If the ONLY news you get about Santa Ana’s historic and successful rent control is from Matt Cunningham’s “OC Independent” (which would make sense because nobody else writes about it, but also not so much sense because hardly anybody reads that blog), you would think that:

1. Santa Ana’s “Rental Housing Board” – an essential part of the ordinance – has been ruled unconstitutional;
2. Even before & after that ruling, the Board is “dysfunctional” and getting more “dysfunctional,” regularly unable to meet or vote due to lack of quorum;
3. and HOPEFULLY (in Matt’s view) the ruling against the Board will lead to the ENTIRE RENT CONTROL ORDINANCE (approved by 58% of Santa Ana’s voters) getting thrown out some time in December!

None of that turns out to be true, nor is it true, as Matt wrote in conclusion, that “OC Independent will update the story as additional information comes in.” What Matt meant was, that he would update if there were any developments that made him and his landlord paymasters in the Apartment Associations feel good. And, as things shook out there’s not much news for those wealthy special interests to celebrate – Santa Ana’s rent control is alive and well!

We know why Matt writes his pieces, but not why The Voice of OC, the Register, Times, or LAist find the travails and triumphs of this historic people’s movement unnewsworthy. But look at me, who am I to talk? We at the Orange Juice Blog have been neglecting this as well, and we are especially interested in how these stories Matt half-told ended up, not least because here in Anaheim we are aiming to emulate Santa Ana’s rent control, and if they have made any mistakes we’d like to avoid them. So here goes:

1

Was the Renter Housing Board ruled unconstitutional, in October? Well, sort of but not really and it got fixed. This Board meets “at least once a month” and its main job is to “conduct hearings on petitions, applications and appeals of hearings… from Landlords & Tenants.” [p. 37] Cunningham explains, fairly enough:

“Renters can petition the rent control board to roll-back rent increases or attempts by landlords to pass certain capital improvement expenses to tenants… Landlords are allowed to file “fair return petition” if they believe the law’s stringent rent increase limits prevent them from earning a fair return.”

The grounds on which the landlords sued was that the Board was, by design, biased in favor of tenants and against landlords, due to its being comprised of 3 tenants, 2 landlords and 2 at-large members, mira nomas: [p. 36]

The case was heard by Judge William Claster (left), most famous in this town for ruling that Disneyland is not subsidized by Anaheim and therefore not required to pay a living wage under Measure L, a decision of his that was roundly overturned by the 9th Circuit. But it wasn’t too unreasonable when he agreed with the landlord plaintiffs that the Board was unfairly weighted toward tenants. (If it’s agreed that the two interests need to be advocated for equally.)

AND – newsflash, Matt! – he allowed the rent control advocates to REMEDY this bias by simply deleting that circled passage. So now there’s no specification beyond each councilmember getting to appoint a Board member – theoretically they could end up with 7 tenants or 7 landlords. It really shouldn’t matter as long as each member is committed to both enforcing the spirit and letter of the law, and to fairness. But of course Santa Ana (and Anaheim when we follow in their footsteps) will be dependent on the good faith of their council members. More on that below.

3 (We’ll do that next)

Why did Matt write, after reporting that Claster had declared the composition of the Board unconstitutional, “There will be another hearing in December to determine if the Rental Housing Board is severable from the rent control/just cause eviction ordinance, which may lead to the entire ordinance being thrown out”? Because due to a simple clerical error, the court and plaintiffs thought there was no “severability” clause in the ordinance. “Severability” meaning that if part of a law is tossed out, the rest of the law stays in effect.

AH, but (NEWSFLASH!) there IS a severability clause in Santa Ana’s rent control ordinance, right where it belongs, on page 39. Mira nomas:

Severability, the magic bullet that has saved many a worthy ordinance from going down with an ill-fated clause. Severability, the breakfast of champions!

2

“Dysfunctional.” Matt finds that word ideal and effective to use against the rental housing board, and having studied under the great minds of the 20th century, he repeats and repeats the word accordingly.

He begins his November piece by snorting derisively that, with the resignation of the hated Tracy La, the Board now “lacks enough members to conduct business.” But, looking into it, I found out WHY there are (or briefly were in the Fall) so few members – only 3 out of 7 (there are 4 or 5 now.)

It’s because of these two rotten Councilmen, financed by the landlords, steadfastly opposed to the rent control ordinance which was passed by 58% of SA voters, who have refused for five years to appoint ANYONE to the Board – we are talking about DAVID PENALOZA and PHIL BACERRA.

And to think this guy on the left (Penaloza) wants to represent Santa Ana and Anaheim in the Assembly now! What kind of passive-aggressive behavior is this, to sabotage an ordinance passed by 58% of your voters, by just not appointing anyone? They could appoint someone that agreed with them, someone against rent control, but they’d rather try and grind things to a halt by keeping their appointments vacant. Santa Ana, if you support your hard-earned rent control, DO NOT VOTE FOR DAVID PENALOZA NEXT YEAR.

And I hope that when we pass our own rent control in Anaheim, we don’t have to deal with destructive councilmembers like Phil & Dave. Even Mayor Valerie (who also opposes rent control) appointed SOMEONE.

But just to set all-your minds at ease, the rumors of the death of Santa Ana’s Rent Control are greatly exaggerated – it is making life much better for the vast majority of Santa Ana’s residents, and even the folks who are whining about it are doing fine. All the dire predictions they made, none of them have come to pass. And one of these days they’ll give up trying to kill it, and soon we’ll have it in Anaheim too. Vern out.