UPDATE: This motion has now been assigned Council File number CF 18-0955
So in March 2018 the incomparable Emily Alpert Reyes wrote a blockbuster article exposing yet another cynically corrupt practice well-beloved of our cynically corrupt City Council members. As she put it:
Before a proposed [homeless housing] building can get funding from the housing department through Proposition HHH, the $1.2-billion bond passed by voters, it must have a “letter of acknowledgment” from the local council member. And if a council member simply withholds that letter, a project can be stopped in its tracks.
As you can imagine, various City Council members defended this grant of absolute veto power outside of any democratic process by claiming it was the only way they could have any input into what gets built in their districts. Like it’s obvious somehow that they even should have input into what gets built? Anyway, no one outside of 200 N Spring Street was buying this loco jive, and especially assemblymember David Chiu. Alpert Reyes’s article moved Chiu to introduce AB 829, which flat-out forbade any projects subject to such a requirement from receiving state funding. This passed easily in September and was quickly signed into law by Jerry Brown on September 27.
Obviously the City can’t afford to give up all that state money, so it became incumbent on them to rescind the requirement as soon as possible. Thus did Council president Herb Wesson introduce this morning in Council a motion recommending said rescission. But Herb Wesson, famously a whiny baby even in the gang of world class whiny babies among whom he works, couldn’t just leave it at that. He ended his motion with a whiny baby last word move which, as far as I can see, has no great effect other than to expose his whiny baby attitude even more to the world than it already has been exposed:
I FURTHER MOVE that the Housing Department be directed to report with recommendations on ways that a Council office and neighborhood council of the area can provide meaningful input on proposed City financing of a housing development in the Council district, and in a manner consistent with the new state law.
Boo freaking hoo hoo hoo, Herb Wesson! Anyway, turn the page for the entire text of the motion, if you dare!
Governor Jerry Brown recently signed into law Assembly Bill 829, which precludes State assistance in any housing development that is subject to a requirement as a threshold or condition to apply or be eligible for the award of any funding that the development proponent receive a letter of acknowledgment, letter of approval, or similar document from the legislative body of a local agency or from a member of a local legislative body.
The City through the Housing Community Investment Department (Housing Department) operates affordable and low income loan housing programs, which leverage State funding. These programs, including the Prop HHH Permanent Supportive Loan Program (HHH PSH) and the Affordable Housing Managed Pipeline Program (AHMP), require, pursuant to Regulations 2.7 of both programs and Regulation 7.3 of the AHMP Program, that a loan applicant submit a Letter of Acknowledgment or Letter of Support from the Council office where the project is slated to be developed.
Action is needed to rescind these requirement in order for the City to comply with the dictates of Assembly Bill 829.
I THEREFORE, MOVE that the Council rescind any action which approves or authorizes any regulation for the HHH PSH Program, the AHMP Program, and other affordable and low income loan housing programs that require a loan applicant to submit a Letter of Acknowledgement or Letter of Support from the Council office where the project is located, including but not limited to Regulation 2.7 in both the HHH PSH Program and the AHMP Program, and Regulation 7.3 in the AHMP Program; and instruct the Housing Department to take any further actions to implement the above, including any needed technical corrections
I FURTHER MOVE that the Housing Department be directed to report with recommendations on ways that a Council office and neighborhood council of the area can provide meaningful input on proposed City financing of a housing development in the Council district, and in a manner consistent with the new state law.
PRESENTED BY
HERB J. WESSON, Jr.
Councilman, 10 th District
Image of Herb Wesson is ©2018 MichaelKohlhaas.Org and is, you know, something something something click here.
