardino has a fully developed manual as quickly as possible, and provides its first training immediately following printing of the manual. Please understand that, surprising as it may sound, we can kick-off the program much earlier if the City desires to introduce at least one training befure the manual is developed. We can train, very effectively, right now using the national Landlord Training Program manual. Campbell DeLong Resources has done this in multiple sites in California and can tailor California law information directly into the stand-up presentation. This alternate scenario can be very useful for generating initial buy-in by the property management community and can accelerate the speed with which we develop the manual, particularly if we can encourage a large percentage of the likely "experts" in the field research phase to attend. (We would be happy to provide references to clients in California for whom we have provided this service.) Following signing of contracts - or receipt of a purchase order for the work - the following time line will be used. Some adjustment may be required, depending on our work load at that time, but we do not expect any such adjustment to be significant. 7 Campbell Delong Resources. Inc. . . . . . San Bernardino sends us materials, selects trainers, and begins identifying and scheduling the interviews for the field research phase. If possible, trainers in San Bernardino begin some "pre-work" such as reviewing landlord tenant law and attending eviction court prior to the first interviews. San Bernardino trainers/program managers work with Campbell to conduct all field research. Continue work developing in-house training components, including working with fire department for development of manual, if desired; legal review of Crime Free Lease Addendum. Marketing of trainings begins. Final draft of manual is reviewed by San Bernardino City Attorneys. Marketing of first trainings is in full swing, local trainers prepare their presentations. Manual is printed. Press releases are sent. Registration is managed and training logistics managed. The first training is held - managed by San Bernardino, with some co- training participation as well. Additional trainings are managed and conducted, Phase II and III CPTED reviews and tenant trainings are begun. Campbell DeLong reviews materials, California law and other sources and develops an initial draft of a San Bernardino manual to use during the field research phase. A draft variation of a "Crime Free Lease Addendum" is developed. Field research is conducted in San Bernardino. Draft lease addendum is delivered to San Bernardino for review. Manual review stage is conducted - any suggested revisions evaluated and integrated as appropriate into the manual. Segments of the manual are sent out a second time for review by appropriate experts. Preparation of training. Final changes of manual, delivery of manual to San Bernardino. Review and planning with local trainers regarding upcoming training. First training is conducted in partnership with San Bernardino. Campbell DeLong Resources assumes all lead trainer responsibilities for the initial trainings. Additional Phase I trainings are held Weeks 1-4 Week 5 Week 6-8 Week 9-11 Week 12 Ongoing from Week 12 Note that, for purposes of budgeting, we have assumed the first three trainings can be provided in the same week - e.g., all day trainings on a Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. There are both benefits and drawbacks to this approach. Also, given the relatively low prices of airfares today, it is possible that, if we want to spread out the trainings, we could so without a substantial increase in budget. 8 Campbell DeLong Resources, Inc. . . . . . BUDGET The total budget for the scope of services described above is $23,800. The budget includes the following: Professional time for manual development, including legal review, initial draft preparation, field research site visits, phone interviews, revision and review time, development of final draft, and final formatting, materials and supplies. $16,650 All travel expense for manual development (airfare, meals, lodging, ground transportation, in-transit travel time): $1,500 Subtotal: manual development: $18,150 Professional time for preparation and presentation of three trainings for San Bernardino and working with trainers while in San Bernardino to develop skills: $3,500 Travel for trainings in San Bernardino, assuming three trainings are conducted in a single week (e.g., Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday) $1,500 Subtotal: 3 trainings, preparation, and trainer coaching: $5,000 TOTAL: $23,150 Our budget are generally based on the following assumptions: · This is a fixed-cost budget. It includes professional time (for services described in the scope of work) as well as the cost of travel (round-trip airfare, rental car, hotel, food, and other associated costs). While bill-by-the-hour arrangements can be set up, we believe that both parties benefit by knowing the full cost up front. When we do a fix-cost agreement, once we agree on the scope of work and the final budget figure, there will be no surprises - no additional expenses billed by us. . Cost estimates are valid for 120 days from the date of this proposal - if agreements to proceed are not reached within that time period, we reserve the right to rebudget. . Any written agreements to conduct the work shall be in the form of a purchase order or simple contract. Specifically, once the scope of work is agreed upon, if the steps involved to gain written agreement to begin the work require more than six hours of our professional time, we reserve the right to rebudget to cover this expense. Also, we may rebudget if proposed contract requirements differ significantly from those required by other government jurisdictions when we have signed to do similar work. 9 Campbell Delong Resources, Inc.