Third in a series
Re “A Building’s Age Could Affect Rent, Mayor Says”
[img]1154|right|Meghan Sahli-Wells||no_popup[/img]Having stated that she did not want Culver City to imitate any other community when it settles on a concept for controlling rent, if not capping increases, Mayor Meghan Sahli-Wells, the No. 1 advocate on the dais, explained her preferences.
“I would like to have what the Landlord Tenant Mediation Board does to have teeth,” she said.
“The Board can negotiate between renters and owners, and help them to say, ‘Hey, you are raising the rent. But you haven’t done any work on the place in 20 years. At least put some work into the place.’”
Was Mayor Sahli-Wells steering away from firm numbers, from establishing a precise form of rent increase control?
“This is the problem currently,” she said. “The Landlord Tenant Mediation Board, all they can do is make people come to the table. They don’t have the legal authority to make the landowners help out the renters.
“In other words, sometimes they come to really good conclusions because they are able to mediate between them. And the owner says, ‘Oh, yeah, you’re right. Let me give them a moving stipend so they can afford to move out of the apartment.’
“Instead of forcing tenants to pay a rent increase in 60 days, they could pay it over six months, a year, two years, depending on how high the rent is,” Ms. Sahli-Wells said.
“These are only suggestions,” but, she emphatically added, “I would like them to be mandatory.”
(To be continued)
