Press enter after choosing selection

Secret Landlord Campaign Revealed

Secret Landlord Campaign Revealed image Secret Landlord Campaign Revealed image
Parent Issue
Day
22
Month
March
Year
1974
OCR Text

Secret Landlord Campaign Revealed 

$35,000 Raised

Picture caption: These advertisements, from the A2 News, are only the beginning of a $35,000 scare campaign to defeat rent control. 

Your landlord is trying to buy this election, and is using your money to do it.

The SUN has uncovered documents which prove that the front organization for local landlords, "Citizens for Good Housing" (CGH), has raised over $35,000 from various rental agencies. CGH proposed a $57,000 scare campaign, coordinated by a professional advertising agency, aimed at defeating the rent control charter amendment on April 1. Based on a series of lies and half-truths, the campaign counts on the lack of funds by charter supporters preventing any counter attacks to the landlord claims.

Not only have the landlords provided incredible sums of money for this campaign (which will most likely be recovered through major rent increases in every new lease), but the rental companies have had their own staffs working full-time on CGH projects. Individual landlords have contributed amounts up to $7,000, and if the money doesn't succeed in buying the electorate, plans are already underway to organize a major court case against rent control if it passes.

BRINGING IN THE BREAD

Citizens for Good Housing began their campaign with a series of letters asking each property owner to donate $5 per rental unit. With over 17,000 units in the city according to the 1970 U.S. Census, the group could have raised up to the incredible sum of $85,000. At that point, organizers had already mapped out an advertising campaign estimated at $57,920, of which $9,250 alone was budgeted to pay the professional agency which drew up the plan. However, because pledges did not live up to expectations, the proposal was reduced to about $30,000 early in March. Included in the sum was money for a paid, full-time political consultant for CGH.

On March 10, the Ann Arbor News quoted James Brien, a property manager and major organizer of CGH as stating that they had raised "more than $5,000" so far for the campaign. He went on to say, "that is not anywhere near the ludicrous sum of $85,000 mentioned by the Human Rights Party."

But what he failed to mention was how much over $5,000 CGH had actually collected. By the end of February, they had already been promised $34,630. This sum comes from only 62 donors, with twelve giving over $1,000 each. The biggest contributors were McKinley Associates - $7,045, and J. Ronald Slavik - $4,450. (For a complete list, see box on this page to find out how much your landlord paid into the coffer!)

BREAKING THE LAW

While $35,000 is an incredible sum to be laying out in a local campaign, it is not illegal for an individual to give $7,000. Corporate donations, to a political campaign. however, are completely illegal. And local landlords are currently breaking the law.

Under the city's campaign finance law, any subsidized labor is defined as a contribution. If it seems your landlord is less efficient this week, or you find the phones continually tied up, it's because the staff of the rental agency is busy stuffing letters for CGH or conducting a phone survey to local homeowners, telling them to vote no on Amendment A. This use of staff is illegal, and the landlords know it. These donations will never appear on any campaign finance statement, and the chances of the current city administration actually prosecuting a landlord for breaking campaign laws is highly unlikely.

A source from inside CGH said at first the landlords were being very careful to follow the laws exactly. "But as time goes on," the source stated, "they become more corrupt, less principled. They're becoming more purely political, and getting off on the dirty tricks."

The reports of dirty tricks have been growing in the past week. Many of the incidents reported have been aimed against the HRP. From rumors of political spies, to evidence of apartment managers removing HRP flyers from in front of doors, and replacing them with CGH flyers, all can be laid at the feet of landlords of Citizens for Good Housing. Other action includes a staged letter writing campaign to the "Ann Arbor News" by local residents knocking rent control.

But so far, the landlord campaign has been mild. The plans for the next week and a half include another mailing, more ads in the "Ann Arbor News," a two color flyer to be distributed to apartment dwellers (no doubt by paid staff again), radio spots the week before the campaign (the original budget put $5,200 for this), and a handout for outside the polls on April 1.

Landlords have also proposed to their staff members that they take a sick day April 1, and work at the polls. Don't be surprised to find a landlord agent outside of every voting place in the city.

PSYCHEDELIC PARANOIA

Landlords are not going to stop at the reasonable ads now being run in the "Ann Arbor News." The next step includes linking the anti-rent control campaign to "creeping socialism" and "creeping dopeism."

As a major impetus to get homeowners to the polls, CGH plans to point out how lower rents in the city will encourage "undesirables" to settle in Ann Arbor. Attempts will be made to link rent control to the $5 marijuana fine, in the hopes of getting them both defeated.

