Campaign CASH matters: anti-SB9 leaders to Lakewood
Leaders from two orgs reject Councilman Todd Rogers' defense of his acceptance of money/endorsements from pro-SB9 sources.
By Brian Maquena
June 4-5, 2022 (this article was originally published via print; additional information has been added)
A realtors’ association sponsoring lawsuits against cities is also funding the reelection campaigns of two Lakewood Councilmen.
“It’s very important to understand who is making donations to your campaign, especially when it’s a conflict over such a contentious topic,” wrote Susan Candell, executive board member of the California Alliance of Local Electeds, which opposes state housing mandates.
The Association of Realtors via a PAC has donated $1,000 to the campaigns of Mayor Steve Croft and Councilman Todd Rogers. The two longtime Lakewood Councilmen say they are against state housing mandates, but the realtors’ association also sponsors a nonprofit suing cities not complying with such mandates.
Californians For Homeownership brags on its website that it has filed lawsuits against Southern Californian cities, such as La Habra Heights and Manhattan Beach.
“When cities and counties refuse to comply with laws intended to increase access to housing, we sue them” the organization, funded by the realtors’ association, writes on its website. “This housing shortage is driven by local policies that limit the supply of housing.”
Speaker Anthony Rendon has personally donated $250 to Rogers’ campaign and another $1,000 to Croft’s via a PAC. Rendon has passed major housing density legislation over the years.
“He’s just known to endorse incumbents that have had no kind of [bad] scrutiny behind them,” said Jose Ugarte, the speaker’s reelection campaign manager, about Rendon.
Rogers went to his “Government Official” Facebook page to defend his campaign cash from the pro-housing density sources.
“Mr. Rendon, the realtors, our deputies and firefighters, and many more organizations and Lakewood residents support my re-election because they believe in honest, stable, and quality local government,” Rogers posted. “In the unlikely event, Mr. Rendon or anyone else made a donation to influence my position on SB9 or anything else, it certainly didn't work nor will it ever.”
However, one of the chief leaders against California’s housing density mandates rejected Rogers’ logic, if not his statement. (Rogers’ Facebook post was unknown was first writing this article.) By accepting the realtors’ association’s campaign cash, Croft and Rogers are showing themselves to be contradictory, the anti-housing mandate leader said.
“Having legislators representing us, not representing the money to be made in real estate,” said Susan Kirsch, president of Community Catalysts for Local Control, describing the change California needs.
The realtors’ association is funding Croft’s and Rogers’ campaigns via its California Real Estate PAC, otherwise known as CREPAC. It’s donations to the Lakewood incumbents’ campaigns can be viewed in their online Form 460s.
Housing mandates caught significant attention in Lakewood after Council announced May 24 that a single developer had purchased 11 single-family homes with plans to turn them into triplexes.
“There goes the neighborhood,” wrote one Facebook user reposting a social media post of Rogers announcing the news on his “Government Official” page.
Council also announced that they would be joining a lawsuit against Senate Bill 9 (SB-9), the 2021 legislation that made the triplexes a reality this year. Yet the Lakewood Populist has reported how incumbents have long supported Speaker Rendon, a Lakewood resident who was instrumental in passing SB-9.
In 2020, Rogers and Croft made a huge push to get Rendon reelected. Rendon was then-facing a more progressive candidate and perhaps needed Lakewood votes to get him over the top before passing SB-9.
Senate Bill-9: A CONFUSING piece of legislation
The language of the bill is confusing, causing some—including opposition organizations publishing online—to wonder if cities could legally stop such triplex developments.
“A local agency does not need to allow an ADU or JADU on a lot if there are already two units of any kind on the lot,” published Best Best & Krieger Attorneys at Law in September 2021.
Sadly, that is not the case.
Under SB-9, the state updated sections of the Government Code covering duplexes, accessory dwelling units (ADUs), junior accessory dwelling units (JADUs), as well as the splitting of single-family lots.
Owner-occupancy is required if someone wants to split their single-family lot to build up to four homes, or if someone wants to build a JADU, wrote Bill Grady, public information officer for Lakewood.
However, the developer building the 11 triplexes on single-family residences is planning to not split the lots, Grady wrote. Instead, the developer is taking advantage of an SB-9-created Government Code section that allows duplexes plus another Government Code section changed by SB-9 that now says ADUs do not count as a residence when calculating allowable residences.
Therefore, the duplex-Government Code section that says cities must allow developers to build “housing development containing no more than two residential units within a single-family residential zone” does not prevent the developer from adding an ADU.
“Real estate developers who are investing their money into these developments have definitely done their research to know beforehand what they are legally allowed to do,” wrote Grady.
Lakewood has adopted stringent objective standards, one of the few tools cities appear to have against SB-9 developments, Grady explained. Community Development staff has also attended hours of training on the relevant laws.
This hasn’t stopped Michelle Hamlin, Rogers’ opponent for Council district 1, and her campaign from correctly noting that Rogers took a campaign-styled photo with Rendon about a month before Rendon passed SB-9.
Those continuing to oppose the housing mandates also question Croft’s and Rogers’ fight against housing mandates.
“A Council Member—who takes money from CREPAC and is associated with a nonprofit who sues cities for not complying with housing density mandates—would be very much contradictory with their stance that they are against the huge new housing density mandates,” Candell wrote.
Hamlin, who is running against Rogers in Council district 1, together with her husband Christian has entirely self-funded her campaign. The political outsider has openly criticized Rogers for not more vocally opposing state and regional leaders supporting anti-Lakewood legislation.
Gregory Slaughter and Laura Sanchez Ramirez are facing Croft in Council district 2. Slaughter has largely self-funded his campaign with $10,000 while receiving a little over $2,000 in contributions from private individuals save $500 from Results Property Management. Ramirez has taken out a $3,000 loan and received donations from commercial property owners, doctors & others.