Member of the Rent Control Board, City of Santa Monica
Source: results.lavote.gov
What does this office do?
- Setting the yearly rent increase for rent-controlled apartments
- Deciding tenant and landlord petitions about rent and services
- Approving the rent board's budget and the fee landlords pay
Affects: Government Efficiency, Cost of Living Reduction, Government Spending Reduction,
Candidates:
Nonpartisan
Heather Thomason is a TV writer, Writers Guild member, and Sunset Park parent who volunteers on a tenants' rights hotline. She wants to protect rent-controlled housing from demolition and from state laws that put it at risk.
Kurt Gonska
WonNonpartisan · Incumbent
Kurt Gonska is a Santa Monica Rent Control Board commissioner, elected in 2022, who chaired the board in 2025. He helped raise rent decreases for lost amenities or poor conditions and ban algorithmic rent-pricing software.
Records: Cost of Living Reduction 1 for, Housing Affordability 1 for
Soledad Marcial
LostNonpartisan
Soledad Marcial is a Pico Neighborhood renter and community volunteer who has worked against evictions and displacement. She wants to enforce the rent control law and help tenants and landlords learn their rights.
Nonpartisan
Sue Himmelrich is a tenants' rights attorney at the Western Center on Law & Poverty and a former eight-year Santa Monica councilmember and mayor. She backed capping yearly rent increases at 3% and barring rental units from becoming short-term rentals.
Records: Housing Affordability 4 for, Cost of Living Reduction 1 for
Zoë Muntaner
LostNonpartisan
Zoë Muntaner is a small business owner. She wants an ethics commission to oversee rent board staff and more protections for disabled renters and renters with roommates.
Source: content.lavote.gov