Recommendation to declare ordinance amending the Long Beach Municipal Code by adding Chapter 8.101, relating to tenant harassment; declaring the urgency thereof; and declaring that this ordinance shall take effect immediately, read and adopted as read.  (Citywide)
Item one is recommendation to declare ordinance amending the Long Beach Municipal Code by adding Chapter 8.101 relating to tenant harassment and declaring the urgency thereof. Read the first time and lead over to the next regular meeting of the City Council for Final Reading. I thank you. I know we do have some public comment. I do have a motion and the seconder, and I'm not sure if Mr. or if attorney of our attorney, Mr. Anthony, had any comments. Mr.. Anthony, before. Did you make any comments before we went to public comment on this? Sure. I'll be real. Quick. Can you hear me, Mayor? Yes. This is Rich Anthony, deputy city attorney, as instructed about two weeks ago. I guess it was 13 days ago. As everyone will recall, there were. The motion included some additive elements. It included some elements. Delete this, remove that, if you find it, that it might be illegal. What I'm proposing before you is almost verbatim. I think I captured all those in the motion and it's just about verbatim what we were instructed to do two weeks ago. So hopefully it's pretty straightforward. I look forward to public comment and any questions from the council members. Thanks. Thank you. And before we go to public comment, I do have a motion by Vice Mayor Andrews and a second by Councilmember Ranga Banks. Mr. Andrews, do you have any comments before I go to public comment or should you do public comment first? I would love to do a public comment first. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Then I will turn this over to the city clerk for public comment. Our first speaker is Andrew. Do you know? Honorable Mayor and city council members. My name is Angela Darnell, and I'm a community organizer with the Lumbee Tenants Union in Long Beach, Florida. On behalf of the dozens of low income black and brown tenants and families, we organize across the city. We truly thank you for your leadership in bringing forth this anti-harassment ordinance. Special thanks to Vice Mayor De Andrews and Councilman Roberto Ortega for championing this issue. Also, thank you to Deputy City Attorney Rich Anthony for bringing this ordinance back so quickly. Imagine in the middle of the COVID 19 pandemic, on top of the many stresses you're already dealing with, you also have to endure water leaks, black mold and a rat infestation in your own home. You've asked your landlord to fix these problems, but instead the landlord illegally doubles the rent and threatens you with eviction and other lawsuits if you don't pay. This exact scenario has been playing out for months between vulnerable tenants and slumlords across the city. As a housing rights organizer, I know firsthand of countless families experiencing ruthless harassment from their that their landlords, including unlawful eviction attempts and lockouts, verbal and physical intimidation and threats, failure to make timely repairs, entering into homes without notice, and intentional distribution of false information about COVID 19 emergency housing policies. When a tenant behaves badly or violates their lease, the landlord can evict or take other legal action. But when a landlord behaves badly, in Harris's opinion, the tenant can't do anything about it because they'll just be handed an eviction notice or be told, If you don't like it here, you can leave. Thank you. Our next speaker is Brian Matheson. Brian Matheson. We'll come back to him. Our next speaker is David Clement. So my turn to talk? Yes. Please begin. Thank you. This is David Clement, and I oppose the proposed tenant harassment ordinance. We believe that harassment of any sort is already illegal. And we, as good housing providers, do not do not condone tenant harassment. And tenants are already protected under California tenant protection laws. This creates a lot of problems that adds more bureaucracy to our city. We should all work together to solve these issues. However, this is not. This is not a good path to take. If if this does become an ordinance, I recommend that we add some language, some bad faith verbiage to this ordinance. But we we definitely oppose this ordinance, as there are already California protections for tenants. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Brian Matheson. Brian Matheson. Please limit yourself. We'll try again. We'll go to Elaine Hutchinson. Good morning. Mayor and City Council. My name is Elaine Hutchison and I want to register and oppose on this ordinance, potential ordinance, as it is now stated. I have been a responsible and caring rental property owner and manager for many years. More than I would like to probably say right now. If this proposed ordinance language remains the same without any changes. My company. Myself and all other owners in this city will be harmed harmed going forward. I am asking respectfully that you insert bad faith language into the ordinance to give all the providers a balanced approach. Thank you very kindly for allowing me to speak. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Fred Sutton. Can you hear me? Yes. Please begin on the mayor and City Council. My name is Fred Sutton, speaking on behalf of the California Apartment Association. The political and rush nature of this important item is wrong. Vice Mayor Andrews, as the maker of this motion, I urge you to allow a modification. There is no intent or bad faith clause. Like other jurisdictions, there should be a right to cure a violation like emergency ordinance. The language requirements should be based on the language the lease was negotiated in as it's presently written. It should be struck. It should be struck in from the ordinance. Posting them notices and items in common areas is an absolute control of the property owner. The aspects related to this are likely illegal and need to be reviewed further. All guests should be invited. Anyone can invite guests, but there should be no allowance of someone. Just come in and saying, Hey, we're here on behalf of somebody if someone's invited. That makes total sense. But this needs reform in that section. There are other major issues, but we only have 90 seconds. There was zero outreach to housing providers prior to this has written. This ordinance is unacceptable and I urge changes immediately before this moves forward. