Micah Posner: my backyard bedroom

This is another Tim Goncharoff moment. I wonder which Take Back Santa Cruz (TBSC) member complained to the Planning Department about Micah's Mitzvah.

In that the seeds were planted long before their run for office and anybody knew who they were.

I'm going to have to work that into everyday use. I goncharoff. He/she/it goncharoffs. I have goncharoffed.

Given home owners all over this city are being pressed by the "agreement" between UCSC and the city to enforce rental inspections, etc. it is not surprising Micah got caught in this. It's not a case of "I was normal, than not". The issue would have caught him at some point.

What continues to baffle me, however, is the classicist approach of the city council. They rant about ADUs, AirBnB and VRBO, yet at a number of the old "motels turned long term rentals", you have slum lords charging $2k or more for a small place with no kitchen, maybe a hot plate, and dingy conditions. The only reason the former Brookdale lodge owner got prosecuted -- he got caught for arson/insurance fraud. Remember the fire at the slum residence off of Riverside Drive?

The council, "conservative" or "progressive", look after those that have theirs. In some ways people like Lane and Matthews are way worse than Terrazas or Comstock. Why? The council has been made of of progressives for years and they are the ones putting the hammer down on everyday home owners and do nothing about the slum lords which seem to be amongst their friends.

I see a lot of railing against "conservative" council members. I have yet to see any serious blow back against those that have generally ruled this town since the UC got established. The old guard republicans like Rittenhouse, etc. stopped giving a flying f*ck years ago.

And, honestly, Micah knew he was doing wrong and is just getting in front of this, which is smart, unlike Tim Goncharoff, though, with a young daughter and pretending a bunch of bikini models were your friend (in addition to some seriously disturbing porn), I don't think Tim would have gotten in front of anything.

Talk about post-fact post 2012 election FULL DISCLOSURE! "It was something that was not congruent with my new public profession as a rule maker."

No kidding? And FORTH YEAR COUNCILMEMBER POSNER is just now saying this... because you were caught... not blowing a joint.. but renting out an ILLEGAL UNIT.

Second term? Time to trot out the supporters. HaHaHaHaHa. Too funny!

local brown shirts don't go to bat against them.

Steve Clark of SCPD clearly overstepped his legal and ethical authority in trying to ensure that Richelle Noyoran of TBSC got elected last cycle. The SCPD police union was also seen in the KSBW hit piece on Leoni as well. So citizens know whose side SCPD comes in at politically, they have strong ties to TBSC and seem hostile to groups like the Bike Church or candidates who might be left of center. (Hell Bernie Sanders would probably be on an SCPD investigate list if he was running for Mayor).

There is a dedicated crew who seems to be involved with TBSC who "investigates" prominent members about town and keeps opposition research files on them so they can spring into action to ensure that the conservative and anti union and anti poor and anti tenant policies that Santa Cruz City Council tends to support can continue. You are not the only person who tabs are being kept on or dirty tricks being played on. This seem par for the course now so anyone wanting to run that might dare shake things up even the slightest bit better be sure their affairs are in order.

In short, fix your damn illegal unit and be done with it.

Some of us are far more concerned that you seem to spend a great deal of time apologizing for your point of view rather than just owning it and stating it clearly. Poor people in town need strong advocates and not candidates and city council members who seem wishy washy and conflicted. Next time there is a controversial topic in front of city council and you are the only one advocating for the dispossessed, don't start off with qualifying deflective apologetic remarks. Own the fact that it okay to give a shit about others and unlike the majority of SC City Council not just worry that the Seaside Company and SCPD should always get what they want.

Here's a solution... Simply get rid of every fucking housing ordain-ance and law that's intended to SOCIALLY ENGINEER housing supply in the interest of Real Estate Investment group and development interests and stick with laws relating to Health, and safety... If they aren't willing to do that... To MAKE SURE THERE'S HOUSING FOR SANTA CRUZ' WORKERS, maybe we should take Bob's advice, and chase those crazy 'baldheads' out of town. I also want to point out TBSC is part of that real estate development cabal, and needs to be ... How did Paul Goodman, the founder of Gestalt Therapy put it while speaking to a group of Military Industrialists? "Wiped from the Slate."

Link: Casey Nelson Blake, “Paul Goodman: Anarchist and Patriot” (PDF,109kb, 14pg)

Next thing you know they'll be finding "Bags-0-needles"[tm] around Micah's property.

