Rental Housing Board Weighs in on City Charter Reform

Possible changes to the City’s Charter took center stage at Wednesday’s meeting of Pasadena’s Rental Housing Board, which is currently considering scores of suggestions and recommendations.

The California Apartment Association is currently appealing a 2022 Superior Court decision that upheld most of Measure H, which created the Rental Housing Board. Nonetheless, the Board is actively seeking suggestions for changes in the Charter as it affects Measure H and its implementation.

The City’s own Charter Reform Task Force is also preparing a report to present to the Council in early summer. 

“There are some minor cleanup items in terms of definitions of terms and a couple of references that were changed by the Superior Court judge in her ruling,” said Housing Board Chair Ryan Bell, “that left a few things … unclear. We potentially might want to improve the clarity and efficiency to implement the charter amendment and there might be some additional substantive changes addressing some unforeseen issues that just weren’t considered in the beginning.” 

Bell then outlined the proposed process that the Board would follow to implement any changes to the City’s charter. 

While the Board did not debate the merits of any actual suggestions Wednesday, it essentially began the initial discussion process.

Bell explained that the Board’s policy ad hoc committee and support staff would research all of the suggestions and provide analysis of any potential modifications to the charter. The Board would discuss those findings and provide direction to the staff and approve recommendations, which would then go to the City Council. 

The City Council would review and approve amendments to be placed on the November ballot. 

The Board has until the end of March to complete its proposed suggestions. 

In mid to late April, the policy committee would present and discuss its findings with the Board and provide direction to the staff. May 22 would be the target date for the Board to approve any amendments and make an official recommendation to the City Council about those amendments, Bell explained.

The City Attorney would then prepare ballot language for a July 22 target date for the City Council to approve the ballot wording 

“The ballot language needs to be approved and sent to the County by the middle of July or the end of July to get it on the ballot,” Bell explained. 

Board Vice-Chair Brandon Lamar said he was concerned that any discussions on changes should be held by the full Board and not by just the ad hoc policy committee. 

“I think this is a very important subject,” said Lamar, “and I would say that if there’s a reason or if there’s a way for us to have this discussion as a general full Board instead of that policy committee, I would rather have that because this is very important.” 

Alternate At Large Peter Dreier also cautiously stressed to the Board that, “I think we have to be very vigilant about, … not only in proposing good ideas, but being aware that there are people in the city and in the political world that would like to see us either disband or be effectively weakened.” 

Bell responded that, “What’s being discussed are fixes that will make the implementation of Measure H better and smoother and to fix some technical and clerical errors that are confusing. This Board will make recommendations to the City Council, and City Council, frankly, with or without our recommendation, can put whatever they want on the ballot.”