15% Voter Turnout in Anaheim Was Enough to Kill Rent Control

City residents can thank the few who bothered to show up at the polls for the pay raise approved for City Council members and the sound defeat of an initiative aimed at bringing rent control to mobile home parks.

Final unofficial results showed that just less than 15% of the city’s 96,450 registered voters participated in Tuesday’s special election, which also produced approval for a measure calling for the direct election of the mayor and rejection of an advisory measure on whether residents were willing to tax themselves for public safety services.

Proponents of Measure A, the rent control initiative, the most-watched measure of the four issues on the ballot, saw a slim lead based on absentee ballots wiped out when the all the votes were counted. The initiative was turned back by civic and business leaders, who raised more than $100,000 and garnered 58.6% of the votes to defeat the efforts of a grass-roots group organized by the Anaheim Political Action Committee.

“We gave it the best we had,” committee President Clarice Jackson said. “It’s going to be very, very hard for us in mobile home parks.”

The committee’s campaign, backed by Mayor Fred Hunter, accused park owners of raising rents to force residents out so the land could be sold to developers.

Voters approved Measure C by a margin of 59.7%. The measure increases monthly salaries of the mayor and City Council members to the state maximum of $1,000 per month.

Voters, however, soundly rejected Measure D, an advisory vote on a tax increase to provide more police officers, firefighters and public safety equipment. The measure received 35.8% yes votes to 64.2% no votes.

“We’ll continue to function and do the best job we can,” Anaheim Police Chief Joseph T. Molloy said. “The world doesn’t come to an end for us.”

In what is being seen as a chance to make city politics open to greater participation, 71.9% of the voters approved Measure B, which not only creates the mayor’s position as a separate council seat but also allows any registered voter in the city to file for the office.

The office had been open only to City Council members who have served at least two years. The measure also expands the mayor’s term from two to four years.