I wonder what sort of frothy discussion is taking place on TBSC or other secret groups on this article. Anyone have any current screen shots? I'm sure the hive is having a field day. There was probably a concerted effort to take Micah down.

So, for 7 years including 4 while on the city council, Posner ran a probably off-the-books unreported income piss-in-a-bottle $700 a month illegal rental. Is this sufficient grounds to call for his resignation? YES. Can he be trusted? NO. Is he a liar? YES.

Oh, sorry. I forgot he's PC. All is forgiven. We need leadership like Posner on the city council and this at worse rises to a typographical error level of meaningless minor misunderstanding, to which vast Santa Cruz right wing conspiratorial forces are overreacting.

GO MICAH!

Ex-councilmember-to-be Posner's annual Statements of Economic Interests:

http://www.fppc.ca.gov/transparency/form-700-filed-by-public-officials.html?SearchTerm=posner

The 2011 form actually appears to be for 2012, probably a clerical error at the FPPC. Neither the 2012 or 2013 forms include a schedule of real property interests. Only the 2014 form includes Schedule B, showing more than $10,000 of rent (more than $700 per month) from tenant LaKia Queen.

If the Sentinel article can be believed, he collected rent for seven years and failed to disclose it as required by state law for at least two years. “For a normal person, like I was before I got on council, that would just be a normal way to live under the radar..." Don't hold your breath waiting for anyone to prosecute: Micah's a member in good standing of the elected officials protective society and D.A. Jeff Rosell has made sleepers and excrementers a priority under the Bob Lee PACT.

Referring to his rental as a “backyard bedroom,” Posner said he built the unit, with access to his home’s bathroom and its own locked door, prior to being elected to the council.

Posner: Just like the devoid of principle, zero honor, self-righteous, bombastic, Trumpesque double standard blowhard you are, and stupid enough to not see the jeopardy you placed yourself in 2012 by not relinquishing the illegal rental income after accepting council salary and benefits.

"A minor infraction of the building code..." that you had the temerity to vote on and voice you opinion from you seat on the council. "...which does not allow for detached bedrooms." Is that what it was? Doesn't stand the weakest scrutiny. It was a $700 illegal stand alone rental unit, byob, bring your own bottle.

Every vote Posner ever gave on housing issues, especially ADUs, is corrupted. You're an exposed fraudulent scoundrel proven unworthy of the public's trust. Resign.

It's clear just like the local spying on Leonie Sherman and the setup of Goncheroff that some well funded as well as connected law enforcement types are worried that Santa Cruz isn't conservative and fascist enough.

The real estate lobby was totally pissed off about the ADU vote not going the way they wanted. They only need one more seat on SC City Council to have their puppet government. Enter the fake public safety group TBSC to put up another slate of candidates who will do the real estate lobby's dirty work.

Curious minds want to know what other citizens is TBSC and perhaps SCPD keeping tabs on?
And how are they doing it?

Steve Clark are you up to no good again? Didn't you already threaten Micah once before with your "I know how to get ya?" speech?
How about you Vogel, more spying on so called "anarchists?"
Maybe off duty Santa Cruz police union members are interested in helping elect another yes man. You can never have too many Bearcats.

or is this simply a privately funded Seaside Ow Production with the Cubes as your local directors and front group and hired security and PIs to dig up dirt?


Things for some real locals to ponder.

I guess Micah voted to pay for the 24-hour porta potty due to his vested interest in tenants having someplace to crap.

3 months of needle mania followed by this news leak can only mean one thing. It's election time in sleezy little Santa Cruz!


Last time Steve Clark and the SCPD union did the dirty work to be sure that no voice on city council would be a voice for tenants or people who aren't wealthy. In short to torpedo Leonie Sherman's candidacy on the eve of the election and boost Richelle Noroyan's run.

The time before a well organized internet team knocked out Goncheroff with a sockpuppet army of fake models wanting to pleasure him. No doubt a good portion of TBSC members would have been equally aroused with such prospects the difference being that poor people can't afford to purchase the services of private investigators and perhaps hackers willing to investigate and entrap those who are deemed too progressive for city council.

The irony of all of this is that even when the city council was filled with progressives that they still passed many anti-homeless laws and still gave the Seaside Co and big developers most of what they wanted.

"well organized internet team knocked out Goncheroff with a sockpuppet army of fake models wanting to pleasure him"

Agreed with your post, except for this part. It was clearly Gonch's own sockpuppet army and there were people calling him out on it who had NOTHING to do with TBSC, well before everything burst into the media at the time of the election process. Any time he would post on a story, he would bring in his sockpuppet army to rave about his politics and his groovy, sexy parties. It was really obvious, and only those in serious denial could look at the facts and think "poor Tim".

