Judge Rules Against Issuing Temporary Restraining Order Halting Measure H Rent Control

Superior Court Judge Mary Strobel has refused to grant the California Apartment Association a temporary restraining order against Pasadena’s Measure H Rent Control charter amendment.

The Association filed a lawsuit against the City of Pasadena challenging the constitutionality of Measure H, which was passed by Pasadena voters in June and went into effect on December 22.

Strobel said Friday that she sees “no showing of irreparable harm” to the CAA members in the Temporary Restraining Order request filed by the Association.

She also said she was “not convinced that the amendment itself is unconstitutional.” She added that the Association’s argument regarding that issue was “not particularly strong.”

Rent control initiative organizer Ryan Bell, one of dozens of dedicated supporters who worked for years to get Measure H on the ballot, said he was “relieved” after Friday’s ruling.

“Obviously we agree,” Bell said. “We wouldn’t have gone to all that work if we thought it was unconstitutional.”

Bell noted that there have been similar challenges to other rent control measures around the state of California, saying, “We’ve never been super worried, although it is always worrying when you have a lawsuit.”

In an unusual development, attorney Fredric Woochen, representing the organizers of Measure H, told Judge Strobel that they would like to be added to the case as defendants along with the City of Pasadena.

Bell explained: “We have an interest in making sure that (the case) is really robustly defended, not that we don’t think that the City will do their best, but we just feel like we worked so hard on this, and the voters, obviously by 54%, approved it. So we think it’s in the interest of the people that we also contribute to the defense.”

Bell also said that Pasadena City Attorney Michele Bagneris “did a really bang up job this morning. So, we feel confident about her representation, but we also just feel like it would be in the people’s interest for the proponents to have their voices heard.”

Bell emphasized that organizers of Measure H had no interest in being involved with the actual implementation of the Measure, or administering any appointments to the rent control board.

Meanwhile, Judge Strobel set a hearing for a preliminary injunction for January 26.

The CAA filed a lawsuit on Dec. 16 alleging that Measure H unlawfully revises Pasadena’s charter, unconstitutionally restricts which people may serve on the rent board created to administer the law, and violates the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act.