08/30/07, 8:00 A.M.

Pursuant to the e-mail notification dated August 20, 2007, the August Heartland Apartment Association Board of Directors meeting was held at the above stated date and time at the HAA offices, 2405 Grand, Suite 106, Kansas City, MO 64108.

Board members present were: Doug Price, Chris Erdley, Lee Harris, Rick Oddo, Bill Charcut, and Scott Buescher. Also present were Jay Stock, Henry Lyons, Dan Kelly; Stacey Johnson-Cosby, and Sam Alpert. (Ken Riedemann, Ralph Lewis, Jerry Miller, Jim Adams, Jim Bowers, Dennis Watts, and Ward Katz were absent.)

Doug Price called the meeting to order.

The minutes of the July 26th meeting were reviewed and approved by those in attendance.

RENTAL REGULATION - Sam Alpert reported rental regulatory initiates in both Lenexa and KCMO, respectively, had taken more favorable direction since the HAA's last Board meeting.

With respect to Lenexa, Sam Alpert reported that the City staff had sent out notification that the rental license proposal introduced in July would not come before the City Council again until late September, once the city staff had an opportunity to respond in full to questions submitted by various council members. While this may be seen as a positive development, Alpert attributed the delayed City Council action to the significant amount of negative response the industry had managed to communicate, and he urged everyone to continue to notify elected officials to voice our universal opposition. It is still likely that city staff is determined to campaign hard for the adoption of their proposal, regardless of strong public opposition. Attendees were in general agreement that nothing short of taking a strong opposing position that demonstrates a far-reaching public out-cry against such an unwarranted measure would succeed. It was agreed by all to pursue a sustained communications campaign in the coming weeks, which would include engaging and encouraging tenants and business interests to contact key City Council members to express their strong opposition to this regressive policy. Alpert reminded attendees that our tenants represent a strong contingent of opposition to the proposal.

With respect to KCMO, Jay Stock, Henry Lyons, Stacey Johnson-Cosby, and Dan Kelly provided perspectives of both small landlords and neighborhood preservation advocates. They and Sam Alpert elaborated on the neighborhood coalition strategy that has to date resulted in a greatly altered no-cost rental "registration" proposal, which would in its present form have little or no practical impact on responsible landlords. This came about as the result of a meeting with Mayor Funkhouser (Sam Alpert, Jim Bowers, and Jay Stock), followed by a number of public meetings with city staff and City Council members charged with bringing a workable proposal forward. It is anticipated that city staff will likely introduce a draft ordinance at the City Council business session on Thursday, September 6th. Once again, it was recommended that everyone continue to make key contacts with various City Council members to reinforce the intention of responsible rental property owners to promote city policies that call for accountable delivery of basic services, while not unfairly penalizing the landlord community at large. Alpert also encouraged stakeholders to insist on the institution for a standing citizen advisory board including all stakeholders, which was one of the key recommendations contained in the January, 2006 Rental Regulatory Task Force Report. Sam Alpert added that he, Jay Stock, Henry Lyons, Dan Kelly, and Derek Ramsay had scheduled to meet with the KC Star editorial board on September 5th to discuss the matter in detail.

On a related matter, Jay Stock and Sam Alpert reported that the City Council Audit and Finance Committee had unanimously approved a resolution sponsored by Mayor Funkhouser that would establish a fifth standing City Council "Housing" Committee. It was anticipated that the full City Council would adopt the resolution on August 30th.

KCMO FIRE INSPECTION LITIGATION - Sam Alpert reported that following a Missouri Court of Appeals denial of a city request to voluntarily transfer the case to the Missouri Supreme Court, the City had made its final appeal directly to the Missouri Supreme Court to be heard. The final summary appeal comes down to a desperate plea by KCMO that municipalities throughout the state would be adversely impacted if the existing decision upholding the Hancock challenge is allowed to stand. The plaintiffs should receive word of the final disposition of the case by mid-October.

KCMO BUSINESS LICENSE LITIGATION - Sam Alpert reported that the case management process has reached the stage of moving to a far more intensive discovery period.

HAA 2008 MEMBERSHIP BILLING - Sam Alpert advised those present that during the week of September 10th members would be receiving their 2008 member dues billings. He noted that due to the litigation now in progress, there are still remaining related outstanding obligations that the HAA has so far been able to effectively "cash manage" through 2007 without a special assessment as was necessary in 2006. He requested that the dues billing payments be processed as soon as possible, so as to avoid a marginal December cash shortfall. This will be likely, especially in light of an accelerated discovery process in the business license case and the uncertainty of when BOMA and the HAA might have access to any potential settlement proceeds ordered by the courts in the fire inspection case. It was suggested that the HAA "pass the hat" to non-HAA members (multifamily and commercial owners) for contributions to help defray some of our accumulating litigation expense.

The next regularly scheduled meeting of the HAA Board of Directors will be September 27, 2007.

There being no further business to come before the Board, the meeting was adjourned at approximately 9:45 a.m.