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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCorrespondence - Non-AgendaOrozco, Norma From: jpramirez714 <jpramirez714@sbcglobal.net> Sent: Tuesday, November 02, 2021 6:41 AM To: Bacerra, Phil; Sarmiento, Vicente; Ridge, Kristine; eComment Subject: Unpermitted Event Oct23 Dear Council members & staff, I'm have concerns and questions about an event held in our city on Oct 23rd of last month taking place on the cross streets of Santa Ana Blvd and Bristol. There is talk that this event was done without the required permit usually needed to stage an event on our public streets. The event in question was also held and promoted by a current sitting council member in Johnathan Hernandez of Ward 5. So my questions are: Was this event unpermitted? If so, why was it allowed to proceed? Did city officials have prior knowledge of this event? Was this event headed by a sitting council member as mentioned above? If so, are city officials allowed to hold events on public streets without obtaining the proper permits and fees like the rest of Santa Ana Residents? Are council members exempt? It is my sincere hope that these concerns and questions are raised and answered on the dais at the first council meeting proceeding this letter being received. City officials such as council members should be held to a higher standard as they are representatives of our city and are looked up to by their constituents. Thank You, John Ramirez 41 year resident of Santa Ana Ward 4 Sent from my Galaxy I have a rental property built before 1995. We had other jobs and worked weekends on the apartment. We did without vacations so we could make the payments and get it ready for a tenant. We didn't eat out. We ate a lot of bean soup and potato soup AKA "bum soup." My !Mon made bean soup during and after the depression. During that some time my husband' parents made potato soup which they called "bum soup." It was made with water, potatoes, and onions. I object to you deciding what amount I can get for the rent. According to Google the inflation rate as of the end of Sept of this year was 5.39%III I am sure it is higher for California. Yet, you want me to only increase my rent by 3%I! An apartment was vacant for over 1.5 years because I couldn't find someone who I considered a good tenant. Someone who is a good tenant means less problems (costs) for all your city services!!! How dare you single out one profession to be responsible for the fact that some people don't pay their rent. You increase my property taxes. Yet, you decrease the amount of income I get and have!!! Why not require other business i.e. grocery stores, Home Depot, restaurants, McDonald's, etc. to give 40% of their prices or require all residents to pay for this program? Do you think any business would not seek payment if they received a check that bounced? By adopting the rent control laws you are costing Santa Ana taxpayers millions annually to implement them!!! That will increase their property taxes. What right do you have to tell me what attorney I must use to evict a tenant for criminal activity on my property? How dare you discriminate against housing providers!!! 'R AL L PAST DUB IRENN r ,rfC Our Cost for Tenant Welfare The Facts: As an example, under Tenant Welfare (Rent Control), some consumers pay $1,200 per month for an apartment with a fair market value of $2,000. The individual business owner is thereby being forced to subsidize that consumer for a total of $800 every month! Why not also require all other businesses, like grocery stores restaurants, auto dealers etc., to give 40% off their fair price to these tenants or have all taxpayers pay for this program? Why force a small group of business owners, who provide housing, to pay 100% of the cost of this welfare program? Does this not look like discrimination to you? If all taxpayers cannot afford to provide this welfare, how do lawmakers expect a group of small business owners to carry this total burden without destroying housing and its providers? Unethical and a Total Disgrace Plus, to force this small number of business men and women to carry the total cost of assuring that these lawmakers get re-elected is a total disgrace and contrary to our American Economic System of Free Enterprise. Redistributing other people's wealth and labor, and thereby destroying their retirement plans, is totally wrong and will eventually lead, not only to the destruction of housing, but also the destruction of a moral society! The integrity of the lawmaker who votes for tenant welfare is questionable! Are these lawmakers true Americans or are they Bernie Sanders Socialists? Even socialists believe that the cost of welfare should be shared by all the people (except the "elite"). They seem to be more ethical and logical than those who "say" they believe in free enterprise and then vote for "rent control" M! 1. V. SantaAna Tenants United Santa Ana Santa Ana, CA November 1st, 2021 RE: An open letter to the California Apartment Association and Apartment Association of Orange County, as well as to supporters of the REFERENDUM AGAINST [ORDINANCES] PASSED BY THE CITY COUNCIL [OF SANTA ANA] Dear Victor Cao et al., We wish to address your efforts for a referendum against the two new tenant