Culver City Observer -

Leaders of Protect Culver City, the much-maligned, local political action committee that placed the rent control initiative on November 3 ballot, told the Observer this week that Measure B was never meant as a “statement for or against rent control, but as a simple demand: City Council let us (voters) have the final word on it.”

Ron Bassilian, president of Protect Culver City (PCC), said his group -- composed of local business owners,

residents and landlords, wanted to have “proper citywide conversation about the issue and let people decide

if it’s a good idea for our city” but the City Council ignored “our pleas to put this on the ballot, preferring to

say this measure is anti-rent control.”

“Other cities like Santa Monica took this route,” he continued. “West Hollywood did their rent control through

popular votes. Burbank is putting its own tenant protections on the ballot.”

If approved by the voters in November, Measure B would nullify the comprehensive rent control ordinance

that the Council adopted by a 4-1 vote last month, offering strong tenant protections to more than 7000 renters

in Culver City.

“The four opposing councilmembers ignored our repeated pleas to put their rent control on the ballot. They

are now treating this measure as a de facto repeal of rent control, scaring people with bugbears of ‘waves of

evictions’ and ‘skyrocketing rents’ if our measure were to pass. All false,” said Bassilian in a statement.

“Meanwhile, we have statewide rent control and ample Covid emergency tenant protections. Measure B leaves all of these in place.”

In its website, PCC states that it would accept the will of the voters. “Our simple position is: if the people vote

for it, we can accept that. We can’t live with a council passing it without discussion.”

Bassilian said that his group was formed “shortly after midnight, June 25, 2019, when Council laid bare its

plans to phase in rent control. At that late hour, a number of us gathered outside Council chambers,

determined something must be done. That was the genesis of Protect Culver City.”

“What should concern everybody is, nobody had run on this issue,” he continued. “Now they were

now fully obeying the demands of some obscure group nobody had heard of.” He is referring to Protect

Culver City Renters, a local volunteer group advocating for renter protections.

Bassilian also objected to the criticism that PCC is an “outsider-funded” organization.

“Our Yes on B supporters page shows how homespun we are, and accurately reflects our public record

of contributors,” he said. “When you threaten residents’ homes and livelihoods, they will pool their

resources to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

“Measure B places the ultimate decision-making power in the hands of the people,” he added..