Item 09 - Rental Registry Fee Study

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City of Santa Ana Rent Stabilization Program Fee – March 2023 March 17, 2023 City of Santa Ana 20 Civic Center Plaza Santa Ana, CA 92701 Honorable Mayor, City Council, and City Manager: On October 18, 2022, the City Council adopted the Rent Stabilization and Just Cause Eviction Ordinance (“Ordinance”). The Ordinance includes a rental registry, which is a portal where landlords register their rental units, update rental unit information, update tenancy information, submit notices, and pay the Rental Registry Fee. Per the Ordinance, effective July 1, 2023, the City shall create a rental registry and all landlords with rental units in the City shall complete and submit registration forms for each of their rental units. In addition, effective July 1, 2023, or as modified by resolution of the City Council, an annual Rental Registry Fee shall be imposed on each rental unit in the City. All landlords with rental units that are subject to the Ordinance shall pay the Rental Registry Fee as established by the City Council. The Rental Registry Fee is to fund the City’s cost to implement, administer, monitor, support, and enforce the provisions of the Ordinance. Regarding the amount of the fee, a landlord shall pay to the City a Rental Registry Fee for each of the landlord’s rental units in the City. The amount of the Rental Registry Fee shall be determined by resolution of the City Council adopted from time to time and set forth in the City’s Miscellaneous Fee Schedule. The Fee shall not exceed the amount found by the City Council to be necessary to administer the provisions of the Ordinance, and the City Council’s findings in this regard shall be final. To fulfill this statutory requirement, on November 18, 2022, the City of Santa Ana issued a Request for Proposals No. 22-155 seeking proposals from qualified firms to conduct a comprehensive fee study to determine appropriate program fees that would recover all program costs associated with services provided under the Ordinance. The Program fees include but are not limited to a Rental Registry Fee and three petition fees (Fair Return Petition, Capital Improvement Petition and Tenant Petition). Following this competitive procurement process, Revenue & Cost Specialists (“RCS”) was selected and approved by the City and entered into an Agreement with the City effective January 3, 2023 to conduct this Fee Study. RCS is now providing the City of Santa Ana (“City”) with a comprehensive Fee Study identifying the appropriate fee(s) to recover all costs associated with the Rent Stabilization and Just Cause Eviction