SF: Tenants May Pay for Landlord's Water Bill

The allegedly pro-tenant San Francisco supervisors, Democrats Chris Daly and Sophie Maxwell, are sponsoring legislation that will allow landlords to pass through the cost of water bonds to tenants. This must be rejected.

To all voters: This is fair warning that you must vote No on all bonds. If the project has any merit, they can go to the state legislature for an appropriation, paid for with the progressive income tax. It is long overdue that the taxes on the rich, those who make over $100,000 per year, be raised instead of cut, as they have been, to pay for running this state. Bonds are not a good way to finance things. Another way the state can immediately raise lots of money is to abolish the death penalty and abolish the prison system. We must have rehabilitation, not death camps and concentration camps.

To reach the Board of Supervisors, you can call them and leave a message on their voice mail at any time. Their numbers are listed in the blue-striped white pages of the SF phone book and their phones and E-mails are at:
http://www.sfgov.org/site/bdsupvrs_index.asp?id=7271

The text of this outrageous legislation is from:
http://www.sfgov.org/site/uploadedfiles/bdsupvrs/bosagendas/a050603.htm, and follows:

22. 030689 [Pass through to residential tenants 50% of water bill charges attributable to water rate increases resulting from issuance of PUC water system revenue bonds] Supervisors Daly, Maxwell
Ordinance amending Administrative Code Chapter 37 (Residential Rent Stabilization and Arbitration Ordinance) by amending Sections 37.2, 37.3, and 37.8, to provide that landlords may pass through to residential tenants fifty percent (50%) of water bill charges attributable to water rate increases resulting from the issuance of any PUC water system revenue bonds authorized at the November 5, 2002 election, where a unit is in compliance with any applicable laws requiring water conservation devices; to provide that landlords give tenants notice of any such passthrough on a Rent Board form, and that a tenant is entitled to a copy of the water bill from the landlord upon request; to provide for a line item on each water bill showing the charge per unit of water that is attributable to water rate increases resulting from issuance of such bonds, multiplied by the total units of water used by that customer during the billing cycle; to provide that where one water bill covers multiple units, the permissible passthrough per unit is calculated by dividing 50% of that line item amount by the total number of units covered by the bill (including any commercial units); to provide that any such passthrough does not become part of a tenant's base rent; to provide that a tenant may file a hardship application with the Rent Board for relief from all or part of the cost passthrough, and that if a hardship application is granted the affected landlord may utilize any available Public Utilities Commission low-income rate discount program or similar program for water bill reduction based on the tenant's hardship status; to provide that a tenant may file a petition with the Rent Board within one year of the effective date of a passthrough for determination of whether that passthrough is in compliance with the Code, and that the landlord bears the burden of proving the accuracy of the passthrough calculations in such a hearing; clarification of other Rent Ordinance provisions, in order to distinguish general obligation bonds from water revenue bonds; and technical changes in order to conform to other recent Rent Ordinance amendments.