If someone hit ME with a "false" story like that, there's NO WAY I would drop out of the race. You fight it until you can't fight it anymore. He meekly walked away, with some vague and incomplete denials, and that was the end of his life as a public figure. It spoke volumes...

Probably the most amusing part to me, is that when he started deleting the accounts after being found out, it seems like he didn't remember some of his passwords, and thus locked himself out of the accounts, which I think are still floating out there!

There are so many things about this issue that burn me up--that Micah charged so much for an illegal (and very small) room; that he could not even muster the integrity to pay his evicted tenant the three months rent required by city law (he paid his tenant 2 weeks' rent and the cost of a moving truck!!!); that he was not fined for this infraction or for the original code violation; that he did not declare the income while serving in a public office; that he did not recuse himself from votes on issues that affect property owners with illegal units. Most of all, it burns me up that Micah--a three-time property owner in this town who has profited from each sale--is complaining that his family needed the money to pay his mortgage, while contributing to the situation that squeezes long-time renters in this town pay huge portions of their income to rent while reaping no benefits whatsoever. If you truly want to serve this community, fight for rent control instead of contributing to rent gauging.

Dear Constituents,

Thank you to the many (40+) people who wrote in with supportive comments after my last group email. This has been a hard week for me and my family and March 8th will continue the drama. In the afternoon the City Council will consider giving me a public demerit for having an unpermitted unit in my backyard. It should be heard as early as 3PM at the City Council Chambers- 809 Center Street. Public comment will be part of the process. I will admit to hoping that some of you show up as there will be plenty of people demanding my head on a platter, though of course I will not be defending my choice to rent out an unpermitted detached bedroom. As I put in my last email, renting the unit while on the Council was a mistake and I intend to apologize again for it at the meeting. However, you are welcome to come and support my other work as a Councilmember, and/or to ask the Council to get though this issue and get to work on creating and permitting housing in Santa Cruz that people can afford to live in.

Our tenant next door, Lakia Queen, could also use your support in light of another anonymous 'building code' complaint. Lakia lives next door in a house that we also own. (That's it. We own two houses.) Apparently someone dug up an old MLS listing that advertised "an attic bonus room" as part of the home and used it as a basis to issue an anonymous complaint that my tenant has been sleeping in an improved storage area in the attic. They also called the press: both print and television. While Akiko and I mostly feel like it is the tenant's business as to what she and her daughter do in the house (she is a single mom), we did include a prohibition against "inhabiting or sleeping" in the attic in her lease because we knew that it was not a permitted use. Due to the anonymous complaint, she will have to have her home inspected. As a policymaker, I find it upsetting that a building code set up to protect tenants can be used anonymously for political attacks. She will be at the Council Meeting on Tuesday to ask for the Council's help in reigning in this kind of activity and to ask it to refocus on providing housing.


In more important news, Tuesday evening at 7PM will bring a long awaited debate on the criminalization of sleeping. Councilmember Lane and I will be asking for changes to the City's Campign ordinance to make it clear that human beings, whether homeless or not, have a right to sleep- though not to litter, set up campsites, or engage in asocial behavior. This is in line with a recent opinion from the federal governmnet. When a homeless person person challenged a ban against sleeping in Boise, Idaho that is similar to ours, the Department of Justice wrote:

"the Court should consider whether conforming one’s conduct to the ordinance is possible for people who are homeless. If sufficient shelter space is unavailable because a) there are inadequate beds for the entire population, or b) there are restrictions on those beds that disqualify certain groups of homeless individuals (e.g., because of disability access or exceeding maximum stay requirements), then it would be impossible for some homeless individuals to comply with these ordinances. As set forth below, in those circumstances enforcement of the ordinances amounts to the criminalization of homelessness, in violation of the Eighth Amendment." (the prohibition against cruel or unusual punishment)

To read the agenda for the meeting go to the City Council tab of the City 's website: cityofsantacruz.com. To contact the City Council send an email to citycouncil [at] cityofsantacruz.com

Your 'never a dull moment' City Councilmember,
Micah Posner

Candidate Posner's Form 700 dated 7/22/2012 seems not to be posted on the FPPC website, but here it is. A box is checked claiming "No reportable interests on any schedule" (meaning no rent received). I believe a candidate's disclosure is for the preceding 12 months.