Hood River City Councilors opened up the hearings process on amendments to the municipal zoning code to deal with short-term rentals, and two members have recused themselves from the panel for this issue.  Both Laurent Picard and Becky Brun stepped aside, noting they have both rented out their homes on a short-term basis in the past.  Mayor Paul Blackburn points out that it will still take four votes from the five remaining councilors to approve amendments.  Councilors took two hours of testimony from all sides of the issue Monday evening, and will do so again on April 25.  The Council had planned to begin testimony on what are called Title 5 regulations for short-term rentals, which deals with things like permit costs, but based on what the City Planning Commission returned to the Council on zoning, Blackburn said they decided it would be better to wait on that until the zoning decisions are made.