Threat Found Within

So, Santa Monica City Councilman David Epstein, after abandoning consideration of a June ballot measure which he had proposed only 10 days earlier, doubts that the Santa Monica Rent Control Board will come up with a capital improvements program which he considers “realistic” (Times, March 2).

It sounds as if Mr. Epstein can hardly wait to place a proposition on next November’s ballot to curtail the authority of the Rent Control Board if (it) fails to come up with a program that suits him personally.

How ironic that the city attorney’s office has just wasted its limited resources for a week and a half on this issue at Mr Epstein’s instigation. Ironic in light of the fact that it was Mr. Epstein himself who was so vocal only a couple of months back regarding what he misperceives as the city attorney’s misuse of financial resources.

How ironic that this should all happen on the heels of a U.S. Supreme Court decision only several days earlier that effectively exonerated our rent control law from antitrust charges which had jeopardized its very existence.

It would appear that the greatest threat to Santa Monica rent control is not from the outside, in the form of case law made by judicial bodies at the other end of the nation, but from within, in the person of City Councilman David Epstein.

WILLIAM F. WEINGARDEN

Santa Monica