+ After Re-Election Defeat, Andrews Flips Stance, Co-Agendizes Item To Add "Bad Faith" Req't Sought By Property Owners To Tenant Anti-Harassment Ordinance
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After Re-Election Defeat, Andrews Flips Stance, Co-Agendizes Item To Add "Bad Faith" Req't Sought By Property Owners To Tenant Anti-Harassment Ordinance

Mayor Garcia could veto the proposed change. Will he?



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(November 13, 2020, 7:30 p.m.) -- Roughly two weeks after 6th district voters declined to re-elect him, Vice Mayor/Councilman Dee Andrews (first elected 2007) has reversed his pre-election stance and joined as co-agendizer of a Nov. 17 City Council item proposing to add a "bad faith" intent requirement -- sought by property owners -- to a tenant anti-harassment ordinance enacted on Nov. 2 by five Councilmembers (including him) at a specially called pre-election Council meeting.

If Andrews doesn't flip his stance again, it would give four other Councilmembers -- Price, Supernaw, Mungo and Austin (who didn't attend the Nov.2 meeting realizing they'd be outvoted) -- the fifth vote they need to add the property-owner desired "bad faith" intent requirement.

At the Nov. 2 specially scheduled Council meeting (one day before the Nov. 3 election), a number of supporters of the ordinance argued against adding an intent requirement, and Andrews (maker of the ordinance approval motion) shrugged pleas by property owners to add the bad faith intent requirement.

But in an agendizing memo co-authored by Andrews and Councilman Daryl Supernaw, primary agendizer Councilwoman Suzie Price writes in a memo joined by Councilman Daryl Supernaw and Vice Mayor Andrews:

Long Beach is a majority renter City where the protection of tenant rights has continually been a priority for the City Council.

On November 2, 2020 the Long Beach City Council continued this focus and enacted, by urgency order, an ordinance meant to protect tenants from undue harassment from their landlord. The legislative intent was to target persistent violators, "bad actors," and/or those landlords who ignore or neglect the legally required protections tenants are afforded, and the duties they have toward their tenants.

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However, the language currently included in the ordinance ignores this stated intent by not including a "bad faith" requirement as a foundation to initiate litigation. Other cities that have adopted tenant anti-harassment ordinances such as Oakland, West Hollywood, and Santa Monica all include a bad faith component in their policies to allow for an objective and fair assessment of allegations made under the ordinance.

As the underlying ordinance was declared an emergency, any modification to the ordinance would similarly be considered an emergency since the modifications would attach to, and ultimately amend, the original ordinance.

FISCAL IMPACT:

Due to the urgency of this item no fiscal impact assessment has been conducted.

STATEMENT OF URGENCY:

Ordinance was recently enacted, so important changes should be made expeditiously.

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If five Councilmembers vote to add the intent requirement, Mayor Robert Garcia could veto the amended ordinance (which he could have done to the initially enacted ordinance but didn't do.) If Garcia were to exercise his veto on the amended ordinance it would likely stick unless supporters of the "bad faith" amendment find a sixth Council vote to override the Mayor's veto.

Andrews, who's historically been supported by landlord and development interests was endorsed by Garcia. He was outpolled in the Nov. 3 election by Suely Saro, backed by organized labor.

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Garcia is widely speculated to be positioning himself for a possible appointment to a position in a Biden-Harris administration (or possibly Gov. Newsom's appointment to Harris' now-vacated US Senate seat.) Garcia endorsed Harris for President (who swore him into his second Mayoral term), then (when Harris' campaign imploded) switched to endorse Biden.

For weeks, Garcia has filled his personal Twitter feed with Tweets highlightug his campaign efforts for Biden.. If Garcia were to exit for a position in a Biden administration, he would effectively hand LB taxpayers a roughly $1 million cost for a special election to replace him.

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