COVID-19 Notebook

State Senator Lena Gonzalez (D, LB-southeast LA County) has used Sacramento’s “gut and amend” procedure (replacing the text of one bill with entirely new text) to advance legislation supported by the CA Apartment Association that would use state taxpayer funds to pay voluntarily participating landlords 80% of the rent due from COVID-19 impacted tenants (for up to 7 months). SB 1410 requires landlord who avail themselves of the taxpayer funding to accept the 80% sum as payment in full of rent due and not raise rents through Dec. 31, 2020.

In a release, the CA Apartment Association quoted Councilwoman Gonzalez as saying: “ COVID-19 has immensely affected our economy, put pressure on both tenants and property owners to fulfill their payment obligations, and has exacerbated the need to keep people housed during an existing housing crisis...In order to protect our broader housing economy, SB 1410, an urgency measure, will not only provide much-needed immediate assistance to both tenants and property owners but also protect our most vulnerable communities.”

Debra Carlton, the CA Apt. Association’s Executive VP for state public affairs, added: “Sen. Gonzalez has offered a solution that will help housing providers continue to pay their bills and their employees, while also making it a little easier for struggling renters to get back on their feet financially when the pandemic ends.”

In the 2019 special election that brought former Long Beach Councilwoman Gonzalez to the state Senate, the LB-based “Apartment Association, California Southern Cities” contributed $2,500 (Feb. 7, 2019) to her campaign .

Among LB Councilwoman Gonzalez’s final Council actions (June 11, 2019) was to enact a LB “Tenant Relocation Assistance Ordinance” requiring some landlords to pay sums to qualifying tenants in some LB multi-unit buildings, lambasted by a number of property owners at the time as de facto rent control.

On May 5, the City Council voted 9-0 to approve two taxpayer impacting actions regarding LB’s aquarium. The council approved an up to $2.1 million loan to the non-profit corporation that the city has allowed to operate the aquarium facility since 1998. The aquarium operator, without visitor attendance revenue since the imposition of COVID-19 restrictions, is still legally required to pay the city the $2.1 million sum by Oct. 15 which would go into the city’s Tidelands Operating Fund for debt service on 2012 aquarium bonds.

City management’s agendizing memo to the council reasoned as follows: If the aquarium operator doesn’t make the required rent payment, the city will still have an obligation to pay the debt service on the bonds that the rent is intended to cover and would have the same net impact on the Tidelands Operating Fund as approving the loan ... although with the loan the aquarium operator wouldn’t go into default. city management said the city and the operator “have an interest to avoid” a default and the operator’s “relationship with the city is such that the corporation [the operator] is extremely likely to make the payments [on the loan.].”

The council action also accepted $4.863 million in an advance payment of sums related to the aquarium’s “Pacific Visions” expansion. That will give City Hall immediate cash but risks future LB taxpayer exposure if the city chooses to spend all or part of the $4.8 million on items other than making the upcoming Aquarium bond payments. If that happens, LB taxpayers will be left holding the bag to pay those sums that the aquarium was supposed to pay.

Frank Yanonis routinely encounters people facing serious challenges. A fire leaves their home uninhabitable; a water leak stops a business from doing business; mold stops everything in all kinds of places.

His company, Save the Day Restoration, has workers who wear protective gear and wield equipment and materials that deal with those things. Then came the COVID-19 virus that makes everything we touch potentially untouchable.

When  Yanonis learned that a Long Beach woman found a homeless man sleeping in her car who had also ransacked the inside of her vehicle, he offered to help her. She brought her car to his company’s facility in Signal Hill (south of Willow on Burnett St, east of Orange) and his workers clad in space suits applied their equipment, materials and know-how to take on the task. He didn’t charge her a dime.

On Saturday May 9 and on each Saturday through May, in appreciation for those who routinely encounter such things and often deal with much worse, Save the Day Restoration will offer active duty Long Beach and Signal Hill police officers, firefighters, paramedics and doctors and nurses who work in Long Beach hospitals the same service.

He’ll disinfect the interior of their family vehicles, he won’t charge them dime and he’ll give each first responder two N-95 masks. (He’ll says he’ll also accept donations from others to purchase N95 masks from his supplier and donate the masks for first responders.) 

In response to current conditions, Save the Day Restoration has added vehicle disinfecting services for a modest fee in addition to their other offered services. Appointments can be arranged via their website at SavetheDayRestoration.com or by phone at (562) 246-9908. Don’t be surprised if Frank answers personally. He runs the business at 1390 E. Burnett St., Signal Hill.

[Disclosure: The author’s LBReport.com learned of all this and has given Mr. Yanonis’ Save the Day Restoration an online ad at no charge.]

Bill Pearl has published LBReport.com since 2000.