The CAA Organizing Right Wing Anger Against Concord Tenant Protections

[Do you live in Concord, or know someone who does? TAKE ACTION: Tell your friends and neighbors: DO NOT SIGN THE PETITION to put renter protections on the ballot in November. We don't need to vote on it. The approved protections will go in effect if the petition fails to gather enough signatures!]

On March 5 of 2024, the Concord city council passed an tenant protection ordinance. That ordinance is being politically challenged by the California Apartment Association and MAGA activists. Concord's political far-right, with the resources offered by the CAA, are attempting to move the ordinance to the November ballot. The state's petition process allows petitioners to freeze any city ordinance, and put it up to popular vote. On March 14th, the Concord city staff approved the verbiage of the petition, giving the organizers 30 days to gather 7,204 signatures from Concord registered voters. The tenant protection ordinance is frozen, thus allowing the growing wave of evictions, primarily targeting the Latino community, to continue in the city.

The ordinance is a package of remedies to stabilize communities in Concord, which are continuously disrupted by sudden evictions of persons and families, and in some cases the evictions of entire rental complexes. The bill establishes a registry, so the city can quantitatively monitor evictions, rental costs, and status of rental units. The bill offers security to renters, by establishing rules for 'just cause' evictions. The bill requires landlords to make renters aware of their rights. The bill seeks to tamp down the large spikes in rent increases, by capping increases to 3% a year. If a tenant is coerced into vacating an apartment, the landlord must offer fair financial assistance to cover expenses associated with moving.

This ordinance was made necessary by the actions of abusive landlords terrorizing Latino renters, and the real-estate speculators driving up the price of rental housing in Concord. Over the course of years, the city has heard testimony from long term residents being forced out of their communities, and priced out of Concord. After years of debate, the city passed a fair ordinance with the vote being 4 in favor and 1 against. (The 1 vote against wasn't even against the concept of the ordinance, but rather voted no ideologically on some minor quibble.)

This package ordinance only covers multi-family facilities. Essentially this ordinance covers apartments, but not single family homes. A room in a single family home, or a dwelling unit at a single family home, or an entire rented home is not covered under the ordinance. This distinction was written into the ordinance.

The California Apartment Association is a trade organization that represents some California apartment owners. They are the largest such organization in California, but they are not representative of all apartment owners. They are deeply entrenched in MAGA-Conservatism, and lobby against tenant protections throughout the state.

As the CAA started feeding their propaganda to Concord landlords, the MAGA Red-Hats started showing up at city council meetings. In typical MAGA fashion, the vocal outrage from the wearers of the of Red-Hats have accused city council of Communist plots, violating their Oath of Office, and undermining the nation itself. To paraphrase Derrida, a specter is haunting Concord — the specter of Communism. Neo-McCarthyists are donning their Red-Hats, waving their pocket editions of the Constitution and doing their impressions of the John Birch Society.

To call Concord city council Communist, or even Socialist, or even devoted Progressive-Leftists is daffiness. Concord's government is mid-tier Liberal at best. However, this council has recognized the damage to the social fabric of communities, the work force, and general economy that the evictions have caused to the city. After years of renters demanding that the city do something, the city has finally done something.

In order to get enough signatures for their petition to take this ordinance to the ballot, the CAA and Concord's MAGA crew are spreading disinformation about the ordinance itself. Through the Concord Pioneer, a local print and online newspaper, the CAA and a group of landlords printed a letter insinuating that the vote for the ordinance was 3 to 2. The letter suggested that Carlyn Obringer voted no on the ordinance; she actually voted yes. The letter states that the ordinance impacts "single-family rental housing"; the ordinance does not. In conspiratorial MAGA fashion, the letter says the drafting of the ordinance and the approval of the ordinance were the results of "secret, back-room deals", without providing any evidence.

A few days ago, an article appeared in the Concord Pioneer, with a brief interview of Jo Sciarroni, a Re/Max Accord real-estate agent whose office is in Walnut Creek. This article at least does admit that the vote was 4 to 1. However article author (would be a stretch to call the writer a journalist) Bev Britton, and Sciarroni repeat the false claim that the ordinance impacts single family homes. Sciarroni takes ownership of creating the petition that has halted renter protections. Sciarroni uses the interview to spread disinformation. The real-estate agent falsely claims that most of the people who attended the council meetings in opposition to the ordinance were "poor", "senior citizens". She claims that the city didn't "give enough consideration" to "single-family homeowners". The ordinance doesn't cover single-family homes. The CAA knows this. Sciarroni, a successful real-estate agent, knows this. The CAA and MAGA activists are spreading disinformation. The Concord Pioneer is spreading disinformation.

It is important that this MAGA petition be defeated. The way to stop it is to not sign it, and to tell others not to sign it. Stopping the petition requires people to spread the facts of the ordinance, to overcome the disinformation campaign. People need to talk to their neighbors in person. They need to use available social media platforms. They need to attend city council meetings and speak during public comment sessions at the start of meetings. This ordinance only effects multi-family housing, and the landlords of such housing are certainly not primarily "poor senior citizens". Tenants and landlords equally had their voices heard at meetings, and this ordinance was the result. Stabilizing tenants means stabilizing communities. This ordinance would allow Concord to move forward on projects like park improvements, and bicycle infrastructure without fear that such projects would inadvertently cause mass-displacement. Organize against the petition.