By Jonathan Friedman
Lookout Staff

July 15, 2010 -- The City Council on Tuesday was supposed to vote on ballot language for new eviction protections for those living in units subject to the City’s rent control law. But the council delayed this decision because members want to consider the expansion of rights for tenants living in units not subject to the rent control law. The council will finalize the ballot measure next week on Thursday.

Council member Robert Holbrook said he did not want to place the additional items on the ballot because it would create a divisive election and threaten the sales tax proposal.

Last month, the council in concept supported new protections for both tenants living in units subject to the rent control law and those who do not. Only the items regarding rent-controlled units require going before the voters because they are amendments to the City Charter. The other items could be approved by the council as City ordinances. But after hearing from public speakers, the council members said they want the option to put all the items on the ballot. If voters approve them, then they will be part of the charter and a future council could not remove the rules unless the voters comply.

“These vulnerable populations that are being considered as part of this deserve that we look at every option to maximize the protection that we can possibly afford to them,” Council member Terry O’Day said.

The items include extending the warning period for a tenant to cure most violations prior to receiving a three-day eviction notice, protection for seniors, the disabled and the terminally ill from being evicted through owner occupancy; prohibition on eviction for tenants not subject to the rent control law without a just cause and relocation benefits for tenants not under rent control who are forced to move due to owner occupancy as well as an increase in relocation benefits for all renters.

Among the public speakers who persuaded the council was Denise McGranahan from the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles. She said landlords with long-term tenants who pay rents far below the market rate are resorting to “extremely frivolous, ridiculous things” as excuses for eviction. Those who are most vulnerable, McGranahan said, are people whose units are rent-controlled, but not subject to the City’s rent control law. She gave one example of a landlord trying to evict a tenant for having a bird even though the pet had been there for more than 20 years.

“Landlords today who are looking at rent-controlled tenants who are paying low rent, they specifically want to find a reason, a pretext to evict,” she said. “And so they’re going to find anything, anything minor, anything they can do. And so any way we can help these tenants maintain their housing and do what they can to comply with what the requirements are of their tenancy is helpful.”

McGranahan said there is a lack of housing stability in Santa Monica because of tactics by certain landlords. Public speakers from Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights said stability could come by adding all the proposed protections to the charter, but approval of an ordinance would not be enough.

“You don’t always remain here,” said SMRR organizer Michael Tarbet “All the good will you may all bring to this decision wouldn’t necessarily continue with a new council … I wouldn’t want another council to be elected and remove these protections.”

Council member Holbrook said he would vote for an ordinance granting added protections for those living in units not subject to the rent control law. But he said placing them on the ballot would be “problematic.”

“We’ll put it on the ballot and we’ll probably have a well-financed and well-organized opposition,” he said. “And it will create negativity with the measures that are on the ballot from the City because this is one that will be attacked.”

Referring to the sales tax measure, he said, “We’re trying to struggle with passing a measure that’s going to provide a lot of City services that are being cut back on as we speak [and] help the schools which are devastated with financial problems. And we could accomplish everything that you are asking for tonight [through an ordinance] and not place all that in jeopardy by the huge war this will create from the real estate owners … regionally locally and certainly statewide.”