Code proposal triggers debate

Lolita Harper

The City Council on Monday unanimously endorsed a move to redirect

the priorities of code enforcement officers to target substandard

rental housing, saying it was about time the city took aggressive

action to weed-out slum lords.

Council members approved a minor wording change in city codes that

places eliminating unhealthy living conditions as the No. 1 goal of

the building department.

Councilman Gary Monahan said he was sparked to take aggressive

steps after attending a housing seminar hosted by a local faith-based

organization -- a conference he was not initially invited to. The

councilman ended up replacing the vacationing Councilwoman Libby

Cowan at the Aug. 25 forum --hosted by the Orange County Congregation

Community Organization at St. Joachim’s Catholic Church.

The issues discussed generated a desire to do something about

substandard housing, he said. Monahan said he met with Rick Brown,

the city’s building department head, and asked him about the best

course of action.

Monahan said he is willing to let Brown and his staff put together

that plan, but preliminary ideas include knocking on the doors of the

red-flag apartment complexes and asking tenants for permission to

inspect.

“We would literally knock on doors and ask: ‘Does your heater

work? Are there leaking pipes? Do you have insect problems?’” Brown

said.

Councilwoman Karen Robinson, who also attended the housing

conference, was concerned that the proposal relied too heavily on the

tenants and feared they might suffer retaliation from the property

owners in the way of raised rents or evictions.

“I was hoping for something that targeted the landlords in the

same way rather than putting it on the tenants,” Robinson said.

Her uneasiness was ultimately quelled once Brown explained that

the city would make the first move and knock on every door in the

complex -- rather than sit back and wait for complaints -- therefore

diverting the focal point from the occupant.

Council colleagues supported Monahan’s proposal, but Mayor Linda

Dixon couldn’t help but notice that it was similar to a program the

Planning Commission was working on.

Without taking away from Monahan’s sincerity to alleviate

dangerous housing problems, some would argue that his motives were

equally political, given his reelection campaign, she said.

Planning Commission Chairwoman Katrina Foley, who is vying for a

City Council seat, has been pushing for a program to eradicate

substandard housing for almost a year. The program, pushed by the

Planning Commission as part of its community objectives, is more

detailed than Monahan’s suggestion and would require new enforcement

officers to police it.

Foley said she was surprised to hear of Monahan’s proposal, given

he ultimately voted to approve the commission’s goals. She was even

more shocked to walk out of a Planning Commission study session

Monday in the City Hall conference room, where she and her colleagues

had just spent an hour fine-tuning their housing proposal with Brown,

to find him giving a presentation in council chambers about Monahan’s

suggestion.

Politics aside, Foley said she is happy the council was taking

definitive steps to improve the rental housing situation in the city,

but said Monahan’s program would serve as an interim program, at

best.

“It is not sufficient to take the place of the comprehensive plan

we’ve been working on,” Foley said.

Monahan disagreed, saying adding layers of bureaucracy is not

always the best way to combat an issue.

“All I’m doing is refocusing,” Monahan said. “There is no new

staff, no new bureaucracy. Rick is the expert, I’m just giving him

direction to fix the cancer rather than the outside.”

* LOLITA HARPER covers Costa Mesa. She may be reached at (949)

574-4275 or by e-mail at lolita.harper@latimes.com.