Rental Assistance Vote Postponed as Council Races to Beat 6 p.m. Curfew

With a 6 p.m. curfew approaching in Pasadena, the City Council on Monday mowed through an array of routine agenda items but postponed discussion of several others of heavier import – including the adoption of guidelines for the city’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program.

While council members were conducting business remotely from their homes and could have covered the whole agenda, Mayor Terry Tornek said the pause button was hit early in deference to the handful of workers who were on duty at City Hall and needed to get home.

“I’m sitting at home, I’m safe, (but) people had to go home, I didn’t want to hold them up,’’ Tornek told Pasadena Now after the meeting was adjourned.

The council session began shortly after 2 p.m. and ended around 5:30. Recent council meetings have stretched to seven or eight hours.

The 6 p.m. curfew was declared by both the city of Pasadena and the County of Los Angeles again on Monday following three nights of civil unrest around the county. Pasadena reported a few relatively minor incidents in recent days, in contrast to the looting and fires that made news in Downtown L.A., Santa Monica and Long Beach, among other locations.

The most noteworthy item that was tabled Monday was the Emergency Rental Assistance Program guidelines – a matter that now is scheduled to be discussed and voted on at next Monday’s council meeting.

The program, developed by the city’s Department of Housing, is designed to assist low-income city renters maintain their housing and/or reduce the amount of back rent that’s owed as a result of the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Under the program, the city would spend $1 million and make grants to assist approximately 220 low-income renters. The money would come from Community Development Block Grant funds through the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act.

The guidelines outline who is eligible for the program, and what criteria need to be met. Briefly, eligible households can receive grants for up to three months of past due rent not to exceed $4,500 per unit if the renters’ annual gross incomes do not exceed the low-income limit, and if the renters reside in Pasadena, have notified landlords of their inability to pay rent due to the pandemic and have a current residential lease. Renters who receive any form of government rental assistance, or who live in HUD-assisted multifamily housing, are not eligible to apply for the assistance.

The guidelines would also formalize a detailed scoring system, complete with tie-breakers, to determine eligibility – for example, giving more points to people who have lived in Pasadena for a minimum of five years, and households that have at least one minor.

Full details of the proposed guidelines can be found in a memo attached to Monday’s agenda. It is available at http://ww2.cityofpasadena.net/councilagendas/2020%20Agendas/Jun_01_20/AR%2022.pdf

According to a city staff report, the guidelines and scoring system are necessary because, “It is anticipated that the demand for such assistance will be great and available program funding will be oversubscribed.’’

Other items held over by the council in Monday:

• Further discussion of City Manager Steve Mermell’s proposed Fiscal Year 2021 budget, which proposes more than $2.4 million in reductions from, among other areas, not filling several vacant positions. The budget recommends total appropriations of $273,011,522 from the General Fund and $878,636,771 from all other funds. That discussion is expected to be resumed on June 15.
• A motion to resume regular parking enforcement as the city gradually eases away from Stay at Home orders. That’s expected to be taken up next Monday.
• A report on the 2020 homeless count in Pasadena, and the state of homelessness in the city. That matter is expected to be on the agenda next Monday.

The council did hear a report on procedures that will be in place as various businesses, such as restaurants, barber shops and hair salons, begin to reopen under loosened Stay at Home orders — significantly, a “tool kit” for businesses to consult is expected to be on the city’s website in the coming days.

Also, the council approved appropriating $158,100 toward the continuation of the Pasadena Unified School District’s weekend lunch program; approved a nearly $736,000 expenditure for the purchase of two street sweepers; and OK’d the Fiscal 2021 fee rates for all manner of city services – fees that mirror those of 2020.

As he has done at recent council meetings, Tornek adjourned Monday’s session in memory of COVID-19 victims – but this time, added acknowledgements that reflected the recent troubled times.

“I would like to adjourn tonight’s meeting again in the memory of all of the COVID victims,’’ Tornek said. “I would also like to, because we’re going to have a proclamation momentarily with regard to gun violence, adjourn in the memory of those who have been victims of gun violence.

“And also because of the special condition in which we find ourselves this week – which has caused us to have another countywide curfew tonight at 6 o’clock – I would like to adjourn the meeting in the memory of all of those who have been the victims of racism in this country.’’

Several hours later, council members and other city officials taking part in the meeting stood for a moment of silence before Tornek gaveled the session to a close.