East Palo Alto, county sued over new rent control law

The San Jose Mercury News reports:

Attorneys for East Palo Alto's biggest landlord are trying to get San Mateo County officials to take the city's new rent control ordinance off November ballots because of alleged violations of California law.

East Palo Alto officials committed numerous Ralph M. Brown Act violations and failed to analyze the environmental impacts of the new rent law as the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, requires, according to documents attorneys for Palo Alto-based Page Mill Properties filed in San Mateo County Superior Court on Aug. 12.

"The city's actions to adopt the revised (rent stabilization ordinance) were repeatedly obscured from public view and participation," the lawsuit contends. "This secrecy so tainted the revision process that the revised (rent stabilization ordinance) must be set aside."