We Won! South Pasadena Rejects Rental Registry

At the March 6th South Pasadena City Council meeting, the Council unanimously rejected the proposal from City staff to create a new rental registry. Thanks to a tremendous turnout from AAGLA members as well as the efforts of AAGLA’s own lobbying team and comments, the minds of the City Council were changed during the meeting as the matter was being discussed.  There is power in numbers and when owners turn out and speak up, we can STOP bad policies from being adopted. A huge THANK YOU to all our AAGLA members that heeded the call in our Red Alert and took the time to attend the meeting in-person or via Zoom and helped us achieve this victory!

Here's What Transpired at the Meeting

Staff had been pushing to create a new rental registry that would add ongoing costs to rental housing providers and higher rents for renters with no benefit other than creating another layer of City bureaucracy and needless spending of taxpayer funds for its creation, staffing, and administration. Fortunately, as one-by-one local rental housing providers told how this would impact their specific property combined with AAGLA’s data driven testimony, the minds of the City Council members all started to see the truth that a rental registry would be a complete boondoggle. It is the power of these individual stories told by rental housing providers that transformed a liberal minded Council into a responsible local government concerned with possible wasting of taxpayer dollars and preserving existing and scarce affordable rental housing.

Staff made a very weak attempt to justify their decision to bring this proposal forward by vaguely claiming that it somehow would help with habitability. Council Member Janet Braun challenged this statement by asking, “Safe and habitable for tenants, that’s already a legal requirement, right?” Staff then was forced to admit “Yes, that is correct.” Then staff tried to justify it by saying it helped to track rents. AAGLA had already testified during public comment that CoStar is a leading national provider of rental data for residential and commercial properties and their information could easily be obtained by subscription to their service. So, Council Member Zneimer then asked staff “Can you obtain information from other subscriptions?” and their response was “absolutely”. 

Initially, staff attempted to justify the proposal in their staff report by mentioning that the Council has issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) for rent stabilization analysis and program design with proposals due back on March 21, 2024. However, this meant that staff was trying to override the Council’s discussion and decisions regarding rent stabilization even before any presentations had been made or proposals received as if the issue had already been decided. AAGLA argued that the issue as to whether the City should consider rent stabilization is far from clear as two other nearby cities recently considered rent stabilization as a ballot measure and one such initiative, Pasadena, was adopted and the other, Burbank, was resoundingly defeated. If this issue of a rent stabilization ordinance should ever gain traction, the City Council should be urged to send such an issue to the ballot for the entire community to decide if the Council thinks the matter is even worth pursuing once they eventually receive and review the responses to the RFP process.

Finally, Council Member Jack Donovan lead the reject of the rental registry by stating, “I don’t see how this helps tenants and it doesn’t help the landlords either. I think this is just a waste of time and if there is something that tenants need help with, then we can come here and talk about it.” Followed by comments from Council Member Primuth, stating “I don’t think there is a huge protection for the tenants, and I don’t think we need this. I don’t think we need to go forward with this at all.” At this point the entire Council agreed not to move forward with the proposed rental registry.

Passing or stopping legislation is a GROUP ACTIVITY and it takes everyone in the game to win. When our rental housing providers show up as our team members, we change minds and bad policies are stopped. However, our work in South Pasadena is not finished. As mentioned, the Council will be receiving proposals regarding rent stabilization analysis and program design in the next couple of weeks and will receive presentations from those same entities regarding their proposals. It is critical that our owners once again show up and speak out against rent stabilization as it will seriously harm multifamily private property owners and drive more affordable rental housing out of South Pasadena. Please stay engaged and keep an eye out for a future Red Alert when this is on the Council’s agenda.

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.