Group agrees to voluntary landlord registry - after its chair threatens to leave

It was a tense ride, buta fractious city hall subcommittee has agreed to move ahead with a voluntary registry for landlords.

At one point during a tense debate, Matthew Green,the Hamilton city councillor chairing the meeting, threatened to disband the whole thing if people didn't vote in his favour.

You can go home with your principle and have achieved nothing at this table for the last eight months.- Coun. Matthew Green

The rental housing subcommittee voteMonday allows the city tomove ahead with a "voluntary registry model" for landlords with buildings of six or fewer units. If council approvesthat, city staff will form a working group to hammer out the details.

It's a move designed to crack down on landlords with unsafe units, particularlyaround McMaster University and Mohawk College. And for Matthew Green, Ward 3 councillor and committee chair, it's the last straw.

• Coun. Green to rental housing committee: find common ground or be shut down
• Hamilton will debate licenses for buildings with 6 units or less - again

If the committee which includes landlords, tenant advocates and citizens at large can't agree on a compromise like a volunteer registry, there's no point continuing, he said.

You do not have that authority and you should know better.- Nigel Warren, citizen subcommittee member

"If this fails, I'm just going to tell you, I'm going to move a motion to dissolve the committee," Green told members on Monday.

"I'll be removing myself because there are much better ways I can be spending my time if we're not interested in consensus." And "you can go home with your principle and have achieved nothing at this table for the last eight months."

The voluntary registry still only passed 7-5. Nigel Warren, citizen-at-large member and a formerTiny Township councillor, took exception to Green's remarks.

"I have never, ever heard a chair of a committee of council threaten members of a committee that you're going to disband," he said. "That is totally unacceptable. You do not have that authority and you should know better."

I apologize if you felt threatened by me using my time in a more wise way.- Matthew Green

Green said his resignation would effectively disband the subcommittee,since it needs three councillors and no other councillor would take his place.

"I've asked them," Green said. "So if you've taken it as an offence, I'll apologize I apologize if you felt threatened by me using my time in a more wise way."

But Terry Whitehead, Ward 8 councillor, voted against the voluntary registry too. The city had a voluntary lobbyist registry for years, Whiteheadsaid. It had one name on it.

'This is window dressing'

A voluntary registry lacks teeth, he said. "This is window dressing."

The city has debated whether to license landlords of smaller buildings since 2013.

Realtors, landlords and some affordable housing advocates opposed it, saying it would shrink affordable housing stock by scaring away smaller landlords. Others, such as the McMaster University Students Union, wanted the bylaw.

The city tabled the issue for two years, finally establishing the committee in 2015. Marty Hazell, director of parking and bylaw services, said part of the delay was lack of councillors willing to sit on it.

The group working on a voluntary registry will report back onApril 25.

samantha.craggs@cbc.ca | @SamCraggsCBC