ACTION Apartment Association

Santa Monica pays top officials better than nearby cities

05/07/2018 8:38 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

A recent report on Santa Monica public employee salaries found unelected city leaders are among the best paid in the area. The report from Moss Adams found the city’s senior leadership makes about 15 percent more than the median when compared among peers – an average of $215,000 a year compared to $188,000 per year.

Nearly two years after Santa Monica’s public employee salaries made headlines and irked residents, an independent agency has completed an exhaustive analysis of city compensation packages. The City Council will review the 150-page report from accounting, consulting and wealth management firm Moss Adams at their Tuesday night public meeting.

Opinion: SMa.r.t. “Who’s Listening!?”

05/07/2018 8:29 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

This article was being written as our City Council was spending a weekend retreat in Virginia Park addressing the City’s five strategic goals using “data driven planning” to solve “mobility,” “inclusiveness and diversity,” re-purposing the “Santa Monica Airport,” “homelessness” and childhood “education.” Shouldn’t they also be looking at “safety” and “happiness”?

Are data driven decisions just a smoke screen to hide behind as they pursue an agenda driven primarily by the need to fund a huge pension shortfall? Is data driven decision making meant to replace resident driven priorities? Is “number crunching” a better way to establish policy than a human based approach? Apparently so, as the council is upset with residential backlash and is choosing to rely on staff and digital data, rather than residents! But aren’t they elected by the residents, not developers? Their job is to listen to the residents. That being said, there was little discussion about data driven analysis when the city manager emphasized moving from process to focus instead on outcome. The meeting ended with an entire wall of “stickers,” destined to be turned into yet another report?

Staff Recommends Santa Monica Council Scrap Idea of Development Ballot Measure

05/07/2018 8:25 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

May, 7, 2018 -- Planning staff is recommending that the City Council not place a measure on the November ballot that would require a "super-majority" approval for developments that exceed Santa Monica's height and density limitations.

In its report to the Council, staff argued that the City's Zoning Ordinance and the Downtown Community Plan already set strict zoning standards that make most Development Agreements (DA) "no longer either necessary or desirable."

Landlord group sues to block Seattle’s Fair Chance Housing law

05/04/2018 8:56 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

The lawsuit seeks to overturn a law barring rental restrictions based on criminal convictions

The law, which went into effect this past February, prevents landlords from screening applicants based on criminal convictions; arrests that didn’t lead to a conviction; records that have been expunged, vacated, or sealed; and juvenile records. If a juvenile tenant is on the sex offender registry, that can’t be used for screening, either, but only juveniles—the ordinance cites a 2004 study that juvenile sex crimes have a low recidivism rate.

San Francisco: Proposition F: Free Legal Aid for Tenants Facing Eviction

05/02/2018 8:16 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

In a city where two-thirds of adults are renters, more than 1,600 tenants have received eviction notices over the past year. On June 5, voters could make history by guaranteeing legal help to anyone facing eviction, regardless of income. If Proposition F passes, it would make San Francisco the first city to pass such a law through a voter-approved initiative, and would push forward a growing “right to counsel” movement for civil litigation.

WHOSE CITY IS IT? [Charles Andrews]

05/02/2018 8:08 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

I think many ascend to office with only public service in mind, but once they get the lay of the land they become seduced by their own power, to shape things the way they perceive them, and then representing their constituents’ wishes becomes secondary, even an annoyance. Rabble-rousers. NIMBYs. What do they know? Most Council members, I think, come to believe they were elected because of their “vision,” and they stop listening to those who elected them.

Opinion: Housing Answer Must Help Many

05/01/2018 8:05 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Wiener was stunned when a sweeping proposed law he touted as the solution to California’s serious problems of housing affordability and homelessness was killed – for this year – by the Senate’s Transportation and Housing Committee on a lopsided vote.

Rent Control is Not the Answer

05/01/2018 7:53 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

By Timothy L. Coyle

Consultant specializing in housing issues

Monday, April 30th, 2018

State housing activists recently came to Sacramento to celebrate a special achievement of theirs. They gathered on the steps of the Capitol to announce they had a solution to high housing costs in California: a repeal of the law which prevents statewide rent control. With the blessing of voters this Fall, they expressed the hope that a just-qualified initiative would deliver on that promise.

By preventing rents from rising to their short-term market-clearing level, stringent rent controls distort the resource-allocation signaling function of the price system. Specifically, stringent controls prevent owners from reaping the profits that would trigger the development of additional new rental units. Instead, owners often receive below-normal profits because controlled rents lag behind true total operating costs, including debt service. As a result, developers and investors are discouraged from building new rental units. This prevents the expansion of the overall rental housing supply needed to cope with the higher demand that stimulated rising rents.

State Bill Could Boost Santa Monica's Affordable Housing, Public Transit Goals

04/30/2018 12:35 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

April 30, 2018 -- A Santa Monica lawmaker's bill that would create "Transit Improvement Districts" could help ease the beach city's affordable housing crisis, boost its transportation initiatives and create more green space, a sponsor of the bill said.

State Senator Ben Allen's "Neighborhood Infill Finance and Transit Improvement Districts" bill (SB 961), which would create funding districts near public transit, was unanimously approved by a key committee last Wednesday.

Drafted by Move LA, the bill creates special taxing districts "around rail stations and along high-frequency bus corridors," the transportation non-profit said.

The districts "would collect the enhanced tax increment from increased property and sales taxes within the district and use these funds to invest in district improvements," said former Santa Monica Mayor Denny Zane, who heads Move LA.

47-unit Apartment Complex headed to Lincoln Boulevard

04/30/2018 8:41 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

The City Council unanimously voted to strike down a resident’s appeal to prevent a four-story apartment complex planned for the stretch of Lincoln Boulevard between Ashland Avenue and Wilson Place. The CIM Group project with 47 apartments will move forward despite two “reluctant yes” votes from Councilmembers Sue Himmelrich and Tony Vazquez.