Provides that no member, officer or employee of any municipal rent regulation agency or the state division of housing and community renewal shall serve on a rent guidelines board and no person who owns or manages real estate covered by the emergency tenant protection act of 1974 or who is an officer of any owner or tenant organization shall serve as a public member on a rent guidelines board; and further provides that no person who is engaged in any business which involves substantial dealings with real estate or tenant interests shall serve as a public member of a rent guidelines board.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
3957
2009-2010 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
April 7, 2009
___________
Introduced by Sen. OPPENHEIMER -- read twice and ordered printed, and
when printed to be committed to the Committee on Housing, Construction
and Community Development
AN ACT to amend the emergency tenant protection act of nineteen seven-
ty-four, in relation to additional qualifications for members of local
rent guidelines boards
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivision a of section 4 of section 4 of chapter 576 of
2 the laws of 1974, constituting the emergency tenant protection act of
3 nineteen seventy-four, as amended by chapter 349 of the laws of 1979, is
4 amended to read as follows:
5 a. In each county wherein any city having a population of less than
6 one million or any town or village has determined the existence of an
7 emergency pursuant to section three of this act, there shall be created
8 a rent guidelines board to consist of nine members appointed by the
9 commissioner of housing and community renewal upon recommendation of the
10 county legislature which recommendation shall be made within thirty days
11 after the first local declaration of an emergency in such county; two
12 such members shall be representative of tenants, two shall be represen-
13 tative of owners of property, and five shall be public members each of
14 whom shall have had at least five years experience in either finance,
15 economics or housing. One public member shall be designated by the
16 commissioner to serve as chairman and shall hold no other public office.
17 No member, officer or employee of any municipal rent regulation agency
18 or the state division of housing and community renewal shall serve on a
19 rent guidelines board and no person who owns or manages real estate
20 covered by this law or who is an officer of any owner or tenant organ-
21 ization shall serve as a public member on a rent guidelines board. No
22 person who is engaged in any business which involves substantial deal-
23 ings with real estate or tenant interests shall serve as a public member
24 of a rent guidelines board. One public member, one member representative
25 of tenants and one member representative of owners shall serve for a
26 term ending two years from January first next succeeding the date of
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD09259-01-9
S. 3957 2
1 their appointment; one public member, one member representative of
2 tenants and one member representative of owners shall serve for terms
3 ending three years from the January first next succeeding the date of
4 their appointment and three public members shall serve for terms ending
5 four years from January first next succeeding the dates of their
6 appointment. Thereafter, all members shall serve for terms of four years
7 each. Members shall continue in office until their successors have been
8 appointed and qualified. The commissioner shall fill any vacancy which
9 may occur by reason of death, resignation or otherwise in a manner
10 consistent with the [original appointment] provisions of this subdivi-
11 sion. A member may be removed by the commissioner for cause, but not
12 without an opportunity to be heard in person or by counsel, in his
13 defense, upon not less than ten days notice. Compensation for the
14 members of the board shall be at the rate of one hundred dollars per
15 day, for no more than twenty days a year, except that the chairman shall
16 be compensated at the rate of one hundred twenty-five dollars a day for
17 no more than thirty days a year. The board shall be provided staff
18 assistance by the division of housing and community renewal. The compen-
19 sation of such members and the costs of staff assistance shall be paid
20 by the division of housing and community renewal which shall be reim-
21 bursed in the manner prescribed in this section [four of this act]. The
22 local legislative body of each city having a population of less than one
23 million and each town and village in which an emergency has been deter-
24 mined to exist as herein provided shall be authorized to designate one
25 person who shall be representative of tenants and one person who shall
26 be representative of owners of property to serve at its pleasure and
27 without compensation to advise and assist the county rent guidelines
28 board in matters affecting the adjustment of rents for housing accommo-
29 dations in such city, town or village as the case may be.
30 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately and shall apply to public
31 members of rent guidelines boards appointed prior to or after the effec-
32 tive date of this act and members of rent guidelines boards other than
33 public members appointed after the effective date of this act; provided
34 that the amendment to section 4 of the emergency tenant protection act
35 of nineteen seventy-four made by section one of this act shall expire on
36 the same date as such act expires and shall not affect the expiration of
37 such act as provided in section 17 of chapter 576 of the laws of 1974,
38 as amended.
