Some Residents Allege Petition Gatherers Misrepresented Rent Control Charter Measure

Pasadena residents told a City Council committee Monday that signature gatherers misrepresented a proposed charter amendment that would change the city’s voter-approved rent control law, while Los Angeles County election officials prepare to review whether the petition has enough valid signatures to qualify.

Simon Gibbons, who said he is working with the Pasadena Housing Providers group behind the measure, told the committee the group met regularly with its workers “to ensure that they were putting out the correct messages.” He said he was surprised to hear criminal claims raised.

City Clerk Mark Jomsky told the Legislative Policy Committee he believed the county’s deadline to report on the petition’s sufficiency is Oct. 22, after which he will bring the findings to the full council.

If the petition qualifies, Jomsky said, the measure would go on the next regular city election ballot, in March 2028.

Originally, Measure H, approved by Pasadena voters in November 2022 with 53.8 percent of the vote, amended the City Charter to impose rent control and just-cause eviction protections and established the Pasadena Rental Housing Board. The board has seven tenant members, one from each council district, and four at-large members, according to the city. The new proposal, listed on the committee’s agenda as the Pasadena Fair Housing Charter Amendment, carries a name similar to the formal title of Measure H’s charter article, the Pasadena Fair and Equitable Housing Charter Amendment.

Monday’s discussion also drew differing guidance from city officials on where residents should take complaints about petition circulators, until a representative of the city attorney’s office said they should go first to the Pasadena Police Department.

Under state election law, a circulator who intentionally misrepresents the contents, purport or effect of a petition commits a misdemeanor.

Jomsky said his office has no role in enforcing that law.

A city attorney’s representative said that, based on the office’s internal discussions, complaints of illegal activity should go first to police, who would investigate and forward a recommendation to the city attorney’s office to decide whether to prosecute. The representative said the office was not sure whether the California Secretary of State would get involved and could research that further, and that because the law is a criminal statute, intent must be proven.

In Pasadena, the City Attorney/City Prosecutor’s office prosecutes state and local misdemeanors committed in the city, according to the office.

Vice Mayor Jess Rivas said she had heard from residents about the petition over the summer and was approached herself in several places in her district. She said she was told things she believed were “at best inaccurate or misleading and at worst outright lies.”

Councilmember Gene Masuda said he had received emails on the issue and that “it comes down to fairness.”

A District 3 resident told the committee that on Aug. 7, outside a Target store, a gatherer said the measure would make her rent go down and prevent future increases, while the paper above the petition said it would repeal and replace Measure H. A second gatherer became aggressive, she claimed, and the two moved closer until she felt crowded against a staircase.

She said she emailed the city clerk’s office that afternoon and sent an incident report to the state agency she believed handled such complaints, and heard back from neither.

It was a little frustrating, she said, to learn that “maybe the right thing to do all along was to go to the police department, but none of us knew how to handle that.”

Ryan Bell, who told the committee he was one of the proponents of the original Measure H, said that when he eventually encountered one of the gatherers, the man told him the petition was for rent control and would make it stronger, with the petition’s text folded under so only the signature lines showed.

Bell alleged the Measure H campaign hired signature gatherers to supplement its volunteers, who collected about 60 percent of its signatures, and that a campaign does not “always have direct control over what those signature gatherers say.”

Gibbons, who also spoke remotely, said the group turned in 29,000 signatures “a couple of weeks back” and believes about 19,000 will prove valid. He said he met with Jomsky a few times over the summer and showed him the group’s training packages. He said the petitions follow detailed state specifications and that the group “worked with a Sacramento attorney to make sure it’s done right.”

The measure carries “a complicated message” that “does take some explaining,” Gibbons said.

“This is not about taking away protections. Rent control will still exist. Eviction protections will still exist,” Gibbons said. He said the measure is “purely about getting a balanced, fair board,” and that the group went to the ballot after years of trying to work with the city and the Rental Housing Board, which he said would not listen.

“I’m surprised to hear criminal claims being made when we are working very hard with the city to do the right thing and to give the people of Pasadena an opportunity to vote,” Gibbons said.