Letter to the Editor:
Rent control is back on the menu and oh….we’ll be ordering for you. And for desert will be the foundation for the Democratic Socialist agenda, taking what you made by remedying “economic inequalities”.
Let’s begin with rent control.
When last on the ballot, city residents voted down rent control.
In 2020, then city council candidate Konstantine Anthony, petitioned the city to have it on the ballot. Now he sits as Mayor and has put it on the council’s agenda for the 5 of them to decide whether they vote to enact this themselves or move to have it put on the ballot. On January the 31st, Burbank city council will discuss these two ways.
I’m wondering how such an important topic would be decided by anything else then a vote of the people.
Additionally, comments made by Mayor Anthony during the city councils 2023 goal setting was that he wants to work on “Economic Inequalities”. IMO it is a precursor to a less then subtle socialistic taking of capital from businesses and property owners. I’m sure you won’t have to wait long for him, and possibly a few of others, to begin framing large companies as profit hungry, greedy, with little regard for their employees.
Also of note, several council members mentioned in their goals to have “tenant protections”. That’s a big category and could mean just about anything.
The direction from council to staff has been made and there are some pretty big issues in front of us. Time to do your research and get involved.
For the rent control, here’s a section from city staff’s report:
There are two ways to implement rent control at the local level. The first way is for the City Council to enact it, as the City of Los Angeles Council did. On October 1, 1978 the City of Los Angeles froze rents for the first time as they worked through the details of the current ordinance approved March 31, 1979. 1 If the Burbank City Council enacts rent control, it would need to be an ordinance that is adopted by a majority of the Council following a first and second reading (as with all ordinances). The second way to institute rent control is through a petition to put rent control on the ballot, and then the voters would need to approve it. In November 2020, the Burbank Just Cause Eviction and Regulation Measure (Measure RC) was rejected by voters as summarized in the next section.
Links to staff report, council agenda, news article:
https://burbank.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=6&event_id=8077&meta_id=407254
https://caanet.org/caa-defeats-rent-control-in-burbank/
https://burbank.granicus.com/GeneratedAgendaViewer.php?view_id=6&event_id=8077
David Donahue
Burbank
The current City Council needs to get its eyes on the ball. This is not a good use of staff time and resources. AB 1482 (Tenant Protection Act) is state law. Stop wasting time on this and focus on big, local issues such as drugs, crime, rising utility rates, huge local tax and fee increases, and a budget that just keeps growing out of control. Local sales tax makes our goods and services higher than our neighbors. End the local sales tax, reduce the size of the local City budget and get things on track. Empty BurbankBus vehicles are polluting our air, roads are in very bad shape, crime is way up due to hundreds of RVs parked on the edge of town in three directions and we have a City Council worrying about single-use cups rather than big, important issues that affect our bottom line. Being poor is not genetic. Hard work is a great solution for that. I was homeless at 16, broke, and living in South Central; and now I own a house in Burbank. No taxpayer-funded freebies helped me get to Burbank, it was long, hard hours at my occupation and saving diligently. The state has already enacted rent control.
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