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City counsel warns proposed occupant protections are a 'first impression' and could invite lawsuits
Summary
Santa Monica city counsel told the council and rent board that removing the death/incapacity trigger and broadly expanding who can stay in a unit are legally untested; staff urged caution because charter amendments are harder to reverse if challenged.
City counsel told the joint meeting that the proposed deletions to 18.06(c) and expansions of the class of protected occupants appear to be "first impression" legal questions with little to no precedent. Counsel said staff had been unable to locate a jurisdiction that had removed the death-or-incapacity trigger entirely and that the broader protections proposed are not in common use.
"Based on our research, we have not seen any case law on this point," counsel said, adding that if the measure were challenged, a charter amendment is harder to cure because changes require waiting for a general election. Counsel and staff framed four options for the bodies: proceed as drafted, narrow the changes, advance only the non-rent-control items, or defer for more study. Several commissioners and council members cited the legal uncertainty as the primary reason to pull back or narrow the measure.
The discussion prompted the rent control board to vote to seek City Council feedback before completing its recommendation; the board later voted to pull back the rent-control-specific elements for further study. Councilmembers said they wanted staff to return with a narrower resolution addressing parity for single-unit dwellings and owner move-in rules rather than advance the novel 18.06(c) changes to the charter at this time.
