## Facts

- The Nassau County Rent Guidelines Board, created under Emergency Tenant Protection Act of 1974 (ETPA) § 4(b), sets annual numerical guidelines for permissible rent adjustments for covered housing in Nassau County.
- The Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR), a state agency, administers and enforces rent regulation using the Board’s locally set guidelines.
- On June 29, 1977, the Board adopted the 1977–1978 rent guidelines.
- The Incorporated Village of Great Neck Plaza filed a declaratory-judgment action seeking to invalidate the 1977–1978 guidelines on procedural grounds.
- The Village alleged (1) the Board was effectively a “state agency,” requiring compliance with the State Administrative Procedure Act (SAPA) rulemaking procedures, and (2) the Board violated the Open Meetings Law (Public Officers Law §§ 95–106).
- The trial court granted summary judgment largely for respondents, holding SAPA did not apply and the Board substantially complied with the Open Meetings Law.
- The Village appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether a county rent guidelines board created under the ETPA is a “state agency” under SAPA, making its guideline-setting subject to SAPA rulemaking requirements.
2. Whether the Board’s adoption of the 1977–1978 guidelines violated the Open Meetings Law so as to require invalidation of the guidelines.

## Decision

- The Appellate Division affirmed the judgment rejecting the Village’s SAPA and Open Meetings Law challenges.
- The court held the Nassau County Rent Guidelines Board was not a “state agency” under SAPA; SAPA rulemaking procedures did not apply to the Board’s adoption of the 1977–1978 guidelines.
- The court held that the Open Meetings Law claim did not justify the remedy of annulling the 1977–1978 guidelines.

## Legal Principles

- A county rent guidelines board created under the ETPA is a local body, not a “state agency” within SAPA’s definition; local guideline-setting is not governed by SAPA rulemaking procedures merely because a state agency later enforces the regulatory scheme.
- A rent guidelines board may be a “public body” subject to the Open Meetings Law, but annulment of official action is discretionary and not required absent violations sufficiently serious or prejudicial to warrant that remedy.

## Conclusion

The Appellate Division upheld the 1977–1978 Nassau County rent guidelines against procedural attack, ruling that SAPA did not govern a county rent guidelines board’s actions and that any asserted Open Meetings Law defects did not warrant invalidation of the guidelines.


Village of Great Neck Plaza v. Nassau Cnty. Rent Guidelines Bd., 69 A.D.2d 528 (N.Y. App. Div. 2d Dep’t 1979)