Third in a series
Re “How Does One Qualify to be a Tenant Rep?”
[img]1792|right|Jim Clarke||no_popup[/img]City Councilman Jim Clarke compares choosing applicants for the Landlord Tenant Mediation Board – a nine-member group shrouded in historic disinterest and mystery – to selecting jurors.
“I would ask ‘What is your job as a juror?’ and the person can say ‘My job is to listen to the basic evidence and use my judgment,’” Mr. Clarke said this morning.
The question arose because, confoundingly, a woman who is a career realtor, and by her account a successful one, has been appointed as a Tenant Reps on the grounds she presently is a tenant in a “luxury apartment complex.”
The Councilman was saying he wants to be assured the applicant comprehends his or her role on the Board.
But that apparently is not what happens with the Landlord Tenant Mediation Board since there is no formal public questioning of the appointment seekers.
Potential jurors are questioned at the scene, where a call is made on their fate.
Not so here where the City Council relies heavily on seemingly casual truth-telling. The applicant said it, so it must be true.
With the Mediation Board, applications are submitted, and then fog swims into the environment, clouding the process.
Mr. Clarke said he presumes the candidates’ qualifications and general fitness have been determined by staff. That is not at all evident – to this point.
City Hall merely says that City Clerk Martin Cole’s office technically verifies qualifications by requiring rental agreements or other supportive documents.
Mr. Clarke said that when he inspects applications for appointments to various city boards and commissions, “I am looking for something that would jump out at me, indicating this person has a bias. If I don’t see it, I am assuming this person is a blank slate who will do the job after being provided with the (requisite 30 hours of) training.”
The handwritten portion of the application by the realtor in the Tenant Rep spotlight today – it was posted here yesterday – was replete with errors, hardly a strong recommendation.
Still, the City Council, in a so far uninspected lockstep, unanimously voted the woman onto the Mediation Board last spring.
Alluding to the errant summary, “I have seen that on a lot of other applications,” Mr. Clarke said. “We have had a discussion with the City Clerk about the application form itself. A lot of times it does not lend itself to the position the person is applying for. It could be modified so applicants can answer questions more directly related to the positions.
“Maybe we could go to a fill-in-the-blank form where people could follow (simplified) directions, and you could read it.”
Finally, Mr. Clarke circled around to a fundamental consideration.
“Who are the kinds of people who apply for tenant seats on the Landlord Tenant Mediation Board?” he asked, not rhetorically.
“Oftentimes the tenants who appear before the LTMB are people who are distressed, low income or otherwise disadvantaged. As such, it can be helpful if a Tenant Rep has walked in that person's shoes.
“At a jury trial, it is supposed to be a jury of your peers. They don’t administer spelling tests and things like that,” Mr. Clarke said.
(To be continued)