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Jesse Howard. My name is Jesse Howard. Mayor and Councilmember can hear me. Yes, we can. I would just like to state that I also oppose this ordinance. And, you know, as a landlord here in Long Beach, we already have harassment clauses in laws. We don't need another ordinance created by local city officials and council members. Ordinance only creates more problems between the tenants and landlords. We already have housing problems and this is not going to help or solve what we need to get done. At the very least, I recommend and encourage Mr. De Andreas to consider bad faith language. You know, as I read it right now, it's totally unacceptable. And I just urge to modify. The ordinance moving forward. I think that a balanced approach is kind of the key approach. Landlords and tenants really need to work together. This only kind of creates additional problems and we got to look at the legality of the situation before we move forward. So I request everybody to take a second look and. Hopefully get a better understanding of legally how this is supposed to happen. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Joshua Christian. Yeah. Good morning, counsel. This is Joshua Christian, the eviction defense attorney for the Legal Aid Foundation or Long Beach Office. I cannot stress enough that Wendy and Jesse and good landlords have nothing to worry about here. The people who do are serious, egregious offenders, and they know that a blanket bad faith requirement protects them. It's not just counterproductive, it's unnecessary. The ordinance provides appropriate local penalties for violating already established civil and criminal law. Their provisions were bad. Faith is already an element, or where bad faith has been added in recognition of landlords concerns and provisions that address the most common and egregious forms of harassment like abuse of the right of access , like lying about tenants. Right. And these are the most serious issues that are driving tenants from their homes, particularly in communities of color, driving them from their homes while the pandemic is surging right now. So this ordinance was proposed last spring. It was 12 months ago, and we cannot afford to wait until November 17th to bring it back. Please, please pass it as friends. So thank you, everyone. Thank you, staff. I appreciate it. Thank you. Our next speaker is Mike Mitchinson. In here. Can you hear me? Please begin. Good morning, Mayor and council members. These comments are directed specifically to Vice Mayor Andrews. You have a chance to help out landlords. 7500 of them that are here in Long Beach. Many of them that you've known for years. They're responsible and caring. Landlords have never had any harassment complaints. Contrary to the legal representation that said bad faith was in their bad faith is not in the language. You have three extremely liberal cities in California, San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley that have harassment policies. All three of them have bad language in there. You need to do right by these people and put the bad faith language in there. These these this not having that is going to be paramount to impacting landlords financially for years to come. 7500 landlords are doing right by their tenants. Just because one or two don't don't do it the right way doesn't mean you do a citywide policy. They're going to do it and put in the bad faith language. I am asking you to do that to help out landlords. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Ray Mailer. Hello? Can you hear me? Yes. Please begin. Okay. Yes. My name is Ray Mailer. I'm a small business housing provider of five units in Long Beach, as well as a resident of Long Beach. I oppose the proposed investment ordinance. I understand this issue concerns a single landlord. If you believe this ordinance must be considered, please and bad faith language. This has been included in similar legislation in other jurisdictions. As a housing provider since 1988, my wife and I have conducted ourselves in good faith. By the way, I'm not seeing a minute and a half here, so please reset my clock. My wife and I have conducted ourselves in good faith with all of our tenants. Given the infrequent situation of tenants who have acted in bad faith. We have always been fair to the people who choose our residences being consistently upfront, prompt, with responsive and timely, and resolving repairs and bothersome neighbors. Being a small business housing provider is a personal business, and it is easier on the conscience and simply good business to conduct ourselves in good faith, even in the face of a tenant's bad faith. We've conducted ourselves in good faith and will certainly continue to do so. Vice Mayor Andrews request that you add language requiring that a tenant intended to deceive the tenant the bad faith language. Thank you. And that is all over. Finish my comments. Thank you. Our next speaker is Wendy Henning. Can you hear me? Yes. Please begin. Thank you. My name is Wendy Henning. I oppose the change and the adding of any harassment, additional harassment, personal policies. I want to say sincerely, for over 40 years, my husband and I have been. Property providers, housing providers for the Long Beach area. It's been a very pleasurable experience and I would like everyone to know that we've never had a difficulty at all. In fact, just the opposite. We've tried to nurture relationships with Kevin, being that we're fairly intelligent people. We don't want change of tenancy for obvious reasons. We have never had conflicts with any tenant. And like I'd like to say, like anyone accused of any wrongdoing, I think it's only fair that the accuser can prove in court any type of accusation. That's basically all I want to say. Thank you for your time and consideration. Mayor and Vice. Mayor and Council. Thank you. Our next speaker is Brian Matheson. This is why Matheson. Please begin. Your report. Okay. Thank you. Your proposal states the city has a responsibility to protect renters from unwarranted harassment. What is your responsibility to protect property owners from tenant harassment? Are you naive enough to think that some tenants don't yell and scream or otherwise harass owners, especially in a time when they