Santa Rosa anti-rent control petition still being counted

Santa Rosa voters won’t get a say in whether they want rent control in their city until at least June under the schedule outlined by city and county officials.

The Sonoma County Registrar of Voters notified Santa Rosa officials recently that they wouldn’t be done until the week of Dec. 19 verifying whether landlords had submitted enough valid signatures to put the issue before voters.

The city’s rent control ordinance is suspended pending the outcome of the review, which the registrar said in late October was close enough to require a time-consuming hand count.

Since the last City Council meeting of the year was Tuesday, the earliest the council will now be able to take up the issue of when or whether to send the issue to the voters will be its Jan. 10 meeting.

That makes June the earliest the city could call an special election on the issue, or nine months after the ordinance was supposed to go into effect.

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