By Peter Borresen

This Thursday the Santa Monica Rent Control Board will discuss returning city-wide vacancy control to the city, whereby a landlord cannot charge a higher rent to a new tenant than the previous one.

Targeted vacancy control with income limits (rather than city-wide vacancy control without income limits) will lead to more genuine affordable housing and better housing for all.

Read More: http://surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/letters/Letters-2018/04_11_2018_OPINION_Its_Time_to_Extend_Santa_Monicas_30_Percent_%20Affordable_Housing_Target_to_Vacancy_Control%20.html

Rent Control Board Poised to Recommend

Charter Amendment Expanding Rent Control

Administrative Item to consider whether to recommend that the City Council place on the ballot for the 2018 municipal general election a measure to amend City Charter Section 1803, subdivision (f), respecting the Board’s powers and duties, to add a new paragraph, (16) codifying the Board’s authority with respect to surcharges; and Section 1804, subdivision (b), respecting the establishment of base rent ceilings in the event that the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act is repealed. 

Read the Staff Report:   https://www.smgov.net/uploadedFiles/Departments/Rent_Control/About_the_Rent_Control_Board/Staff_Reports/2018/Item%2012A%20Surcharge%20and%20CH%20Repeal%20Charter%20Amends.pdf

The group hopes to collect 10,000 signatures by April 30, in order to place the measure on the November 2018 ballot.

Read More: http://www.smobserved.com/story/2018/04/09/news/santa-monicans-for-city-council-term-limits-seeks-to-upend-20-year-terms/3402.html

April 9, 2018 -- Almost two in four retirees at Santa Monica City Hall took home pensions of $100,000-plus last year, nearly triple the average for public employees through California, according to a new analysis by an organization that watches public spending statewide.

Of the $47 million the City of Santa Monica paid out last year to cover employee pensions, 42 percent was the result of annual payments of more than $100,000 to 219 retirees, the data from Transparent California said.

Read More: http://surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/news/News-2018/April-2018/04_09_2018_Almost_Half_of_Santa_Monica_City_Hall_Retirees_Receive_Six_Figure_Pensions_New_Data_Shows.html

April 6, 2018 -- The Santa Monica Rent Control Board on Thursday is poised to back a ballot measure that would roll back rent-controlled rates to the amount initially paid by the tenants under full vacancy decontrol.

The proposed charter amendment -- which the Board would ask the City Council to place on the November ballot -- would reset some rents at rates established almost two decades ago, according to the staff report.

The proposed measure also should give the Board "clear authority to authorize surcharges, under appropriate and limited circumstances," according to staff.

Read More: http://surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/news/News-2018/April-2018/04_06_2018_Santa_Monica_Board_Poised_to_Recommend_Charter_Amendment_Expanding%20_Rent_Control.html

SANTA MONICA RENT CONTROL BOARD NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING
Thursday, April 12, 2018

A public hearing on the following topic will be conducted at the regular Santa Monica Rent Control Board meeting on Thursday, April 12, 2018 at 7:00 p.m. in the City Hall Council Chamber, 1685 Main Street, Santa Monica, CA 90401:

1) Consideration of amendments to Regulation 3120, respecting limitations on surcharges that may be added to controlled rents.

Read More on page 2: http://backissues.smdp.com/040618.pdf

See Detail at: https://www.smgov.net/rentcontrol/

Amid ongoing warnings about underfunded public employee pension funds, more than a dozen California state lawmakers are augmenting their $107,242 salaries by collecting retirement payments from previous government jobs, a practice that taxpayer activists condemn as “double dipping.”

Assemblyman Richard Bloom (D-Santa Monica)

Read More:  http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-double-dipping-california-legislator-pensions-20180404-htmlstory.html

NONE THAT I CAN THINK OF

I COULD BE WRONG

About this whole district voting thing.

But I don’t think so.

The reasons to fight the lawsuit now underway to change our voting system to choose our City Council representatives, from city-wide, at-large to voting by districts for our own neighborhood representative — that were given by our Mayor Ted Winterer in his Feb. 26 deposition, are probably similar to those embraced by the other six Council members.

Read More: http://smdp.com/curious-city-4/165338

April 3, 2018 -- Median rents in Santa Monica dipped for the second month in a row in March, but were nonetheless 80 percent higher than their counterparts nationwide, a new tally of rents across the U.S. has found.

The analysis, from Apartment List, showed rents for two-bedroom units were up 1.4 percent from the same month last year in Santa Monica, lagging California’s average increase in rents of 2.9 percent and the national average of two percent.

Still, of 55 cities in Southern California analyzed, Santa Monica placed fairly low on the list of median cost for two-bedroom units...

Read More: http://surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/news/News-2018/April-2018/04_03_2018_Santa_Monica_Rents_Dip_but_Still_80_Percent_Higher_than_National_Median.html

As tenant advocacy groups gather signatures to put rent-control reform on the November ballot, Santa Monica’s Rent Control Board is looking at the local possibilities if it succeeds. At their March meeting, the RCB expressed doubt it would be able to build consensus fast enough to draft a tandem measure to immediately expand its authority to either limit rents or expand rent control to more units if the Affordable Housing Act passes.

The Board, which supports the repeal Costa Hawkins, the statewide law that limits local rent control laws, would need to draft language for a measure to give to City Council by June to make the 2018 election. The City Council has the final authority to submit a local ballot measure by August. Several members said the timeline was simply too tight.

Read More: http://smdp.com/rent-control-board-unlikely-to-pursue-immediate-reform-in-2018-election/165318