Mayor Mitchell: New Bedford City Council rent control vote a 'cop-out'

NEW BEDFORD - City councilors said they just wanted resident input when they OK'd three non-binding questions for next November's election, including on rent control.

Mayor Jon Mitchell, in vetoing the three votes Wednesday, stated it was more of a "cop-out."

He added the lack of debate and near unanimous outcomes beg "questions about the Council's compliance with the state's Open Meeting Law."

Voters would be asked whether the city should "adopt an Ordinance stabilizing rents, in order to prevent displacement in the local housing rental market?”

Mitchell calls rent stabilization a euphemism for 'rent control'

They would also be asked if the mayor's four-year term should be reduced to two, and whether the Community Preservation Act should be revoked.

Mitchell said rent stabilization was a euphemism for "rent control."

He said rent control has been discredited as a means of providing more housing. It has the opposite effect, he said.

He added the state passed a referendum in 1994 abolishing rent control because it failed to adress housing needs. Most economists agree it reduces housing supply and quality, he said.

"By limiting the amount of revenue that developers can generate, rent control tends to discourage investment in new housing, and thereby depresses supply," Mitchell stated.

Four-year mayoral term 'the norm'

He added voters approved the four-year mayoral term in 2017 after decades of public discussion.

He said the four-year term is the national norm in cities with populations greater than 100,000.

That's because the scope of the work needed is such that two years doesn't give voters time to evaluate the results, he said.

Mitchell said the Community Preservation Act, passed in 2014, has enabled the city to complete $15.6 million in preservation and open space projects "of which the city leveraged a total of $7.2 million of state and private funds."

He added the council discussed the items for less than an hour March 9, including five minutes and five seconds on the mayoral term vote.

The council can override the mayor's vetoes with a super majority of eight votes.

This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: Mayor Jon Mitchell vetoes New Bedford City Council rent control vote