know they cannot be evicted? Where is our equal protection under the law? The proposed anti-harassment law will also duplicate laws already in place. In fact, your proposed ordinance even references the current codes and it overlaps the responsibility for resolving complaints on habitability. Most importantly, the ordinance does nothing for parity, bad states complaints or obtain justice, since the state and federal government laws are already in place for harassment. Why not consider mediation as a requirement for a resolution prior to starting a lawsuit or passing this ordinance? Working towards dispute resolution to mediation can improve understanding between tenants and owners and provide an alternative to costly, time consuming legal procedures. The California Association of Realtors requires mediation on all of the purchased contracts because the mediation can be a workable and fair alternative to traditional civil litigation and reduction in frivolous complaints. Please forget this ordinance duplicating current laws and concentrate on real help with a program for mediation. Thank you. Thank you. Your next speaker is Keith Kennedy. This is Keith Kennedy, and I'm president of the Small Property Owners Alliance. And we oppose this ordinance as written. As written and it excludes bad faith. Language does not apply to both tenants and landlords. It's being passed as an emergency bill with little to no community outreach or study to determine the need and does not appear to require that the agreements and notices be written in English. The vast majority of landlords in this city are responsible landlords and are aware that harassment of any kind from either party is wrong and unnecessary. At the very least, we encourage Vice Mayor Andrews to recommend the inclusion of the bad faith language, among other critical items mentioned that were uncovered during our conversations with Pacific Legal Foundation. Regarding this particular ordinance, we respectfully ask that you reconsider this ordinance. And includes some of those languages if you're going to pass the ordinance. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Tanya Jimenez. Good morning, Mayor and Council. I'm not with you to make any concessions and say that if landlords are good landlords, they will have nothing to worry about if this ordinance is adopted. And this isn't to disparage the previous speaker Familia, or your foundation. This is directly to the so-called good landlords that spoke earlier and will likely speak after me. The landlord tenant relationship is inherently parasitic and rife with power differentials, whereas landlords and property owners do housing as a commodity. It is a human right. I stooping on mongo. We all know where you stand. You are, which is to leave tenants unprotected and at the mercy of greedy, exploitative landlords. Then adopt an ordinance you perceive is unfair for whatever reason. B It comes with wording. The applicable state regulations exists or other reasons. Folks have been coming to you for some time now, demanding increased protections, demonstrating that current regulations are not sufficient, and that when given the opportunity, landlords and property owners will prioritize profit and property over people. Counsel. I urge you all to keep watching these families in their homes and vote to adopt the proposed entertainment professional ordinance, ensuring that it is appropriately enforceable and be adopted with urgency. So the ordinance goes into effect immediately. Thank you. Thank you. Can that conclude public comment? I think we have. One more speaker. Go ahead, please. Thank. Good morning. This is Bruce Mackey. Please begin. Do we have? Is there. Is there a speaker? This is Bruce McGee. Can you hear me? Yes. Please begin. Hi, this is Bruce Mackey. I'm an attorney here in Long Beach, and I represent a number of property owners, most of whom are very small property owners. The concern of my clients, frankly, is that there is no emergency and are a bit concerned about this matter being rushed through. They are also concerned about a lack of a notice period and opportunity to cure. Prior to being held responsible for any perceived misdeeds. And there's also lacking in the proposed ordinance a bad faith recommend requirement. And this, in my experience, is very likely to lead to unnecessary litigation. And we've got enough litigation that we don't need any more. Thank you. That concludes public comment for this item. Thank you. Vice Mayor Andrews. Yes. Thank you, man. You know, I've listened to all the speakers and every point and I realize the situation we're under. But I want to thank my colleagues and the media for being here today. I know it's a busy time for a lot of us. But with my God's in my prayers that this type of situation will there be an I tell it myself and I see that one of those individuals spoke about, you know, bad faith. You know, I know if anybody you are good landlord. You don't have to worry about this anyway. And I would like to move to approve this item because I want to see once again and thank the Orange Avenue tenants. And it's a banner for this Lewis Avenue for reaching out and bringing these issues to my attention. And I'm hoping by today we will be able to have those bad tenants, you know, landlords, you know, to stop this tenant harassment, because this is not even necessary. We know the good ones, and I hope we will find out the bad ones so they will pay attention to these individuals. And thank you very much. Thank you. I have a motion in a second by Andrew's customary ranga. Do I need to vote on this, Mr. Anthony, or just one? Yes, that's right. Just like the emergency vote today. To to vote. Okay. So a roll call, please, on the first emergency vote. Has a district one by district two. District three. District four, District five, District six, Fire District seven, District eight, District nine. All right. Motion case. Thank you. And then we'll take the second vote, please. I have a motion by Vice Mayor Andrews and Councilman your ranga. District one. All District two I just three. District four. District five. District six. All right. District seven by district eight. District nine. Hi. Motion carries. Okay. Thank you. That concludes our meeting as we close comes from a range of safety remarks as we close the meeting as well. So thank you very much. And of course, from your income. Thank you, Mary.