Santa Barbara City Council members Wendy Santamaria and Kristen Sneddon retreated Tuesday night from the proposed 15-page rent stabilization ordinance they drafted, after a backlash over the proposal’s transparency.
Santamaria and Sneddon worked with “pro-bono attorneys” and tenant advocates to draft an ordinance that would have capped annual rent increases by 60% of the Consumer Price Index. They bypassed the normal city process, in which new ordinances and changes to existing ones are driven by the city staff, and then shaped by the council.
Instead, their goal on Tuesday night was to get the full City Council to put the ordinance on an agenda for a vote, but the plan failed…