Lecturer in Law Jeanne Merino, attorney with Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto, is quoted by Palo Alto Online about rent increases planned by landlords:

The increases will violate the rent board's 3.2 percent increase allowed for 2008, according to Jeanne Merino, a lawyer for Community Legal Services.

But there may be little the rent board or city can do to head off the increases despite the city's rent-control ordinance, Merino said.

Each apartment has a rent certificate and should have a base rent determined when the current tenants moved in, Merino said.

...

Merino said she hoped the board would call a special meeting for early January and take action to rescind the rent certificates Page Mill Properties used to calculate the increases.