Thomas Breen photo
Fair Rent Commission Executive Director Otis Johnson, Jr.: Alone no more.
The Fair Rent Commission is no longer a one-person department now that the city has hired a field representative charged with interviewing tenants and investigating complaints regarding excessively high rents.
The city Department of Human Resources’s latest weekly personnel report shows that the city hired Tanice Doman to serve as a full-time fair rent field representative starting Tuesday.
The position was one of 10 new city jobs the Board of Alders included in this fiscal year’s budget, which was adopted in July 2019.
Doman now joins the commission’s sole other staffer, Executive Director Otis Johnson, Jr., to help realize the commission’s state-sanctioned mission to “control and eliminate excessive rental charges on residential housing within the City.”
City spokesperson Gage Frank told the Independent Wednesday that this new job is responsible for “investigating and housing inspection work in the Fair Rent Commission. Work involves receiving complaints, interviewing, investigating and inspecting properties referred to the Fair Rent Commission. Work is performed under the supervision of the Executive Director.”
Some of the other job responsibilities Frank laid out include:
• Consulting with tenants who wish to file a complaint;
• Securing a complaint in writing signed by the complainant;
• Promptly conducting a preliminary investigation into the complaint;
• Attempting, through the process of informal conciliation and negotiation between tenant and landlord, to arrive at the rental agreement which is mutually acceptable to said tenant and landlord;
• Referring in those instances to those housing accommodations which fail to comply with state statutes, municipal ordinances or regulations relating to health and safety to the office of the executive director;
• Preparing reports (written and orally) to be made to the executive director.
Last year, the Fair Rent Commission suspended a tenant’s rent entirely, and then slashed it in half, because of a persistent rodent infestation at his Mandy Management-owned apartment.
The commission also received a complaint from a 81-year-old tenant facing a 65 percent rent hike. The landlord, tenant, and Johnson brokered a deal that allowed that tenant to stay in place before the complaint made its way to a hearing before the commission.
I have tremendous respect for Dir. Johnson and hv marveled on more than one occasion how he keeps papers and dates straight. I wonder however how does the addition of this "field outreach" worker streamline the fair rent process? Will the Cmsn. continue to uphold State Statutes with informal hearings, public hearings etc.? If so then how does the new position help? Papers still hv to be filed. Dates have to be set and so on. In addition, investigating housing complaints should be dealt with by LCI inspections. The FRC has no place in that process. According to Mayor Elicker's Transition rpt. There is to be an effort to return LCI to the job it was supposed to be doing. There are far too many Apts. in NH that are not receiving the attention to code enforcement as it is. Why would NH pay for another employee to do work LCI should hv been doing all along? If LCI is not capable of performing according to ordinance then perhaps it is time for new leadership. Finally, was this new position posted to the public? Was there an interview process or was this simply hiring someone's cousins teenager neighbors daughter ??