John M. Lee: It's Important to Vote Nov. 4

When I received my San Francisco Voter Information Pamphlet a couple of weeks ago, the first thing I noticed was how thick it was, about an inch thick. To expect anyone to read it cover to cover is pretty insane!

November 4 will prove to be a very important election day in San Francisco. Not only will we be voting for our next president of the United States, but in San Francisco, seven out of our 11 supervisorial seats are either up for election or re-election, including the whole west side of town, including districts 1 (Richmond) and 4 (Sunset).

My mailbox has been stuffed with campaign mailers the whole month of October. It's turning out to be the moderates running against the ultra-liberals in the fight to gain control of politics in San Francisco.

In District 4, incumbent Supervisor Carmen Chu is running against Ron Dudum. Chu was appointed to office by Mayor Gavin Newsom about a year ago and has been doing a good job representing the people in the Sunset District. I also like her background working in the City's budget and finance department prior to taking office, thus she is aware of the income and expenditure issues facing our City. I do not feel a change is necessary and am supporting her re-election efforts.

There are two ballot measures dealing with real estate issues this November. Proposition M puts into the rent control ordinances specific acts of harassment that can be taken by landlords against their tenants.

Proposition N doubles the transfer tax rate on sales of properties that are $5 million or more.

As for Prop. M, harassment of tenants by landlords is totally unacceptable, but there are already provisions in the rent control ordinances dealing with this. I see a couple of problems with this proposal, which attempts to define harassment. It will be up to the attorneys to decide what acts fall under the definition of "harassment."

Additionally, some might conclude that these are all the possible acts of harassment, any other actions are not harassment because they are not included on this list. I believe the net effect of this will be to cause landlords not to have any interaction with their tenants and vice versa. The work will be left to attorneys, who will be making more money from the law.

My question is: "Why can't we just get along?"

Proposition M only identifies specific harassment acts that can be committed against tenants by landlords, but what about the other way around, harassment acts by tenants against landlords. I have heard horrific stories of what tenants can do and get away with, yet there are no laws against those actions. I would urge you to vote "no" on Prop. M.

Proposition N seeks to double the transfer tax rate on sales of properties that sell for $5 million and up. The current rate is 0.75 percent and the proposed increase is to be 1.5 percent of the sales price, meaning that on a $5 million sale, the tax will be $75,000.

The original proposal was to double the transfer tax on even lower-priced properties, but through negotiation and with strong opposition, the increase was limited to the $5 million amount. Even though I will probably never have to deal with this issue on a personal basis, my fear is that if this gets passed, that threshold will continue to go down until it does affect the average homeowner. If N passes, the supervisors will get the message that this is an easy way to get money for the City and might start charging higher rates at lower sales-price levels.

I believe the problem is not one of revenue as our City budget has increased substantially in recent years. The problem is that the City needs to control its expenditures, much like what we are all doing during this financial crisis. I urge you to vote "no" on Prop. N.

This election can change the political landscape of our beloved City. You might agree or disagree with my positions, but I urge you to study the candidates and issues, and vote on Nov. 4!

John M. Lee is a broker at Pacific Union. For more information, call him at (415) 447-6231 or e-mail johnlee@isellsf.com.