Yesterday the Santa Ana City Manager abruptly resigned.
While we don’t know why at this point, one thing is blatantly obvious – the city council majority’s push to implement policies quickly rather than properly has left the city’s once promising future completely in doubt.
Over the past 3 years the council has pushed for policies that fit a political narrative without any regard to the impacts it would have on the community’s future. The council majority has focused on pushing an agenda rather than craft public policy.
- The Housing Opportunity Ordinance (HOO) had opposition from both developers and labor – but the council pushed it through anyway.
- The Police Oversight Commission was supported by both public safety and the community – however there were concerns about its implementation that were turned into conflicts
- The Rent Stabilization Ordinance (RSO) rejected participation by any industry members who raised concerns about the language used – but their concerns were ignored
The fallout from this agenda has been equally as concerning:
- Not a single major housing project has been proposed since the HOO was adopted
- The city has had public fights over training programs, public intoxication, and street racing
- The city’s roll out of the RSO has led to confusion, conflicts with existing laws, and lawsuits against the city.
All of which were avoidable had the council majority simply done their job and taken the time to address the concerns raised when they were frantically trying to push these policies through. Instead, the problems have led to the city clerk being fired, the police chief and city manager both resigning, and one council member facing a well-organized recall effort seeking to oust her on November 14th.
Additionally, the city’s RSO recently rolled out their Rent Registry to equally disastrous effect.
- The city sent the notice to register out to anyone who didn’t claim a homeowner’s exemption. Including second homes, homes held in family trusts, historic preservation properties, and even vacant lots.
- The registry requires you to prove you are not operating a rental property if you feel you received this notice in error. In other words, guilty until proven innocent.
- Exempt properties must apply for an exemption – with discretion left to the city as to granting the exemption – despite the exemptions being explicitly identified in the statute.
- The city requires rental property owners to provide all documents related to the lease to the city – despite there being personal identifiable information contained within each lease.
- The city expects property owners to provide the name, contact information, and language of each resident of the unit – whether they are listed on the lease or not.
Property owners and tenants alike have decried how invasive this overreach is on the part of the city, and that most of these items are completely unnecessary for the purposes of a rental registry. Several components of this registry violate state and federal laws and put the owners and tenants in jeopardy.
These events would normally signal to a council that they need to regroup and approach their jobs more carefully. Such is not the case in Santa Ana.
Rather than correct these glaring deficiencies in the RSO, the council is instead attempting to require a 2/3 majority of the council to fix problems in the policy – and at the same time change the city charter so any solutions to these problems would require a citywide vote.
Effectively placing handcuffs on the city as it tries to correct these poorly constructed policy mistakes.
Mayor Amezcua has seen the folly of these policies and asked for a report from the city staff on the rent registry at the next council meeting – Tuesday October 17th.
Residents of Santa Ana should be very concerned about the city’s overreach – whether you are a renter or an owner. What the city is doing with this registry is potentially very dangerous should that database ever fall into the wrong hands. Whether that be a hacker looking to commit fraud or identity theft, or a government agency like ICE looking to identify “persons of interest” for their purposes.
Mayor Amezcua and Councilmembers Bacerra and Penaloza have identified these issues and are looking out for the residents by taking the time to examine these issues.
Now it is on the council majority to decide what is more important – protecting the residents of Santa Ana or pushing their personal political agendas.
Chip Ahlswede is Vice President of External Affairs for the Apartment Association of Orange County.
