Tenant Groups, Seniors & Elected Officials Protested Outside a Landlord Group's Trade Show Organizing Support for an Anti-Rent Control Ballot Measure:
A good showing of seniors, elected officials, mobilehome tenants and tenants' rights advocates held a news conference and picket outside a statewide meeting of large, wealthy apartment owners, Tuesday, October 30 outside the LA Convention Center. Inside, apartment owners were scheming to pass a statewide initiative to abolish rent control and jack up rents for hundreds of thousands of renters to make tens of millions of dollars for themselves. The Apartment Owners Association of California sponsored the meeting. The organization has already raised $1.7 million to get this proposition on the ballot.
The landlord meeting had seminars with titles such as, "How to Stop Rent Control & Unfair Eminent Domain from Taking Your Property, How to Add Thousands to Your Monthly Cash Flow, How to Properly Screen Tenants, Money-Making Strategies, How to Get Three Times the, Market Rent Guaranteed by the Government Without Section 8, How to Use Current Landlord/Tenant Laws to Your Advantage, and How to Make Your Fortune in California When Foreclosures Go Up 1500%." Speaking at the news conference in addition to Coalition for Economic Survival Executive Director Larry Gross (pictured above) were Santa Monica Councilmember Kevin McKeown; Carson Mayor Jim Dear; Tim Sheahan, Golden State Manufactured-Home Owners League Inc.; Denny Zane, Santa Monicans for Renters' Rights, and Dawn Bronsema, CA Alliance for Retired Americans. Members from these tenant, mobilehome owners and senior organizations, in addition to members from Strategic Alliance for a Just Economy, participated in the protest. Your Help is Needed to Help Us Qualify The Homeowners Protection Act - Order Your Petitions Today! As many of you know, we are currently collecting signatures for our Homeowners Protection Act in order to qualify it for the June 2008 ballot. The deadline for signature submission is fast approaching! Please help us qualify this important measure by requesting your petitions today. The HPA provides homeowners with needed protections by stopping government from using eminent domain to take homes to transfer to a private developer. It also contains a provision that will nullify the "Hidden Agendas" proposition being sponsored by landlords and mobile home park owners that would wipe out rent control and renter protections, harm the environment and threaten water quality and supply. You can help us enact real eminent domain reform, and stop the landlords' phony reform measure by signing up today to help us collect signatures for the HPA. Request them here and get started today!
Download and read the Homeowners and Private Property Protection Act at http://www.lao.ca.gov/laoapp/ballot_source/BalDetails.aspx?id=596
All petitions with signatures must be returned via US Mail no later than November 20.
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October 30, 2007
Son of Prop 90: A Wolf if There Ever Was One in Sheep's Clothing
By Vivian Kahn
The folks who brought us Prop. 13 are at it again. Having made a mess of California's fiscal structure, they're now out to undermine the ability of California's communities to make decisions about how they're going to grow, preserve natural resources, and maintain and provide affordable housing.
Prop. 90 was defeated last year in part because voters weren't fooled by the sponsors' attempt to deceive them by hiding damaging provisions under the eminent domain reform banner. They are doing it again. The so-called "California Property Owners and Farmland Protection Act" (CPOFPA) initiative, which some observers have dubbed the "Hidden Agendas" measure, would effectively abolish local zoning in California.
The Howard Jarvis Taxpayer Association and its supporters, including the California Republican Party, are now circulating the initiative for signatures and misleading voters about its potentially dire effects. As of October 16, they had reportedly collected well over 700,000 signatures needed to qualify their measure for the June 2008 ballot. A minimum of 694,354 valid signatures must be collected by November 26, 2007 to qualify a measure for the June ballot.
The measure's proponents (funded largely by big apartment and mobile home park owners) want voters to think it is just about eminent domain reform, but that's just not the case. CPOFPA contains hidden provisions that would:
Prohibit or require compensation for local zoning and other land use decisions. Prohibit local rent control and affordable housing laws that protect seniors, veterans and others on fixed incomes, and Prohibit state and local water agencies from using eminent domain to acquire land for new water storage and delivery systems.
Moreover, unlike Prop. 90, CPOFPA has no exception for actions taken by government to protect the public health or safety. In short, it would be just as big or a bigger disaster for taxpayers than Prop. 90 would have been.
The proponents claim that they're only concerned about protecting homes and farms from being taken by government agencies but those who have taken a close look at the wording disagree. A legal analysis published last week by a Sacramento law firm that specializes in ballot measures (and includes some partners with solid GOP credentials!) has concluded that CPOFPA contains far-reaching, hidden provisions that would dramatically curtail the ability of cities and other governmental entities to protect public health, safety and welfare.
The analysis by Nielsen, Merksamer, Parrinello, Mueller & Naylor set out in great detail the secretive and deceptive way the authors of CPOFPA are attempting to hide broad restrictions on zoning and other land use and environmental regulations, the ability of public entities to acquire property for public water supply facilities, and city and county affordable housing and rent control programs.
Their analysis concludes:
"Without a doubt, the CPOFPA is even more deceptive and draconian than Proposition 90. With the exception of the rent control feature, the regulatory prohibitions concerning land use decisions and the prohibition against the use of eminent domain for the acquisition of property for the consumption of natural resources are hidden in the definition of private use. But the impact is nonetheless dramatic.
Those obscure provisions are the only reference in the initiative to any form of "regulation" or prohibition against taking property for the "consumption of natural resources." Because of the prohibitory nature of the regulatory and eminent domain provisions, the initiative appears to be designed to shut down much of what government does to protect the public health, safety and welfare through the control of land use and the provision of water. If there is any doubt on that point, the initiative Constitutional amendment provides the express right to seek injunctive relief against any action that violates its terms."
Aware of public concern about how some public agencies have used the power of eminent domain, civic and environmental groups urged the legislature to put a measure on the ballot and enact companion statutory changes. Assembly Constitutional Amendment (ACA) 8, would have enacted protections for homeowners and small businesses but Senate Republicans prevented the measure from getting the necessary two-thirds vote to get it on the ballot. Fearing such an outcome, last spring, the League of California Cities, the League of California Homeowners and the California League of Conservation Voters, joined together to propose the Homeowners Protection Act.
This initiative would amend the constitution to prohibit government from using eminent domain to take an owner-occupied home to transfer to another private person or business. Supporters of this measure, which is a more reasoned response to concerns about the use of eminent domain, are also collecting signatures.
It is essential that voters understand the important distinctions between these two ballot measures, which would have a radically different effect on how California communities make decisions about their future.
For more information about the 2008 Homeowners Protection Act go to
http://sites.activatedirect.com/eminentdomainreform.com/facts/
Download and read the Homeowners and Private Property Protection Act at http://www.lao.ca.gov/laoapp/ballot_source/BalDetails.aspx?id=596
* Vivian Kahn is an Oakland planning consultant who has written land use regulations and general plans for communities in California and other states. She teaches courses on land use planning, design review, and environmental review for UC extension programs at Berkeley, Davis and UCLA and co-authored two chapters on zoning for California Continuing Education of Bar's new publication California Land Use Practice.


