ACTION Apartment Association

Santa Monica Celebrates 50th Anniversary of Fair Housing Act

04/13/2018 4:28 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

April 13, 2018 -- The Santa Monica City Attorney's Office will hold a workshop and student poster contest to commemorate Fair Housing Month

The "Fair Housing Issues in Rental Housing" workshop is part of a series of activities that include a student poster contest to mark the 50th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act of 1968, officials said.

The workshop -- which takes place Tuesday, April 24, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Santa Monica Main Library -- is co-sponsored by Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights (SMRR), the Santa Monica Rent Control Board, Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles (AAGLA) and Action Apartment Association.

City lawyer warns ballot initiative could reset new rents to the 1970’s

04/11/2018 2:05 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

With a statewide referendum on rent control gathering signatures for the November ballot, a city lawyer is arguing Santa Monica needs its own initiative to stop an unintended consequence if it passes: 1970’s rent for 2018 move-ins.

The Rent Control Board’s (RCB) general counsel is now warning if voters repeal Costa Hawkins in November, the City Charter defines the rent ceiling as the base rent in 1978, meaning a landlord could have to charge any new tenant (without an existing lease) rent as low as $560 for a studio apartment in the Pico Neighborhood.

“As units turn over, this would result in rent rollbacks and could, conceivably, cause significant economic dislocation,” wrote J. Stephen Lewis in a memorandum to the RCB. “In the absence of any state law providing for a vacancy rent increase, the Charter appears to include no definition of ‘base rent ceiling’ other than that which pegs it to the 1978 rent.”

The Board will discuss Lewis’s memorandum and recommendations at the April 12 meeting at 7 p.m. inside City Council chambers at City Hall, 1685 Main Street.

OPINION -- It's Time to Extend Santa Monica's 30 Percent Affordable Housing Target to Vacancy Control

04/11/2018 1:57 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

The Lookout Letter to the editor

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.

Rent Control Board Staff Report: Board is poised to back a ballot measure that would roll back rent-controlled rates

04/07/2018 8:50 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

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

Term Limits

04/07/2018 8:49 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

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

Almost Half of Santa Monica City Hall Retirees Receive Six-Figure Pensions

04/07/2018 8:48 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

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.

Santa Monica Board Poised to Recommend Charter Amendment Expanding Rent Control

04/06/2018 3:28 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

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.

Limitations on surcharges

04/06/2018 11:35 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

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/

These 13 California legislators are getting two government checks a month

04/04/2018 2:13 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

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)

About this whole district voting thing. [Charles Andrews]

04/04/2018 2:00 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

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.