Despite what advocates and critics of the eminent domain/rent control measures on Tuesday’s ballot, Prop. 98 and Prop. 99 no doubt are confusing to many prospective voters, regardless of their leanings.
The League of Women Voters, which prides itself on stone-cold objectivity, hosted a workshop the other afternoon to answer questions and dymystify confusing language or concepts.
Frances Talbott-White, for years the friendly face of the League on the Westside, for an afternoon, turned into the Answer Lady at the Julian Dixon Library, where she was joined in an exercise in expertise by Joe Susca, redevelopment project manager for the city..
Question: What is eminent domain?
“ The traditional definition has been: The power of the government to take private property for public use. ‘Traditional’ refers to schools, bridges, roads, reservoirs. Eminent domain is a concept that goes way back into English Common Law. As you recall from your Civics classes, those powers are often balanced by rights of citizens. The Fifth Amendment to the constitution is the due-process amendment, lays out the right of a private citizen to receive just compensation if a government takes property for public use.”
Question: A year and a half ago, there was an anti-eminent domain measure, Prop. 90, which lost, and now here are two more. Why so much concern about eminent domain?
“Prop. 90 got 47.7 percent of the vote, almost half. Statewide propositions only need a simple majority, 50-percent plus-one. It was pretty close. There is a lot of concern about eminent domain now because, in June of 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court decided, in Kelo v. New London, CT, that private development — this usually means redevelopment — can be considered to be public use if it beefs up the economy of the area to a great extent, raising the tax base and improves the life, liberty and pursuit of happiness in the area. The lawsuit was brought by a resident with property along the waterfront. So it was very valuable. She did not ant to take he amount of money the government offered.
“’Public use,’ as defined traditionally, now includes what goes to a private developer by reasoning that the tax base will go up. The Kelo case threw all of the states, and a lot of property owners, into a tizzy. ‘Could this happen here?’ they wanted to know.
Question: For Mr. Susca: How has eminent domain been used in Culver City?
“In the projects by our department, I believe it has been used 3 or 4 times recently — within the last 5 years. Eminent domain as used to acquire property from property owners not willing to sell for our project area.”
Question: What is the process when you encounter an unwilling seller?
“Typically what we do, federal law requires to provide just compensation for our property acquisition for its value. In California, this is defined as fair market value, which is further defined as its highest and best use. The best use of a property may be its existing use with its existing structures demolition of the property and rebuilding, based on the existing zoning. What we do is hire an appraiser to define what the value is for its highest and best use. Then we offer that to the property owner. We give the property owner a copy of the appraisal, and we say, ‘We would like to buy your property for what the appraiser says it is worth, at its highest and best use. That starts the negotiations.”
Question: Does the property owner have a say in the selection of the appraiser?
“No, not the one the Redevelopment Agency uses. The agency uses M.A.I. Certified Appraisers in the City of Industry. It is up to the discretion of the property owner to obtain his or her own appraiser, and many do. We compare their appraisal to ours to see if there is any discrepancy. If the property owner’s appraisal came out higher than ours, we would conduct a further analysis to determine why there is discrepancy. They take it apart on a very detailed basis, asking questions such as ‘Why did they use this assumption?’ Then they try to reconcile the differences.”
Ms. Talbott-White asked Mr. Susca: “Does the court automatically defer to the government’s side?”
“I would say that would never be the case. Since a jury doesn’t know how an appraiser works, the court would typically split the difference between the two sides.”
Ms. Talbott-White further asked Mr. Susca: “In those cases where the city employed eminent domain, were the properties commercial or residential?”
“In all cases they were commercial property. Culver City’s Redevelopment agency does not have the power to condemn residential property, and this has been so since the agency was established in the early 1970s.”
Question for Ms. Talbott-White: How does Prop. 98 propose to reform eminent domain?
“Prop. 98 has quite a lot of provisions. The main thrust of it is that it prohibits governments — state, county, city, even special district government — it prohibits all of those levels of government from taking ownership of any property and transferring it to a private party.
“ By ‘any’ property, I mean commercial, residential, places of worship and farmland.”
Question: How does Prop. 99 propose to change eminent domain?
“Prop. 99 does the same thing. It prohibits governments from taking private property to turn it over to another private party for development. But it applies only to owner-occupied single-family residences, which have been owned for a year or more. It is much less comprehensive. Culver City evidently has imposed Prop. 99 on itself by not applying eminent domain to residential property.”
Question: Prop. 98 also addresses rent control. How does rent control relate to eminent domain?
“As all of you may know, a ballot measure is supposed to refer to only one subject. One of the issues that goes to court right after an election is to see if it can be said the proposition covered more than one subject. Whether it covers one or two subjects depends on the eye of the beholder.
“If you are standing far enough back, the two subjects sort of merge into one. Supporters of 98 will tell you that both rent control and eminent domain have to do with the rights of property owners. Not being able to charge rent at true market value, or above, is, in fact, a kind of ‘taking’ from property owners. Eminent domain also is a taking, they say. Rights of property owners is the subject.”
Question: What would Prop. 98 do about rent control?
“Prop. 98 would invalidate any rent control laws passed since January of 2007. It would prohibit the passage of new rent control laws. It would phase out rent control. It would not throw people out of their apartments, as some of the advertising may suggest to you. When a tenant vacates a rental property, then the landlord can raise the rent to market value, which is the same as it is now. But in areas where there is rent control, a new cap can be put on. If 98 passes, no new cap could be put on.”
Question: What else does Prop. 98 address?
“It just has a bunch of details about eminent domain reform. Property cannot be taken for the same use it has now, which, I think, is quite different from the way it has been used in Culver City.”
Mr. Susca said:
“Our goals at the agency are to eradicate and eliminate blighted areas, to create jobs and also to create affordable housing. We use 20 percent of all funds we receive for that purpose.”
Question: Is it possible to distinguish between Prop. 98 and Prop. 99 in one sentence?
“ Go to easyvoter.org. Further, property cannot be taken for the same use it has now. The owner must be able to buy the property back at the same rice if the government does not use it for the purpose it said it was going to use it.”
Question: Why would an average voter want to vote for 98 or 99?
“You would want to vote for Prop. 98 if you are concerned about the rights of all property owners regarding state government, and if you feel these rights include the choice of charging market value. You would want to vote for Prop. 99 if you are concerned about the rights of homeowners , and if you think rent control should stay the way it is.”
Question: Why would a voter want to oppose both propositions?
“ In the League’s pros-and-cons presentations, we always tell people if they vote ‘no,’ things are going to stay as they are.”
Question: What happens if both propositions pass?
“The proposition with the greater number of ‘yes’ votes prevails.”
