Speaker 5: Agenda Item four Council Bill 119829 relating to commercial tenancies, temporarily prohibiting the enforcement of personal liability provisions in commercial leases or other rental agreements. Declaring an emergency and establishing an immediate effective date by 3/1 vote of the City Council.
Speaker 0: Thank you, Madam Clerk. I will move to pass Council Bill 119829. Is there a second second? It's been moved and seconded to pass the bill. Council Member Lewis, you are the prime sponsor of this bill, so you are recognized in order to address this item?
Speaker 2: Well, we have a couple of amendments here as well. Council President So I believe the first one is mine. So I would move that we consider Amendment One to the previously stated council bill before us for discussion.
Speaker 0: Okay. Is there a second? Second, it's been moved and seconded to adopt Amendment One. Councilmember Lewis, please feel free to address Amendment One.
Speaker 2: Thank you. Madam President, this amendment just closes a potential oversight in the initial drafting of this, where some of our small business owners and leaseholders, who unfortunately have made the decision to close up and then potentially walk away from a lease, might have not been covered. And so this amendment helps to make sure they are covered. So if you if your business did go out of business during COVID, you could still benefit from the from the relief that this kind of regulatory change could could invite, whereas without this amendment, that wouldn't be possible. And that's a big priority for a lot of small business owners who unfortunately just been completely slammed by the COVID recession and and not been able to, you know, through cobbling together a package of. Relief get through to the other side. But I want to make sure that they still are able to benefit, to not suffer even further loss by potentially losing their home, potentially losing their life savings. So this amendment would extend the coverage to to help them as well.
Speaker 0: Thank you. Councilmember Lewis, are there any questions or comments on Amendment One? It looks like there are no additional comments on Amendment one. So I would ask that the clerk please call the role on the adoption of Amendment One. Lewis.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: Morales. Yes. Get. Yes. Peterson.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: So on.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 4: Strauss Yes.
Speaker 1: Herbold. Yes. Suarez.
Speaker 5: Yes.
Speaker 0: President Gonzalez. Yes.
Speaker 1: Nine in favor, nine opposed.
Speaker 0: Thank you. The motion carries an amendment. One is adopted. I believe there is a another amendment. This one is sponsored by Councilmember Herbold. So I will recognize Councilmember Herbold in order to make the motion to present Amendment two.
Speaker 1: Thank you. I move to amend Council Bill 11 9829 as presented on Amendment two on the agenda.
Speaker 0: Is there a second?
Speaker 2: Second.
Speaker 0: It's been moved and seconded to adopt Amendment two. Councilmember Herbold, I'm going to hand it back over to you to address the amendment.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. As I mentioned this morning in council briefings meeting, I believe that small businesses and nonprofits will need a period of time after the state of emergency is lifted in order to regain their financial footing. This amendment gives them a modest grace period to do that, and I believe it is considered a friendly amendment by the sponsor of the legislation. The timeline of this amendment is very similar to the approach we took with legislation that the Council passed earlier this year that requires landlords of commercial tenants to negotiate a reasonable payment plan for rent owing during the state of emergency and in allowing allowing that obligation to negotiate a reasonable payment plan to extend six months following the state of emergency. So with this proposed extension, these bills should work to get together to give landlords and tenants time to negotiate the payment plan and build trust, hopefully leading fewer landlords to ever pursue personal liability provisions. This amendment was circulated by Senate staff yesterday, and I want to give a shout out to my staff person, Christina Coats, who boasts for suggesting this really, I think, strong alignment with the previous legislation regarding payment plans.
Speaker 0: So thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Herbold. And any questions or additional comments on Amendment two, Councilmember Lewis.
Speaker 2: Just want to briefly confirm that this is a friendly amendment.
Speaker 0: Right. Thank you for that confirmation. Appreciate it. Any other questions or comments? Colleagues on amendment to. Seeing and hearing none. I'd ask that the clerk please call the role on the adoption of Amendment two.
Speaker 5: Lewis.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Morales. Yes. Let's get a. Yes.
Speaker 2: Peterson Yes.
Speaker 0: So what?
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 1: Strauss.
Speaker 4: Yes.
Speaker 1: Purple. Yes. Juarez.
Speaker 5: Yes.
Speaker 0: President Gonzalez. Yes. Nine in favor, none opposed. Thank you so much. The motion carries an amendment to is adopted. I will now go ahead and open it up for general comments on the bill as amended. Are there any additional comments on the bill? I don't see anybody raising their hand. Customer Louis, do you have any closing remarks before we call this to a vote?
Speaker 2: I would just say, you know, since we still have a few agenda items and I've talked about this before, I just would obviously urge everyone present to vote to adopt this. I think it is an important emergency, a piece of legislation. I would remind everyone that that does mean it's been a while since we've had one of these, but that it requires seven votes and a cent from the mayor and really hope to be able to pass this through, provide the certainty that would come with this kind of protection to our small business partners. I would add as well, I know that there's there's some folks watching that have been opining about the possible legality of the ordinance. I would just direct any colleagues who have a question about that to the great memo that was circulated by the city attorney's office to address those those concerns, which was circulated late last week. And, you know, which which makes me confident in voting for this ordinance. But just wanted to address that briefly. And I know that I did distribute the their assessment and analysis of of the strong merits of the ordinance. Otherwise, I don't have anything else that to add from my comments at a briefing this morning and would just urge folks vote yes.
Speaker 0: Thank you. Councilmember Lewis, any other questions or comments herein and say none at the clerk? Please call the rule on the passage of the bill as amended.
Speaker 5: Lewis.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: Morales. Yes. Macheda. Yes. Petersen.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 0: The one.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 0: Strauss.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: Herbold. Yes. Juarez.
Speaker 5: Yes. President Gonzalez.
Speaker 0: Yes.
Speaker 1: Nine in favor, nine opposed.
Speaker 0: Thank you. The bill passes as amended and the chair will sign it. And, clerk, please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf. Okay, we're getting close to the finish line. Agenda item five items at the core. Please read agenda item five into the record.
AN ORDINANCE relating to commercial tenancies; temporarily prohibiting the enforcement of personal liability provisions in commercial leases or other rental agreements; declaring an emergency; and establishing an immediate effective date; all by a 3/4 vote of the City Council.