STEVE SMITH -- What’s up

Costa Mesa is considering a law that would compel landlords to evict

anyone arrested -- not convicted, but merely arrested -- for any drug- or

gang-related offense. At face value, the proposed law seems like one that

would create a field day for the American Civil Liberties Union.

I grew up believing that the ACLU walked on water, and although now I

rarely side with them, most of me was hoping they’d challenge this new

ordinance before the ink was dry.

Then I spoke at length to Fred Szkolnik.

For the past 21 years, Szkolnik has been practicing landlord-tenant

law in Los Angeles, most of which involves helping landlords get rid of

deadbeat and nuisance tenants -- nuisance being defined as anyone who

puts mayonnaise on a corned beef sandwich or who says “Wait till next

year!” before the Chicago Cubs have reached the all-star break.

Szkolnik, who has handled more than 20,000 cases in his career and who

has also served for the past 15 years as a judge pro tem for the downtown

Los Angeles Superior Court, says that a similar, 4-year-old law in Los

Angeles is doing what it is intended to do. As a disclaimer, please note

that Szkolnik has been a friend of mine for 33 years.

“The city of L.A. is under rent control for buildings built after

1978,” said Szkolnik. “If there’s a problem, say, a drug-related bust or

a gang-related bust within 100 feet of where the suspect lives, that

qualifies as a drug-related bust to the property.”

First point: In Los Angeles, if you are arrested for selling drugs on

Fairfax Avenue and you live two miles away on La Brea Avenue, your

landlord is not compelled to evict you, although you may get funny looks

if people discover you live on La Brea. The Costa Mesa law will have the

same “on-site” qualifier.

“If the property is under rent control, the city attorney will write a

letter notifying the landlord that he can get into trouble for this

drug-related activity and he’d better do something, meaning the landlord

has to start an eviction,” said Szkolnik. “Then the landlord has to

notify rent control that they got the letter and they are going to start

a proceeding under the code section that says they have to move against

the drug-related offense.

“If it’s not under rent control, meaning a building built after 1978,

you may get the same type of letter but the process is easier because you

can terminate their tenancy by giving them a 30-day notice to quit,” he

added.

Second point: In Los Angeles, first-time offenders are not booted from

their apartments.

“It has to be a repeat offender,” Szkolnik said.

This is not the same with the Costa Mesa ordinance. Unless it is

changed, ours will be a “zero tolerance,” rule and it is here that I have

some problems with Costa Mesa’s plan.

In Los Angeles, the power of eviction is used judiciously. Each case

is decided on an individual basis by two deputy city attorneys assigned

only to these cases and many factors are weighed before the eviction

order is sent to a landlord. It is because Los Angeles has taken these

careful steps before moving toward eviction that, in four years, the ACLU

has never challenged their law.

One of the chief arguments for the new Costa Mesa law is that it will

help clean up neighborhoods. But that puts the onus on landlords, most of

whom do not knowingly rent to drug dealers or gang members.

“In my practice, I’ve represented landlords on this issue repeatedly,”

Szkolnik said. “To the landlords, the law is a nuisance. It’s an added

cost that they would rather not shoulder. But most of them that are

independent of residential property management groups see it as a good

thing ultimately because it helps them get rid of a potential cancer in

the building.”

Szkolnik estimates that “added cost” is roughly $1,000 per eviction.

There is also the time landlords must take to deal with both the

rent-control board and the city attorney.

“The eviction law has been an effective cleanup law in part because

landlords are happy to get rid of a bad apple,” he said. “When we’re

working on one of these cases where we do not have the law behind us,

that is, we do not have the authority of the city attorney to back us up,

it’s hard to get witnesses to come forward. No one wants to come forward

and say, ‘Yeah, this guy is a gangbanger or drug dealer’ because they

fear retaliation. But with the law in effect, the city attorney comes in

as a witness, and the police are happy to come so we get the authorities

to support us.

“I see a big picture here. The law helps make a decent place for

families to live and, if [the illegal activity] is going on more than

once, I think that’s enough,” he added.

I’m still having trouble getting past the eviction of people who have

not yet been convicted of the crime. And it also seems to me that if our

criminal justice system were doing a better job of putting the bad guys

behind bars, we wouldn’t have to put landlords on the front line and then

charge them for it.

But if Costa Mesa is going to move in this direction, I’d like to see

more attention paid to the L.A. way of doing things.

* STEVE SMITH is a Costa Mesa resident and freelance writer. Readers

may leave a message for him on the Daily Pilot hotline at (949) 642-6086.