RENT: MOST CANDIDATES BACK KEEPING LIMITS ON RENT CONTROL.

Byline: Harrison Sheppard Staff Writer

Responding to concerns that San Fernando Valley cityhood could mean the end to rent control, 101 of the 111 candidates for Valley mayor and city council have pledged to continue protection for tenants.

During the debate over secession, tenant and senior citizen advocates have expressed fear that if voters approve Measure F on Nov. 5, a new Valley city would eliminate rent control, leading to stiff rent increases and evictions.

But secession proponents note that the new city would have to maintain all Los Angeles ordinances - including rent control - for up to 120 days after its incorporation effective July 1, 2003.

The new council could act before or after then to keep or eliminate any ordinance, but an overwhelming majority of candidates for the elected posts say they would vote to retain rent control.

``If people are concerned about rent control, if they're concerned about union issues, they need to elect city council members and a mayor who represent their point of view,'' Richard Close, chairman of Valley Voters Organized Toward Empowerment, which organized the secession movement, said in an interview earlier this year.

Jeff Brain, president of Valley VOTE, added: ``It's a legitimate concern and we're trying to put those concerns to rest by letting them know Valley VOTE will strongly push for keeping rent control.''

Los Angeles' rent control ordinance, enacted in 1979, currently caps residential rent increases at 3 percent a year and restricts the ability of landlords to evict tenants. There are about 600,000 rental units in Los Angeles, according to a tenants group.

Secession critics and rent control advocates say real estate interests seem to be driving the cityhood movement.

For example, Close, a real estate attorney, helped lead the unsuccessful fight against Los Angeles city rent control in the 1970s, and Brain was a leasing broker for commercial property along Ventura Boulevard before he became involved with Valley VOTE full time.

Political analysts note that the Valley has traditionally been more conservative politically, and therefore less receptive to rent control.

But at the same time, analysts, as well as those within Valley VOTE, say it wouldn't make sense politically for a new council to end rent control.

``Senior citizens, when organized, are a powerful political force,'' said political analyst Sherry Bebitch Jeffe of the University of Southern California. ``If they get organized on this issue and stay organized on this issue, politicians will have to respond to them.''