Glendale Rent Control Campaign Falls Short For 2020 Election
Supporters of a Glendale rent control initiative announced Monday, Aug. 6 they gathered less than half the needed signatures needed to get a referendum on the 2020 ballot.
The campaign needed to turn in 10,529 signatures by Monday to qualify for the next election after this November’s voting. But supporters garnered about 4,000, a statement by the Glendale Tenants Union said.
The campaign already had missed a deadline to get the measure before voters this November.
Mike Van Gorder, a tenants union leader, said his group nonetheless plans to keep up pressure on the Glendale City Council to enact rent control.
“We don’t have enough (signatures) to go around the city council, but the city council has the power to enact this on their own,” Van Gorder said. If the council doesn’t act, he added, “we’re likely going to have to run another petition.”
Meanwhile, activists in Santa Ana continue gathering signatures in an effort to get a similar initiative on their 2020 ballot, said Hairo Cortez, a member of the coalition backing a rent control referendum. The group has about 7,000 of the 9,845 signatures it needs to collect by Oct. 15.
“We’re going to continue gathering signatures to get it on the 2020 ballot,” Cortez said.
Glendale and Santa Ana recently became the fifth and sixth Southern California cities where rent control initiatives failed to garner enough signatures to force a vote on the matter. Rent control drives also floundered in Long Beach, Pasadena, Inglewood and Pomona.
Author: Jeff Collins
Source: Los Angeles Daily News