This week, the Santa Monica Democratic Club published the responses to their questionnaires for all four city elections: City Council. School Board, College Board, and Rent Control Board. In a random order determined by ChatGPT, here are the answers from five candidates for Rent Control Board to the question, “What are the top issues of your campaign, and how do they differ from other candidates in this race? How do you plan to address those issues once elected?”
But first, for those who may not know, The Santa Monica Rent Control Board is an elected, independent public agency created by Santa Monica voters in 1979 to administer and enforce the city’s rent control law. The Board oversees regulations governing most multi-family rental housing built before April 10, 1979, including setting annual rent adjustment limits, maintaining records on controlled units, adjudicating disputes between landlords and tenants, and protecting tenants from unlawful rent increases and certain forms of eviction. Composed of seven elected commissioners, the Board operates separately from the Santa Monica City Council and serves as one of the few remaining rent control agencies in California with direct voter-elected oversight. Its mission is to preserve affordable housing, promote fairness in landlord-tenant relations, and ensure compliance with Santa Monica’s rent control charter amendment and related housing laws.
There are three seats on the board up for election this season.
“What are the top issues of your campaign, and how do they differ from other candidates in this race? How do you plan to address those issues once elected?”
Sue Himmelrich (Dem Club Q and A)
The top issue of my campaign is assuring that the board remains comprised of the most qualified and most committed rent-control and tenants’ rights advocates. I believe my skill set and track record sets me apart from any other candidate.
Once elected, I will apply my skills to faithfully carry out the duties of a board member as set forth in the City Charter. Where I have discretion, I will use it to protect our neighbors living in rent-controlled units from displacement and abuse of their rights to the maximum extent possible, as well as to protect our rent-controlled housing stock (which is the City’s principal middle-class housing stock). I will also use my bully pulpit to advocate for the City Council and the State to do the same.
Kurt Gonska (Dem Club Q and A)
- Supporting the charter amendment ballot measures proposed by the Rent Control Board, including adjusting Commissioner term limits, reforming registration fee financing provisions, clarifying petition decision timelines, and new tenant occupancy protections related to allowing family members to move into rent controlled units.
- • Working with staff to revamp how the office receives rent decrease petitions (and other documents and information) from the public to streamline their experience and reduce barriers to entry.
- • Amending regulations for determining new maximum allowable in Tenant Not In Occupancy cases
Heather Thomason (Dem Club Q and A)
My top concern is protecting our rent-controlled housing stock from demolition, a risk amplified by new state laws encouraging dense, market-rate housing. I plan to use the authority vested in the Rent Control Board to protect our rent-controlled units in every way I can formally but also to be very vocal about these issues politically. Every renter in Santa Monica should know about state legislation that would enable displacement and demolition of rental units, like the original version of SB 79, so they can join efforts to defeat it. I would want to use the Board’s power to send informational mailers educating rent-controlled tenants about such proposed laws that could affect their homes and their lives.
Another priority for my campaign is educating residents more broadly about SB 79 as it was finally adopted, and how it still affects specific rent-controlled renters and how it could affect the fabric of all our neighborhoods. Finally, I have an acute interest in protecting aging residents from displacement, and I will use every tool available to the Board to do so.
I can’t say what the top issues are of other candidates’ campaigns. I haven’t spoken with them at this time.
Brad Ewing (Dem Club Q and A)
I am focused on the 3 P’s of Housing Affordability.
Protect incumbent renters, with a goal to expand tenant protections to all renters in the city. Fund and expand programs like the Santa Monica Renter Aid program to provide financial assistance to Santa Monicans facing eviction and expand the Right to Counsel program. Additionally, work to provide protection for renters in single family homes or duplexes that have a protection gap in existing law today.
Preserve existing rent controlled and deed-restricted affordable housing, and address the existing gaps in demolition law. I am also interested in modernizing the existing rent control database to make it easier to query the MAR history for a given building and evaluate the efficacy of new tenant and housing laws. The vast majority of Santa Monica’s rental housing was built before the passage of the ADA which creates difficulties for some seniors as they age in place. I am interested in pursuing ways to work with owners and tenants to make existing housing physically accessible to those with disabilities where possible.
Produce more homes at all income levels so that those who work or go to school here can afford homes here. I want to be clear about why this belongs in a Rent Control Board platform: building new homes can relieve displacement pressure that bears down on existing rent controlled units, and production must be balanced against the first two P’s so that new development does not displace current renters. It also points toward Costa Hawkins reform: today’s market rate buildings can become tomorrow’s rent controlled housing.
What sets me apart from other candidates is the technical lens I’d bring. The RCB runs on data, such as the MAR database, and much of that is hard to query. I’d love to see it modernized so that staff or the public can pull the full rent history of any building easily, and so that the Board and City Council can measure whether new tenant and housing laws are working effectively. I’ve been iterating on a proof of concept for the kinds of data visualizations I’d like to see the board provide.
Soledad Marcial (Dem Club Q and A)
The main and most important issue is to maintain policies in place to safeguard the people who are under rent control units. As well as adapt new policies that would benefit renters in the city. The way I plan to address the issues is by being impartial on cases brought up to the rent control board not only for tenants but for landlords as well.
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