California Apartment Association Files Injunction Against Pasadena Rent Control Measure H

Pasadena Now has learned that the California Apartment Association has filed an injunction that could block the implementation of a local rent control measure that was passed by Pasadena voters last month. 

Measure H would establish a rent control board and force local landlords to roll back rents to the amount tenants paid in May 2021, according to organizers.  

The initiative would limit rent adjustments in the City of Pasadena annually to 75% of the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for multifamily rental units built before February 1, 1995, and “prohibit evictions from rental units, except for just cause based on 11 specified criteria, and create an independent Rental Housing Board appointed by the City Council to oversee and adopt rules and regulations.

“Measure H is invalid in several respects, namely: (1) Measure H proposes an unlawful revision [rather than a lawful amendment] to the Pasadena City Charter,” according to court documents obtained by Pasadena Now on Friday. “(2) Measure H conditions the right to hold the office of Rental Housing Board member on a property qualification (and imposes such condition on a supermajority of seats on the Rental Housing Board) in violation of the California and United States Constitutions; and (3) Measure H conflicts with, and is therefore preempted by controlling state law, including the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act and the Ellis Act.”

The 1995 Costa–Hawkins Housing Act places limits on municipal rent control ordinances by prohibiting cities from establishing rent control over some residential units, including single-family dwellings and condominiums, and newly constructed apartment units. The law also bars  “vacancy control,” also called “strict” rent control. 

The Ellis Act allows landlords to evict residential tenants to go out of the rental business.

The City and the Pasadena City Council are listed as respondents in the lawsuit.

Several local property owners, Ahni Dodge, Simon Gibbons, Margaret Morgan, Danielle Moskowitz and Tyler Werrin are petitioners in the lawsuit. 

A spokesperson told Pasadena Now no one was available to respond at the CAA. Several people did not return phone calls. 

According to the lawsuit, the initiative also removes the City Council as provided by the City Charter by stripping elected officials of the right to remove commissioners they appoint. 

“Consistent with this alteration of the City’s fundamental governmental structure, Measure H deprives the City Council of the authority—which the Charter permits it to exercise with respect to every other appointed board or commission — to remove members at will, and it expands the right of recall beyond that which is currently allowed by both the City Charter and the California Elections Code (which limits the right of recall to elected officials) to provide a recall procedure for appointed Rental Housing Board members.”

Measure H also specifies the required qualifications for members of the Rental Housing Board, providing that of the 11 members, at least seven of the members must be tenants with no “material interest in rental property” in Los Angeles County (not just Pasadena) during the past three years, or even a “material interest in rental property” by members of the appointees’ “extended family”—a term that is very broadly defined to include even grandparents, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, grandchildren or cousins.” 

But according to the documents, there are no guaranteed slots for those who do have a material interest in rental properties, like landlords; all eleven of the rent board members. and both alternates could be tenants which could produce a bias against property owners and landlords.

“At most four of the members could be property owners, meaning that tenants are guaranteed a supermajority on the Board,” the documents state. “Any action of the Board requires the support of at least six Board members, and Measure H requires that for there to be a quorum to take action, at least four “tenant” members must attend the meeting. 

There is no requirement that any “at-large” members be present for a quorum. In sum, no vote can even take place unless at least half of the members present are tenants with no material interest in rental property.”

According to the Pasadena Tenants Union, which organized the campaign effort that got the initiative on the November ballot, Measure H provisions become effective December 22, ten days after the City Council certification.

But an injunction could stop some or all of the initiative from taking effect. 

An injunction is an order granted by a court forcing a party to take or refrain from certain actions. 

City officials told Pasadena Now earlier this week that the Rental Housing Board which will manage the new law, will not be in place by that time.

Organizers claim that does not present a conflict.

The City Council will discuss will receive an informational update on the item next month. The update will discuss the charter amendment as a whole, the appointment process to the rental housing board, and practical considerations for the Council, according to a statement released by the City earlier this week. 

This is breaking news, Pasadena Now will update this story as more information becomes available.