The Pasadena City Council has decided to hitch their political fortunes to the floundering Rental Housing Board, by loaning them money and making them a department of the city without any oversight or control for the financial exposure they have created for the Pasadena taxpayers. There has been no commitment from the Board to repay the $1,000,000 taxpayers’ money the city has loaned the Board. In fact, members of the Board have gloated about the City’s inability to make them repay the money they have borrowed from your public funds.
Measure H created the unelected Rental Housing Board and for months the board members have eaten their free meals, collected their $42 an hour in pay and they have failed to implement the will of the voters.
Instead, they have awarded contracts without competitive bids; missed legal deadlines for creating a rental registry; failed to adopt rent adjustments on time; and issued contradictory and incomplete advice to landlords and tenants. The Rental Housing Board has yet to determine the amount of the annual tax that will be assessed on all rental units. The latest estimate is over $213 per year even if the unit isn’t rented.
If you own a home or condo in Pasadena, you need to pay attention because this Board will determine how you rent out your home, condo or ADU. They have also made it almost impossible, and very expensive, to remove a problem tenant. If you plan to move a family member into the ADU you’ve built, you’re about to get a shock. Their policies have probably killed new ADU’s in Pasadena. And they are making apartments a lot more expensive to rent by forcing new tenants to subsidize existing residents.
This unaccountable board is made up of uninformed activists. They promptly abandoned the promise they made to voters to remain independent and have put their hand in the taxpayer’s cookie jar by becoming part of the city bureaucracy. That means government overhead, pension liabilities, labor relations, more bureaucracy in decision making and even higher costs that will ultimately be borne by the Pasadena renters. Their first-year budget proposes 22 staff and a cost in excess of $6.5 million taxpayer dollars.
The Pasadena City Council has unwisely taken legal and financial responsibility for the rental board’s spending spree without any administrative or legislative ability to direct or manage it. The Rental Housing Board has demonstrated nothing but incompetence and complete disregard for transparency. Under their leadership, Measure H is heading for a train wreck and the City Council has just jumped on the caboose.
Measure H is a textbook example of why your vote matters. If you care about democracy, accountability, or taxpayer rights in Pasadena, let your Council member know that you’re watching. Their actions on this important issue should determine if they are worthy of your vote in 2024 and beyond.
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