Council to debate rent regulations.

The City Council will be debating the extension and modification of city rent regulations this week and industry representatives are gearing up to continue carving away at onerous rules.

Owners may come to the Council chambers at high noon on Thursday, March 10 to lend support to the proposals or to testify. Those wishing to testify should call 212-240-6758 in advance if possible.

Councilmember Thomas V. Ognibene of Queens, a sponsor of Intro. 207, which proposes to exempt those housing accommodations that become vacant from rent stabilization and rent control, said "We'll turn a lot of heads and make people rethink their positions."

He, along with Staten Island Council Members Jerome X. O'Donovan and John A. Fuseo, have formed a bipartisan block to introduce several bills to take the onerous out of city rent regulations. Former Minority Leader, Alfred C. Cerullo III, who has joined this coalition in the past, resigned his Council position to take the office of Commissioner of Consumer Affairs last week.

While the bills would extend rent stabilization laws for a three-year period beginning April 1, it would also change a number of provisions:

* Units that become vacant would become deregulated.

* Units occupied by tenants with incomes in excess of $250,000 per year would become deregulated.

* Units with legal monthly rents of $2,000 or greater which become vacant would become deregulated.

* Units in small buildings containing 20-units or less that become vacant would be deregulated.

The legislation also requests the adopting of State legislation to authorize the city to establish a program modeled on the Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption to shield low income households from rent increases.

Council Member Ognibene said, "Even the longest journey begins with one step." In the past, the legislator owned a great deal of real estate, primarily four to eight family buildings. "Anytime I got involved with rent control and with rent stabilization it was a mess," he confessed.

He noted that when the city takes over properties for non payment of taxes, the first thing it does is raise the rents. "If the Council doesn't understand it, as Council Member Ognibene said, "it will lead to the destruction of the housing stock."

Joseph Strasburg, president of the Rent Stabilization Association representing 25,000 member owners, said there is a segment of the elected body that doesn't want to hear it and doesn't want to hear the facts. "The ones who introduced it really want to tackle the issue," he noted. Strasburg says its the middle-of-the-road Members who will weigh the right thing to do with the political fallout. "If there is a failure y the City of New York by next week to do something on these issues then one has to acknowledge that the chances that anything will happen for the next four to six years is remote," he added, pointing to the elections that will come during that time.

The RSA is also seeking a mandate of a minimum floor for rents, so that upon vacancy, the rent would go up 25 percent or to the fair market value of the apartment before the other percentages kick in. "You have so many artificially depressed rents that you are always going to have a problem achieving some equity," explained Strasburg.

Council Member Ognibene is not worried about arguments which may be raised against these bills. "There is nothing they can tell me. I've been through it all," he said.