Hey everyone — we’ve been having conversations with local, state, and constitutional law experts ever since we realized this could actually work, and we’re finally getting consensus on how city legislature can institute a Rent Freeze Now.
With 3,500 of us (over 1 in 10 Ithacans!) demanding this emergency measure be taken to save the money we have left for food, supplies, and medicine — and with Mayor Svante having endorsed the idea — it’s up to Common Council to ratify this proposal. Below is the letter we’re sending to the mayor:
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Dear Mayor Myrick,
The Ithaca Rent Freeze Campaign was excited to see your Facebook post declaring support for a rent freeze. We are appreciative of your willingness to consider your role in a potential freeze.
After reading your post, our team reviewed the laws you cited (City Code Chapters 4 and 48, along with N.Y.S. Executive Law Section 24) and consulted with legal experts from Cornell Law.
We believe that even though you currently do not have the power to freeze rent, common council can amend chapter 48 to create this power on Wednesday, March 25. Chapter 4 grants you the ability to take the floor at this meeting to submit a proposal that you believe is for the good of the people. Thousands of us humbly ask that our local government step up and use its power to help us in a time of desperate need. Please join our voices. A more detailed explanation of our reading is below.
If you enact this rent freeze locally, Ithaca would become the first city in the country to do so, which could set an incredible precedent to help working-class people face this crisis.
The power is in your hands. We hope you will consider our request carefully. Please let us know if you have any questions or would like to speak further on the matter.
Our detailed argument is as follows:
1. State and local Executive Law define an emergency to include anything that significantly threatens public safety, and has specific language that broadens this definition beyond natural disasters. Facing mass evictions at the end of the moratorium is its own threat to public safety, but the COVID-19 public health crisis precedes and creates it.
2. State Executive Law specifically allows local government to expand emergency powers as necessary.
3. Ithaca emergency law allows and expects the list of powers and protocols to be amended by Common Council in real time, in order to adapt to the nature and requirements of an emergency.
4. Ithaca’s Mayor is granted the right to address the Common Council at any time to introduce a proposal believed to be for the good of the people of Ithaca.
In summary — the legal route appears to be that the Mayor can take the floor at the next Commoun Council meeting on Wednesday to introduce an amendment to Chapter 48 to the City Code that will allow him or her to restrict business activity involving rental income during a declared emergency, and then Common Council could ratify the amendment. The Mayor could then use this power to institute a Rent Freeze.
Signed,
The Ithaca Rent Freeze Campaign