Dick Spotswood: New Fairfax rental rules go too far on behalf of Marin socialists
Just when local candidates promoted by the right-leaning anti-vaccine promoting Marin Freedom Rising were crushed at the ballot box, along came the Marin chapter of the far-left Democratic Socialists of America.
The latter is pushing a draconian version of rent control across Marin. DSA scored its first victory when Fairfax by unanimous council vote adopted their suggested rent control ordinance and, with only Councilmember Barbara Coler dissenting, a punishing (to landlords) “just cause” eviction law.
There’s logic behind well-conceived rent stabilization. It keeps rents at a “reasonable” level while taking into consideration the impact on mom-and-pop landlords. Statewide, that’s exemplified by California’s law capping annual rent increases on properties built before 1996 at 5%, plus the consumer price index.
Individual cities and counties may go further. That’s what Fairfax just did by adopting a rent stabilization ordinance. Fairfax now limits rent increases to 60% of the annual regional consumer price index or 5%, whichever is lower.
Fairfax’s Town Council majority seemingly accepted the logic offered by Curt Ries, the leader of Marin’s chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. He’s quoted in the IJ saying, “Housing is first and foremost not an investment vehicle, but a human right.”
This isn’t the social democracy as practiced in Scandinavian nations. The last time I was in Norway, I asked a museum lecturer about capitalism versus socialism in his land. His reply, “Norway is a capitalist country. That’s how we pay for our (social) benefits.” Social democracy is a combination of relatively high taxes, and a broad social safety net based on private enterprise and capitalism.
That’s not where Marin’s DSA is coming from. As its website proclaims, “Capitalism is designed by the owning class to exploit the rest of us for their own profit. We must replace it with democratic socialism, where ordinary people have a real voice in our workplaces, neighborhoods, and societies.”
If capitalism is evil, then IJ readers, their parents, siblings and friends who own a few apartments or even rent out a room are part of “the owning class” and thus “exploit” others. Logically, shouldn’t that also include union-funded pension plans heavily invested in big time residential real estate?
Fairfax’s version of rent control and “just eviction” ordinances was a step too far. Why would anyone create so much as a second unit if their investment violated the nonexistent “right” of a tenant to live there indefinitely at a rent less than the cost of providing the space.
One concept that Marin’s DSA gets right is that “working people should run both the economy and society democratically.”
That’s just what some Fairfax voters are trying to do by gathering signatures to place a referendum to repeal both ordinances on the June 2024 ballot. What could be more democratic than letting the voters of Fairfax, most of whom consider themselves “working people,” be in the driver’s seat? If the referendum qualifies, Town Council members should place both ordinances on hiatus until 2024 when the people will have spoken.
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Former Marin County District 1 Supervisor Damon Connolly is now Assemblymember Connolly. Thanks to a prompt move suggested by Connolly, Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed just-elected Mary Sackett to Marin County’s Board of Supervisors three weeks before she was scheduled to be sworn in. Technically, during December, she’s serving as Connolly’s successor.
The Assembly doesn’t go in session until it reconvenes on Jan. 4. The time between now and the first week of 2023 will be productively spent bringing Connolly up to speed in his new post representing Marin County, as well as much of Sonoma County. Likewise, Sackett will be ready to go in January, giving Marin a full five-member governing board in December.