Julian Gold – Renters Alliance

City council listens as the city clerk digests twelve public comments into a minute-and-a-half 'summarization.'

City Council Agrees to Reduce Public Participation

July 22, 2023July 23, 2023 Mark Elliot Julian Gold, public participation

Mayor Julian Gold at the June 27, 2023 City Council meeting decided that public comment would to be limited to 90 seconds per speaker. That is half the three minutes usually allowed. The mayor also trimmed comment time on agenda items to two minutes from three. Finally he directed the city clerk to summarize written public comments rather than read them in their entirety. Would City Council go along with the mayor’s initiative to limit our ability to address our elected representatives?

Mayor Gold limits public comment to 90 seconds at the June 27, 2023 council meeting

News

Mayor Slashes Time and Limits Opportunities for Public Comment

July 12, 2023July 23, 2023 Mark Elliot good government, Huma Ahmed, Julian Gold

City of Beverly Hills mayor Julian Gold has taken a big step backward on public participation. He has cut in half the time afforded to members of the public who attend in order to address City Council face-to-face. Tonight we had only 90 seconds to face our elected representatives instead of the customary three minutes. The mayor also cut by one-third the time a member of the public is afforded to comment on any matter that is on the agenda. Instead of three minutes to talk about rent increases, for example, tenants and landlords were permitted to speak for only two minutes. Written comments took the worst hit: instead of reading them aloud, as usual, the city clerk merely summarized them. The city clerk says all of it was perfectly legal. But that does not make it right.

Explainer

History of the Beverly Hills Rent Subsidy

April 1, 2023June 18, 2023 Mark Elliot Helen Morales, Julian Gold, Lili Bosse, qualified tenant subsidy

Beverly Hills approved a $1M rent subsidy to tenants in the first year of the pandemic to provide up to $1,000 per month for a maximum of three months to an eligible rent-stabilized household. Restrictions on eligibility meant that only one hundred households saw rent relief. Council then proposed a second round subsidy to disburse the balance of program funds but could not come to agreement on a framework for the subsidy or eligibility criteria. That was nearly a year ago and in the meanwhile tenants have asked, What happened to the rent subsidy? We went back in time to document exactly where this program went off the rails.

City Council Installation 2023 invitation

Commentary

To My Rent-Stabilized Neighbors: No Need to Save this Date

March 13, 2023March 13, 2023 Mark Elliot Julian Gold, Lester Friedman

The installation of the incoming Beverly Hills mayor and vice-mayor will take place on April 4th, says the city’s official announcement. “Save the date!” But it is difficult for me to suggest my neighbors should save the date for a ceremony where Vice-Mayor Julian Gold and Councilmember Lester Friedman will be nominated and elected by fellow councilmembers to the offices of mayor and vice-mayor respectively. Not that I begrudge the honor. All councilmembers give generously of their time to conduct the people’s business. And every year councilmembers rotate into those two ceremonial offices. It just happens that I’m not feeling any love for tenants from Gold and Friedman and that puts me into something less than a celebratory mood.

Deputy Director Helen Morales's last appearance at city council February 7, 2023.

News

Beverly Hills Rent Stabilization Director Departs [Updated]

March 9, 2023March 10, 2023 Mark Elliot Helen Morales, Julian Gold, Timothea Tway

The internal staff memorandum was brief and to-the-point: “Helen Morales is no longer with the City, effective immediately.” As the city’s first deputy director of rent stabilization Morales had a hand in standing-up the new program and getting the city’s Rent Stabilization Commission up-and-running. With those administrative tasks unfinished and households about to be displaced for redevelopment, is this the time right for a management change-up? Or is it overdue?

Rental assistance questionnaire for landlords

News

Beverly Hills Rental Housing Assistance: Only Landlords Need Apply

November 24, 2022November 27, 2022 Mark Elliot Julian Gold, qualified tenant subsidy, rent relief, Robert Wunderlich

Councilmember Bob Wunderlich back in March proposed a rental housing assistance program to help eligible tenants to afford a large rent increase of the kind we expect to see in the coming years. Council was eager to get a program up and running and in April the mayor appointed two councilmembers to an ad-hoc committee to flesh it out. The ad-hoc ran aground and we heard nothing more about it until late October when the RSO office quietly contacted landlords about a subsidy program. What happened to financial help for tenants? Let us explain!

Commentary

Term Limits for Beverly Hills: Why the Hurry?

February 19, 2021February 21, 2021 Mark Elliot John Mirisch, Julian Gold, Lester Friedman, Lili Bosse, Nancy Krasne, Robert Tanenbaum, Robert Wunderlich, term limits

Beverly Hills city councilmember John Mirisch has stood out as a champion of new ideas. He wants the city to provide land so that nonprofits can build senior housing. He wants developers to set aside one in every five new dwelling units as permanently affordable. He favors city hall transparency and disfavors city hall inefficiency. He will always hold Metro’s feet to the fire. So why do his fellow councilmembers want to kick him off the island?

Commentary

Measure RP: Thoughts on the City’s ‘Tax Payer Protection Act’

October 21, 2020July 5, 2022 Mark Elliot Julian Gold, Measure RP, Robert Wunderlich, West Hollywood

Beverly Hills city council has placed on the November ballot a measure to conditionally add three-quarters of one percent to the sales tax IF Los Angeles County voters at some point in the future approve any increase. Dubbed by city council as the ‘Beverly Hills Tax Payer Protection Act,’ Measure RP would put our city a step ahead of the county by grabbing the resulting revenue. But the measure raises some questions about equity. In this time of unprecedented stress on county health and homelessness services, is it fair to put Beverly Hills first?

News

Beverly Hills OKs $1M Rent Subsidy Program

September 16, 2020February 28, 2021 Mark Elliot COVID-19 rent subsidy, Julian Gold, qualified tenant subsidy

Beverly Hills tenants who have been affected by COVID–19 may find relief in a new city rent subsidy program. First proposed two years ago as a general subsidy for rent-burdened tenants, the refashioned program is scoped-down in reach but scaled-up in benefit. City council at its September 15th meeting agreed to throw as much as $1 million toward rent-relief program to provide $1,000 for at least three months to tenants affected by COVID–19 measures. While tenants seeking relief will likely have to wait a month to get it, we do know something about program particulars.

News

Mandated Moratorium Rent Repayment Plans? A Solution in Search of a Problem!

May 4, 2020May 5, 2020 Mark Elliot eviction moratorium, Julian Gold, NMHC

On Tuesday afternoon’s city council meeting agenda is an item dryly titled, ‘Consideration of Modifications to the City’s Urgency Ordinance 20-O–2808.’ Proposed for council consideration is a major change to the terms of the city’s residential eviction moratorium: A tenant who asks for rent forbearance could have to sign on to a rent repayment plan in order to receive it. Here’s why that is a solution in search of a problem!

News

City Council Tweaks the COVID-19 Emergency Regulations

April 28, 2020April 29, 2020 Mark Elliot COVID-19, Julian Gold, urgency ordinance

Beverly Hills city council adopted a new urgency ordinance at the April 21st meeting making several changes to several emergency measures related to COVID–19. The amendments are part of council’s continuing refinement to the city’s response (to which we gave an A grade). Here we review those changes with specific focus on measures that affect tenants.

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