[City Attorney office Mar. 24 agendizing memo text] 1. Although the Council's motion [March 17] specifically directed that the ordinance require tenants to provide notice of imminent non-payment of rent and documentation of the reasons therefore PRIOR to the date on which rent would otherwise have been due, it seems that such a requirement is likely to result in a significant percentage of tenants being prohibited from taking advantage of protections for which they would otherwise qualify. The ordinance as drafted requires that a tenant give notice and documentation of a COVID-19 related nonpayment on or before the date of expiration of a three-day notice to pay or quit resulting from such non-payment.

2. The Governor declared a State of Emergency on March 4, 2020. Presumably there are tenants who have been impacted by COVID-19 who would qualify for eviction protection starting on that date. The advance notice requirement, however, makes it impossible in practice for such tenants to take advantage of the eviction protection. We have included a provision which allows tenants who received three-day notices to pay or quit between March 4 and March 24 to provide the required COVID-19-related notice and documentation to their landlord at any time prior to final adjudication of their unlawful detainer proceeding.

3. In order to promote tenant awareness of their rights under the proposed ordinance, we have included an obligation that pay-or-quit notices issued between March 25, 2020 and May 31, 2020 must include certain additional notification language. Such noticing requirements place an additional burden on landlords, but are generally consistent with the Tenant Protection Act of 2019 and Section 8.99 of the Long Beach Municipal Code.

Our office will, of course, amend the proposed ordinance on the floor to reflect further direction, if any, by the Council on these issues. It is our intention that by highlighting these issues for Council and the public, any changes to the ordinance made on the floor at the direction of the Council will not require an additional reading of the ordinance, and the proposed ordinance, as possibly amended, will be of immediate force and effect (assuming passage as an urgency ordinance)

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Tonight's (Mar. 24) Council action is the first of two required votes to enact the ordinance.

Another joint Housing Authority item authories city management "to temporarily suspend termination of housing assistance payments from March

As previously reported by LBREPORT.com, under an ordinance enacted by a former Council under former Mayor Bob Foster, Councilmembers collect $50 each time they meet as members of the "Housing Authority." The Council's most recent "Housing Authority" meeting in February 2020 lasted less than two minutes. For LBREPORT.com coverage of the amounts collected by LB Councimembers for attending their few-minutes-long "Housing Authority" meetings in 2019, click here.

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The Council will also meet (not as part of its Housing Authority) on agenda items including authorizing a lease with the U.S. Veterans Initiative for use of the former the NLB Library site (5571 Orange Ave.) as a temporary [homeless] shelter.

And outside of public view, the Council will hold a closed session on "Public Employee Appointment: City Manager" (including "labor negotiations" regarding the employee)

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