Santa Rosa Mayor John Sawyer recuses self from city’s rent-control vote

When Santa Rosa enacted rent control Tuesday, Mayor John Sawyer did not join his council colleagues in voting on the unprecedented and controversial city regulation.

On the advice of the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission, he recused himself from the decision because he is a landlord.

Sawyer opposes rent control, but given the 4-2 split in favor of the limits on rent hikes, his vote would have been unlikely to change the outcome.

The irony is that the law passed Tuesday enacting rent control won’t affect Sawyer’s property because single-family homes are exempt from rent control, as well as a companion ordinance requiring landlords to have a good reason to evict tenants to raise rents.

Sawyer and his husband own a home with a granny unit in east Santa Rosa, and they rent out both units.

Still, Sawyer said he felt it appropriate to abide by the legal guidance, even if he found the reasoning suspect.

“It is indeed a little frustrating that my two (units) would keep me from weighing in on a decision that is so important to the community,” Sawyer said before the meeting.

Sawyer had recused himself from previous deliberations on the issue, including a temporary moratorium on rent increases above 3 percent, while the FPPC considered whether he in fact had a conflict. The state’s political watchdog took its time with the ruling because it recognized that many potential elected officials - landlords and renters - could be affected by rent control ordinances in the future, Sawyer said.

An FPPC attorney issued a formal opinion ?Aug. 17 based on a set of facts outlined by new City Attorney Teresa Stricker.

Those facts, which were correct at the time, stated that the City Council was considering rent control and just-cause eviction laws that had the potential to have a financial impact on him.

Under state law, single-family homes, duplexes and apartments built after Feb. 1, 1995, are exempt from local rent-control laws. Santa Rosa’s goes one further and exempts owner occupied triplexes.

However, an early draft of the city’s just-cause eviction law originally included all rental properties in the city, including Sawyer’s.

With that in mind, the FPPC concluded in its opinion that the issue “will have a reasonably foreseeable material financial effect on the Mayor’s financial interest in his residential rental business.”

During the council’s subsequent debate, the just-cause ordinance was narrowed to affect only the approximately 11,000 properties in the city subject to rent control. Sawyer’s rental property is not one of those.

If he had been a decisive vote in the matter, Sawyer said he might have been “willing to take a greater risk legally.” He said he made the best decision he could under the circumstances and given the advice he received.

“I only recuse myself when required,” he said.

Sawyer said he would be willing to seek another opinion from the FPPC to see if he should recuse himself from future votes on the new city program.

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 707-521-5207 or kevin.mccallum@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @srcitybeat.