Bill to Weaken Rent Control Gains

The Assembly on Wednesday approved by a 41-25 vote a heavily lobbied, landlord-supported bill to weaken local rent controls.

It was the third straight year the Assembly has approved such a measure. The previous measures were scuttled in the Senate by President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) and the Judiciary Committee.

This year, the measure was not immediately sent to the Senate in a parliamentary maneuver designed in part to give supporters time to negotiate a last-ditch compromise as the legislative session nears adjournment.

The bill, supported by landlords, developers and real estate interests, is designed to establish first-ever statewide rent control guidelines. The key feature would allow landlords to raise rents without limit when an apartment becomes vacant for any reason except eviction. It also would exempt new housing construction and single-family homes from rent controls.

The bill would have a major effect in strict rent control cities such as Santa Monica, West Hollywood and Berkeley, which has thousands of student tenants.

Originally, the plan won Assembly passage more than a year ago but died in the Senate Judiciary Committee last month. However, its contents were amended last week into another bill by Sen. John Seymour (R-Anaheim) that was pending on the Assembly floor.

Assemblyman Jim Costa (D-Fresno), the Assembly’s chief foe of rent controls, said the revived proposal was aimed at bringing “reasonable restraints to the radical forms of rent control.”

But Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica), a leading champion of his home city’s strict rent controls, argued that it would remove the ability of cities to enact their own rent controls.

Further, he contended, “the landlords are threatening to pour $2 million into anti-David Roberti Senate races between now and November unless this bill goes through.”

Dugald Gillies, lobbyist for the California Assn. of Realtors, said that to his knowledge no such threat against Roberti-supported candidates had been made. But Gillies said an anti-Roberti drive “may be an appropriate response” and that his group’s political action committee plans to map its strategy after the Legislature adjourns.

Roberti last week warned that if the proposal reached the Senate floor he would “fight hard and anyone who wants to take that side against the tenants and take the side of the well-heeled . . . they’ll have to face the music with me.”

Supporters of the bill hope to bypass the Judiciary Committee and have the legislation considered by the full Senate, where they believe they have a better shot of prevailing. This would set up a confrontation with Roberti, a rent control advocate whose Hollywood-area district includes many renters.