News Alert: Pasadena Rental Housing Board MUST Provide EQUAL Representation
On June17, 2024, the Pasadena City Council met and discussed various, small technical changes to the charter of the Pasadena Rental Housing Board. AAGLA has continuously advocated for reformatting the Rental Housing Board to provide EQUAL representation to renters and rental housing providers. As it exists today, the Rental Housing Board is severely inequitable and lopsided due to its structure of 9 renters to 2 owners.
Also, AAGLA urged the Pasadena City Council to change the existing rent increase formula from 75% of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) to 100% of CPI as anything less than the full CPI means that rental housing providers are prevented from keeping up with inflation, which is unsustainable.
Both of these items, the Rental Housing Board composition and rent increase formula, can be placed on the November ballot as part of the charter amendments, but only IF the City Council wants to live up to their responsibilities of overseeing a Board that is equitable and produces policies that are sustainable rather than drastically reducing the supply of affordable housing in Pasadena. Unfortunately, the City Council purposefully avoided their responsibilities by directing these matters back to the fundamentally flawed Board for consideration.
To no one’s surprise, the Rental Housing Board refused to adopt any changes to its current, overwhelmingly biased representation structure or to the existing 75% of CPI rent increase formula. If the City Council is not held accountable by rental housing providers, then they will not act and nothing substantive will be changed until at least 2026 at the earliest.
Now is the time for rental housing providers in Pasadena to hold their City Council members’ feet to the fire and demand that these two fundamental changes be included as part of the ballot measure they are drafting to change the Board’s charter for the November ballot. The City Council has two more meetings on July 8th and July 22nd to finalize the ballot measure.
The Rental Housing Board is currently composed of seven specifically designated renters’ seats and four “At Large” seats that may be occupied by either additional renters or multifamily property owners. Right now, the board is composed of 9 renters to only 2 rental housing providers. There are NO specifically designated seats for rental housing providers. This grossly lopsided composition means that no fair and equitable decisions can be made by the Board and that is the key reason that they refused to support its reformation.
This Rental Housing Board is not interested in fairness and equity despite being a government entity with a City-paid Director and 16 other city staffers, it is only interested in punishing rental housing providers merely for providing needed housing.
The Board has already shown how extreme and unchecked its actions are towards rental housing providers under its current monstrously lop-sided, overwhelmingly majority renter composition as it almost DOUBLED its staff from 9 to 17 full time paid City employees and approved a whopping annual budget of $4,696,732. In addition, they voted to establish a rental registration fee of $214.71 per unit, which is more than FIVE TIMES the amount being charged by the City of Los Angeles.
At the Board meeting on June 26th, the Board merely paid lip service to consideration of reformatting the Board to provide EQUAL representation to renters and rental housing providers. Vice Chair Brandon Lamar said “We don’t appoint ourselves; the city council did not appoint those landlords that applied. The city council was the one who appointed.” clearly laying the blame at the feet of the City Council itself.
Now is the time for the City Council to fully remedy the inequity on the Board by adding an amendment to the charter that would reconstitute the Board with 7 specifically designated renter seats (as currently exists), adding 7 specifically designated rental housing provider seats and adding 1 specifically designated homeowner seat for the purpose of breaking any tie votes. Alternatively, if the City Council wanted to stay with a Board of 11 members, then they should provide only 5 specifically designated renter seats, add 5 specifically designated rental housing provider seats and add 1 specifically designated homeowner seat. There must be full and EQUAL REPRESENTATION on the Board for both renters and rental housing providers as anything less is unacceptable and unjust!
Now is the time for all Pasadena rental housing providers to email and call the full City Council to demand EQUAL REPRESENTATION on the Board and changing the rent increase formula to 100% of CPI. Now is the time for them to make these two critical changes while they are already drafting a ballot measure to change the charter of the Board for the November ballot.
Justice delayed is justice denied! The City Council meets on July 8th and July 22nd to finalize the draft ballot measure. ACT NOW and attend these meetings In-Person, via Zoom or by Telephone. Do not sit on the sidelines as a private property owner renting out any kind of housing in Pasadena -- multifamily, single family, Accessory Dwelling Unit, or condominium – call or email the full City Council NOW!
EMAIL ALL PASADENA CITY COUNCIL TODAY!
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This article is for informational purposes only. If you have any questions regarding your property or specific tenancies and the requirements of any local law changes described herein, please consult with an attorney.