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  • 05/12/2022 11:41 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

    On tonight's Rent Control Board Agenda:

    14. BOARD DISCUSSION ITEMS A. Board discussion of the feasibility of an amendment to the Rent Control Charter to give the Board authority to freeze rents under certain circumstances. 

    See full agenda at: https://www.smgov.net/uploadedFiles/Departments/Rent_Control/About_the_Rent_Control_Board/Agendas_and_Minutes/2022/RcB051222.pdf

  • 05/12/2022 11:09 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

    Doug Sloan -- an avid cyclist and veteran lawyer who argued a landmark free-speech case before entering public service -- will be Santa Monica's new City Attorney.

    Two years after embarking on a search to fill the City's top legal post, the City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to hire Sloan, who has served as Fresno's City Attorney since 2013.

    Read More: https://www.surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/news/News-2022/May-2022/05_11_2022_Santa_Monica_Hires_Fresno_City_Attorney.html

  • 05/10/2022 10:41 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

    AB 2469 It would have created a statewide rental registry mandating the collection, management and submission of data  including, the address and owners of a rental property, the number and type of rooms in the rental property, and information related to the payments collected and the duration of tenancies when a lease is initiated, altered, or terminated to the California Department of Housing and Community Development every year or face the consequences of weakening their ability to evict even tenants who were committing crimes or damaging property. But the Santa Monica Rent Control Board has recommended that the City Council place on the November 2022 ballot a Rent Registry measure that would apply in the city. (Source-car.org, Kate Bell reporting in aagla.org) 

    AND

    AB 2710 Under Kalra’s bill, rental owners would have been prohibited from putting their properties up for sale — whether they be apartments or a single-family rental — until they’ve given advance notice to “qualified entities,” such as certain tenant organizations, community land trusts, and affordable housing nonprofits. The notified groups would then have had first right to purchase the property and receive excessive time — nearly one year — to secure financing. 

    FROM: Wes Wellman's Fast Lane News

  • 05/10/2022 10:34 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

    An exemption to the tax is made for sales to affordable housing uses. To many landlords who are looking at losing over $400,000 should they sell their $8 million-plus apartment building, it might look advisable to sell the property as affordable housing. They would then only pay $56,800 in transfer taxes rather than $400,000 for an $8 million building.

    Read More: https://www.smobserved.com/story/2022/05/09/opinion/under-santa-monica-transfer-tax-proposal-renters-may-face-their-home-converting-to-affordable-housing/6750.html

  • 05/10/2022 9:02 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

    The proposed $320,000-a-year contract for incoming City Attorney Douglas Sloan has plenty of perks, including nine-months of severance pay, as well as 14 paid holidays and 21 vacation days a year.

    But one seemingly enticing benefit -- a $3,000 per month rental housing allowance -- will do little good for the current Fresno City Manger, at least in Santa Monica.

    Read More: https://www.surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/news/News-2022/May-2022/05_09_2022_City_Attorneys_Contract_Has_a_Small_Catch.html

  • 05/09/2022 9:01 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

    Amid an affordable housing and homelessness crisis, why would the City want to suspend all meetings of the Housing Commission "until City Council considers its annual appointments in June 2022" (May 10, 2022 agenda item 13C)? And why are the Mayor and Councilmembers insisting that "once the Housing Commission resumes meeting following the appointments, it shall immediately hold elections for Chair and Vice Chair"?

    For the Mayor, who initiated item 13C, this is a personal vendetta for her husband, Michael Soloff, having to obey the City's new anti-nepotism policy that rendered him ineligible to remain on the Housing Commission.

    Read More: https://www.smobserved.com/story/2022/05/09/opinion/mayor-himmelrichs-vendetta-against-housing-commission-after-husband-ineligible-to-serve-due-to-anti-nepotism-policy/6748.html

  • 05/07/2022 11:45 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

    Wiener’s persistence paid off for him last year, when he pushed through new laws best known by their numbers, Senate Bills 9 and 10, which ban zoning for single family houses everywhere in California. SB 9 allows six residential units on almost all lots where there is now one; SB 10 allows up to 10 units on any lot within easy reach of rapid transit.

    Neither law requires builders to provide new parking or parks, mitigate added traffic, assure water supplies or any other requirement usually imposed on developers of new home subdivisions. Nor are there any controls on how much of the new housing can become short-term vacation rentals or temporary corporate housing.

    Read More: https://smmirror.com/2022/05/column-cities-fight-to-maintain-distinctive-characters/

  • 05/07/2022 11:43 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

    This week we are re-visiting an article from 2018 regarding the Miramar project, by simply replacing the word “Miramar” with “Gelson’s”, and striking thru some of the irrelevant text. We sadly reflect on how the runaway train wreck of over-development has not been slowed or reduced by city administrators or staff policies regardless of the cries and demands of the residents over the years. Oh well…adaptive re-use is generally a positive approach to building, so why not op-ed’s too.

    Read More: https://smmirror.com/2022/05/sma-r-t-column-gelsons-boxed-in/

  • 05/06/2022 1:38 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

    Now our corruption is hidden behind pious pronouncements of a compassionate, progressive Santa Monica that wants only to help… outside developers take away more bags of gold than Caesar ever dreamed of.

    Read More: https://www.smdp.com/what-is-missing-in-this-town/217495

  • 05/06/2022 1:37 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

    On her flyer, titled "Standing Firm with Santa Monica," Himmelrich claims the proposed initiative to provide her estimate of an additional $50 million in revenue will come from "a 5% increase in the real estate transfer tax on sales of...property worth $8 million or more...."

    This is completely untrue. But only if you find the ballot measure language itself can you discover this fact - and the ballot measure is impossible to find online. Himmelrich does not seem to want people to actually read it. And for good reason.

    Read More: https://www.smobserved.com/story/2022/05/06/opinion/significant-inaccuracy-in-santa-monica-mayor-sue-himmelrichs-literature-touting-her-pet-transfer-tax-ballot-initiative/6740.html

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