But at this point, the story – which usually concerns the rancor between the two sides amid cries of financial hardship all around – is actually about who’s sitting on the board itself.
The nine-member mayoral-appointed board is composed of a chair, two members representing tenants, two members representing landlords, and four members representing the public at large.
In March, Mayor Bloomberg appointed three new members: Ronald Languedoc, representing tenants; Magda Cruz, representing owners; and Risa Levine, representing the public. They replace resigning members David Pagan, Harold Lubell, and Gale Kaufman, respectively. But Bloomberg's office did not publicize the appointments, and the newcomers received little attention.
Instead, it’s the RGB’s controversial chair, Marvin Markus, who has again become the focus. Reappointed to the job in 2002, tenant activists call him "Marvin Markup" because of his previous tenure during the Koch administration, when rents were raised 11 percent for one-year leases and 14 percent for two-year leases.
Double-digit increases are unusual. Last year's increase – though also presided over by Markus, and considered high by tenants – was notably lower, at 4.25 percent for one-year leases and 7.25 percent for two years.
It was widely believed throughout the tenant activist community that Markus’ reign had finally come to an end, in part prompted by a series of events that transpired at several public hearings last year. His “extreme disrespect” towards tenants, in the words of Tenant and Neighbors rent regulation organizer Natasha Winegar, motivated around 100 rent-regulated residents to write to Bloomberg complaining about Markus's demeanor and demanding his removal.
In early December, letters were sent by the administration to many of these residents stating, “Marvin Markus no longer serves as Chair of the RGB.”
Because of that, "I was flabbergasted" to just recently learn Markus still holds the post, said Jenny Laurie, director of the Metropolitan Council on Housing. “We’d heard from several people in the Bloomberg administration that he was definitely not going to be the chair … though we didn’t know the lineup.”
Bloomberg press secretary John Gallagher said Markus "informed us he planned to leave, and then reconsidered."
Tenant activists are discouraged by Markus’ return because of how they say he runs the board: with an iron fist. “The public members follow him like sheep,” Winegar said. Laurie says some members "are afraid of him.”
Former public member Martin Zelnik, who was not reappointed in 2006 – after, according to him, he displayed some independence – wrote in an email, “I think that it is critical that whomever the Mayor appoints is fair, objective, and looks at both sides – and is not easily intimidated."
Tenant organizations went so far as to send the mayor a letter last week complaining about the reappointment for several reasons, including Markus' “rude, condescending, arrogant, and high handed” behavior towards tenants.
On a more technical point, they contend that since Markus employs a novel system of proposing rent hike ranges instead of specific numbers, he “undermines the spirit of notice and comment embodied in the City Administrative Procedures Act, and in administrative law in general. The public cannot effectively comment on a moving target.”
