Local leaders stay clear of rent control talk

In Burlingame, city council members are forbidden from acting on it by voter mandate; in San Mateo, the city has not been asked to be involved; and in Foster City last year, Mayor Deborah Wilder asked a third party to intervene and help persuade a landlord to reduce an excessive rent increase.

Recently, Millbrae Mayor Denis Richardson brought up the topic of rent control after a local landlord raised the rent of the property excessively, according to Jim Erickson, city administrator. The location of the property and the name of the landlord were not available.

Although Richardson is not proposing a city ordinance, he is suggesting that landlords keep the interests of their tenants in mind when thinking about rent increase, according to Erickson.

"He has observed one or more potentially excessive rent increases and he has the desire to do something to try and help," Erickson said. Richardson was not available for comment.

"The hope is that it would be voluntary and that it would be cooperative on the part of the landlords," Erickson said. "As opposed to having rent control laws."

The Tri-County Apartments Association, an association of building owners who advocate good relations between landlords and tenants, will be consulting with Richardson in the next few weeks, and if necessary will call upon the landlord to moderate the rent hike, according to Kathy Thibodeaux, chief executive officer at the Tri-County Apartment Association.

Thibodeaux does not yet know how the association will work with landlords in Millbrae as it just got wind of the situation yesterday.

Tri-County functioned as a liaison in a situation with the owners at the Franciscan Apartments, an apartment building in Foster City, when then-mayor Wilder was concerned with a rent increase there.

Thibodeaux said the apartment's owners were asking for rent increases in the double digits at six-month intervals back in December.

"The mayor was concerned and came to us," Thibodeaux said. "We talked to the owners and persuaded them to adopt a more moderate rent increase."

The association has almost a 100 percent success rate, she said, adding that actual ordinances or rent-control laws would not help, and in fact, would be a detriment.

Current Mayor of Foster City Marland Townsend agreed and said that there is no way he would ever support rent control.

"It's destructive. No city that has rent control has been successful in the long run," he said. "There is the most homelessness in cities with rent control because people won't build if they can't make a profit."

San Mateo Mayor John Lee agrees. "I am opposed to rent controls -- they don't work," he said. "They are detrimental."

City officials in San Mateo have not been asked in recent years to intervene in any situations with landlords in rent control situations, Lee said.

Burlingame city officials are bound by city law -- they cannot bring up rent control.

In the late 1980s, Burlingame's city council tried to implement rent control initiatives on three occasions -- and three times it was defeated by popular vote. The citizens then passed an initiative that forbade future councils from proposing a rent control ordinance.

"The citizens put forth a poison pill that prohibits the council from coming forward with rent control," said Burlingame Mayor Joe Galligan. "The council's hands are tied. It's really taboo as far as Burlingame city council is concerned."

But that does not mean a citizens' group cannot come forward with an initiative, he added. "We can't stop a citizens' group, so it's up to them." Galligan would not state his position on rent control.

Most cities in the county look to affordable housing rather than rent control as part of the remedy to the housing crisis.

Townsend is steadfast in the notion that rent controls will only serve to make a bad problem worse. "We can't solve the this problem by creating an even larger problem for the city."

"The problem of rentals is real -- it's very difficult," he said. "I think we've done a great job with affordable housing. We've been able to work successfully with owners who make unreasonable rent increases to work and mitigate the rent."

In Millbrae, Mayor Richardson is hopeful that the involvement of the Tri-County Apartment association will be enough to convince landlords to moderate their rent hikes.

"[Richardson] is encouraged that [Tri-County] has volunteered to work with Millbrae landlords," City Administrator Erickson said. "Especially those landlords that could have potentially excessive rents."

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