Part of the reason for the secrecy of CGH is a real fear of rent control supporters. Voter registration in the dorms had them really worried over hundreds of freeks going to the polls They envision lines of busses taking people from the Hash Bash to the polls. They don't want to see young people flocking to vote and they will use any means they can to prevent it. Their base of power is threatened, and paranoia is increasing to the point where they actually suspect physical violence from rent control supporters.

Landlord secrecy has now reached the point where few written documents are being kept. They want as little known about them as possible, and the Watergate cover-up seems to have given them ideas.

In fact, after HRP crashed a landlord meeting last week, it was agreed to keep no minutes of any future meetings. HRP's presence prevented the landlords from meeting with University Housing Director John Feldkamp, and the rest of the U Housing staff to discuss rent control.

The landlords have not only been conspiring with University officials. A series of meetings have been held between "Ann Arbor News" business-labor reporter, Dan McLeister, who ran the long article March 10 detailing the CGH campaign.

THREATS TO RENTERS

Voting rights are not the only thing threatened by Citizens for Good Housing. The intense media and direct mailing campaign are using a series of threats against both tenants and homeowners if rent control passes.

If you happen to believe CGH propaganda, you know rent control will bring abandoned buildings, a "bureaucratic monster," no profits for landlords, decreased maintenance, no new housing, and black markets to obtain local housing.

Of course, all the charges can be answered, because they are as untrue as the upcoming "creeping dopeism" campaign. A quick rundown on each claim shows:

1) Abandoned buildings - the study done in New York by the Commission on Living Costs and the Economy showed that rent control had no effect on abandonment, although this is the example CGH uses.

2) "Bureaucratic monster" - its unlikely with a nine member commission directly responsible to the voters.

3) No profits - the amendment allows a 14% profit, and allows rent to cover all reasonable property expenses. No landlord will go broke in Arbor.

4) Decreased maintenance - with profits linked directly to maintenance, landlords are encouraged to keep up their property. This will discourage the usual "slumlord" tactics which allow buildings to totally run down.

5) No new housing - in the central city area, ZERO housing has been put up in the past four years. How can it decrease from there?

6) Black markets - this is the most direct (and illegal) threat made by landlords, making it clear they will make a profit at any cost. However, the amendment specifically deals with this, allowing any house-finding costs to be deducted from actual rent.

Landlords are willing to go to any lengths to keep rents (and profits) high in Ann Arbor. Their advertising makes it clearer than ever that they don't care about tenants. Rent control can pass if all the so-called "undesirable" elements go to the polls April 1, and that is the landlords biggest worry. No amount of their money can buy this election, because we are the real majority, and they know it. 

-- Ellen Hoffman

WHERE CGH GETS ITS MONEY

Brauer Investments 55
Stanley J. Krajewski 30
George C. Hanseiman 25
Mr. & Mrs. Neil Snook 300
Clifford J. Morris 25
Basil W. Wentworth 20
Montgomery Merryman 200
William Rogers-Markeson & Zahn 10
Clarence G. Markeson 15
 Leo T. Zahn 15
William Rogers (personal) 15
Neil International House 400
Andrew Gillies 5
Alf E. Shanklen 25
David Welch 10
Esther Smith Niles 25
Garden Town Houses 50
Edward Klepac 15
Swisher Realty 160
Arnold B. Proehl 45
Harold D. Peters 70
Shore View Apartments 640
Wilson White 1155
Nob Hill 1900
Slavik 4450  
Manchester Properties 180
Ann Arbor Trust 1340 
Albert & Lauria Bethke 25
University Towers 200
Island Drive Apartments 1000 
Post Realty 275
Maynard House 175
John E. She (Swisher) 50
John E. She (Swisher) 100
McKinley Associates 7045
Tower Plaza 1500
Greenough 5
Unger 105
Ciata 15
Ohar 20
A.T.W. Hewitt 310
Maize & Blue Management 835
Calswell 110
Trony 365
Frey 15
Pheasant Run Apartments 640
Campus Management 1000
Meadowbrook Insurance 100
Broadview 420
800 Fuller 210
Highlands 640
Post Realty 450
Arbor Hills 420
Standard Realty 1800
Village Green 1500
Board of Realtors 1000
Hidden Valley 400
Heritage 140
Oak Terrace 40
Arbor Village 500
Island Drive Apartments 740
Proctor, Homer, Warren, Inc. 300
---------------------------------------------
+$34,630