protection ordinances in Santa Ana. As your organization claims to value transparency and community outreach, we must bring to your attention that individuals who are gathering signatures for your referendum are utilizing misleading and outright incorrect information just to collect signatures. It is of the utmost urgency, and in respect of democratic, bureaucratic, and electoral integrity, that these tactics cease immediately, or be investigated and pursued to the fullest extent. Utilizing deceptive, misleading, and verifiably false information to acquire signatures for a referendum is in direct violation of California's Elections Code of Law, beginning at section 18600. Below are some of the most egregious claims being stated, simply to get people to sign: "The ordinances make it illegal to evict criminals" The ordinances do not state such whatsoever and actually do quite the opposite. In cases where any alleged criminal activity is taking place in a rental unit, the landlord can still evict the individual so long as proof exists — not just an allegation. The Just Cause ordinance also ensures that anyone else who lives in a unit is not evicted along with the alleged criminal. This ensures strong protection for victims of crimes to be able to remain housed when a separate tenant living on the property may be committing crimes. If any person who remains in the unit attempts to allow the alleged criminal to enter the property, that constitutes grounds for eviction of the individual aiding the alleged criminal in re-entering the property. 1.0 SantaAna "The ordinances make it illegal to evict people who are a nuisance or who destroy rental property." The ordinances do not state such whatsoever. It will still be legal to evict a tenant for being a nuisance as well as if a tenant commits waste provided there is evidence or proof, not just an allegation. "Sign the petition to lower the rent cap from 5% to 3%." There is no mandated cap of five percent existing in Santa Ana. This false claim being made by signature gatherers holds that there is a five percent rent cap to be lowered. This claim falsely entices a person into signing your petition. If your claim is true that rent control and just cause protections are unpopular with Santa Ana voters, then present your petition truthfully to the people and quit masquerading as a pro -rent control petition immediately. We encourage you and your constituents to read the ordinances in their entirety. Nothing in the ordinances prevents good landlords from continuing to provide high quality housing in the city. Landlords and investors can still earn a fair and reasonable rate of return. Mom and pop landlords, as well as new development projects, remain unaffected given the exemptions laid out in the ordinances. The ordinances focus protections on the most rent burdened tenants and hold bad actors in your industry accountable, while providing an accessible legal process with bureaucratic integrity — a win for tenants and landlords alike. While the next claim might not constitute infraction of the California Elections Code, it would serve best to set the record straight about who brought tenant protections to the City Council in the first place - the residents of Santa Ana: 'The city is imposing these ordinances without public engagement and approval." The issue of landlord abuse and rent gouging has been brought to the city council and into the public realm for over a decade. In 2018, almost 10,000 signatures were collected by volunteer resident efforts, in an attempt to enact these protections because of the egregious rent increases and landlord abuse occurring in Santa Ana. Between 2018 and 2020, Tenants United Santa Ana sought the input of residents and interested parties to discuss tenant protections against egregious rent increases and landlord abuse. In 2020, two current council members and the mayor made clear their support of tenant protections and rent stabilization during their election campaigns. In March 2021, the Housing Ad Hoc Committee was established with the 1.0 SantoAna intent of considering, among other housing matters, rent stabilization and tenant protections. In June 2021, the Housing Ad Hoc Committee made it known that it would then be considering rent control ordinances. The City Council finally put these ordinances on the City Council agenda for a vote in the Fall of 2021 where the majority of residents voiced their support of the protections. The CAA, AAOC, MHET and the other large organizations and entities in opposition have had the opportunity to bring ideas to the table and have not. Additionally, you all have met with many of the current City Council members and have failed to bring forth your own solution to the bad actors within your own industry. We invite you to enjoy stabilized growth in our local economy together with tenants which will occur with these two ordinances. Without the ordinances, long-term instability and volatility will continue in your industry, as well as for the residents of Santa Ana. Sincerely and with strong concern, Tenants United Santa Ana TUSA is a citywide coalition of community organizations and countless individual residents fighting for dignified housing where we can remain and thrive collectively while reclaiming our humanity.