Fairfax tenant protections repeal initiative moves closer to ballot

Fairfax’s tenant protection laws could be headed to the November ballot.

The Marin County Elections Department said this week that it has verified signatures on a petition seeking to repeal the town’s tenant protection laws.

Dan Miller of the county elections office said the petition exceeded the required 588 signatures, or 10%, of registered voters. The results were sent to the Fairfax town clerk’s office last week.

The petition will have to be presented to the Town Council at a regularly scheduled meeting. The council will be asked to either adopt the ordinance presented in the petition or to submit the initiative to the voters, Miller said.

The council can order a report on the petition before making a decision. A special election can also be called before the next general election. It must be no less than 88 days nor more than 103 days of calling the election, Miller said.

The town has until July 24 to notify the proponents of the sufficiency of the petition, Town Manager Heather Abrams said.

Mayor Chance Cutrano said there is little to say about the petition because it has not yet been presented to the council.

“I think both the petitioners and the town are waiting for the process to play out,” Cutrano said.

“This is a first hurdle that we knew we would overcome,” said Michael Sexton, a Fairfax landlord and lead proponent of the petition. “What happens next is really up to the town.”

The issue of rent control just-cause-for-eviction laws has divided the Ross Valley community, with landlords, tenants and supporters on both sides weighing in.

Petitioners said they’ve been pleading with town officials for months to rescind the laws, saying they are overbearing and will create a hardship on mom-and-pop landlords who rely on the rental income to survive. Tenants say rent increases are outpacing salaries and many tenants are struggling to find secure housing.

Petitioners say they are not against rent control and argue that state laws are sufficient.

Assembly Bill 1482, or the Tenant Protection Act of 2019, caps rent increases in California at 5% plus inflation. The maximum annual increase permitted under the state law is 10%.

By comparison, the Fairfax ordinance sets an annual rent increase cap at 60% of the regional consumer price index. The annual adjustment, however, cannot be less than 0% or greater than 5%, making it one of the strongest rent control laws in the state. The ordinance is retroactive to February 2022.

California’s Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act prohibits local rent control regulations on properties constructed after 1995. Detached homes and condominiums are also exempt from rent control under the law. However, the text of the new Fairfax ordinance says, “An estimated 97% of all Fairfax housing units are in structures built before 1995.”

The just-cause-for-eviction ordinance is the more controversial of the two. The law aims to prevent landlords from arbitrarily evicting tenants.

Sexton started the political action committee websites Fairfaxresidents.org and Marinresidents.org to broadcast information about rent control and to gain followers to help block the progress of local laws.

Petitioners began mounting their protest in meeting after meeting with the council. The ongoing conflict has led to several contentious hearings that have extended past midnight.

The petitioners filed the draft ballot initiative with town on June 8.

In response to ongoing protest, the Town Council dedicated an entire meeting last month to a line-by-line review of its eviction protection ordinance to propose amendments. The session went on for nearly six hours.

Cutrano said he expects the council to continue that effort and eventually take a vote on amendments in the coming month.

“This is all part of the process,” Cutrano said.

Curt Reis, a San Anselmo renter, serves as a co-chair to the Marin Chapter of Democratic Socialists. Reis and the organization have been rallying tenants and supporters to call on local officials to adopt rent control and eviction protection laws.

“Last year, Fairfax made history by being the first town in Marin to stabilize out-of-control rents and protect tenants from arbitrary eviction,” Reis said.

“It’s shameful that a handful of landlords backed by big real estate interests are now trying to overturn these desperate needed ordinances,” he said. “We’re confident that a majority of Fairfax voters will side with the seniors and working families who rely on these protections and vote against any attempt to repeal them.”

Meanwhile, the hostility has carried on to online forums as well. The petitioners conducted an online survey rating the job performance of the Town Council and its members. Sexton agreed that one negative comment directed at the council was “in poor taste.”

Cutrano said the comment will be addressed at the next council meeting.

“I know that these are difficult topics,” Cutrano said, “but I think the goal of the Town Council, and my goal as mayor, is to make sure that throughout the public process we can create a space that’s safe enough where every member of our community feels they can provide input without fear that they’ll be the target of hateful rhetoric or violent threats.”

“That shouldn’t feel like a big ask and it’s incredibly disappointing that we have to say it,” Cutrano said.