Keegan

I. BACKGROUND

A. The Rent Adjustment Program and Measure EE The City of Oakland’s Residential Rent Adjustment Program Ordinance (rent control ordinance) regulates most residential rent increases in the city and outlines the process for mediating rent disputes. (Oakland Mun. Code, § 8.22.010 et seq.)1 It also establishes the Board. (§§ 8.22.020, 8.22.040.) Among the Board’s duties is the development and adoption of regulations for “implementation” of the rent control ordinance. (§§ 8.22.020, 8.22.040, subd. (D)(2).) The Board is part of the Rent Adjustment Program (or RAP), which is defined by the rent control ordinance as the city department that “administers” the ordinance. (§ 8.22.020.) To “strengthen and effectuate” the rent control ordinance, the city’s Just Cause for Eviction Ordinance was adopted as initiative Measure EE at the general election in November 2002. (§ 8.22.320, subd. (2); Rental Housing Assn. of Northern Alameda County v. City of Oakland (2009) 171 Cal.App.4th 741, 749.) Measure EE was intended to “protect[] tenants against arbitrary, unreasonable, discriminatory, or retaliatory evictions,” and it prohibits landlords from terminating a tenancy without good…