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# Hypocritical actions by renters’ rights group
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/hypocritical-actions-by-renters-rights-group-2/
- Published: 2003-04-25T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T02:05:55.000Z
- Author: Bill Bauer
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import

Santa Monicans for Renters Rights, the powerful political organization that controls the way the city and its schools are run, tries to convince renters, “We’re for you.”

The truth is we’re being sold a bogus bill of goods.

In February, the SMRR-controlled Rent Control Board allowed landlords to raise rents to market rate on apartments not used as a primary residences. Tenants using their apartments for vacation homes, offices or storage will now face the possibility of dramatic rent increases.

The RCB claims it did this to avoid threats by landlords vowing to seek more Draconian legislation on the state level, similar to the Costa-Hawkins Bill that ushered in statewide vacancy decontrol in the late 1990s.

Mega-landlord Douglas Emmett was one of the first to take advantage of a new law that went into effect March 15\. The firm has issued notices to tenants at its 460-unit Santa Monica Shores apartment buildings, challenging claims that their apartments are their primary residences.

I mentioned in February that SMRR co-chair Denny Zane wrote a letter to the Planning Commission on behalf of the very same Douglas Emmett asking to set aside some conditions imposed on the firm’s office building at 808 Wilshire.

Zane supported conditions that included an on-site gasoline station when he was on City Council in 1990\. But apparently he has changed his mind.

Zane said he wrote the letter as a favor for Douglas Emmett. Coincidentally, Dan Emmett (the Emmett in Douglas Emmett) contributed $5,000 to Measure EE — last fall’s failed school tax measure, the campaign for which Zane was paid $25,000 to manage.

I’m not saying Zane did anything wrong. But doesn’t it seem a wee bit hypocritical when a SMRR co-chair does favors for one of the city’s largest landlords? Especially when it appears to be a landlord who is now conducting what some Shores tenants characterize as a witch hunt to ferret out non-primary residents so they can jack-up rents.

Local landlord Mat Millen said SMRR is not in the business of protecting renters no matter how much they say they are.

“They’re in the business of creating housing,” Millen said. “SMRR really wants all those offices and pied-à-terres occupied by full-time, registered voters who can be easily pressured to back SMRR causes and candidates.”

Meanwhile, the City Council is ready to tax occupied, unregistered apartments. The city estimates there are approximately 1,000 bootlegged units on about 700 properties throughout Santa Monica. Most don’t meet parking, density and setback requirements while others have been subdivided out of other apartments or cobbled out of garages and storage spaces.

Fearful of losing valuable housing (and renter’s votes), the City Council voted this week to rewrite zoning codes to make these units eligible for inspection. Owners of bootlegged units would pay registration fees to become legal. A typical 800-square-foot single -bedroom unit would cost about $7,840 to legalize.

The big question is whether the Rent Control Board will allow property owners to pass along this cost to tenants. If it does, hundreds of renters will surely be hit with sizable rent increases.

All of the Rent Control Board members are members of SMRR, the political organization that “protects and looks out for renters.” Just about everything that’s come down the pike in the last decade has been passed along to renters by the Rent Control Board. Its excuse usually is that they had to do it to avoid the possibility of anti-renter legislation, legal action or some other vague landlord threat.

Repairs from the 1994 earthquake were passed on. Taxes such as the Santa Monica College school bond that was approved last year were passed along as was the first school parcel tax renewed in 2000.

Two years ago, the RCB approved the second-largest general rent increase in its history. Most likely, they will allow landlords to pass on the costs for the additional school parcel tax (Measure S) on the June ballot — if it passes. Keep in mind that with all the “pass alongs” renters pay, the property owner doesn’t.

So next time someone says, “SMRR fights for renters.” Tell them, “In a pig’s eye.” (Bill Bauer is a longtime Santa Monica resident and freelance writer.)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 25, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/042503.pdf?ref=smdp.com)