The final section of the memo (detailing various aspects of the petition-initiative measure currently collecting signatures) is sub-headed "potential conflicts with the City Charter," and states that "the establishment of the [proposed] Rental Housing Board, and the breadth of powers granted to it, are inconsistent with (and likely violate) provisions of the City Charter. Lengthy and potentially costly legal actions would be necessary to address such inconsistencies."

[UPDATE] Josh Butler [leading the petition-initiative drive] responded to LBREPORT.com: "City Hall is waging war on Long Beach renters. This is a heavy handed and biased report, but, we expected nothing less from them." [Further below] [end UPDATE]

[Scroll down for further.]

The 28-page report in memo form, dated April 19 from Tom Modica (Interim Dir. of Development Services) and Rich Anthony (Deputy City Attorney) to City Manager Pat West for the Mayor and City Council, also attaches multiple pages of responses to questions posed by the Council, which requested the memo (report) at its March 20 meeting (8-0, Mungo absent.)

[UPDATE further] Proposed-measure prponent Butler's response adds: "Requesting such a report is one [of] the options the City Council has befor them once the signatures are certified by the City Clerk. In effect, the Council has initiated this process early and we encourage them to seek all the answers necessary so that we all may move forward with this process." [end UPDATE]

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The memo further states:

Several questions were not answered due to (i) the breadth or repetitiveness of such questions, (ii) fact that such questions regard potential City liability which should be discussed in closed session, (iii) the fact that such questions inquire about the intent of the authors of the Proposed Ordinance. As previously stated, city staff played no role whatsoever in preparation of the Proposed Ordinance. Given additional time and resources, staff can pursue responses to some of the remaining questions, or work with outside experts to provide or provide additional information regarding the Proposed Ordinance There would be additional cost in terms of City staff time and outside legal expertise needed to continue this research. While an exact dollar amount has not been determined, staff roughly estimate that funds in excess of $30,000 would be needed for outside counsel, consultant expertise, and staff time. Staff recommend that before the City Council takes the next step and commits to additional research, that the City wait to determine whether the proposed voter-initiated measure can generate the necessary signatures to be placed on the ballot.

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The development comes as proponents of a statewide petition-initiative drive recently announced that they've collected and will submit in the coming days more than sufficient signatures to put a measure on the statewide November 2018 ballot to repeal the Costa-Hawkins Act. Costa-Hawkins currently limits the ability of cities (by Council action or local petition initiatives) to enact sweeping local rent control ordinances. The hot button issue has already come up in the 2018 Governor's race, could become a factor in other state and local races and is expected to generate large sums for dueling campaigns for and against the statewide measure.

It's currently unclear if Mayor Garcia or other incumbents (Mungo and Uranga face June runoffs) do or don't support the statewide ballot measure to repeal Costa-Hawkins or enacting certain just-cause eviction or other provisions sought by LB tenant advocates and included in the LB petition-initiated measure (that LB voters could enact whether or not voters statewide repeal Costa-Hawkins.)

Developing.

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