Monterey council fails to move on rent control

Council does commit to take up the issue of extending the eviction moratorium should state fail to act.

MONTEREY >> During a debate that grew contentious at times, Monterey City Council members decided not to place proposed rent measures on any near-term meeting agenda.

Council members Alan Haffa and Tyller Williamson requested that eviction moratoriums, rent freezes and a city rental registry be placed on an agenda for a future study session, but they couldn’t get enough votes on the council to agree with that.

What they did get was a vote that sometime before Feb. 1 the council would consider the issue of the city extending its eviction moratorium should the state fail to act.

The state moratorium applies to tenants who pay at least 25% of their rent from Sept. 1 through Jan. 31, 2021, will be protected from eviction. However, those who fail to meet the minimum rent payment could be evicted beginning Feb. 1.

The late- night debate last week, which didn’t begin until near the end of the meeting’s allotted time, took on a testy note when it became clear the council didn’t have the taste for committing to formally placing the measure on an agenda.

“I’m really disappointed,” Williamson said. “The renter community, which is a majority of our population, is not going to be satisfied with a council of allmale homeowners making a decision to just wait and see.”

Williamson said that what the council was saying by not wanting it on an agenda is that they weren’t interested in even having a conversation, and it would result in “putting people on the street” or making people congregate in denser living spaces in the middle of a pandemic.

“This disproportionately affects communities of color, disproportionately affects people in poverty and the economic recession is disproportionately affecting women,” Williamson said. “All you guys are saying is nope, you don’t want to talk about it.”

Mayor Clyde Roberson took umbrage at Williamson’s characterizations and said that 53% of Monterey County voters were against Proposition 21 that would have provided cities with more latitude to impose rent controls. He emphasized that his objecting had more to do with the amount of staff time that would be required in the middle of the COVID-19 crisis.

“With all due respect Tyller, I do feel attacked when someone says they are disappointed in me,” Roberson said. “That is an attack and I don’t know any other way to put it.”

Williamson apologized to Roberson and said he didn’t mean for anyone to feel attacked and that he was simply being honest and “reflecting my feelings.”

A number of times during the debate some council members wanted to talk about the merits of rent control, which prompted Williamson to remind them that what was before them was only a request to be placed on an agenda for a council study session — meetings where no official decisions can be made; rather they are meant for elected officials to discuss issues that might come before them.

Councilman Ed Smith said he needed more evidence people are being evicted and that he believed the state was already protecting renters.

“With the people I’m talking with, our property owners are really holding off on being adverse to their tenants because they want to keep their tenants there,” he said. “It’s too hard to get other good tenants.”

At one point Williamson reminded his colleagues that the report he and Haffa submitted referred to halting rent increases, not evictions.

Esther Malkin, the founder of Monterey County Renters United and a board member of the Housing Resource Center of Monterey County, sharply criticized

Smith over his statement that there is no evidence that renters are being evicted.

“Ed speaks to who he wants to speak to, but I hear from renters and those who are treated differently,” she said. “Renters are scared to death right now and they are not coming out publicly and talking about this because they are afraid of retaliation.”

By the end of the meeting council members were coming together to try and work out compromises. Instead of agreeing to place the rent measures on an agenda, Haffa made a motion that sometime before the end of the state mandate, the council will take up the issue of extending the eviction moratorium.

It passed unanimously.