Salinas council member urges Santa Rita audience to help gather referendum signatures after repeal of local rent protections

Andrew Sandoval, a Salinas City Council member, used the Santa Rita Union board meeting public comment period to notify attendees that the Salinas City Council had voted to repeal the city’s rent stabilization, tenant protection and anti‑harassment ordinances and to request volunteer help collecting signatures for a referendum.

Sandoval said repeal will remove protections that had limited rent increases for many tenants and established a city process to address landlord harassment and retaliation without immediate resort to the courts. He said a household paying $2,000 in rent under the prior ordinance would have seen a $60 increase instead of roughly $200 under the repeal, a difference he said amounted to about $1,700 a year in savings under the prior rules.

Sandoval told the Santa Rita audience that a community group has drafted a referendum and is seeking signatures from registered voters in the city of Salinas to place the issue before voters; he said the group plans to collect roughly 10,000 signatures to provide a buffer against disqualifications (the threshold he cited was about 7,200 required signatures). He left sign‑up sheets and invited district staff, teachers and parents to help collect signatures before a July deadline.

Board President Neil Patel and trustees did not take board action on the comment; Sandoval’s remarks were heard as public comment from an outside elected official.