Appellate ruling upholds fee
CITY HALL — Attorneys here are preparing to defend a new $60 fire inspection fee being challenged in court by a group of Santa Monica property owners.
The Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles, a trade group for landlords, and Robert Sullivan of Sullivan-Dituri Company Realtors have filed suit against City Hall claiming the new fee is illegal because it’s essentially a tax that was never approved by landlords or voters.
Santa Monica City Attorney Marsha Moutrie on Thursday defended the new inspection fee, saying an earlier appeals court decision upheld a similar fee in Los Angeles.
“We’re legally authorized to do that,” she said. “The courts have upheld such fees.”
The charge applies to thousands of apartment and commercial buildings in Santa Monica, but not single-family homes. Finance Director Steve Stark said it is expected to raise $410,000 a year for the Santa Monica Fire Department.
At issue in the lawsuit is Proposition 218, which limits how a city can impose new charges on property owners, said attorney Craig Mordoh of The California Apartment Law Information Foundation, which is overseeing the lawsuit. The fire inspection charge was passed by the City Council, and bills were recently sent out to property owners.
“It was done, nobody really saw it and then, when the bills started to arrive at the property owners’ mailboxes, they started to be concerned,” Mordoh said. “We want the fee to be knocked out. And if they intend to file a new fee... follow proper procedures.”
Moutrie declined to discuss Mordoh’s lawsuit specifically, saying her office hadn’t yet been served with it. She did, however, point to a lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles by developer Lincoln Properties. The ruling in that case upheld an inspection fee that never went before voters, Moutrie said.
“In general, as to the law, there is an appellate opinion that upholds an inspection fee that Los Angeles adopted as against a 218 challenge,” Moutrie said.
The $60 fee is applied annually to all multi-family properties in Santa Monica. Santa Monica Fire Department Chief Jim Hone called the revenue it provides crucial.
“It’s important to the fire department because it prevented us from having to reduce services or staff,” he said. If the fee were abolished “our services would need to be cut or other services would need to be cut in City Hall to keep us at the same level of service. It’s simple economics.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 19, 2004. Read the original PDF.