TO: Board of Supervisors
FROM: David Morrison, Director-Planning, Building & Environmental Services
REPORT BY: Barb Ruffino, Staff Services Manager
SUBJECT: Approval of Agreement No. 220310B with Granicus for Short-Term Rental
Enforcement
RECOMMENDATION
title
Director of Planning, Building and Environmental Services requests approval of and authorization for the Chair to sign Agreement No. 220310B with Granicus, for a maximum of $3,695 for Fiscal Year 2021/2022 and a maximum of $22,166 for each fiscal year thereafter, beginning November 1, 2021 through June 30, 2022 with an automatic rollover of two (2) additional years to assist with detection, investigation and management of short-term rentals in the unincorporated area of Napa County.
body
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Director of Planning, Building and Environmental Services requests approval for a continuation of the subscription contract services provided by Granicus for the enforcement of short-term rentals. As indicated in the Board of Supervisors’ response to the Grand Jury report published on September 7, 2019, staff is proposing to continue our contract with a consultant to assist Code Compliance staff with the identification, data gathering, and preliminary noticing of short-term rental violations. Granicus has developed a set of proprietary technologies, methodologies, and processes to quickly and cost-effectively monitor specific geographies for short-term vacation rental listings and to precisely identify the addresses and contact information of the associated properties. These software tools and algorithms are deployed continuously across the world’s 54 largest vacation rental websites ensuring a complete database of short-term vacation rental properties. For Napa County, Granicus reviews vacation rental websites to identify properties that rent less than 30 consecutive days and may be in violation of Section 18.104.410 of the County’s Transient Commercial Occupancies Ordinance for potential prosecution.
FISCAL & STRATEGIC PLAN IMPACT
|
Is there a Fiscal Impact? |
Yes |
|
Is it currently budgeted? |
Yes |
|
Where is it budgeted? |
Building Enforcement budget unit 21410-00 |
|
Is it Mandatory or Discretionary? |
Discretionary |
|
Discretionary Justification: |
The 2019 Grand Jury Report on short-term rental enforcement listed recommendations. Response number 3 prepared by the Director of Planning, Building and Environmental Services recommended the hiring of a consultant to assist with enforcement of illegal vacation rentals in the unincorporated areas of Napa County. Through the assistance of the services provided by Granicus, Code Compliance Staff has been able to greatly reduce the number of illegal vacation rentals within the County. |
|
Is the general fund affected? |
No |
|
Future fiscal impact: |
The subscription service automatically renews after the 6-month contract term has completed. Staff will assess current budget availability prior to renewal of the subscription and will budget accordingly. |
|
Consequences if not approved: |
The County will not have effective enforcement of short-term rentals. |
|
County Strategic Plan pillar addressed: |
Livable Economy for All |
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINATION: The proposed action is not a project as defined by 14 California Code of Regulations 15378 (State CEQA Guidelines) and therefore CEQA is not applicable.
BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION
On December 10, 2019 the Board of Supervisors approved and authorized an agreement with Host Compliance LLC, which has since been acquired by Granicus, to assist with the detection, investigation and management of illegal vacation rentals in the unincorporated areas of Napa County. County staff used the tools provided by Granicus to investigate, detect and deter short-term rental activity in the County. Today, the County has seen a large reduction in short-term rental advertisement activity within the unincorporated areas of the County.
County Code Compliance Division provides property owners the opportunity to comply by first educating them about the ordinances and then giving them a reasonable time to correct the violation. If these voluntary efforts fail, the County can pursue and administrative fine process, file a civil complaint in superior court, or refer the case to the District Attorney’s office for an unfair business practice.
The previous agreement approved in 2019 has since expired and the Director of Planning, Building and Environmental Services is requesting approval for the Chair to sign Agreement No. 220310B providing these same services for the County.