YOUR COMMUNITY IN YOUR HANDS
Volume 9
•
Issue 25
•
June 1 - 14, 2017
SLOCityNews.com
See Inside and Online
Historic Honors Page 6
The 4th Annual SLO Jazz Festival was held May 20 in the Mission Plaza. See more photos on page 8. Photo by PhotoByVivian.com
A
SLO Special Election — New Foes, Old Fights
Grads Season Starts
By Camas Frank
Page 37
rental inspection program that was a feather in the cap for outgoing members of the previous SLO City Council in December 2016, was officially repealed by their successors April 20, a month after being served with a petition signed by 15 percent of the SLO electorate. That petition, containing language for a repeal and replace ordinance, is the cause of a planned Aug. 22 special election, with only one item, set to cost the City some $160,000 to carry out. After some debate over wording on May 16, the approved ballot question will ask: “Shall an ordinance be adopted to replace former Chapter 15.10 of the San Luis Obispo Municipal Code, entitled ‘Rental Housing Inspection’ (repealed by City Council Ordinance 1632, effective April 20, 2017), with new Chapter 15.10 to be entitled ‘Non- Discrimination in Housing?’” Even the slight change in wording from the original initiative, which emphasized that it was to repeal the ordinance, drew condemnation from long time thorns in the side of City Government, SLO-based attorney, Stew Jenkins, and political activist and resident, Kevin Rice. And their involvement warrants some explanation. Five years ago Jenkins was seen as something of a hero to advocates for the homeless living inside SLO City limits. A lawsuit filed in conjunction with another lawyer, Saro Rizzo, resulted in a court ordered payout of $133,880 and what the pair said they really wanted all along — the dismissal of 99 criminal citations for people
living and sleeping in their vehicles on public streets. In total it was estimated that settling the lawsuit and paying for their own fees cost the City more than $270,000. That did not include staff time in repealing and later replacing the ordinance governing the citations. All that was another political cycle ago, and while many of the players have changed, déjà vu is in the air for longtime Council watchers. Jenkins and Rizzo are again moving in a pincer action to change City policy by legal fiat, making a little money in the process (at least on Rizzo’s end), as well as costing the municipality for its resistance. This time the City staff and the SLO City Council say they don’t believe the long-term impacts will benefit low-income residents despite the anti-discrimination phrasing of the petition circulated by Jenkins along with contractor Dan Knight and former SLO City Councilman Dan Carpenter. Although the issues are technically separate, the subject matter, and players involved are very much interconnected. In April, the City agreed to settle, for an as-yet-undisclosed amount, a lawsuit claiming the rental inspection program violated equal protection rights and the Fourth and Fifth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. Rizzo represented “The San Luis Obispo Business and Property Owners Association” or SLOBPOA, Steve and Janine Barasch, Matt and Jean Kokkonen and Rice , who was a late addition in the suit against the City. See Election, page 36
Small Business Spotlight facebook.com/slocitynews
SLOCityNews.com