City rolling out rental improvement programs

Lolita Harper

Second-rate rental housing has been a sore subject for city

leaders for years. A Planning Commission presentation Monday of a

program designed to combat it marks the second of its kind this

campaign season.

For several months, the Planning Commission has been working with

planners and city building officials to develop a rental housing

improvement program designed to identify substandard housing with

interior and exterior inspections of rental units.

Although Monday will mark the unveiling of the proposed program --

pushed in large part by Planning Commission Chairwoman and City

Council candidate Katrina Foley -- the opposition is already moving .

Councilman Gary Monahan, who is up for reelection, took the reigns

on the housing issue and quickly and easily promoted his own program,

which he says cancels any need for more rental regulation.

Also resistant to the Planning Commission’s program was the Rental

Housing Independent, which launched a 300-person phone poll to tell

traditionally conservative voters that Foley is a registered Democrat

and an attorney.

Despite the premature scrutiny, planning commissioners said they

were anxious to share their possible ideas for ensuring clean, safe

and attractive rental properties throughout the city.

“I am pleased to see that the Planning Commission is finally going

to have the opportunity to present a draft proposal for improving

substandard housing in our city,” Foley said. “Now people can make an

informed opinion on whether we should continue to spend taxpayer

dollars managing absentee landlord properties or take aggressive

action so that those owners are held accountable.”

The night’s program will include a presentation from Santa Ana

officials, who have implemented their own fee-based rental housing

program, a video of examples of some of the worst properties in the

city and clarification about the recent strategy pushed by Monahan

and unanimously approved by the City Council.

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.

Foley has consistently contended the council’s action cannot take

the place of the more comprehensive program she and her colleagues

have worked so hard to implement. She said she is happy council

members are taking positive steps and hopes the council-level program

will serve as an interim, test program.

Rick Brown, the city’s building department head, said he would use

the next six months to execute, track and record the progress of his

recent council directives. Brown, who recently found himself in the

middle of a political war between the two city leaders, said he will

continue to be responsive to both the council and commission and

focus on the commonalities of the two programs.

Both programs target the most deplorable examples and depend

largely on the cooperation of building owners, who ultimately decide

whether to allow building officials to inspect. If serious roadblocks

are put up, it could take building officials months to secure a

safety check.

At the end of the interim period, Brown will have a good idea of

the strengths and weaknesses of enforcement and will report his

findings back to the Planning Commission. They, in turn, can use the

concrete data to implement a more comprehensive plan, he said.

“I’ve been assigned a pilot program, even though it is not

necessarily labeled that way,” Brown said, adding that the next six

months will be mutually beneficial to all involved.

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

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