For the purpose of this chapter, the following terms are defined as follows:
(a) "Conciliation"means a confidential telephone call or other contacts by a mediator or the facilitation administrator with a landlord and tenant for the purpose of resolving a rental housing dispute.
(b) "Facilitation administrator"means the person or entity responsible for the routine case intake, mediator assignment and other administrative duties of the dispute resolution process established by this chapter.
(c) "Landlord"means the owner or property manager exercising effective control over the terms and conditions of the tenancy of a residential rental property, including a person with such control delegated through a durable power of attorney.
(d) "Mediation"means a meeting in which landlord and tenant have the opportunity to communicate with a mediator and each other in a face-to-face setting at a neutral location in order to resolve a rental housing dispute under ground rules designed to protect the confidentiality and neutrality of the communications.
(e) "Mediator"means a person who is certified to have completed at least forty hours of basic mediation training with subsequent advanced training, and who has also participated as a mediator or co-mediator in at least ten mediations conducted under the auspices of a recognized community or commercial mediation program, and who has agreed (in a form acceptable to the facilitation administrator) to a statement of mediation ethics and principles, including an acknowledgement of the duty to disclose any conflicts of interest in any specific case.
(f) "Rental housing dispute"means a fact-based grievance raised by any tenant, owner, or property manager regarding the occupancy or use of rental property limited to rental rate increases, deposits, repairs and maintenance, utilities, occupants, parking and storage facilities, privacy, quiet enjoyment, or use of common areas.
(g) "Residential rental property"means any housing structure occupied as a dwelling or offered for rent or lease as a dwelling, whether attached, detached, single or multiple-family.
(h) "Tenant"means the person or entity entitled to occupy a residential rental property at the time that the rental housing dispute arises.
(Ord. 4728 § 1 (part), 2002)