City Government

Oakland City Council Will Vote Tuesday on Renter Protection, Police Commission Ballot Measures

Published

8 years ago

July 14, 2016

The Tuesday, July 19 Oakland City Council meeting is one of the last chances for council members to place progressive measures on the November ballot.

The council is scheduled to decide whether to place measures on the ballot for renter protection to curb Oakland’s displacement crisis and a proposal for an independent police oversight commission for better accountability of police misconduct.
 

Housing activists are asking community members to show up to Tuesday’s meeting to make their opinions known to council members.

“This isn’t about us asking the council to pass renter protection on our behalf,” said James Vann of the Post Salon Community Assembly. “We are simply asking you to put it on the ballot and let the voters decide.”

On Tuesday, the Council will be considering two separate renter protection proposals.

The Protect Oakland Renters Act, drafted by Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan, is a reworked version of the original renter protection initiative that was written by a coalition of several housing organizations and anti-displacement activists.

Kaplan’s proposal, which would go onto the November ballot if it gains five votes, has wide support from community, labor organizations, interfaith leaders and housing advocates.

The proposal would require landlords to petition through the Rent Board if they wish to increase tenants’ rents above the annual consumer price index, whereas tenants are currently responsible for petitioning to oppose rent increases over a legal amount.

The measure would also extend Just Cause protections to buildings built up to 1995. Currently, buildings are only covered if they were built before 1984.

Another major feature is that it limits rent increases to 5 percent per year unless a landlord can prove they are losing money managing their property.

But most importantly for many housing activists, the changes would go into effect by Jan. 1, 2017 if approved by the voters in November.

In order to support small property landlords, owner-occupied duplexes and triplexes would be exempt from the renter protections.

The second ordinance was drafted by Councilmembers Dan Kalb, Abel Guillén and Council President Lynette Gibson McElhaney.

Some of the elements of this proposal would not go into effect until as late as 2018, such as limiting rent increases to 30 percent over a five-year period.

This ordinance would not go on the November ballot but could be passed Tuesday at the council meeting.

“We have a housing crisis right now,” said Councilmember Kaplan in an interview with the Post.

“Everybody has acknowledged that the crisis is now and to say that we will take action in a year or two, I disagree with that,” Kaplan said.

Both proposals will need five votes to pass.

On Thursday, dozens of supporters of Kaplan’s Protect Oakland Renters Act, including Councilmembers Kaplan, Guillén, and Noel Gallo, members of the Protect Oakland Renters Coalition, and labor and interfaith leaders, held a press conference in front of City Council announcing the City Council vote coming up on July 19 at 5 p.m.

Another initiative being decided on is placing a civilian-run police oversight commission on the November ballot.

The measure would create a commission with the power of overseeing and imposing discipline on officers found to be participating in misconduct. The commission would also have a say in best policing practices and who gets hired in the Oakland Police Department.

The issue facing the council Tuesday is not only whether the measure will go on the ballot but also whether the ballot proposal will create a commission that will be sufficiently independent of the influence of the police union and the city administration, which have been accused of undermining police discipline and accountability for many years.

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Antonio‌ ‌Ray‌ ‌Harvey‌

Lawmakers Incensed by ‘Watering Down’ of Language in Child Sex Solicitation Bill

After an emotional hearing on July 2, the Assembly Public Safety Committee voted to advance Senate Bill (SB) 1414 with an 8-0 vote. The legislation is an anti-sex-trafficking measure designed to increase penalties for those who purchase sex from children, SB 1414, co- authored by Senators Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield), Anna Caballero (D-Merced) and Senator Susan Rubio (D-Baldwin Park), will be reviewed by the Assembly Appropriations Committee after the Legislature break ends on Aug. 5.

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1 week ago

July 19, 2024

Oakland Post

Dr. Stephany Powell, a former Los Angeles Police Department officer and current expert on human trafficking survivors, speaks with the media about a bill that would help lock up individuals who buy sex from trafficked children. On Powell's right is Sen. Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield), who co-authored SB 1414 with (not pictured) Sens. Anna Caballero (D-Merced) and Susan Rubio. CBM photo by Antonio Ray Harvey.

By Antonio Ray Harvey

California Black Media

After an emotional hearing on July 2, the Assembly Public Safety Committee voted to advance Senate Bill (SB) 1414 with an 8-0 vote. The legislation is an anti-sex-trafficking measure designed to increase penalties for those who purchase sex from children,

SB 1414, co- authored by Senators Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield), Anna Caballero (D-Merced) and Senator Susan Rubio (D-Baldwin Park), will be reviewed by the Assembly Appropriations Committee after the Legislature break ends on Aug. 5.

The legislation has received bipartisan support. However, “critical amendments” were removed, Grove said. She is not satisfied with the language currently in the bill and is pressing members of the Assembly Public Safety Committee to allow key provisions to be restored.

“I am disappointed that they didn’t accept the amendments for all minors to be protected under felony convictions,” Grove said after the committee’s vote.

“I am not going to give up fighting for those 16- and 17-year-olds – and all minors,” Grove stated. “Now, the district attorneys would have to prove two crimes: that they were bought and sold in order to go back to the perpetrator (trafficker) who initiated the whole process.”

SB 1414 made it off the Senate floor with a 36-0 bipartisan vote on May 23. Before the floor vote in the Senate, the Senate Public Safety Committee amended SB 1414, weakening protections for children ages 16 and 17, Grove said.

The committee’s amendments included charging violators who purchase children 15 and under for sex as ‘wobblers’ (crimes that can be punished as a felony or misdemeanor). According to the current language of the bill, solicitation of a 16- and 17-year-old child is only punishable as a misdemeanor. The second amendment to the bill calls for the felony charge to only carry possible jail time — not time in prison.

Grove and her supporters’ other concern is that a third amendment to SB 1414 states that only perpetrators with a previous conviction of buying sex from a child 15 or under, on the second offense and with over a 10-year age gap of the victim, must register as a Tier 1 sex offender.

Dr. Stephany Powell, a retired Los Angeles Police Department sergeant who has over 30 years of sexual exploitation and trafficking experience gained through law enforcement, testified in front of the Assembly Public Safety Committee.

“First of all, there’s no way in the world that (these amendments) are protecting a 16- or 17-year-old,” said Powell, who now assists victims of human trafficking. “Just by the age alone, they are considered to be a victim of human trafficking. That’s your proof right there.”

Assemblymember Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento), chair of the Public Safety Committee and a member of the California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC), told Grove that he supports SB 1414 and commended her efforts to bring “more accountability to the sex trade.”

McCarty said he is willing to make SB 1414 “stronger,” but he is not willing to allow Grove to buck the rules of the Legislature to push her amendments through.

“That’s not on the table. As the rules, you know, we can’t go change that,” McCarty said of Grove’s amendments request.

On June 2, Anne Irwin, the founder and director of Smart Justice California, emailed California Black Media (CBM) a statement responding to SB 1414. Smart Justice sides with the amendments made by the Democrats in the Senate and the Assembly.

“With the recently adopted amendments, SB 1414 now represents a smart policy solution that prioritizes the safety and well-being of all minors,” Irwin stated. “By allowing felony prosecutions for solicitation of 16- and 17-year-olds when there is evidence of human trafficking, lawmakers have further improved the bill – which was originally overly broad and would have had harmful unintended consequences.”