San Jose rules committee sets mobile-home rent item “not to be heard before 6:00 p.m.”

The San Jose Rules & Open Government Committee voted unanimously to mark the mobile-home rent ordinance (item 8.6 on the council agenda) "not to be heard before 6:00 p.m.," a compromise intended to make the item easier for working residents to attend.

Council Member Dwan opened the proposal by saying she wanted to "move that to 6PM starting time" for the item and to approve the agenda with that change. Vice Mayor Foley objected to imposing a strict time-certain because the agenda includes lengthy housing items and the city services audit, saying, "I always hate to put a time certain on an agenda when we already have an agenda that seems like a long agenda." Chair Cohen proposed the compromise language — keeping the item last but ensuring it will not be called before 6 p.m. — and staff said the posted item numbers must remain but an annotated order can be provided for the public and the mayor.

Committee members accepted the compromise and the chair announced, "That motion carries 5 0." The change means item 8.6 will remain toward the end of the council agenda but will not be heard earlier than 6:00 p.m.; if preceding items run late, the council may still call it after 6 p.m. The committee discussed trying to change the posted order so 8.6 would be heard before 8.5 where possible, while preserving the published item numbers.

The decision was procedural: no policy on the mobile-home rent ordinance itself was adopted. The committee recorded the vote and moved on to other agenda items. The item will appear on the next City Council agenda with the "not to be heard before 6:00 p.m." annotation.