Mountain View Residents File Complaint Over Rental Control Plan

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA -- An initiative that would revise a rent control policy put in place in Mountain View in 2016 is under fire after 18 of the city's residents filed a complaint with the city attorney's office Monday morning. The group is alleging that the Mountain View Homeowner, Renter and Taxpayer Protection Initiative filed by former mayor John Inks and real estate agent Bryan Danforth on March 30 is "rife with misleading statements and inaccuracies," according to Steve Chandler of the Mountain View Tenants Coalition.

Chandler and the coalition said Measure V, the 2016 ballot measure approved by voters, is "a rent stabilization program," while its opponents, including the coalition Measure V Too Costly, call it "overly restrictive."

He and the residents who have complained said they consider the initiative nothing more than "a sneaky repeal of the voters' decision to protect the diversity of Mountain View."

Chandler said Inks and Danforth are working as "puppets" for the California Apartment Association, who he alleged both spent more than a million dollars to try to stop Measure V from passing and employ paid
signature-gatherers who misrepresent petitions in order to obtain signatures.

"Our new tenant protections are an important part of the puzzle in addressing the housing crisis in Mountain View," resident Heather Phipps said in a statement. "The landlord initiative is an attack on the people who help make our town strong."

Laura Teutschel, spokeswoman of Measure V Too Costly, said that this is typical from the Mountain View Tenants Coalition and that they are scared.

"They would rather pick apart semantics than have a discussion," Teutschel said.

The purpose of the initiative is to place common sense limits on the unelected Rental Housing Commission, prohibit the commission from making funding demands on the city's general fund, require the commission to be transparent to citizens, encourage property owners to keep rental properties on the market for renters, encourage property owners to maintain and improve properties and increase public safety by evicting tenants who commit crimes, Inks and Danforth state in their "Notice of Intent to Circulate Petition" request.

"We filed the initiative to fix the inherent flaws within Measure V," Inks is quoted as saying in Teutschel's blog. "Measure V was proving to be too costly for taxpayers and was jeopardizing the city's General Fund,
which are critical to Mountain View's public safety and infrastructure budgets."

Teutschel outlines in a blog post on the campaign's website that the first step of filing an initiative is that the City Attorney must issue a title and summary for it. They have 15 days to do so.

Once that happens, a notice to circulate the initiative for signature gathering must be published in a local newspaper. Once published, the signature gathering may begin.

Due to the fact of the initiative being a charter amendment for the city of Mountain View, 15 percent of total registered voters must be deemed valid in a sampling done by the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters.

--Bay City News/Photo via Shutterstock