Santa Monica : Rent Board Attorney Quits

Joel Martin Levy, who once headed the Santa Monica Rent Control Board’s legal department before stepping down to a senior attorney position earlier this year, will resign effective Sept. 15. He plans to go into private practice.

Levy, who has been with the board since 1980, becomes the third board attorney to quit in weeks. Sally Malloy, who succeeded Levy as chief of the department, resigned earlier this month. Staff attorney Barbara Greenstein quit about the same time.

There is growing speculation that board attorneys are becoming increasingly frustrated by the board’s frequent decisions to ignore the legal department’s recommendations. Levy, however, would not comment.

Board member Julie Lopez Dad also recently announced her resignation from the elected five-member board effective at the end of the year. That means that four seats will be up for election in November, 1990.

The resignations come at a time when the board is trying to win public support for its voluntary inclusionary housing program, which would allow landlords to raise rents on some units by as much as $900 if the rent on an equal number of units is reduced to as low as $266 for poor people.

Major groups representing tenants and landlords have come out against the program, although some landlords are expected to participate if it is implemented.