INGLEWOOD – The city of Inglewood established the Rent Housing Board as required under the Inglewood Rent Ordinance during the regular city council meeting held June 13.
The City established rent control in mid-2019 after a dramatic push to put the issue on the ballot failed.
Under Ordinance No. 20-03 the Rent Housing Board is codified in the Inglewood Municipal Code Section 2-152.88.
The Rent Housing Board consists of five members, with four being either a residential landlord or owner and the other being a City employee.
The board is responsible for hearing disputes between tenants and their landlords, and also either approve or deny requests to charge back capital improvements to tenants.
The board members were nominated by the council members and appointed by Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts.
The members are as follows:
- District 1, appointed by Councilwoman Gloria Gray – Edmund Hamilton, Jr.
- District 2, appointed by Councilman Alex Padilla – Jacob Fragoso
- District 3, appointed by Councilman Eloy Morales Jr. – Wanda Evans
- District 4, appointed by Councilwoman Dionne Faulk – Benice Brown
- City employee, appointed by Mayor Butts – Maria Heaney, Finance Manager as Chair of the Board
A couple of the board members have gone above and beyond on behalf of Inglewood.
Fragoso played an integral part in getting the most recent Inglewood Unified school bond passed when he allowed his address to be used on the filing forms.
Related: Inglewood Unified school bond appears coordinated with City Hall and Parent School PTA
In 2019, an outside investigation conducted by the City revealed Heaney doesn’t mind playing “fast and loose” to avoid the ire of the mayor.
According to the Daily Breeze, “Melanie McDade-Dickens, the Inglewood mayor’s highly paid assistant and former girlfriend of eight years, allegedly committed fraud by forging a fake bonus check and improperly changing her tax exemptions to appear more financially stable to a lender for her purchase of a home, according to a termination notice”.
“Another allegation alleges McDade-Dickens asked an employee to repeatedly manually change her state and federal tax deductions without proper documentation. After McDade-Dickens was placed on leave, she contacted employees involved in the investigation and allegedly told one he or she would be “well taken care of” if the employee could provide information that would help McDade-Dickens’ attorney.”
Heaney is the direct supervisor of the City’s payroll employees who were responsible for changing McDade’s tax exemptions.
Neither Heaney nor the payroll employees were reprimanded for their involvement in McDade’s alleged “fraud”.