Who is bhyv?
bhyv logo
As the Pasadena Rental Housing Board started to operate in Spring 2023, one of the real challenges they faced is how to create and implement the complex and detailed requirements of creating an independent Rental Housing Board with board members that have limited relevant government, property ownership, and business experiences. Because of the unique nature of Measure H requiring separation from the city government rules and oversight, the RHB mandate is to create a series of rules, procedures and databases.
One of the first companies to earn the business of the RHB is a company called bhyv consulting (lower case in all of their correspondence and logo) that is owned by a lawyer with connections to Oakland named Chanee Franklin Minor. Ms. Minor is licensed as an attorney in California with the name Chanee Naomi Franklin and has work experience in the Bay Area (registered for mail in Palo Alto) but no known connections to Pasadena. Her information and details of her expertise are listed below along with the two other members of her consulting team. Ecatrina Burton is listed as the Senior Consultant to the bhyv project for Pasadena and currently works full time for the city of Oakland. Claudette Campos is listed as the Chief Operating Officer and works full time for US Bank in Reno, Nevada but has prior work experience for the city of Oakland.
On June 7, 2023 - The Rental Housing Board adopted a motion to pay bhyv $74,999 for work on program development, budget drafting, staffing models, board governance, support for counseling, administrative and project management.
2023-06-07 PRHB - BHYV Consulting Scope of Work Initial bhyv agreement June 2023
On July 26, 2023 - The Rental Housing Board adopted a motion to pay bhyv $425,000 for additional Services and consulting fees. Because the contract exceeds the city procurement standards, the board sent this to be approved by the Pasadena City Council.
PRHB Resolution RHB-2023-04 Expanded bhyv agreement July 2023
On July 31, 2023- The Pasadena City Council voted to approve this payment because the City Charter Amendment that came from Measure H does not allow the city council or city manager to stop any RHB payments even if they don’t follow the standard city rules related to bidding for projects with total costs over $425,000.
Pasadena City Council resolution City Council approves $425,000 payment to bhyv
On August 23, 2023- The Rental Housing Board brought forth a motion to pay a fee to bhyv of up to $70,833.32 if the RHB decided to fire them for any reason. This is equivalent to two months of their contract fees. In short, a payment made in case the board was unhappy with the results from their consultants.
2023-08-23 PRHB Meeting Minutes Resolution to add in a termination fee is recorded in the minutes of the meeting on 8-23
On September 13, 2023 - A new employee of bhyv was announced at the Rental Housing Board meeting. Agnes Cho has previous work experience in the Bay Area and lives in the Bay Area and will consult for the RHB. She has experience working for a group called Tenants Together. This is the same group where Chairman Ryan Bell works as the Southern California Regional Coordinator. Agnes also wrote an opinion piece for the UC Berkeley Public Policy Journal advocating for right to counsel in Oakland, California for all tenants to be paid by the city at $6,800,000 per year.
2023-09-13 PRHB Meeting Minutes Agnes Cho is introduced to the board as a new bhyv staff member
Among the projects that bhyv is tasked with completing are the design and implementation of a website. As they were being discussed, I tried to find their online presence and as of October 26, 2023, the URL of https://bhyvconsulting.com/ continues to point to a placeholder type website that was created in May 2023.
On October 24, 2023 bhyv consulting files paperwork to form an LLC in California. Up until this time, there is no public LLC or DBA designation for them to operate as a business under the name bhyv in California. Their mailing address and principal business address is listed as 3736 High Street, Oakland, CA 94619.
Information obtained from a search of this website at the CA Secretary of State:
https://bizfileonline.sos.ca.gov/search/business
On November 15, 2023, bhyv consulting staff appeared at the RHB meeting held in Pasadena to provide details and information for item #2 on the New Business section called “Preliminary Presentation on Staffing and Budget Plan. The presentation was added to the PRHB website a few hours before the meeting and only one copy was available to the public at the meeting. A link to the 16 page presentation is below. In the plan, bhyv compares Pasadena to Oakland, West Hollywood, Berkeley and Santa Monica in terms of city size, dwelling units and other similar attributes. Chanee Minor appears via Zoom and Agnes Cho and Ecatrina Burton were in person at the meeting. Ecatrina and Chanee presented the slides and answered questions. One question addressed is why they are not citing the City of Los Angeles or County of Los Angeles and the response is that those are larger groups that are not comparable. Note that there are no budget figures in the presentation.
On November 15, 2023 we learned the current billing amounts paid by the city of Pasadena to the bhyv consulting firm owned by Chanee Minor that has a no-bid contract with the PRHB for up to $425,000 and with a clause that pays approx. $70,800 should the Board decide to not complete the terms of their consulting projects. As of the undated excel spreadsheet image below, the city has paid $106,249.98 ad there are outstanding invoices of $35,416.66. The total expenses for bhyv as of an unknown date is $141,666.64.
Expense details provided in person at the November 15 2023 meeting of the PRHB. As of that evening, this was not available online
bhyv logo from Chanee Franklin Minor’s Linked in website as of October 26, 2023
Description of team provided by bhyv to the Pasadena Rental Housing Board of the people that will be working for the RHB as they create the rules and procedures to implement Measure H.
Linked in job description for Chief Operating Officer Claudette Campos who currently works for U.S. Bank in Reno, Nevada.
The current Website for bhyv Consulting. Essentially a place holder as of October 26, 2023 (edit to add that in late January 2024, their website changed and now has details about their staff and owner. That link is https://bhyvconsulting.com/ and a screen shot is below.
Who is database query for the website belonging to bhyv Consulting. The domain was registered in May, 2023 indicating the company was newly established. No reports with the Secretary of State for this name are on file as of October 2023
Linked In screen capture of Agnes Cho, bhyv consultant to Pasadena RHB since September 2023
Linkedin screen capture of Ecatrina Burton who is employed by the City of Oakland as a full time supervisor and works for BHYV Consulting LLC since September 2023.
Linked In screen capture of Chairman Ryan Bell who works for Tenants Together with Agnes Cho.
California Secretary of State website information showing filing date of October 24, 2023
State filing for LLC creation in October 2023.
Statement of information signed and dated October 31, 2023. Chanee F. Minor listed as the person to serve at the address in Oakland, CA
