Property manager working to put Concord rent rules on November ballot
CONCORD, CA (Mar. 15, 2024) — Resident Jo Sciarroni is gathering signatures for a referendum on the city’s new rent ordinance, telling the Pioneer the City Council “had a deaf ear to how it would affect homeowners and home providers.”
She said the city attorney gave her approval to proceed on March 14, so she has 30 days to get 7,204 valid signatures to place the item on the November ballot.
The City Council voted 4-1 to approve the Residential Tenant Protection Program on March 5. It increased “just cause” eviction protections, expanded the city’s Rent Registry and established a Rent Stabilization Program. Because of the pending referendum, the city suspended implementation of the plan.
Sciarroni is a property manager, or as she called it, “a home provider.” She said she drafted the petition the day after the ordinance’s approval because she didn’t think the council understood its impact on ordinary citizens.
“When I saw the defeated look on the poor people who were there – I mean a lot of them were senior citizens – I thought: This is just not right,” she said.
“I’ve gone to all of the council meetings over a long, long period of time,” she added. “I felt the homeowners of one- to four-units, meaning single-family homeowners and investors, were not properly noticed until they were way at the end of preparing this ordinance. And, therefore, they didn’t have a voice on this.”
At the Feb. 13 meeting, Councilmember Carlyn Obringer brought up similar concerns and asked her colleagues to put the ordinance up for a citywide vote in November.
“If I asked anyone in my neighborhood, even people who are renting out homes, I don’t think they would know anything about this. And I think it would only be fair to enable them to get engaged on the topic,” Obringer said, adding that there could be “backlash” to the single-family component.
“I think the intention was a good one – to protect tenants’ rights,” Sciarroni said, “but I don’t think they gave enough consideration to the others it would be affecting.”
As news of her petition spread, Sciarroni said people have jumped in to help her.
“I have the real estate community, friends, people that I know in different neighborhoods. The outpouring of people who wanted to help was immense, which tells me that the people who found out about it are incensed.”
Related story: Concord council OKs new rules protecting tenants
Bev Britton
Bev Britton graduated with a degree in journalism from the University of North Dakota and moved to the Bay Area with her soon-to-be husband Jim in 1986. She was features editor at the Contra Costa Times in Walnut Creek before becoming managing editor of the Contra Costa Sun in Lafayette in 1995. She retired from newsrooms in 2001, but an ad for the Clayton Pioneer drew her back in. The family moved to Lake Wildwood in the Gold Country a few years ago - but working at the Pioneer keeps her in touch with her old neighborhoods in Concord and Clayton.