Gus Colgain President California Mobilehome Owners Resources and Action Assoc.
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Info on assistance for low-income users of PG&E Utilities.

* Source = San Jose Mercury News, 1/3/08

PG&E spokesman Brian Swanson said that in April, a new agency took over the responsibility of processing Santa Clara County applications for the federally funded Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP).
He said that to request a LIHEAP application, South Bay residents should now call the Community Action Agency of San Mateo County at (866) 205-2388 or (408) 920-3953. LIHEAP applications are no longer being processed by Economic and Social Opportunities in San Jose.
In addition to LIHEAP, PG&E offers several programs that are dedicated to assisting low-income, disabled and senior citizen customers, Swanson e-mailed me.
They are:
- The CARE (California Alternate Rates for Energy) program, which provides a 20 percent discount on monthly energy bills for qualifying low-income households.
- The FERA (Family Electric Rate Assistance) program, which provides lower rates for low- to middle-income households of three or more people and is designed for customers who exceed the income threshold for the CARE program.
- The Energy Partners program, which provides free weatherization services for qualifying low-income customers to make their homes more energy efficient.
- The Medical Baseline program, which provides lower rates for customers dependent on life-support equipment and/or customers with special heating and cooling needs due to certain medical conditions.
- The Third Party Notification program, which alerts customers when a friend or relative receives a late notice because of failure to pay the PG&E bill.
- The REACH (Relief for Energy Assistance through Community Help) program, which is administered through the Salvation Army and provides a one-time payment of up to $300 to help qualifying low-income customers pay their PG&E bills after they experience sudden and unexpected financial hardships.
Swanson said that customers who would like to learn more about these programs can call PG&E's customer service line at (800) 743-5000 or check the Web site at www.pge.com.


* This page last updated on 010308