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Holiday Spirit NOVEMBER 24, 2017 VOLUME 25, NO. 44
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Rent control adversaries under scrutiny FPPC INVESTIGATING GROUPS ON BOTH SIDES OF MEASURE V By Mark Noack
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Trey and Torrie Bornmann sit with their son Briggs on the porch of their mobile home in Santiago Villa on Nov. 17.
Mobile home residents seek rent control RENTAL COMMITTEE COULD EXPAND MEASURE V PROTECTIONS By Mark Noack
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arely a year old, Mountain View’s experiment with rent control has already faced a withering gauntlet of controversy and legal scuffles. Now it’s being primed for a dramatic expansion. On Dec. 4, the city’s Rental
Housing Commission is scheduled to consider expanding the Mountain View’s restrictions covering apartment rents to encompass the city’s six mobile home parks. The proposal could bring an estimated 1,100 more homes under the aegis of the city’s new tenant protections.
The upcoming hearing comes after months of organized efforts by residents mainly from the Santiago Villa mobile home park to press city officials to expand the law. Like apartments, mobile home parks were once an affordable housing See MOBILE HOMES, page 6
he main adversaries over the Measure V rent control law — the Mountain View Tenants Coalition and the California Apartment Association — are both facing investigations by the California Fair Political Practices Commission. The election watchdog confirmed it has open investigations into both groups based on their activities in last November’s election. The Tenants Coalition is facing a complaint filed by a Mountain View landlord alleging they failed to report in-kind donations. Meanwhile, the apartment association is being investigated by the FPPC based on unspecified “red f lags” found in a random selection of groups audited by the state Franchise Tax Board. Each year, the tax board takes a subset of registered political groups and takes a closer look at their public campaign filings, said FPPC spokesman
Jay Wierenga. Through this process, the FPPC decided in July to open an investigation into the apartment association. “Certain groups are randomly chosen by computer. If they find any red flags, then it gets referred to our enforcement division to investigate,” he said. A statewide organization, the California Apartment Association last year raised nearly $1.2 million to oppose proposed rent control measures in six Bay Area cities including Mountain View. Wierenga declined to give specifics on the nature of the case or any potential violations being investigated. The FPPC could only speak in general terms about open investigations, he said. The California Apartment Association did not immediately respond to a request for comment. More specifics are available about the case against the Mountain View Tenants See FPPC, page 8
Keeping the arts alive in local schools CSMA’S TOP PRIORITY IS GIVING ALL STUDENTS ACCESS TO MUSIC LESSONS By Kevin Forestieri
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mid the perpetual push to raise test scores and boost science and technology in public schools, one Mountain View nonprofit has fought to make sure music and art aren’t lost in the bustle. The Community School of Music and Arts (CSMA) has been instrumental in guiding thousands of young children towards a lifelong love of music and art for decades, providing lessons in schools from San Jose
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to Daly City. But CSMA, with its headquarters nestled next to the busy San Antonio Shopping Center, commits most of its limited resources in its hometown of Mountain View, hosting subsidized, weekly art and music programs at every elementary school in the Mountain View Whisman School District.
Through the nonprofit, kids from kindergarten through fifth grade get to break up the normal routine of academic classes and flex their creative muscles, delving into painting, ceramics, singing and playing instruments. The one-hour classes are taught by professional musicians and artists with CSMA, and students get the opportunity to showcase their work at exhibitions including the first floor of City Hall every February, according to See CSMA, page 8
VIEWPOINT 14 | GOINGS ON 20 | MARKETPLACE 21 | REAL ESTATE 23
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Preschoolers use chalk to draw flowers at an art class at CSMA on Nov. 21. CSMA, which offers arts education to school children in Mountain View, is one of seven local nonprofits that benefit from donations to the Voice’s annual Holiday Fund.