Berkeley Rent Board Race: Six Candidates for Five Seats, and What Each Wants to Change

Berkeley voters will fill five of the nine seats on the city's Rent Stabilization Board on Nov. 3, and only six candidates qualified for the ballot, according to the city clerk's candidate list.

The board runs Berkeley's rent control program. It sets rent ceilings on covered units, handles disputes between landlords and tenants, enforces the city's good-cause eviction rules and keeps the rent registry, Berkeleyside reported.

The candidates

Five candidates are running together on the "Right to Housing" slate picked by the Berkeley Tenants Convention, a coalition of tenant, labor and progressive groups. They are incumbents Ida Martinac and Nathan Mizell, tenant union organizer Avery Arbaugh, attorney and meditation teacher Vylma Ortiz, and Derek Rodriguez, a UC Berkeley student and California Army National Guard member. Carole Marasovic, an attorney and city commissioner, is running as an independent after three earlier tries for the board.

Two current members are leaving. Chair Soli Alpert is term-limited, and Stefan Elgstrand chose not to run. Commissioner Vanessa Marrero did not qualify for the ballot, the clerk's records show; Berkeleyside reported she fell short on valid nomination signatures.

Where they differ

All six say their priority is protecting tenants. Their differences are mostly about emphasis. Martinac wants more climate-related habitability rules, such as limits on indoor heat. Mizell wants to end the "golden duplex" exemption that keeps some owner-occupied duplexes out of rent control. Ortiz and Rodriguez both called for more regular housing inspections, and Rodriguez wants every building's tenants to have the right to organize. Arbaugh and Marasovic said they would focus on older and disabled renters.

The candidates also split on Measure BB, the 2024 measure that lowered the cap on yearly rent increases and wrote protections for tenant unions into law. Most of the slate pointed to the tenant unions formed since it passed, while Marasovic called its changes "minor" for most renters, according to Berkeleyside.

All six applied for public financing, which limits donations to $60 per person in exchange for matching city funds.

How to vote

The deadline to register online or by mail in Alameda County is Oct. 19. Residents who miss it can still register and vote in person through Election Day.